Einstein Vs. Spider-Man: Who's your favorite scientist?

One of my favorite scientists: Spider-Man!
From Amazing Spider-Man #6

What do Einstein, Galileo, and Spider-Man all have in common?  Answer: They are all scientists!

Sure, Spider-Man isn't real, but he may be more well known than Einstein or Galileo.  And he isn't the only spandex wearing scientist from the world of comic books.

Here are just a few superhero scientists: Batman, Spider-Man, Iron-Man (engineer), The Hulk (alter-ego Dr. Banner), and Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.

Mr. Fantastic uses his brain to solve a problem.

Even if you have never read a comic book, you have probably heard these names.  All of them, except for Batman, have been employed at one time or another as scientists or engineers.  Science is an essential part of these character's identities.  Often their powerful minds are portrayed as being one their greatest assets.

So how can we use our culture's love of superheroes to generate interest in science?  I recommend going up to someone and asking, "What scientist do you like better? Einstein or Spider-Man?"  Imagine the conversations.


Links:



Here is a cool article on how nanoscience might allow us to make a Spider-Man like outfit which would allow the wearer to crawl up walls: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/08/nanotech-discov/

Some people have taken another route in relating comic books to science.  They are trying to explain the science/physics in comic books.  If your interested, here is a good site: http://enterthestory.com/superscience.html

Free-Choice Science Learning: A Show for All Ages

Photo from www.lymefreelibrary.org

I don't get requests to travel outside my county very often to perform "Traveling Science Shows," but I am always excited at the chance.  I enjoy the roadside scenery of a longer drive and the time to think.  Yesterday's show came with a 1 1/2 hour drive which culminated with a beautiful sunset over Lake Ontario.

When someone calls to book a show I always ask the age and number of people attending.  Going to a kindergarten class or a middle school assembly requires different science content and styles.  Yesterday's show at the Lyme Free Library was challenging because I was told we would have a small group (10-30 people) with an age range that would be considerable.  Astronomy was the requested topic.  I prepared as best I could and hoped for the best.  When the show started we certainly did have a diverse mix of ages.  There were several elementary age children and one teenager, but about half the audience members were adults who had come without children.

The presentation really was a show for all ages.  Judging by the questions, comments, participation, and attentiveness, the performance was a success.

How do you present an astronomy show and make it interesting for all ages?  What was my strategy?  What I decided to do was write a show that would start in a basic more child friendly place and slowly move to content for a more mature audience.  I also made the show flexible, so that I had ideas on how I could adapt the show as I went, depending on the audience's responses.  For example, if I ended up with all families I would spend more time telling constellation stories.  I must say that this strategy would not have worked at every venue.  The children were well behaved and eager to learn.  They were patient and attentive during the more adult sections and the adults were patient during the more child friendly sections.  I am still grateful that I had such a nice audience.

Some parts of the show seemed to appeal equally to all ages.  As part of my discussion on asteroids I brought a good sized iron meteorite to pass around through the audience.  Everyone got to experience the excitement of holding what was once the core of an ancient world now long destroyed, and the unexpected joy of feeling how heavy the thing really is.  The adults were interested in questions about what minerals we might harvest from asteroids and how we know that meteorites actually come from space.  The other part of the show that was a hit across age boundaries was a video from NASA of our next Mars rover.  One the boys even found a section in a book with a picture of Pathfinder, the first Mars rover, and showed it to me as we were ending.

I am glad I had this opportunity yesterday.  It was the first of its kind for me, and I am definitely interested in trying something like this again.  If you are an educator in a similar situation, or have done this kind of thing before, I would love to read about your experience.  Hopefully, reading about mine was helpful for you.

Here are some related links:
Asteroids as future resources: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/resource.html
Curiosity, next Mars rover: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html

Don't forget the dry ice, but if you do... it's probably okay

Part of a "thank you" letter from one of the 4th graders today.

This morning I had driven halfway to a school to give science presentations to the students when suddenly I realized I forgot the dry ice for the show.  Just before starting out I had checked the contents of the cooler to make sure the dry ice hadn't all sublimated overnight, and yet somehow I managed to leave it behind.  After pulling over I tried calling the teacher who booked the shows to see if she wanted to push them back a half hour, but I couldn't get ahold of her.  My only choice was to continue on.  Fortunately I was bringing four other demonstrations with me, so putting on a good show wasn't the problem.  What made me feel bad was that the teacher had specifically requested I do the demonstration featuring dry ice as part of the show.  Every once in a while some minor slip-up like this will happen, and I always feel awful.


So what happened when I got there?  Did the teacher and the principal run me out of the school?  Did the students boo and decide they would live a life without science education?  No.  Instead, the teacher and the principal were welcoming, excited to have me, and quickly put my fears at ease when I apologized.  The shows ended up going great.  Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun learning about air pressure, chemistry, and Newton's 1st law of motion.  The teachers even had their cameras out, taking photos of some of the best parts.

An illustration of me doing the Power of Air demo.

You might be wondering why I would want to write about how I made a mistake, even if it did work out in the end.  The point is that most of the time things do work out.  I little mistake like that doesn't mean the program is finished or that you've ruined your reputation.  I think it is best to apologize and then give 100% in your performance.  The teachers want you to succeed.  The students want you to succeed.  The principal wants you to succeed.  The odds are still in your favor. 

I look forward to performing at this school again next year, and even though I know they wouldn’t be upset, next time I won’t forget the dry ice.

Some of the students wrote “thank you letters.”  I’ve scanned some of them to share with you.

I love that this student included all threee layers of cups and saucers, and drew me with such an exciting pose.

If this doesn't warm your heart, what will?

A Normal Week: Harry Potter Day, TV Morning Show Appearance, and an Inner City Afterschool Program

Thank you for checking out my new blog.  This is the first post and I'm excited to think about what the future might hold.  The general idea is to share my thoughts on science and education with everyone in the blogosphere, and to write about what it is like (at least for me) to work at a science museum.  If you work at a similar institution of free-choice learning, hopefully you can find some ideas here that will be helpful to you. Or if you are still in school wondering about what kind of career might be the right fit, maybe reading these posts will help you decide.  Or perhaps you are visiting this blog for some other reason all together.  No matter why you came, I hope you found something useful.  If you have, I would love to hear about it.


So what is a normal work week like for someone like me?  It is hard to say what is normal, but I can share some of the more interesting parts of the past few days.


Saturday: Harry Potter Day at the Museum!  This was a lot of fun.  The museum is currently showing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Prt. 2 in our IMAX Omni-theater so we decided to invite our guests to dress like wizards and witches and attend special Harry Potter planetarium shows, potions demonstrations, and a Herbology lesson.  Setting the date for the two days before Halloween was pretty smart, too, as lots of kids had their costumes on.  I wrote and performed the planetarium shows and the potions demonstrations.  As a big fan or Harry Potter and of astronomy and the history of science, this is exactly the kind of thing I love to do.  I spent the day in my wizard costume, calling myself Professor Merlon and talking about how science is used in the world of Harry Potter and pretending to make magical potions.  One of our volunteers grows mandrake, monk's hood, and belladonna plants.  He brought those in for the Herbology lesson, helping to flesh out the day with a station that parents could really get into.  July 31st is Harry Potter's birthday, and I am thinking I might suggest we celebrate it each year with a Harry Potter Day at the museum.


Monday: TV Appearance:  One of the coolest and scariest things about my job is making TV appearances.  Every month or so I'm usually a guest on Channel 9's Bridge Street morning show for a 4 minute science segment.  A couple times I've also been interviewed by other channels asking about things like "blue moons" or the "new zodiac."  Bridge Street is broadcast live, which means that any mistake I make is seen by a whole lot of viewers as well as my colleagues and boss.  This was probably my fifth time on, and like always it was a lot of fun.  The staff there is friendly and likes to joke around, making a confortable atmosphere.  Since it was Halloween I dressed up as Merlon again and did some science/magic demonstrations with pumpkins.


Tuesday Morning:  Planetarium Shows for Syracuse City 6th Graders:  This is the second year in a row we have brought all the 6th graders on special field trips to the museum.  Within the course of a few months we end up bringing about 1,600 students to the museum and running them through a number of science activities.  For my part I give a custom planetarium show related to their curriculum.  Today's three shows went well, and in fact I was surprised by how well behaved the students were.  I really like doing these shows, because it gives me a chance to talk about subjects we don't usually cover in our general audience weekend planetarium shows.  This year I'm focusing a big portion of the presentation on human and robotic space exploration of asteroids and the planet Mars.  If you've never heard of NASA's NEEMO or Desert RATS programs, check them out.  They are so cool.




Tuesday Afternoon:  Afterschool Program @ Local City School:  This year our Education Department has started working with the federally funded Say Yes program in our school district.  Every Tuesday and Thursday three of us go to one of the city schools and work for two hours with elementary students.  This is only our second week, but we are starting to develop trust with the students and are figuring out what kinds of activities work best for them.  This afterschool program is probably the hardest thing I have had to do so far with this job.  My experience lies in performing science shows for students, not managing a classroom.  Being in a city school adds a number of challenges too.  I am working hard to try to understand the culture and needs of the students.  Each day when they arrive at the classroom, even after a full day of school, almost every one of them is excited to learn about science and is curious about the day’s lessons.  Whenever I'm feeling like I'm in over my head, I remind myself of the amazing opportunity I have to help these students explore that curiosity and love of science.