The Site of Rik Panganiban
I gotta admit, I'm all aflutter about "The Martian" film opening on Friday. Like other space nerds, I loved Andy Weir's self-published novel, devouring it over a weekend. And the screen adaptation looks like it's mostly faithful to the material, bringing cinematic scope to what is essentially a series of life-and-death tests that can only …
A couple of months ago, as a going away surprise for a colleague, I created "Analog Spaceteam," a non-digital version of the wonderful mobile game of the same name. It was fun trying to come up with ways to capture the spirit and energy of the digital game, but adding the fun of having physical …
The Field Museum of Chicago is one of my favorite natural history museums in the world. The Field is one of the country's oldest natural history museums, dating back to 1893, as an outgrowth of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago. Those deep roots are evident in the neo-classical architecture, old school dioramas, and …
The cool folks at TechHive at the Lawrence Hall of Science in Berkeley have launched a crowdfunding campaign to expand their programs to reach 75 Bay Area teens this year. It's a really cool program that helps Bay Area teens become not just makers, but educators and science communicators in their communities. Head to their …
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as an educator, it’s that you can only be a jerky foreman to your youth miners for so long before they fight back. But I’m getting ahead of myself in the story… Back in 2009, I was in one of the principal educators running “I Dig Zambia.” “I Dig Zambia” …
I'm proud to share the news that starting this summer, the California Academy of Sciences has begun the process of divesting from fossil fuel industries. Our executive director Jon Foley announced on August 21 his plan to ensure that our institution's investment portfolio does not include any companies that extract non-renewable fossil fuels from the …
A couple of weeks ago, we got the official word on the phasing out of the MacArthur Foundation's support for Digital Media and Learning. While this was not terribly surprising for those of us who have been in the field and paying attention, it still is a major shift in our community. Barry Joseph on …
I haven't been in a Gap store for years. But I have to say that I'm loving this new Gap Kids "ED" line, Ellen Degeneres' new clothing line that celebrates girls doing lots of "non-girly" things. I love that this has actual kids who play drums, start businesses, dance, skate and make. For example, here's …
The Techteens are a team of young people at the California Academy of Sciences who get to explore different science topics, create cool digital media, and educate the public about science and sustainability. We just opened up the application for our 2015-2016 co-hort of Techteens. We have a very narrow window to apply — we …
During the weekend of October 2-4, sites around the country are going to take part in the first nation-wide Climate Game Jam, an effort to get lots of people designing games that communicate climate science and spur the players to fight climate change. A partnership of NOAA, the White Office of Science and Technology Policy, …