NSTA Conference in San Francisco

Last week I was in San Francisco for the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) conference.  I have never been to the science teachers conference before.  It was so fun. Science I am a math teacher and not a science teacher, many of the sessions were not something that I could use.  Instead, I signed up for the field trip options.  On Thursday, I toured schools in SF that have school yard gardens.

I am becoming more and more convinced of the value of school and community gardens.

Saturday I boarded the Robert G Brownlee, an educational and research vessel on the San Francisco Bay.  We threw out a net and collected samples of the fish, shrimp, and jelly fish.  They talked to us about what we found and the health of the Bay waters.  We also collected a water sample and looked at the plankton and other small animal life with a microscope.  Lastly, we collected a mud sample and using screens and water to see what kind of things we could find.  The scientists talked to us about the history of the Bay and how it has affected the plant and wildlife.

National Laboratories

On March 8 we flew to San Francisco for the National Science Teacher Association (NSTA) conference.  But first, we took a field trip to the Lawrence Livermore National Ignition Facility.  Security is very tight and we were not allowed to take any pictures.  The science that is being done there is amazing and almost looks like science fiction at times.  I was exhausted by the end of the day with trying to gain some kind of understanding of the science that is so beyond my understanding.

NIF is the world's largest and highest-energy laser system.  Its goal is to ignite a self-sustaining nuclear fusion reaction and produce net energy gain -- the same fusion energy process that makes the stars shine and provides the life-giving energy of the sun.

The scientists that work there are very optimistic that fusion energy is very close to being a reality!

We also visited the Lawrence Berkley Laboratory.  Because they do not do research with nuclear weapons, they let us take as many pictures as we wanted.

Again, the science was beyond my understanding.  They do "bend" light beams into a very large circular course that intensifies it and then conducts experiments.

We did smile when among all of the very high tech equipment, we saw the widespread use of "aluminum foil".

Behind the Scene at the Smithsonian

One of the spouses of an Einstein Fellow, Bob King, volunteers several days a week at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum.  Bob arranged for some of us to have a behind the scene tour of the dinosaur section of the museum.  We started our visit early, before the doors were open to the public.  Our guide shared some of his dinosaur expertise with us.

Then he took us downstairs to the special collections where scientists  do research on fossil specimens. 

Sabor toothed tiger skull

Touching a specimen of Wooly Mammoth fur.

Busy Week

On Wednesday I was a part of a panel discussion at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  The topic was Business and Industry Partnerships with Schools.  We were to discuss the role that businesses play in the classroom as the United States faces the challenge of ensuring that students are college and career-ready.  Each of us were introduced and then we took a few minutes to state our views.  The rest of the time was spent with people of the audience asking us questions and giving comments.  I was pretty nervous and got very little sleep the night before as I kept thinking about what I was going to say during the panel discussion.  

It was a good discussion.  I lost my nervousness soon after it started.  The complete session was video recorded.  I will put up a link where you can watch it if you want, as soon as it is posted.   It was a good experience, but it went a little long.  Don't feel bad if you don't watch the whole thing.  I was getting a little bored myself before the end and I was on the panel!!  

NBCLearn field trip

Tuesday the Einstein Fellows went on a field trip to NBCLearn at the NBC Studio.  They wanted to share with us the educational website for NBC.  They have a massive library of news videos and educational clips.  Only catch is, it is not free.  Schools must pay a subscription fee to have access to most of the videos.  They also gave us a tour of the studio. How they put together the news shows was fascinating.

The famous peacock.

This is me on a TV monitor.  They let us sit in the news anchor's chair while they rolled the teleprompter and ran the camera.  This is what I would look like on the Nightly News.