When you’re looking up at the solar eclipse on August 21 (wearing appropriate eye protection, of course), you might also be wondering: What else is out there? Black holes, dark energy, life forms? Are we really alone in the universe? This is one of the great unanswered questions for scientists, which is why it’s in […]
We are pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation has awarded us a two-year, $500,000 exploratory grant to develop, test, and evaluate a citizen science program that engages youth to investigate energy issues through scientific inquiry wi…
This series details the eclipse-chasing exploits of our President and CEO, Chad Dorsey, as he heads down to Tennessee on a quest for the total solar eclipse. See the whole series. I. Packing—and recalling. As the suitcases start to fill and the lists of remaining to-dos become gradually shorter, the actual fact seems increasingly hard to […]
In his spare time, Saul Amster likes to program. He’s currently working on a project to turn a tablet into a magic mirror. Yes, like Snow White’s evil stepmother (“Mirror, mirror on the wall…”), except imagine asking the mirror for the day’s forecast or the score of last night’s game. “Programming is an interesting hobby,” […]
How can you make a cardboard owl that flaps its wings? Or a paper flower that blooms? With funding from the National Science Foundation, we are working with the University of Colorado’s Craft Technology Lab and the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco to study and enhance the engineering education potential of Paper Mechatronics, an […]
Before interning with senior scientist Charles Xie this summer, Maya Haigis had no idea how many solar panel manufacturers there are—“There’s a ton!” A data science major at the University of Rochester, Maya put her analytic skills to work at the Concord Consortium collecting data on solar panels (dimensions, weight, maximum wattage, etc.) and designed […]
Earthquakes occur worldwide daily, and their aftereffects vary widely, from minimal to devastating. From California to the Mediterranean, some communities live with the threat and consequences of earthquakes and their aftershocks on a regular basis. Understanding what causes an earthquake is not easy. How is it possible to visualize monumental slabs of Earth moving? And […]
In June, Professor Silvia Wen-Yu Lee and her team at the National Changhua University of Education in Central Taiwan offered a 10-hour modeling curriculum to approximately 100 seventh grade students. Students used a new Chinese language version of SageModeler to model the relationship between marine biology and human activity in a unit about environmental conservation. […]
Breeding virtual dragons is all in a day’s work in biology classrooms using Geniverse, our free, web-based genetics software. Although Geniverse is a game-like environment, it’s far more than child’s play. Indeed, students dive into genetics on a quest to heal a beloved dragon. Students use a model species (drakes) to explore the fundamental mechanisms […]
Did you know that while dragons and their model species drakes are fictional and fanciful, the genetics of these virtual Geniverse creatures is based firmly on the real-world genetics of model organisms? The drake genes and traits have been carefully compiled from the actual genes and associated traits of the anole lizard, mouse, fruit fly, […]