STEMnasium: A Great Way to Teach Kids Science

Jon Skief founded the Harambee Charter School in West Philly in 1973. The school has been providing a quality science based education for children for 40 years, and recently received national attention 6 year old Zora Ball. She became one of the youngest people to develop a mobile gaming app.

Tairq Al-Nasir, head of the STEMnasium Learning Academy, adds the following stats:​

In 2011, Philadelphia regional companies had 64,000 STEM-related and finance job openings, but area colleges graduated just 6,000 people with those degrees, according to Campus Philly. Al-Nasier widens the numbers even more.

“Every year, there’s a demand for 120,000 jobs for people with computer science backgrounds,” Al-Nasir said. “We’re only graduating nationally, 40,000. There are 80,000 students missing. Why is it missing? It’s missing because we haven’t rethought the STEM initiative.”

Check out the video that shows the program in action. If you can't see the video below, please click here.​

Source: Harambee Institute of Science and Technology via Technically Philly ​

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.​