Click here to learn a little more about wind energy, in less than four minutes.

Special thanks to the National Science Foundation, Discover Magazine, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for sponsoring a multi-year series of Capitol Hill briefings to examine  the science and related policies paving the “Road to the New Energy Economy.”

Science Cheerleader and Pop Warner Little Scholars are national partners in an effort to bring science to 100,000 youth cheerleaders. Several Science Cheerleaders were keynote speakers at recent Pop Warner Scholars Banquets. SciCheer Thera who is a space systems electrical engineer and Golden State Warriors cheerleader, addressed hundreds of kids in Reno, NV.
Here’s a little look into her experience there”

This Spring,  I had the pleasure of being the keynote speaker at the Scholar Banquet for the Northwest Region of Pop Warner! I shared a little bit about my life growing up, how my parents’ upbringing helped me stay motivated in life, how hard work and persistence pay off and encouraged the students to be confident in being themselves. I really wanted to set a good example because I worked through those hard times.

After the event, I had several students and parents come up to me to take a few pictures and talk about my message to the kids.

One of my main goals in life is to be a positive role model to others and I’m so thankful that Science Cheerleader has given me this opportunity. The highlight of my night was meeting a young cheerleader who said she recognized me from a game and that she wanted to be Warrior Girl in the future. It was also her 15th birthday that day and I think our 1-on-1 talk made her feel even more confident in what she wanted to do with her future and motivated her to continue doing well in school. Perhaps she’ll even consider a future in science!

As part of our ongoing national partnership with Pop Warner Little Scholars, Inc., the Science Cheerleaders will help youth cheerleaders and football players across the country collect and analyze microbes through mid August. Some of their samples will be sent to the International Space Station.

The Science Cheerleaders have already collected microbes at the Sacramento Kings, Orlando Magic, San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia Phillies games with more exciting venues to follow. And now, we’re setting our sights on Pop Warner!

The first 50 Pop Warner teams to sign up, from unique zip codes, will get to join our science team, and collect DNA from their environment! The microbial DNA in the sample will be sequenced, and combined with thousands of other samples to help map out the microbial diversity of the places we go and the things we bring with us. Participants will receive a shoe and phone sampling kit along with instructions.

Pop Warner cheer and football teams can sign up by July 10 simply by emailing Darlene@SciStarter.com with the team name, city/state and a point of contact.

At least one team’s samples will be selected to fly on the International Space Station, where we will look at how near zero gravity affects its growth!!

Project MERCCURI is a collaboration of UC Davis / microBEnet with the Science Cheerleaders, Space Florida, Nanoracks, NASA, and SciStarter. There are three components to the project:

1) Space Station Microbiome. Collecting microbial swab samples from the International Space Station (ISS) and examining the microbial communities therein (via 16S sequencing)

2) Swabbing Sports and Space Events. Collecting swab samples around the country at sporting and other public events from cell phones, shoes, and various surfaces (e.g. keyboards, screens, railings etc.) These will be used for comparison to the ISS samples and for a look at microbial biogeography across a national scale. In collaboration with Jack Gilbert at the Earth Microbiome Project and the Science Cheerleaders who will be organizing and leading the sampling events.

3) Microbial Playoffs. A microbial growth competition on the ISS. A subset of samples collected at public events will be cultured at UC Davis and the “best” microbe from each environment will be sent to the ISS for a “microbial playoffs” competition. A duplicate of this experiment will be conducted on earth and the results compared. Details here.

Pop Warner is once again looking for outstanding kids from around the country to act as Youth Presenters at the 2013 Pop Warner Scholastic Banquet, taking place this year on May 25th at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston’s Back Bay District.

MORE INFO: All-American Scholar Presenters Information+

The 2013 Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens have a brainy squad packed with Science Cheerleaders. They also have the only stunt team in the NFL so they have male cheerleaders! Here’s one: Tony is also a Science Communicator.

OK, Tony, why did you try out to be a professional cheerleader?
I loved cheerleading in college. The Baltimore Ravens are the only team with a coed squad and I wanted to make sure I was a part of that!

How do the qualities that make/made you a great cheerleader benefit you as a science communicator?
As a communications professional, cheerleading has helped me with my confidence and has made me much more comfortable being in front of large groups of people. I give many speeches and presentations to groups.

Please describe your day job.
I work for the world’s largest vitamin supplier, DSM. I think my job is important because a lot of people don’t understand what good nutrition is and don’t understand the science behind what they are putting into their bodies. My job is to make them aware of such things.

Best cheerleading experience?
Cheerleading at the Super Bowl! I was one of the captains of the stunt team.  The entire team did not travel to the Super Bowl…about half did. I actually got to lead the team out of the tunnel (see attached picture).  THAT was the best moment of my cheerleading career.

Best science-related experience?
Traveling to China with Dr. Oz and his family to execute a brain health media campaign.

What’s one thing people might find especially surprising about you?
Maybe my age. There aren’t many 32 year old male cheerleaders.

Apart from work and cheering, what are some of your favorite activities?
I love video production. Creating a great video is a very satisfying experience for me.

What are your plans for the future?
I plan on being a part of the Baltimore Ravens while continuing to rise at DSM.

Why do you want to be a Science Cheerleader?
I want to help raise awareness of the Science Cheerleaders. I want people to know who we are and what we stand for.

On April 25, 2013, Project MERCCURI team members were joined by Philly volunteers to help engage hundreds of Phillies fans in our citizen science project to compare microbes on Earth to microbes in space. This event was part of the Philadelphia Science Festival.
Thanks, Philly!!
Learn how to get involved in Project MERCCURI here.

Learn how you can get involved in our research project to compare microbes on Earth to microbes on the International Space Station!

The Science Cheerleaders, in partnership with SciStarter and UC Davis, conducted our first large-scale public microbial sampling event for Project MERCCURI (a.k.a. Microbes in Spaaaace!) at the San Antonio Spurs game on April 12! Around 330 teachers from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) conference bought tickets to the game. After the game many of them came down on the court to take photos, shoot baskets and sample the microbes on their cell phones and shoes. We also took a number of surface samples from around the court for our “microbial playoffs” project. We gave away stuffed microbes, t-shirts, mission patches and hundreds of information fliers. And now…it’s time to analyze and share the findings. One lucky sample is heading to the International Space Station!

We’ve already collected microbes from the Sacramento Kings stadium, the Orlando Magic Stadium, Buzz Aldrin’s shoes and other awesome locations with hundreds of citizen scientists.

Here’s where we will be collecting microbes next!
Tonight: Yuri’s Night in New York City
April 20: Philadelphia Science Festival
April 25: Phillies game! (Pittsburgh Pirates vs the Phillies!)
April 27: Atlanta Girl Scouts STEM gala!
Follow along on Twitter: #spacemicrobes @scistarter @scicheer or on Facebook: Science Cheerleader and SciStarter