Planets All Up In Your Face at Franklin Institute

I attended an astronomy event entitled "Night Skies" at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, which is our local science museum. It awesome! The highlight was being able to see Jupiter with its 4 moons, the Orion Nebula (where stars are currently forming), and a close up of our moon. As an extra bonus, it was freezing outside and the wait was around 20 minutes. Gotta do what you gotta do to be a science enthusiasts.

To help add a little tech to the experience, I used an free Android app called Google Sky Map. When using the app, you hold your phone or tablet towards the sky and see where stars, planets, and constellations are. The icons for Jupiter and the moon lined up perfectly with my visual from the telescope. For additional creepiness factor, if you hold the tablet down you can see the parts of the galaxy on the other side of the earth!

I was able to access the planetarium and watch the premiere of "To Space and Back", which was hosted by Chief Astronomer Derrick Pitts. The film shows how space technology affects our everyday lives. Since the planetarium screen literally surrounds the entire room (think of it as an IMAX movie screen wrapped around the ceiling), it was truly enthralling.

If you're in Philly, check out this event which occurs every second Thursday. If you're not in Philly, check in with your local science museum or university to see if they host any astronomy events.

Full Size James Webb Space Telescope at SXSW

​I didn't get a chance to attend the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference, but NASA went all out by providing a life size model of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This telescope will eventually replace the aging Hubble telescope in the latter half of this decade, and will bring us even more cool pictures of our universe!  Four stories tall and the size of a tennis court - check it out! 

As big as a tennis court and as tall as a four-story building, a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope model was on display from March 8-10 at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. 

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope is the successor to Hubble and the largest space telescope to ever be built.

Image Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn

Let The Earth Glide Beneath You

​I've been privileged enough to see astronaut Don Petit speak in person about life on the Internal Space Station.  Check out this great short film by Christoph Malin that really gives a sense of what it feels like to have the Earth below your feet.

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

​Source: Christoph Malin, via Slate

Forbidden Tech #4 - Power Wheels

I had the Big Wheel ...​

​Couldn't get the Power Wheels ...

Forbidden Tech is my video series where I talk about pieces of technology that I was not allowed to have as a kid, scarring me forever. Check out the earlier Forbidden Tech videos here.

I wanted Power Wheels so bad! I could traverse the terrain of my neighborhood fairly easily with my Big Wheel, but I wasn't rocking in style. Funny thing is, I don't remember seeing many kids in my neighborhood with Power Wheels at all, but that commercial (Pow-pow-power wheels) was the best branding of that time. The song is still stuck in my head.

How do Power Wheels work? ​A simple rechargeable 12V battery provides power to turn the wheels when a kid presses on the accelerator. Yeah, I definitely wasn't getting one of those.​

Check out my video on this - if you can't see it, click here.​

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!​