Designing housing that is affordable for city dwellers is challenging enough, even without considering green building standards. However, the National Engineer’s Week Foundation is asking junior high school kids to design energy-efficient urban environments in this year’s Future City competition. Now entering its 18th year, the Future City Competition invites seventh and eighth graders nationwide to create the cities of tomorrow, encouraging their interest in science, technology, engineering and math through hands-on applications.
This year’s challenge, entitled “Providing An Affordable Living Space For People Who Have Lost Their Home Due to a Disaster or Financial Emergency”, will require students to design an energy-efficient city using SimCity 4 Deluxe software and then build a model of their virtual city using recycled materials. Each team is also required to write a research paper that describes the rationale behind their designs, as well as a second narrative that outlines the key features of their city. The registration deadline for this year’s regional and national competitions is October 31, 2009, but interested students can register early in order to obtain an information handbook over the summer. This is a school-based competition, so interested students will need to obtain the support from their local school’s administration. Registration costs are low ($25.00), so schools and students would mainly be responsible for the cost of the SimCity 4 Deluxe software (ranging from $14.99 – $43.99 on Amazon.com, though I assume an academic license might be available) and travel to the competition sites.
Also, former scientists and engineers can volunteer to mentor teams of students as they design their city. This would be a great way for retirees to get involved in a local classroom near home and share all of their expertise! Interested mentors can contact local schools directly to see if there is an interest in the Future City competition, or sign up here.
Some of you have asked to see the video of the Two Cultures event at the NY Academy of Sciences (I was a panelist for the Science and Policy discussion). Two main architects of this event were Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum, authors of Unscientific America, a book on the crisis of scientific illiteracy. Speaking of which, see how YOU stack up against others who’ve taken this brief, basic science literacy quiz.
Here’s a note from Shawn Otto, CEO of Science Debate, and a link to the videos.
On May 9, 2009 we co-organized and co-hosted a conference with our friends at the New York Academy of Sciences marking the 50th anniversary of C.P. Snow’s “Two Cultures” lecture. Snow famously complained of a “gulf of mutual incomprehension between science and the humanities.”
That gulf now exists between science and policymaking, and in an age when the world’s greatest challenges revolve around science and engineering, it must be overcome. This is the focus of our work at Science Debate.
My partners in pushing for the opening of a participatory Technology Assessment agency are involved in the first global citizens dialogue on climate change (this is one example of “public participation” or “citizen input” in science policy): Professor David Guston of Arizona State University and Dr. Richard Sclove, founder of the LOKA Institute. Now, YOU are invited to weigh in via one of seven citizen forums but you’ll need to apply for consideration by July 30th.
Organized globally by The Danish Board of Technology and The Danish Cultural Institute, World Wide Views on Global Warming is the first time citizens around the world will have the opportunity to deliberate among themselves and vote on some of the key questions on climate change and know that their ideas and recommendations will actually have impact; the resulting information in each location around the globe will be provided to that country’s delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15), to be held December 7-18, 2009, in Copenhagen.
On September 26, 2009, day-long citizen deliberations will take place in over 40 countries as part of World Wide Views on Global Warming. Arizona State University is the location for one of seven forums being conducted in the United States, and is being organized by ASU’s Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes. Applications are now being accepted for the demographically reflective group of 100 participants. Interested members of the public can apply easily by filling out a short survey online at cspo.org/wwvapplication, or they may call (480) 727-9010. The deadline for applying is July 30, 2009. (Apply for other locations here.) Selected participants will be notified in mid-August. Participants will receive a stipend to offset their expenses for the day, and lunch will be provided.
Doesn’t it always seem like clocks tick faster during the summer? This summer is already halfway over, and I have been trying to make the most of the warm (and humid!), sunshine-filled weather before it is sweater season once again. One of my favorite outdoor activities is hiking with my husband David, and shown in this photo is one of the many gorges found on the trails of Watkins Glen State Park, in Watkins Glen, NY. There is sometimes no better escape from our technologically-driven universe than spending 1-2 hours among the very best things biology has to offer, like trees and waterfalls.
Nature Rocks, a non-profit organization dedicated to encouraging families to explore nature together, agrees with me. Their webpage is one of the most comprehensive guides to experiencing the outdoors I have found so far. Not only do they have an application that helps users “find nature” by searching their zip code for different types of outdoor activities, but they also have a searchable database of science experiments and activities that are both fun and educational for kids of all ages.
Join Nature Rocks! on Facebook and you can benefit from live user comments and activity suggestions. One activity suggested this week by a Nature Rocks! reader was, “Take your kids on a tour of your neighborhood with a sketchbook in hand so that they can draw their favorite plants and animals.” What a great idea! Not only will they get to spend some time outside, but they will also practice making observations and recording them (and bonus – your refrigerator will get redecorated in the process)! Adults are never too old to join in this kind of fun either; I actually did something similar in my freshman year biology course while visiting a park near my school’s campus, though I was restricted to drawing certain kinds of plants. Though I had gone on several Saturday morning distance runs through this very same park previously, I noticed birds and flowers on this class trip that I had never seen during all of those workouts. It’s amazing what lowering the intensity of your life can do for your observation skills!
Nature Rocks was founded by the Children & Nature Network and ecoAmerica, and has been brought to life through partnerships with The Nature Conservancy, REI, the Flora Family Foundation, and American Camp Association. If you are interested in getting involved in their cause by promoting just how much nature rocks, submit your own ideas (or family memories) for outdoor activities on their Facebook page or contact info@naturerocks.org.
GOOO Dr. Ohab! You’ve seen his first-person accounts of citizen science projects, right here on Science Cheerleader. His day job, as host of Armed with Science, just nabbed this rave review:
Armed with Science, originates from the Pentagon and is hosted by John Ohab, an emerging media strategist for the Department of Defense and a PhD in neuroscience. Ohab interviews scientists who work with the military on everything from nantechnology to medicine to psychology. The focus is how scientific disciplines apply to military applications, but the content of this well-produced show ought to interest practically anyone. The approach is straight news and the format is short, just 30 minutes. If you listen to the live webcast (2 p.m. ET), you can email or tweet your questions and they will be answered live by Ohab’s guest. The show is archived so you can listen whenever you like.
Ode to the OTA from Occam: (I particularly appreciate the line about “public input”.)
Around 1599 Shakespeare penned “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day,” to an unnamed lover. As I believe that imitation is the sincerest form of laziness – and in recognition of the Science Cheerleader’s tireless efforts to get a 21st century version of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment opened – I have taken the liberty of adapting this poem to my would-be lover, the OTA (but I’m only getting fresh if one of these scientists is chairing it, might I add. And only if the sexy congressional physicist Vern Ehlers is involved somehow. Dapper hat, Vern!) I could go into several reasons why a revamped, participatory OTA is needed, but here may be the most salient, and maybe you’ve seen it on this site already: a higher percentage of Tennessee Titans cheerleaders have formal science training than do members of congress.
Oh OTA, shall I compare thee…
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou shine year round yet do not give cancer
Summer proceeds with no care, come what may
The report summarized yesterday’s hearing of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. The hearing focused on that age-old question of how to find ways to attract more female science students.
The fact that women are underrepresented in a number of STEM fields shows itself in the proportions of degrees granted to each gender. In 2006, women earned 58 percent of all bachelor’s degrees, but only 20 percent of computer science bachelor’s degrees, 21 percent of physics degrees and 20 percent of engineering degrees, according to data from the National Science Foundation.
Why should women care about this? Rep. Vern Elhers (a republican scientist –that’s right, they exist), summed it up nicely:
“The jobs of the future are going to require of workers a basic understanding of the principles of math and science. If we do not persuade women to pursue these fields, they are already [risking] cutting themselves out of a great job future,” said Rep. Vernon Ehlers (R-MI).
What we’re talking about here are jobs in physics and engineering. Let’s not dismiss the other science areas where women outnumber men:
A recent National Science Foundation report found that women hold more than half of science and technology degrees, with women earning 77 percent of psychology degrees, 62 percent of biological sciences degrees, and 54 percent of social sciences degrees.
This should help increase our knowledge about women’s health. And, in doing the math (not my strongest subject, I am a female after all) I’m thinking those women psychologists are counseling quite a few male engineers and physicists, no? And why aren’t the guys holding conferences to find ways to get more boys interested in psychology and social sciences?
Let’s see where this bifurcationstarted, shall we? (more…)
On Saturday, July 11, the Pentagon Force Protection Agency (PFPA), the Defense Agency responsible for protecting the Pentagon, conducted an operational response test to a simulated outdoor airborne biological attack on the Pentagon grounds. The study consisted of the release of a harmless gardening powder into the Pentagon parking area, where nearly 100 citizen volunteers were positioned, followed by subsequent decontamination and surface sampling of the volunteers. The results will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of various emergency personnel and guide future operational responses to attacks on the Pentagon.
Best of all, Pentagon security relaxed its usual restrictions on photography and permitted media to film virtually all aspects of the operation. I had an opportunity to interview various subject matter experts, including Mr. Paul Benda and Dr. Christina Murata, Director and Deputy Director of the Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, Explosives Directorate at the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, as well as some of the volunteers for a SciCheer video report.
If you’re interested in learning more about the operational response test, check out “Armed with Science”, the Defense Department’s weekly science podcast, this Wednesday at 2pm ET on Pentagon Web Radio. I’ll be interviewing Mr. Benda and Dr. Murata live, and anyone can submit questions before or during the show by posting to the Armed with Science podcast or the Twitter page.
Proteus Gowanus is calling all citizen scientists in the area to help them map out the distribution of crickets and katydids throughout the five boroughs of New York City on September 11, 2009 (rain date: September 12, 2009) from dusk to 1:00 am. Crickets and katydids, like many of the other natural creatures I have blogged about in the past, are part of urban ecosystems, but are fading fast as their resources disappear. Creating a distribution map of their locations through New York City will speak volumes about the types of habitats needed to sustain their survival.
Very little training is required to discern a cricket call versus that of a katydid, but the organizers will be providing a brief online training for participants prior to the crawl, as well as in-person demonstrations at the headquarters before the crawl begins. Throughout the evening, volunteers would listen for the calls of crickets and katydids and document their observations with pencil and paper. (Or, those citizen scientists that are more technically saavy than I am can ditch their pencil and paper and submit their findings via text messaging for real-time analyses at Cricket Crawl headquarters.)
Signing up for the crawl is easy! Just e-mail cricket_crawl@yahoo.com for more details. Also, if you are interested in volunteering beyond just recording the calls of crickets, you can play a larger role in the organization of Cricket Crawl by creating a Cricket Crawl website, Facebook page, or a Twitter network. And for those citizen scientists with an artistic side, Proteus Gowanus is also looking for artists to create pieces in connection with the crawl that could be posted in an online gallery. Interested artists should e-mail info@proteusgowanus.com for more details.
PROJECT SNAPSHOT:
Topics: crickets, urban ecosystems
Location: at home or close to home, if you live in NYC
Duration: one starry night, from dusk to 1 am
Cost: free or low cost
Gear: pencil and paper, and/or a phone with text messaging capability
Sarah’s cut the clutter to help us recycle old cell phones and computers. Here’s the newly married Sarah:
I recently switched cell phone providers, and my old cell phone is currently residing in the junk drawer of my kitchen. A mostly broken laptop from my undergraduate years takes up valuable space in my bedroom closet. (I won’t even get into the boxes in our attic that my husband has dedicated to old electronics and wires…) But we are not alone – the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that over 500 million cell phones alone collect dust in desk drawers or other storage spots around our homes! Even worse, some Americans clear out their clutter by simply throwing these items away, sending them (and the toxins they are made out of, like lead and arsenic) straight to landfills and into our soil and drinking water.
For those readers who missed spring cleaning season this year, as I did, I suggest that this week’s citizen science task should be recycling these electronic items properly. Many websites out there will even pay you to recycle! I’ve done some homework to help you out:
Gazelle is the most comprehensive website I have found in my research. This website accepts everything from laptop computers to old graphing calculators. Though they do not offer a check for every single gadget you could send, most items yield money back ranging from $11 – $200, and any electronic item can be recycled via a postage-paid box regardless of whether or not it still has value. A search engine on their site allows the user to input items they have to recycle, assess their condition, and receive reimbursement amounts. I found this site incredibly easy to use.
GreenPhone also offers recycling for money, but this site is for cell phones exclusively. Much like Gazelle’s webpage, anyone can search for a free quote for their particular cell phone model and mail it in using a box with pre-paid postage. However, this website will not recycle phones that do not have a market value. Instead, visit their sister site, CollectiveGood, which collects donated cell phones for charitable causes, or visit any local Staples stores to find donation bins for charities in your area.
You can also donate your cell phone to Cell Phones for Soldiers. This charity website receives the proceeds from recycling old cell phones and uses the money for buying calling cards for soldiers overseas.
PetSmart has a Recycle for Life campaign that allows users to either recycle their own cell phones and ink-jet cartridges or purchase those that have been recycled already. For everything donated, PetSmart will receive $2-$15 towards caring for homeless pets, and for everything purchased a $2-$5 donation.
Craigslist can be a great way to sell items that are still in good, working condition, though it is important to be safe when making transactions. One advantage to using this website is that you can set your own values for the items you are selling, ensuring that you recover more of your initial costs.
Happy recycling!
PROJECT SNAPSHOT:
Topics: recycling, electronics
Location: Your closets and drawers
Duration: Periodically
Cost: Free – or you may even make some extra cash!
