Watch this beautifully shot profile of entomologist Brian Fisher. A researcher at the California Academy of Sciences, Brian shares what he loves about his work in the field and studying ants in particular. "You can't see much when you see them on the ground. But put them under a microscope and they just dazzle you …
This week, I had to quickly come up with a more interactive way to teach our TechTeens about genetic engineering, since they had chosen a topic for their next blog post on creating genetically modified pets. I don't have a background in microbiology or genetics, so was a little stumped. In a pinch, I threw …
Conversation with Alex, one of our TechTeens : Alex: Why does it have to be a "competition" when you have us make stuff? Me: It's to motivate you to do your best. People like competitions. Alex: But we already work hard, whether you make it a competition or not. Besides, you always give the winning team …
I love teaching teens about intellectual property. I get a lot of puzzled looks whenever I say this among other educators, but it’s true. Teens are so much more media-savvy than I was as a young person, since their lives are so immersed in media wherever they are. They are constantly consuming music, photos, videos, digital games …
Check out this neat video portrait of Moises Bernal, one our of ichthyologists (fish biologists) at the California Academy of Sciences. Lots of neat details about what he gets to do as a scientist at the Academy, what makes his job fun, and why he does it. "When you go to the field and you …
The California Academy of Sciences just launched Flipside Science, a youth-powered series designed for K-12 classrooms that inspires solutions-based thinking about the environment. I'm super proud of the work that our Academy youth Spurgeon, Ice, Darrah and Madeleine put into these videos, as well as our incredible visualization studio team that produced the videos. …
You know how you make anything cooler? You make a steampunk version of it! Okay, maybe not. But I had some vaguely steampunk-ish items lying around the apartment, and a museum full of science apparatus and toys. So this was the best I could come up with. So here it is: STEAMPUNK ENTOMOLOGIST. Complete with …
Interesting news in the digital learning field. It looks like there will be a 2016 Digital Media and Learning conference, despite MacArthur Foundation ending their support for the DML area this year. *Save the Date!* The 2016 DML Conference will be held Oct. 5-7, 2016 at @UCIrvine. More info coming soon. #2016DML pic.twitter.com/Ffg8sH0jOo — DML2016 (@dmlconference) …
Last night, I participated in a spectacular night tidepooling activity at Pillar Point, along with a couple of dozen other lucky folks. Pillar Point is a reef just 40 minutes south of San Francisco, most well known as the home of the famous Maverick’s Surf Contest. The California Academy of Sciences has been documenting the …
I'm excited to share the news that the Cal Academy's award-winning planetarium show "Habitat Earth" is now available free-of-charge for educators to use in their classrooms. This 25-minute planetarium dome show has been re-mastered as an HD video that can be downloaded and shown to students as part of their lessons on biodiversity, food systems, …