Youth Radio - Topic: Experiments

Celebrating Science On The National Mall

rgee — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:19:45 -0500

“Society gets what it celebrates,” says Larry Bock. “We celebrate Lindsay Lohan, so we get a lot of Lindsay Lohans. But we don’t celebrate scientists and engineers.”

This is the idea that inspired Larry Bock to put together the USA Science and Engineering Festival. It takes place on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on October 23 and 24. Their mission statement reads: “Our mission is to re-invigorate the interest of our nation’s youth in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science gatherings in the United States.”

Bock says that there will be more than 250 exhibits there from more than 750 organizations. “We have 150 professional science organizations, 100 universities, 50 government agencies, 25 Nobel Laureates...” and the list goes on. Previously, Bock was part of organizing a similar science and engineering festival in San Diego, CA. This one, he says, will be 20 times the size of that one.

The common theme uniting the exhibits in the festival is sustainability and renewable energy. “There is more horsepower behind this event because we’re getting the national spectrum, instead of just a local one. There will be virtual reality, surgical robots, as well as groups doing demonstrations with marshmallows and toothpicks,” said Gallant.

The exhibits will spread out beyond the National Mall, and beyond the city limits as well. “We even have 50 satellite events taking place throughout the country on the same weekend. Our goal is for one million people to participate nationwide.”

Gallant described the motivation behind the festival as celebrating science in all forms. “There will be lots of hands-on activities, as well as theater, art, and film all celebrating science. There will be science rappers, comedians, and musicians as well.”

He even mentioned that science celebrities like the Mythbusters and Bill Nye the Science Guy will also be there.

Young Brains from Around the World Collide in San Jose

randrews — Tue, 11 May 2010 19:58:40 -0500

Fixing herniated spines, extracting natural pesticides from plants and synthesizing nanocrystals. These are just a few of the science experiments teenagers conducted to win a trip to San Jose, the site of this year’s Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. It’s the world’s largest science competition for pre-college students – the result of millions of high school students around the world competing in smaller, regional fairs and tinkering with year-long projects that could very well lead to major scientific and technological breakthroughs.

As if the quest for innovation wasn’t enough of a motivation for these teenagers, the $50,000 prize for the top three contestants probably provides an additional boost. In all, the fair gives out nearly $4 million in tuition grants, scholarships, and scientific field-trips.

Youth Radio put a call out to students bound for the fair, asking them to make a short webcam video describing their projects. We also asked them to estimate their chances of winning a grand prize.

The official judging for the competition is currently underway and the announcement of the winners is scheduled for Friday, May 14.

But based on what we’ve seen, Youth Radio has already picked its favorite – Ivan Lazarevich’s “Sandstorm in a Teacup: Patterns in a Vibrating Granular Layer.” Not only does the title of this project reference a popular techno song, but he provides insight into the patterns that appear when sand and other granular surfaces are exposed to vibrations. A theoretical model based on Lazarevich’s observations could help predict where desert sand ends up after being shaken by an earthquake.

Below is remix we made of Lazarevich’s video. OK, so it’s not $50,000 -- but it’s our little show of admiration.

Also watch the videos we received for other projects – all brilliant in their own right.

Previously:

Brains and Beakers: Inventors and Explosions! [Updated!]

caitlin — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 19:14:56 -0600

Now with even more video!
A note on the series:

Welcome to Brains and Beakers, a new Youth Radio series where young people bring science to life.

With support from the National Science Foundation, Youth Radio wants to change the way young people think about science--and scientists. What better way to do that than to make science a media event? Youth Radio joined forces with David Pescovitz from the website Boing Boing and the Institute for the Future to invite a stellar line-up of inventors, engineers, and investigators to our studios in Oakland, Calif. For each segment in the series, our guests provide interactive hands-on demos and then take questions from Youth Radio interviewers.

Brains and Beakers I: Inventors and Explosions

Tom Zimmerman dreamed up the technology behind the Nintendo Power Glove. Now he’s a researcher at IBM, but he also makes bottle rockets and drum machines out of plumbing parts, and he helped create a device that keeps airbags from killing children.

For our first segment [2:13- see player above] Tom talks about being an inventor and his work with IBM's supercomputer.

In this video, Tom demonstrates the scientific principles that took down the Hindenburg. Or to put it another way, he makes things go BOOM!

In our second video, Tom breaks down his electronic drum kit: improved through the use of PVC piping to create an inline drum machine.

In the final part of our discussion, Tom fields a question about scientific ethics, reveals how long it took the Data Glove to become a reality, and more. [1:32]