I finally got a much coveted "women in science" LEGO set, which took the internet by storm a couple of years ago! For those that don't know, LEGOS has a system called "LEGO Ideas" for people to propose to the toy company sets that they want produced. If at least 10,000 people vote for that design, …
I've been thinking a lot about this interview with former Facebook exec and angel investor Chamath Palihapitiya. It's chock-a-block with mind exploding ideas and concepts. As a teen educator, I'm particularly focused on the first ten minutes where Chamath talks about what he sees as a fundamental shift in what counts as "social capital." I highly …
Here's a neat little video about the LRNG Summit West that took place a couple of weeks ago at the California Academy of Sciences. LRNG is an initiative focused on "redesigning learning for the 21st century." As part of their launch, LRNG sponsored three "summits" in Philadelphia, San Francisco and the final one this week in Chicago …
I'm so excited to share the news that the California Academy of Sciences is unveiling our latest planetarium show on March 11, "Incoming!" The full-dome presentation tells the story of how asteroids and comets have collided with our planet throughout its history and have dramatically shaped live on earth. It's a really great science show …
Everyone likes free stuff, right? Educators in particular are constantly in need of free resources to use with their students. It's not hard to find or obtain free content online. That's just the nature of the internet. But how do you find media that is both freely available and ethical to use? Fortunately, it's pretty …
The year two-thousand and fifteen was a HUGE one for the Digital Learning program at the California Academy of Sciences. We’ve had a lot of changes, pivots, sad goodbyes, and successes over the past twelve months that are important to acknowledge. Farewell, Christine / Welcome, Jeff! Over the summer, we bid a fond farewell to …
Check out this neat article by Jessica Decker on iNaturalist, a mobile app that is empowering regular folks to make nature observations that help science. To date more than 1 million observations have been made using iNaturalist! One unanticipated benefit has been that the app has been creating communities of citizen scientists. According to Alison Young, science …
On Saturday, we held the end-of-the-semester showcase for our Digital Learning TechTeen program. Creating these “stand and deliver” moments for our teens is one the best parts of my job. Youth showcases are a great way to see what your students are getting out of your program, in their own words. It is a way for all the …
See Frosty and Holiday, two actual reindeer at the California Academy of Sciences through the month of December.
Okay, it took awhile to get out episode three of our podcast "Object Oriented," but we are pretty excited about this one. In this episode, Eve, Barry and tackle one of the most exciting new trends in museums and other learning institutions: the Maker Movement. I begin with the basic but complicated question of whether …