Musings on Dance, Food, Geek Stuff
Okay I am WAY late to this, but I felt compelled to throw something together tonight. Here’s my 2017 year in review. Quick 2017 Stats Freestyle Dance Videos Shot: 7 Number of Marches and Protests: 3 Number of Pies Baked: 5 New Hobbies Acquired: 1 (rock climbing) Dance Competitions Entered: 5 Countries Visited: 1 (South…
Check out this wicked "Know the Elements" hoodie by 5e Gallery. There could not be a more perfect hoodie for me, combining hip-hop and science nerdery. And it even fits nicely. Hip-hip Heads: Do you get all the references underneath the elements? My colleague Christine and I shot some pics of the hoodie at my museum the…
I love beef. Hamburgers, steaks, corned beef, beef rendang, pastrami, meatballs… I could just keep going. Other meats too: lamb, chicken, pork. Love 'em all. But I also love living on this planet, and would like this planet to stay beautiful, ecologically diverse and healthy forever. So I'm making some small changes for myself and…
A couple of years ago, I led a summer camp for middle schoolers called the "Pearson Young Scientists" at the California Academy of Sciences. It was a super fun program to develop and facilitate, taking a group of a dozen middle schoolers from the Bay Area and exposing them to citizen science, local parks, and…
Today was the Member Preview of the new "Skulls" exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences. It was great seeing all of the visitors oo'ing and ah'ing the specimens, playing with the interactives, and taking lots and lots of pictures. Particularly all of the kids. I really love this massive hippo skull I encountered today!…
This Friday, the California Academy of Sciences is opening our newest exhibit "Skulls" which I'm super excited about. This latest exhibit will focus on all of the things you can learn about an animal from its skull, why we collect skulls and skeletons, and our impressive collection of skulls … from the tiniest bird…
Earlier this week at a staff meeting at the Cal Academy, we did this ice breaker activity called "Back Writes" that was surprisingly insightful. Basically everyone in my department had a piece of paper taped to their backs and you were tasked with walking around and writing some kind of affirmation on it, either about…
On Thursday, the California Academy of Sciences hosted a fun coding workshop for middle schoolers that I helped facilitate. The occasion was the visit of five young programmers from Cork, Ireland to the Bay Area, along with the Deputy Lord Mayor of Cork, and various other dignitaries from Ireland. The sponsoring organization was called CoderDojo,…
The California Academy of Sciences got a nice mention in a recent article in the New York Times on how museums are increasing their reach via offering lectures and other experiences online. "Another innovator is the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. In January it began offering an online biodiversity course, devised for teachers and…