Go Fly a Kite This Week-End!

This Saturday, March 27th, marks the 44th Annual Smithsonian Kite Festival in Washington, DC. Come to this free event on the Washington Monument grounds from 10 am until 3 pm (schedule here). Kids can make a kite at the festival, view handmade kites from all over the world, and watch - or enter - the kite-flying competitions (adults can compete, too!). You could win an award; every child who competes will receive a participation ribbon.

Despite the "official" designation of February 8 as Kite Flying Day here in the U.S., celebrations involving kites are popular during the windy month of March. Washington, DC, isn't the only place you can see kites this week-end. South Korea is holding an International Kite Flying Contest at Dadaepo Beach in Busan and the Midland Kite Flyers are hosting Kite Flying Day at Calke Abbey near Ticknall in Derbyshire, England.

Let's hope the weather is nice and windy this week-end!


Photo credit: Smithsonian Kite Festival

Hydroponic Gardening at Epcot

Last week, our family traveled to Walt Disney World in Florida. One of my favorite exhibits at Epcot is Living with the Land, a slow-moving ride that explores the future of farming and gardening. One focus of the exhibit is on hydroponic gardening - growing crops in a water and nutrient solution without soil, often using limited space. I wish that I had found the time to take the Behind the Seeds gardening tour!

dcJohn, who captured the wonderful image above in 2005, wrote this note along with the photo: "One of the few (only?) places that's actually doing any research at EPCOT, which was the original dream Walt had for the park." I have to agree. Since the last time I visited, I can tell that Epcot's focus is moving away from science and more toward theme park, which seems a shame. Why not continue to meld the two?

But I digress. I am fascinated with hydroponic gardening. One of the crops exhibited was grown along a vertical coil, kind of like a large hollow spring with holes cut out of it. You can see that the winding arms provide a lot of surface area upon which the plants can grow.


Brad Jones, who took the Behind the Seeds tour in 2009, captured the wonderful photograph above. Check out his Behind the Seeds Tour photo set for great images of vertical gardening, including hanging winter melons, cucumbers, tomatoes and more. Note how little ground space is taken up by these planting systems.

Photo credits: (top) dcJohn and (bottom) Brad Jones, via flickr // CC BY 2.0.

It's Time to Read!

March is time for Read Across America here in the United States, when the National Education Association encourages us to celebrate reading. The kickoff date for this annual event was March 2nd, which is also Dr. Suess' birthday.

Reading Rockets is a wonderful reading-themed website to visit, with a wealth of information for launching young readers. You can also pick up some nifty widgets, like this one:



and this one:



PBS KIDS Island is another good destination. This interactive website promotes early reading. First, you set up an account. This allows you to keep track of how you (or your child) are progressing through the games. The website keeps track of which games you play and how well you perform on each type of game. The summary data can help to pinpoint any problem areas with reading comprehension. And, you get to collect points and earn rides, games, and virtual prizes along the way. Little Brother loves it! He built up his whole island and we had to create some new identities for him so that he could have the fun of working through it all over again.

Whatever you choose to read this month, or however you might celebrate, happy reading, everyone!

Kids' Science Challenge

Ashwin Vasavada, planetary scientist at JPL, throws a Frisbee in the Mars yard (Photo credit: Kids' Science Challenge)

Would you like to see a scientist work to solve a problem or experiment that you designed? If you live in the U.S. and are in grades 3-6, you've got six days left to enter the three science contests presented by Kids' Science Challenge.

Let's say that you like astronomy. You can enter the Sports of Mars contest. In the future, astronaut explorers might colonize Mars. What kind of games could people play there? How would the Martian climate (dusty, with less atmosphere than Earth) affect the ways sports and games are played?

If Mars isn't your thing, check out the Detective Science Challenge ("Can you think of an everyday mystery that you can solve with the scientific tools of detection?") or the Bio-Inspired Designs Challenge ("Birds inspired airplanes. Seed burrs inspired Velcro. What part of nature will inspire your new invention?")

Visit the media arcade for inspiration. You can enter one idea for each contest! If you have a winning submission, you will get to work with a scientist to put your idea in action. And, your entry could win one of these awesome prizes, including a week at Space Camp, a bionic eye, or night vision goggles.

The entry deadline for all three contests in the Kids' Science Challenge is February 28, 2010. You can enter individually or as a team. You will have to describe your idea and tell how you came up with it; a sketch of your concept is optional. Complete rules are listed here; you'll need to register first. The official entry form (this is a .pdf file) can be mailed, faxed, or submitted online.

Good luck!

Get ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count!

Great Blue Heron
2009 Great Backyard Bird Count
Photo credit: Marianne DiAntonio, FL

If you live in North America, mark your calendars! It's almost time for the 13th annual Great Backyard Bird Count, sponsored by the National Audubon Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Held in February, this year's count will occur from February 12-15, 2010.

Want to participate? It's easy! You need to count birds for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the survey and then enter your data online. You can download a tally sheet for birds in your geographic area here and look for special GBBC events near your home. There's even a flickr group where you can upload your bird photos taken during the count. And if you are snapping pics, be sure to participate in this year's photo contest (you can win prizes!).

Get ready to identify birds by taking this sound quiz (love the title, "Guess Who's Squawkin'!") and visiting the online bird guide from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with profiles of over 550 species. And don't worry if, like me, you can't identify every bird that you spot during your count. There's a special box to check on the survey if that's the case. Be sure to download a participation certificate (this is a .pdf file) after you've completed your count!

Project BudBurst

Has the dreary winter weather got you down? Let's plan for a fun way to celebrate spring! If you're in the U.S.**, join Project BudBurst and record your observations about the yearly stages, or phenophases, of select plants in your area. Choose from one of these 75 plants to study. You can track things like the earliest date you see leaves, flowers, or fruits and then report your data online. (** Not in the U.S.? You can still have fun predicting the timing of next spring's phenophases and recording your observations.)

Dr. Kayri Havens, Lead Botanist, and Dr. Paul Alaback, Lead Science Advisor, are keeping a Project BudBurst blog to accompany the website. I thought this blog snippet from Dr. Kay covered the objectives of Project BudBurst quite nicely:

"Thanks to all of you who are watching plants and submitting your observations! These data are helping us get a much clearer picture about how plants are responding to different climates around the U.S. This will help us predict how plants will respond to a changing climate."

At Project BudBurst, you can learn more about phenology, the science behind this study, download teaching materials about plants and plant identification guides, browse the map of recent observations, and more! And be sure to upload your plant photos to the Project BudBurst Flickr photo pool.

TOYchallenge 2010

Looking for a creative way to teach science to your group? How about TOYchallenge 2010? This toy design competition is for 5th to 8th graders in the U.S. and Canada, offered through Sally Ride Science. With an adult coach, each 3-6 member team of kids (half of the team must be female!) designs a new toy over the remainder of the school year. But you don't have be affiliated with a school to join in - homeschoolers, after-school clubs, and neighborhood groups are welcome.

Toys must be original and can not be built using pieces of existing toys. Each proposed toy must fit into one of three categories: Toys that Teach, Games for the Family, or Get Out and Play. After choosing your category, each team follows an engineering design process to prepare a written description and drawings of the proposed toy, due in the Preliminary Round Entry, which closes on February 12, 2010. Promising design teams are then invited to travel to compete in the Nationals (you can apply for travel assistance to off-set the cost, but all teams are expected to fundraise to offset their costs). Last year's competition was held in May at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Alexandria, Virginia, but previous competitions have been held in other locations.

Check out last year's winners for inspiration. There's even a page of ideas to get you started. But there's only a week left to register, so be sure to sign up now! (Note: there is a $65 registration fee.)


Photo credit: Kok Leng Yeo through a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license via flickr.

Website of the Week: Science Metropolis

This week's website is especially for my friends in Boston, MA. Joseph Caputo's Science Metropolis is a clearinghouse of science information aimed at "science hobbyists in the Boston and Cambridge area." Science Metropolis is designed to be the "...first stop for Bostonians to learn about science-related events and news in their community."

With a calendar of local science-themed events, science opportunities just for families, profiles of local scientists (from schools like MIT and Harvard!), and local screenings of science-based movies, Science Metropolis has something for Boston-based science lovers of all ages. I only wish there were a Science Metropolis for every major city across the U.S.!

World Science Festival 2009

The 2009 World Science Festival will be held in New York City from June 10-14, 2009. Last year's inaugural event included a fun array of sold-out Youth & Family Events, including The Science of Disney Imagineering, Mathemagician Arthur Benjamin, and Science Sunday at the Met. (I would also have been drawn to Toil and Trouble ... Stories of Experiments Gone Wrong.) I thought it interesting that both Alan Alda and Sam Shepard had a hand in last year's festivities.

To get a jump-start on 2009, you can sign up for festival updates and view video clips from some of the 2008 presentations. Happy planning!

Contest: Young Scientist Challenge

Today's contest is for my U.S. middle school friends. (If that doesn't describe you, skip ahead to the last paragraph!)

Discovery Education and 3M are sponsoring the 10th Annual Young Scientist Challenge, "designed to encourage the exploration of science and innovation among America's youth and to promote the importance of science communication." The contest runs between January 15 - May 20, 2009.

To enter, kids in grades 5-8 must submit a 1-2 minute video online entry about one of four topic areas chosen by the judges (as per the rules). The entries will be pared down to 51 over the summer, with one semifinalist chosen from each state (and DC). In the fall, ten finalists will fly to New York for a final round of contests and judging. (Last year's final challenges were all about outer space!) Those reaching semi-final status and beyond win cool prizes, with the winner receiving $50,000 in U.S. savings bonds, a trophy, and the title of "America's Top Young Scientist."

For my friends outside of the U.S. (along with those closer to home!), check out Discovery Education's whelmers, ten science experiments to try at home. They also have a great page of Science Homework Help, with videos and interactive games on Earth Science (waterways), Physical Science (chemical changes), and Life Science (backyard habitats).

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Photo taken by Dick DeMarsico

Source: Library of Congress


"Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Tomorrow is America Recycles Day!

The National Recycling Coalition hosts America Recycles Day, which is held each year on November 15th. You can learn about the basics in Recycling 101, read about the DOs and DON'Ts of Recycling, take the Recycling Pledge and find Events Near You.

For example, you can attend the Recycle and Shred-A-Thon and meet Can Guy if you live in Raleigh, NC. Are you closer to Waukesha, WI? Attend the Family Open House at the Materials Recycling Facility. The Colorado Association for Recycling is even selling a 2009 America Recycles Day Calendar.

Want to learn how recycling makes a difference? Try out NRC's interactive Conversionator and learn interesting tidbits about recycling like this one: "The average person has the opportunity to recycle more than 25,000 cans in a lifetime." (I wonder if that's an average person in the U.S., or an average person across the globe? I suspect this refers to those of us in can-happy America.)

However you choose to honor the day, take heart. If you recycle, you're not alone. According to the NRC, "the U.S. recycles 33% of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years."

Beautiful Science

If you live in or near San Marino, California, stop by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens to see their new permanent exhibit -- opening today! -- entitled "Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World". This exhibit examines how scientific knowledge has advanced over time -- sometimes with great leaps of insight -- by focusing on four areas of scientific study: astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light. Look for manuscripts, letters, and books highlighting great achievements by Ptolemy, Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein. There is also a companion educational program available for middle and high school students. Key features of this exhibit are neatly described in Dibner Highlights (this is a .pdf file).

For more information about the Huntington, you can visit Admission, Hours, and General Information or contact: publicinformation [at] huntington [dot] org.

October is Fire Safety Month

In many communities across the United States, October is fire safety month. The official National Fire Prevention Week ran last week, from October 5-11, 2008. If your kids (or you) are in school, they probably brought home some great tips that they learned about preventing fires. If not, check out Sparky the Fire Dog's® fire-safety Scholastic website. You can Hunt for Home Hazards, create a home fire escape plan, or print out lesson plans to use with children in grades K-5. Teachers can submit student art or speeches to be presented on Scholastic's fire safety webpage. But you've got to hurry -- entries must be postmarked by October 20, 2008!

Sparky the Fire Dog® also has his own website through the National Fire Protection Association. You can learn all about fire trucks, dalmatians, or check out coloring pages, fire safety tips, and more. Sparky® even has his own arcade!


[Updated 10/10/10: Added a current link for National Fire Prevention Week.]

Website of the Week: Project Vote Smart

First, let me offer a quick apology to my friends outside of the U.S., since today's post doesn't apply directly to you. But for those of you voting in America's 2008 elections, please check out Project Vote Smart. This non-partisan organization has been around for over eight years, providing U.S. voters with information about their elected officials, including things like biographical data, voting records, endorsements, and interest group ratings. It's a great site to help you narrow down your choices, particularly if you have a specific issue that tends to drive your vote. I, for one, am partial to reviewing a candidate's positions on the environment.

One item I found interesting ... historically, John McCain was a big supporter of Project Vote Smart. I was disappointed to find that he hasn't filled out this election's Political Courage Test ... but, then, Barack Obama hasn't filled it out yet either.