Random happenings and pics

I was walking down Capitol Hill and took this picture of the Capitol Building in winter.

I was walking to the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars to listen to some of the Einstein Fellows that were on a panel discussing how much it benefits teachers, students, and scientists when they form partnerships and scientists come to the classroom.  

Went to a holiday get together at a friends house and Memphis Gold was there with his guitar.  He is a blues musician and he entertained us with his music, stories, and humor.  

Wanted to see the model train display at the botanic garden, but it was rather disappointing.   Because it is almost Christmas, I took a picture of this plant from which frankincense is made.  I think is comes from the sap.

I drove my car today determined to find the Mormon Temple.  It is a little hard to get to, but I made it.  I spent a couple of hours at the visitor center.  It is a very beautiful building.  Now that I know I can get there, I will return more often.

Weekend in West Virginia

Saturday, Geraldine rented a car and three of us drove to West Virginia to visit with an Leigh, an Einstein fellow from last year, and Bob.  It was nice to be with friends and get out of the city, even though I did not get a lot of sleep (smile).  A dusting of snow made it even more beautiful.

Lots of good food.

Lighting the Hanukah candles.

Bob, Leigh, Me, and Dave.  Geraldine is taking the picture.

They live in a barn that has been remodeled into a home.  It is beautiful inside and wonderfully rustic on the outside.

National Institutes of Health

We visited the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  The NIH invests over $31.2 billion annually in medical research for the American people and gets almost all of its financing directly from Congress.  The NIH campus is over 300 acres and is located in Bethesda, Maryland.  The clinical research facilities are often the last hope for those that come.  In the children's hospital is a wall of tiles of children's art.  They express the range of emotions experienced by these young patients as they go through, often years, of treatment in the hopes of finding somethings that will prolong their lives.

We also visited the zebra fish lab where they do genetic research.

And the pathology laboratory.  We got a micro-course on how they isolate cells from a tissue sample with very high tech machinery that uses the "glue" material used in glue guns and high power lasers to cut out cells and attach to disks to view without disturbing the delicate cell structures.

Party, Tubas, Science, and the US Army

Lots of activities this week.  Wednesday was the Holiday Party for my Division at NSF.  It was a lot of fun.  Everyone brought food.  then they played Pictionary until they could figure out to hook up the Lets Dance on the Wii.  The next two hours were spent taking turns "dancing".  Great calorie burner after all the good eating.

Einstein Fellows, Ann Drobnis, Erik Russell, and Me

After the party, my sponsor and I went to the Millennium  Stage at the Kennedy Center to hear the Tuba Christmas Chorus.  It is an annual event where people bring their tubas, rehearse for an hour, and then perform.  there were 350 tubas.  They played familiar carols and we sang along.  It was great fun.

Thursday evening I volunteered to be a judge at a local middle school science fair.  I judged 6th grade projects.  It was a little different because all of the students used a powerpoint presentation to show what they did for their science experiment.  They all did a great job and had pictures, data and graphs  It was a lot of fun and I am going to volunteer for another school's science fair judging in January.

Tonight I attended the U.S. Army Band Holiday Concert in Constitution Hall.  It was really good.  Went with a friend and we stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home.  The walk home was pleasant with a temperature of 50 degrees.

There is always something to do in Washington, DC. Wish you were here to share it with me.

A weekend with Marcus and family in NY

Last Friday I took a day off from work and road the train to see Marcus and Heidi and girls.  I was on the train at 6:30 am and I got to the Albany, NY station about 1:00 pm.  I changed trains at Penn station in NYC.  Most of the trip is along the Hudson River.  These are some pictures I took from the train window.

It has been awhile since I have seen Marc's family.  I had not seen their home since they moved to NY.  We did a lot of hiking.  It is beautiful where they live with lots of lakes and hiking trails close by.  The girls made sure that I a big serving of hugs and lots of laughter.

When we hiked to a waterfall near Lake George, there was this tree trying to grow on solid rock.  It was an example of determination and tenacity. 

On Sunday morning, Marcus and I left the rest of the family to sleep in and we hiked around this wonderful lake that is about five miles from their home.  It took us about an hour and was a great start to the day.  The weather was crisp, but not cold.  

Thanksgiving

I was able to take some time off to spend Thanksgiving in Iowa with Brian and Leila.  The weather was beautiful and the food was great.  It is so nice to see and spend time with the girls.  They showered me with attention and made me feel loved and welcomed.  Leila created a Thanksgiving feast that looked as good as it tasted.  Emily and I managed to find time to slip away and go on a bike ride together.  Brian shared his woodworking projects with me (current and future).

Learning and the Brain Conference

Just returned from Boston where I was attending the Learning and the Brain conference.  This year's conference was titled, Preparing Students for the 21st Century.

Many very well known researchers and writers in the fields of education, learning, and brain research such as Howard Gardner and his theory of multiple intelligences.  It is really fun to be able to attend their presentations and see them in person after having studied their theories in school.

I attended with a friend, Carmelina, and we spent one evening in Little Italy in the North End of Boston.  Saw the Old North Church from Paul Revere fame. Ate dinner in a wonderful little Italian restaurant.  Afterwards waited in line at Mike's Pastries for a memorable mint chocolate chip cannoli. 

I'm getting a little travel weary.  I am home now, but somehow they forgot to put my luggage on the airplane at the Boston airport.  They are shipping it on a later flight, but I will not get it until tomorrow.  I hope it comes first thing in the morning, because I am flying again to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with Brian and family.

Meeting Astronauts!

Tuesday I had an invite to attend the official NASA Astronaut Class Introduction.  Charles Bolden, NASA Administrator, introduced the newest class of astronaut graduates at a live TV event at NASA Headquarters in DC.  A class of middle school students from a local school were also invited.  It was a cool moment when Charles Bolden acknowledged the Einstein Fellows in the audience on live TV.  They showed a short video and then presented the new astronauts and opened it up to questions.  Afterwards, I was bold enough to ask if they would let us get a picture with the new astronauts.

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Technology

This week I traveled with two other Einstein Fellows to Portland Oregon for the Grace Hopper Celebration.

Fellow Einsteins at Grace Hopper.

Fall is beautiful in Portland.

People were lined up around the block and waiting in the rain for one of Portland's famous Voodoo donuts.

Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu

Sec. Chu is 4th from the left.

October 28 I traveled to NASA Goddard with other Einstein Fellows to to listen to a presentation by Steven Chu, Nobel Prize winner in Physics and now Secretary of Energy for the United States of America.  It was important to President Obama that this important position in our government be held by someone that was a scientist first, politician second.  His talk was titled, How Innovation has Changed [and will continue to change] the World. He noted some key discoveries:

Haber-Bosch Process that made it possible to harvest nitrogen in the air for fertilizer and changed the world's ability to feed itself.

Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize for the development of a new disease resistant wheat that is credited for saving a billion people worldwide from starvation .

William Shockley's development of the transistor from the vacuum tubes.

Integrated circuits - optical fibers - wireless communication.

He ended with a plea for continued investment in Research and Development by the US which is currently 9th in the world for annual R&D investment.  We need, "Invented in America, made in America, and sold worldwide."

The week of October 17th

It has been one week since I returned to DC from Idaho.  After being gone for 10 days, I had a lot of work waiting for me.  This post is just a random review of my week at NSF and about.

One of my responsibilities is to maintain a listing of all of the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Sites for my division.  So my first task was to answer about 40 emails from Principle Investigators of REU sites concerning their update information and to then make updates to the NSF website.

I also attended a three hour briefing on Mathematics Common Core Standards and what they mean for NSF.  I talked with Steve Robinson, former Einstein Fellow and now Special Assistant for the White House Domestic Policy Council, about how rural states like Idaho will be able to pay for the Professional Development teachers are going to need as they adopt the new standards.  His suggestion was that districts think about using Title II money to develop Professional Development instead of using it to reduce class size.  He stated that research shows that smaller classroom size does not improve student achievement.  He also encouraged districts to start now on Professional Development, not wait for the 2013 deadline.

Tuesday was a meeting with Einstein Fellows to decide how to proceed on a committee for suggestions to  improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education at NSF.  That was followed by a committee meeting for ideas for NSF to become involved in National Computer Science Week.

It is not all work and no play at NSF.  On Wednesday was my division's picnic.  Because it was rainy, we stayed inside.  Our Division Director has spent a lot of time in Hawaii so we went with a Hawaiian theme with food, music, dress, and dancing.

Me with and fellow Einstein, Ann D.

Co-workers learning to hula.

Thursday was the Einstein Fellows monthly meeting.  We met at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars where Director Kent Hughes lead a discussion on how project based learning could be incorporated into classrooms.  I also learned some beginning basics for using Twitter.

Friday I finished my poster for a Poster Session in the NSF atrium where Program Directors and staff are introduced to all of the Einstein Fellows.

I was a part of a panel discussion for Planning Grants for a Computing Education for the 21st Century solicitation.  I had been frantically reading proposals and writing reviews every free moment for the past week to prepare for the panel discussion.  That evening was Teacher's Night at the Smithsonian.  An evening where they open up one of the museums for teachers to come and eat and drink and check out the many tables where exhibitors displayed their educational materials.

It has been a very busy week, but then, every week is busy here.

A day with Jon's and Anna's families

Tuesday Jon and Charlotte drove up to spend the day with us.  We took the kids on a walk on the Greenbelt along the river.  We make quite a group with 5 adults, 7 kids, a dog, a bike, scooter, stroller, and unicycle. I thank Jon's family for spending his day off with us.  I never get tired of spending time with the kids.

Idaho Council of Teachers of Mathematics

October 5, I flew to Idaho to attend the ICTM conference in Idaho Falls.  I rented a car in Boise and then drove to Idaho Falls.  My surprise was when the economy car I ordered turned out to be a new Ford Mustang.  It has really been fun driving this week.

Notice the snow.  While I was in Idaho Falls, they had their first snow fall of the year.  It snowed about 5 inches before the day was through.  I stayed at my cousin Sharon's house and she fixed a great dinner for me and her daughter, Merrelee's family.  I had such a nice evening laughing and telling stories with them.

While at the math conference, I had the opportunity to present a workshop for teachers. It is a great hands-on lesson on functions that students really enjoy using string and water.