I love this animated gif of the weather station on the living roof of the California Academy of Sciences. There’s something calming and reassuring about it. Weather stations are part of the automated heating and cooling system of the museum. They monitor wind speed, wind direction, rainfall, temperature and humidity. Data is fed into a …
I am thrilled to be returning to the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) conference this year, happening next weekend in San Jose, California. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been to ASTC, one of my favorite science education conventions. And it’s great to have it in our backyard, just a few miles …
iNaturalist is already a "must have" app for nature lovers. Using iNaturalist, anyone can take a picture of any living creature they find in the wild, provide whatever information they know about it, and get help identifying it from professional and amateur scientists. It's a dead simple way for anyone, anywhere to contribute to science. …
On Saturday, I had the pleasure of going on a cool tour of the Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant in San Francisco. Visiting a water treatment plant might not seem like the most fun thing to do on a weekend, but the tour was actually quite crowded with several couples, families, and interested individuals like …
The Science Action Club team that I'm a member of is seeking to hire an instructional designer. It's a great job, on a great team, at a great museum. If you are a bad ass instructional designer who loves science, you should consider applying. More about the position: Reporting to the Science Action Club (SAC) …
This is an actual email that was sent to me not long ago — apparently “to benefit the very evolution of our species” and “turn our ripples into waves.” I added the emphasis, removed identifying information, but otherwise this is the exact email as sent. (Spoiler alert: I respectfully declined.) Hi Rik, My …
Why are these bison so gassy? What's hurting the chestnut trees? What's turning the coral white? In MicroRangers, a new augmented reality game at the American Museum of Natural History, you get to shrink down to the microscopic-level to investigate these mysteries and more. On Monday, I got to try out MicroRangers for the first time, …
Google has released stunning virtual reality tours of five national parks, as part of the celebration of the 100th annniversary of the National Park System. From the Kenai Fjords of Alaska to the Dry Tortugas of Florida and deep into the Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico, you can go on a guided tour with a …
Give a listen to the latest episode of "Object Oriented," the podcast on digital learning in collections-based museums, hosted by Eve Gaus of the Field Museum, Barry Joseph of the American Museum of Natural History and myself. In this show, we focus on what's new at our respective institutions, and man are we up to …
I’m excited to announce that I will soon be taking on a newly created role at the Academy, the Senior Instructional Design Lead for Science Action Club. This is a new position working with our largest youth program, the Science Action Club (SAC), a high-impact STEM learning program that designs professional development and teaching kits for middle school afterschool …