The Site of Rik Panganiban
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 …
Jon Foley, executive director of my museum the California Academy of Sciences, has been outspoken in his concern about the current administration's views on science and environmental issues. He just published a new piece on his blog Macroscope (reprinted from Scientific American) that I could not agree more with. Read it all here.
My colleague Neal Ramus, Senior Manager of Youth Programs at the California Academy of Sciences, co-authored this helpful blog post on youth recruitment. He reviews some of the challenges in recruiting a diverse pool of youth for internships, workshops, camps and other opportunities for young people. Among the nice bits of advice: Successful youth programs …
Two thousand and sixteen was a big year for me at the California Academy of Sciences. Lots of pivots, adventures and new beginnings! Here’s some of the highlights. The biggest news was my transfer in the Spring from Digital Learning over the Science Action Club team. Shifting from managing my own youth program to being part …
My colleague at the American Museum of Natural History Barry Joseph posted recently to the DML Central blog a post on "the Digitallearnification of Museums". This was based on a presentation that Barry, Eve Gaus of the Field Museum, and I made at the Digital Media and Learning conference a couple of months ago at …
Guys, this is the most amazing arachnid ever , the Bird dropping spider (Cyrtarachne sp.). Apparently the pulsing is caused by contractions in the gut of the spider that contain pigmented cells. There is no consensus about the evolutionary advantage of this, but it presumably could be to mimic a predator or warn would-be predators. More pics …
We took some nice group shots today of my Science Action Club team in front of the Cal Academy for our holiday greeting. Such a handsome bunch! We're so diverse and coordinated we look like a stock photo.
I really needed this short video from Emilie Graslie of The Brainscoop on her commitment to curiosity, diversity and science discourse. YES! Stay curious, challenge your own biases, champion science. Let's go.
Most young people can't distinguish between a fake news story and a legitimate source, a fake Twitter account and a real one, or an advertisement or the article it's contained within. This according to a new study released by Stanford University today. According to lead author Sam Wineburg and his co-researchers, youth across a wide range of …
This Saturday, I had the pleasure of driving a group of the California Academy of Science’s teen interns to beautiful Pillar Point in Half Moon Bay to go on a marine life collection expedition. The purpose of the trip was to work with a group of teens from the environmental nonprofit Nature Bridge to refresh …