JUNE 2023
NETWORK NEWS
Summer STEM Fun
The summer months are full of opportunities to engage children and adults in STEM topics and take time to observe the natural world around us. Many of your institutions are already deep into summer camp planning and implementation. Some resources you may find helpful when planning summer public engagement activities are:
Summer camp resources nisenet.org/camps
Sun and sand activities
- Exploring Properties - Heat Transfer
- Exploring Earth: Temperature Mapping
- Nano Ice Cream
- Exploring Products - Nano Sand
- Exploring Products - Kinetic Sand
- Exploring Products - Sunblock
Night sky observations: Take advantage of warmer weather to encourage your audiences to view the night sky nisenet.org/astronomy
Summer reading, book recommendations, and nature journaling nisenet.org/books
UPCOMING EVENTS
Online Workshops
The NISE Network hosts free online workshops as professional development opportunities for our partners to share with and learn from each other. Online workshops take place on select Tuesdays at 2pm-3pm Eastern. View upcoming online workshops at nisenet.org/events
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
2-3pm Eastern
Activating Outdoor Spaces - Pocket Parks, Pollinator Gardens, and More!
During this workshop, we will learn about successful strategies for using your outdoor space to engage meaningfully with audiences of all ages, while also integrating sustainability practices. Presenters will share their tips and experience around creating garden spaces, pocket parks, enhanced trails, revitalized outdoor areas by removing invasive species, and much more. Join us and discover new ways to utilize your outdoor spaces for more effective visitor engagement while also putting sustainability into practice at your museum.
Learn more and register
PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS
Pizza and Planetary Science at Wonder Works Children’s Museum in Oak Park, IL
We recently heard about a very successful event hosted by partners at Wonder Works Children’s Museum that integrated multiple years of NISE Network Explore Science: Earth and Space toolkits into one fun-filled family Space Weekend. . .
Our visitors at the museum tend to be very young (birth to age 8, with the majority falling between 2-6 years old). In an informal setting where their experiences might not always involve an adult, some of the materials can be too advanced for these very young learners. So we approached our Space Weekend as a "takeover event" where we transformed the museum into all things SPACE!
FEATURED ON THE WEBSITE
Changing Brain activities
Try the NISE Network's new set of activities to inspire reflection and conversation about future neurotechnologies. All the new activities include training videos and easily sourced materials.
Learn more
credit: Guillermo Delgado for NISE Network
Making Waves with Radio activities
Try the NISE Network's new set of activities to engage public audiences about radio technologies including Wi-Fi, cell phones, and satellites. Each activity includes a training video and materials in both English and Spanish.
Learn more
Solar eclipse resources
Two major solar eclipses are coming to North America on Saturday, October 14, 2023 and Monday, April 8, 2024. Even if you are not located on the path of totality, people throughout North America will be able to see a partial eclipse. New resources are available and more resources will be added to the website as they become available.
nisenet.org/solareclipse
Asteroid resources
NASA’s OSIRIX-REx mission will return to Earth with a sample collected from the asteroid Bennu on September 24, 2023.
nisenet.org/asteroids
Recorded NISE Network online workshops
View the recordings and resources from past NISE Net online workshops:
- Take A Voyage through the Solar System with the NISE Network (recorded 5/9/23)
- Making Waves with Radio - New Ways to Engage Audiences with the Basics of Modern Communication & Navigation (recorded 4/4/23)
- Changing Brains - New Tools for Brain Awareness Week & Beyond (recorded 3/14/23)
- Kick-Start Your Planning for 2023 and 2024 Solar Eclipse Events
(recorded 10/25/22)
Looking for an easy way to discover resources on the nisenet.org website?
Check out our “Browse by Themes and Topics,” featuring curated collections of hands-on activities and resources by themes and STEM topics: nisenet.org/browse-topic
COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Globe Observer NASA Moon Trees Quest
Participate in this citizen science opportunity from June 21 to September 21, 2023. Take tree height observations with the GLOBE Observer app’s Trees tool of the five tree species whose seeds were included aboard the Apollo 14 spacecraft. Trees cool and moisten our air, fill it with oxygen, store carbon, create shade and habitats for other creatures, anchor the soil and slow the movement of water, and provide food, fuel, and building materials for human activities.
Learn more
Culturally Inclusive Planetary Engagement Workshops
Informal educators are invited to apply to attend an in-person workshop focused on engaging Black and Latinx audiences in planetary science. Stipends up to $300 are available. Upcoming locations in 2023: New Orleans, LA; Mountain View, CA; Miami, Fl; New York NY; Boulder, CO; and Puerto Rico.
Learn more
Interested in one of our exhibitions?
There’s a waiting list for that!
If you are interested in hosting the Nano exhibition, or the Sun, Earth, Universe exhibition, please reach out to Christina Leavell, NISE Network Community Manager, to be added to a waiting list.
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
CHEMISTRY NEWS
Smoke from wildfires can threaten human health, even when the fire is hundreds of miles away. One measure of air quality is the size of the particles; particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller (PM2.5) is small enough that it can travel deep into the lungs. Exposure to PM2.5 from smoke or other air pollution can exacerbate health conditions like asthma and affect lung function. The composition of the wildfire smoke since what is burning and how long it is in the atmosphere affects the chemistry of the smoke and how it affects human health.
NISE Network resources:
SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY NEWS
The Chinese geneticist who shocked the world in 2018 by announcing the creation of the first gene-edited babies is back in the lab after spending time in prison. He has set up a new lab where he's using CRISPR gene-editing technology to come up with a cure for a debilitating genetic disease.
NISE Network resources:
• Building with Biology activities
• Should We Edit the Genome? forum
• Editing Our Evolution: Rewriting the Human Genome forum
SPACE NEWS
New images taken by NASA’s Perseverance rover may show signs of what was once a rollicking river on Mars, one that was deeper and faster-moving than scientists have ever seen evidence for in the past. The river was part of a network of waterways that flowed into Jezero Crater, the area the rover has been exploring since landing more than two years ago
NISE Network resources:
NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
A recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded study found that social safety nets may blunt effects of poverty on children’s mental health. Family income is associated with differences in children’s brain development and mental health, which can in turn affect life outcomes. The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study examined how differences in children’s brain development and mental health vary across states with different costs of living and anti-poverty programs.
NISE Network resources:
• Brain and Neuroscience resources
NANOTECHNOLOGY NEWS
Physicists have directly measured the fluid-like flow of electrons in graphene. It is the first time that scientists have made this measurement at nanometer resolution. The results could help scientists develop new, low-resistance materials that could conduct electricity more efficiently
NISE Network resources:
CLIMATE NEWS
One of the most important actions people can take to address climate change is to talk about it, says Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist at The Nature Conservancy. According to Dr. Hayhoe, positive conversations about the climate can help people connect over shared values including family, community, health, and religion.
NISE Network resources:
• Exploring Earth: Rising Sea activity
• Climate Resiliency forms including flooding
SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
The first draft of a global treaty to curb plastic pollution expected by the end of 2023. More than 170 nations have agreed to develop a global plastic pollution treaty.
NISE Network resources:
• What’s in the Water activity
STEM THROUGHOUT THE YEAR
Discover activity ideas for incorporating current science, engineering, and technology content into events, special programming, holidays, and seasonal activities by visiting: nisenet.org/seasons
June
- What’s Up Skywatching Tips from NASA
- Pride Month (June) - celebrate people in STEM
- Lightning Safety Awareness Week (June)
- Please note that dates of awareness weeks vary by state
- NWS Awareness and Preparedness Calendar
- NWS Awareness Weeks
- National Dairy Month (June)
- International Nature Journaling Week (June 1-7)
- World Environment Day (June 5)
- World Oceans Day (June 8)
- Juneteenth (June 19) - celebrate people in STEM
- Summer Solstice (June 21)
- Solstices and equinoxes provide opportunities for planning quarterly programs related to the Earth, Sun, and Moon (astronomical seasons) or your local environment (meteorological seasons)
- Moon resources
- NASA Space Place seasons resources
- International Women in Engineering Day (June 23)
- National Mosquito Control Awareness Week - Fight the Bite (lJune 18-24)
- Caribbean Mosquito Awareness Week resources
- Should We Engineer the Mosquito? forum
- NISE Network health and medicine resources
- NISE Network genetics resources
- GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper App
- GLOBE Observer Mosquito Habitat Mapper toolkit
- GLOBE Observer Mission Mosquito Larvae Hunters Guide
- Asteroid Day (June 30)
July
- Plastic Free July (July)
- Moon Landing - anniversary of Apollo 11 first step on the Moon (July 20)
- National Ice Cream Day (July 18)
- World Brain Day (July 22)
NATIONAL MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
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Visitor Studies Association Conference, July 11-13 2023, Virtual
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ASTC Conference, October 7-10 2023, Charlotte, NC
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Association of Children's Museums InterActivity, May 15-17, 2024, Madison, WI, sesion proposals due July 31, 2023
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REVISE InformalScience.org conference calendar
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National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conferences