Curiosity Kills The Gap: Helping Kids with STEM

This week's White House Science Fair is another great example of presidents using the White House to push a scientific agenda. Levar Burton, one of the co-hosts of the event, often repeated Obama's saying that you should be invited to the White House whether you win an sports championship or a science fair. Not only is it great to see young scientists celebrated on a national stage, but you also get super adorable photos like this:

Levar Burton and Bill Nye The Science Guy help interview three young budding scientists

It's a beautiful scene, isn't it? It's one that needs to replicated in cities and towns across the country. Not only do we owe it to the future generations to be scientifically literate, but we need to avoid being among the bottom of developed countries for math and science. The gap needs to be eliminated.

Philadelphia does a better job than most cities when it comes to promoting science. I've previously covered the Philadelphia Science Festival, which turned the heart of the city into a big playground of ... bugs and stuff. The George Washington Carver Science Fair (yes, the website sucks ... Facebook is somewhat better) gives elementary and high school kids a chance to show off their science skills, with judges from the community (like my friends the Black Tribbles). But even with these resource, the everyday school experience of a significant amount of students is devoid of the science resources that are needed for success. The situation is even worse with other cities that don't have fair at all.

All in a day's work at the Philadelphia Science Festival

When most people think science resources, they mention labs, circuit boards to wire, hydrochloric acid to burn things, fetal pigs to dissect, etc.  These are all important, but they are secondary to the truth issue. The most important part is making sure that kids have the space to be curious and creative. This is extremely important because kids with all the resources in the world will waste them if they don't have a spirit of curiosity. Similarly, kids with nothing have and will continue to change the world of scientific discovery because they were allowed to poke around, fail, and fail again in their creative pursuits.

Panelist at the WURD Speaks: Blackout event in Philadelphia. From L-R - Robert W. Bogle, President & CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune; Brigitte Daniel, Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems; Sara Lomax-Reese, President & General Manager of 900AM-WURD; Mignon Clyburn, FCC Commissioner; William Crowder, Managing Director of DreamIt Ventures & Lead Advisor of the Comcast Ventures; Navarrow Wright, CTO Interactive One

I attended an event by Philly's only Black owned talk radio station WURD called Blackout: Reinventing Media in the Digital Age. There was an amazing panel, including FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, that all echoed a similar concern - we need to instill an environment of entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity, and creativity in our kids at a very young age. We live in a time where we can do research on anything that a kid displays affinity towards and help them understand it on a deeper level.  This is how we can kill the gap between have and have not when it comes to science education both within our country, and between our country and the rest of the world.

#NASASocial Overview - Join the Fun!

I've been lucky enough to attend a few NASA Social events, where I've been able to meet up with other space enthusiasts at NASA buildings such as NASA Headquarters in DC,  Goddard Flight Center in MD and Mission Control in Houston.  Check out Susan Bell's awesome presentation recap of her NASA Social experience using Prezi!

For more information, check out the main NASA Social website. Maybe I'll see you at a future event!

Smithsonian #TimeNav Event: Tweets & Photos

Below are my tweets and photos from the Smithsonian Air & Space  Museum's Time and Navigation exhibit which opens Friday, April 12th. The exhibit features navigation the evolution of navigation technology from the sea, to the air, to space, and now in our smartphones. Yesterday's preview has more detail.  Check out the photos below!

Smithsonian #TimeNav: Back Seat Drivers

The Smithsonian National Air and Space museum is unveiling a new exhibit entitled Time & Navigation: The Untold Story of Getting From Here to There. The exhibit will focus on navigators - the folks that served as the back seat drivers for many famous pilots, drivers, captains, and others. Exhibits from famous names such as sea Captain Charles Wilkes and pilot Charles Lindbergh will be featured, as well as Mariner 10, the first spacecraft to reach Mercury.

An excerpt from the Smithsonian blog reads as follows:

Today, the navigator as a crew member has largely disappeared from most commercial and military long-distance operations, replaced by microprocessors in the form of GPS and inertial navigation systems, but from the 1930s to the 1980s, the navigator was an essential crewmember on many long-distance commercial and military flights.

Be sure to follow my on Twitter (@ShareefJackson) as I will be live tweeting the media preview this morning from 9am - 11am EST. I'll be using the hashtag #TimeNav. 

The exhibit will open to the public on Friday, April 12th - make sure to check it out next time you're in DC!

Motivate Yourself with a TED Science Talk!

TED (Technology, Education, Design) is a nonprofit dedicated to spreading ideas. TED is known for attracting amazing speakers to deliver short but impactful speeches on various subjects. There have been a few great ones regarding science - check them out below!  They will motivate you to be the best that you can, in 5 - 15 minutes!

Almost all new phones have touch screens instead of physical buttons - the following talk by Katherine Kuchenbecker of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) covers the technology behind these screens, and how it can be driven forward.

This next talk by Freeman Hrabowski covers his success with a diverse STEM program a President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

The final TED talk is by Elon Musk, who is one of the most fascinating innovators around. He developed the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft that's currently running resupply trips to the International Space Station (ISS).  While he's bored with that, he's doing small things like founding PayPal or designing fully electric performance cars under his Tesla Motors company. Whew!

STEM Equality: The Fiscal Argument

Chelsea Clinton (yes, daughter of Slick WIllie) wrote a fascinating piece on STEM in the Huffington Post. She not only recognizes that others have not been able to have the resources that she grew up with, but she makes a fiscal argument for diversity in the workplace.

If women matched men's employment rates in America, GDP would rise by 5 percent, according to Booz & Company. With the U.S. Department of Commerce expecting STEM jobs to grow 17 percent between 2008 to 2018 -- compared to just 9.8 percent for non-STEM jobs -- excluding women from the pipeline hurts American companies in search of the best high-tech talent. Economic expansion hinges on both halves of the workforce receiving the tools needed to drive innovation..

This is a point that is often missing from discussions of diversity, and not just limited to the sciences .  Diversity is not just a "feel good" thing,  It has realistic implications and serves as the only way for our country to keep up with the rest of the world.  Every year that the US finishes near the bottom of  the country lists for math and science, I think about stats such as this.

Check out the rest of the article here!

Adafruit: Learning Electronics The Fun Way

Adafruit, the brainchild of Limor Fried for teaching electronics, has debuted a wonderful cartoon called Circuit Playground. Being an electrical engineer, I love seeing simplified attempts to describe the complexity behind the things that everyone uses - everyone plugs in a lamp!

The video below describes what current actually as - a flow of electrons. Most electronic devices have a suggested rating for amps (normally listed as A) in honor of scientist André-Marie Ampère. Amps is a measure of the amount of electrons that flows per second. Too little amps and the electronic device won't function.  Too many and it'll fry!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Credits:

• Ladyada – Limor Fried
• Andre-Marie Ampere – Collin Cunningham
• ADABOT – Collin Cunningham & Phil Torrone, Puppet by Annie Fresh, design by Bruce Yan
• Music: Tom White & Collin Cunningham
• Intro animation – Bruce Yan
• Written, filmed, edited, directed and produced by – Collin Cunningham, Limor Fried, Phil Torrone and the Adafruit team

Women In Chemistry Documentary = Awesome

I had the pleasure of attending a screening of the Women in Chemistry documentary (trailer shown above) by local NPR affiliate WHYY in Philadelphia. This amazing documentary profiles eight women that have changed the course of chemistry and science in general.  Afterwards, we were treated to a Q&A moderated by Maiken Scott  with two of the women profiled in the video - Uma Chowdry and Mary Good. I asked a question a;bout getting kids engaged that don't have a support system that pushes science.  Both Mary and Uma told me to start with the problems that students are facing, and design solutions while focusing on the math and science aspects.  This is a winning idea!

The full list of profiled women is below:

• Nancy Chang, cofounder and former CEO of the biopharmaceutical firm Tanox;
• Uma Chowdhry, retired senior vice president and chief science and technology officer of DuPont;
• Mildred Cohn, first female president of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology;
• Mary L. Good, former president of the American Chemical Society, undersecretary for technology in the U.S. Department of Commerce under President Bill Clinton, and recipient of the Priestley Medal;
• Kathryn Hach-Darrow, cofounder of the Hach Chemical Company and the only woman to receive CHF’s Pittcon Heritage Award;
• Paula Hammond, David H. Koch Professor in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology;
• Stephanie Kwolek, former research associate at DuPont and inventor of Kevlar; and
• Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder, chairman, and managing director of Biocon Limited.

The full hour-long documentary is embedded below - checked it out.

International Women's Day: Math is For All

Today is International Women's Day, and we should all celebrate the wonderful women that have made impacts in our lives. Google has an amazing doodle on its homepage to serve as a great launching point.  But y'all know that I'm all about the math and science, and making sure that everyone gets into it. 

Well, everyone except "math is tough" Barbie:

I ran into that video while reading about the stereotype of gender issues between men and women. I've often heard that men are better at math, and it becomes a bit of a self fufilling prophecy when I hear some of the women that I tutor repeat this myth. What boggles the mind is that some of these women repeat it even when they are damned good at math.

An interesting piece of data that comes out of the story is that we focus so much on tests, even though tests don't necessarily reflect classroom performance. We all know that women are beginning to dominate college, and I remember my advanced math and science classes in high school containing men and women. Despite that, repeatedly hearing "women can't do math or science" does have an effect, and at times can be a self fulfilling prophecy. I've tutored women that are stellar in math, yet still believe that they are not.   

Also, there's this:

Math aptitude (even measured at the levels of outstanding instead of average performance) doesn’t explain sex disparities in science careers (most of which, incidentally, only require you to be pretty good at math, as opposed to wildly genius at it). In any case, scoring high in math is only loosely related to who opts for a scientific career, especially for girls. Many high scoring girls don’t go into science, and many poor scoring boys do.

This is key - you only need to be proficient at math and problem solving to be successful in a technical career. You don't need to be AMAZING at it unless you want to be a theorist or go for the PhD.

Let's celebrate International Women's Day by making sure that math and science reflect the diversity of the world!

The Intersection of Science, Race & Media

A few of us got together in a Google+ hangout to talk about the intersection between science, race & media. We filmed the video below as a response to a Loop21 Twitter chat on race & media in which there was very little discussion about science.  

The group features Dr. Caleph B. Wilson, Dr. Danielle N. Lee, journalist Jamila Bey, and myself. Unofficially known as the Dark Sci, we plan on pushing the conversation forward regarding the communication of science to a broader audience.

If you can't see the video below, please click here.

The Universe: Bigger and Deffer

One of my favorite YouTube series, Minute Physics, just released a fascinating video on the size of the universe.  It boils down to this: we can observe a certain amount of the universe from Earth. When we observe stuff  that's really far away, the light takes so long to travel to our eyes that by the time we see it, it's already moved far, far away.  Earth within this huge observable universe (95 billion light years) is about the same scale as a teeny tiny virus is within our solar system. We are a TINY part of the universe.

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Also, you know what Bigger and Deffer is right? B.A.D.? As in I'm Bad? Maybe this video below will remind you - if you can't see it, click here.

Shareef Does Like It ... Rock The Space Station

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I spent Wednesday in downtown DC at the latest NASA Social event. The main part of the event was televised, and I've embedded the video below. It includes a Q&A session with astronaut Don Petit dealing with the process of turning urine into drinkable water (or "yesterday's coffee into today's coffee" as he put it".  The coolest part has to be when we were able to speak directly to astronauts, including social media maven Chris Hadfield, that are currently in orbit inside of the International Space Station. Skip to 1:29:00 to see yours truly asking a question about engineering safety to Dr. Tara Ruttley!

If you can't see the video below, please click here

I live tweeted the event and the details of the lectures - please see below!.

Obama Hanging Out, Talking Science of the Union

President Obama highlighted science in this week's State of the Union, and he also answered questions during a Google+ hangout today. Talk about taking science and technology to a new level!

One part of his speech caught my attention:

"Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer’s; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful.  Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation.  Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."  

The height of the Space Race was the goal to land a man on the moon in the 60s. That's five decades ago! It's a shame that we haven't reached that level of R&D. It doesn't necessarily have to be for one solid goal as it was for the space race, but we do need to invest in our own infrastructure to build the next generation of scientists   This covers everything from schools to neighborhoods to making college affordable.

Obama also referenced this during his Google+ hangout when he was asked if his daughters take interest in science. He spoke about how they need the encouragement from the system - parents, schools, other students - so that they know that they can achieve. Increased levels of investment can make sure that this will happen.

And of course, the President is doing this while talking live ... over the interwebs ... to regular citizens ... tech overload.

Landsat 8: New Images To Understand Earth

The Landsat 8 satellite launched from the Vandenberg Airforce Base in California on Feb 11th. Over the past 40 years, the Landsat program has provided imagery for public and private use. This newest satellite provides a more accurate way to capture data - imagine using a pushbroom to slowly push dirt along the floor as opposed to constantly sweeping from side to side. For more detail on the mission and technical details, please click here.

Most importantly, Landsat data is used for various public and private means.  The data is used for things such as urbanization, deforestation, climate change and the carbon footprint,. Most people have interacted with the data via the satellite filter on Google Maps, which almost everyone does when they are zooming in on the house they grew up in just to eek out that last bit of childhood.

I was able to watch the launch with a bunch of fellow space enthusiasts at the NASA Goddard Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. We ate hilariously bad food, attacked the gift store, and most importantly talked to the scientists on the Landsat team about the launch.  For my coverage of the 40th anniversary of the Landsat program during the summer of 2012, please click here.

Source: NASA Landsat

Melissa Harris-Perry & Doc McStuffins Rock The House

There was a great segment on diversity in science on the Melissa Harris Perry show this weekend.  Topics include the Doc McStuffins Disney cartoon which promotes women in science, and the involvement of the Girl Scouts with STEM.  The guests include Dr. Aletha Maybank, Anna Maria Chavez, Christianne Corbett and Danielle Moodie-Mills. 

One quote that stuck out for me was As Mooide-Mills says , "Be visible and be fabulous!" There are many times that minorities that are underrepresented in science get discouraged because they don't say examples of people that look like them teaching in their schools or being popularized by the media. And those that are - such as Neil Degrasse Tyson - can be seen as "exceptions". The visibility of women and Blacks within science well help us all push things forward. That's one of the reason why I created this site

More about the We Are Doc McStuffins movement is covered in this MSNBC piece.

If you find yourself singing Doc McStuffins' "Time For Your Checkup" song, don't blame me - it's infectious!

If you see the video below, please click here

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Michelle Obama also made a key point that scientists are not unreachable goals that are only intended for those with the resources - everyone should be able to achieve it.

If you can't see the video below, please click here.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The March for Diversity in Science Pushes On

City Town Info has created a nice infographic concerning women in science. While some numbers regarding income and representation may be bleak, there is positive news - more and more young women are becoming interested in science careers. The challenge is keeping this interest fresh by keeping science interesting throughout the crucial elementary and high school years.  We need to make sure that scientists are shown as role models, such as those that I posted about at the end of last year.

Courtesy of: Citytowninfo.com

Tech and the Government: The Future Is Now

I'm a strong proponent of the government using science and technology to reach out to us in innovative ways. I was happy to read that several representatives of Congress have adopted Twitter as a platform of communication. I'm glad to see that the leaders of our government are engaging us in spaces that we already occupy.

Vice President Joe Biden is holding a video chat via Google+ hangout on Thursday, Jan 24th at 1:45pm EST.  While I understand that the conversation will be heavily filtered and scripted, I hope that people begin to feel more connected with their leaders.

This follows the excellent video chat that President Obama held last year, which I've embedded below. 

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Internet video sure as come a long way since I was buffering terrible video on Real Player over my 56k connection ...

CES 2013 Wrap Up Video & Tweets

Last week, I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Below is a video of some footage that I took on the floor. Unfortunately, my microphone adapter broke so I was not able to hold any interviews - gotta get that fixed for next year!

If you can't see the video below, click here.

Also, I've embedded a list of Tweets that I shared if you weren't following the action last week. Check it out! If you can't see the tweets below, click here.

We Fly High, No Lie, And You Know This

One hundred and nine years ago, the Wright Brothers set off the aeronautical revolution by making short flights with their Kitty Hawk glider.  Their arcraft wing design is the result of extremely precise wind tunnel data that gave them " the most detailed data  in the world for the design of aircraft wings".

Check out NASA's section on the Wright Brothers for more info.