APRIL 2024
NETWORK NEWS
2024 Total Solar Eclipse - Monday, April 8, 2024
Best wishes for clear skies!
Wherever you are on Monday, April 8, 2024 we send our best wishes for clear skies and successful public engagement in this special event. You can find our compilation of solar eclipse public engagement resources:
nisenet.org/solareclipse
Get to know the NISE Network overview video
We have just produced a new 4-minute video providing a brief overview of the National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE Network) featuring our national and local impact, innovative learning experiences, professional development, commitment to equity and inclusion, and how to get involved.
Watch now
Association of Children's Museums InterActivity Conference 2024
We are looking forward to seeing many NISE Network partners at this year’s conference May 15-17, 2024 in Madison, Wisconsin. If you are attending, please stop by our booth in the exhibit hall and check out some of the NISE Network related sessions.
nisenet.org/acm2024
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
Wildfires & Air Quality - Providing a Relevant Portal to Get Audiences Invested in the Conversation
Tuesday, April 30, 2024
2-3pm Eastern
During this online workshop we will hear from partners engaging audiences of all ages in Earth and climate science through activities that take a closer look at the scientific and societal impacts of wildfires. Learn how to use activities from the NISE Network, NASA, and others to demonstrate the connection between global issues of climate and evolving fire seasons. Presenters will discuss strategies for making content relevant and approachable, while creating a safe space for important conversations around climate resilience to transpire. Come hear how to increase interest in your community and empower the public to take action.
Learn more and register
• Find Your Place in Space - Engaging the Artemis Generation with Activities, Apps and More
Tuesday, May 7, 2024
2-3pm Eastern
Join us for a discussion about all things Artemis and the Moon! Get the latest news regarding the Artemis II mission from Dr. Caitlin Ahrens, Postdoctoral Fellow at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She will walk us through some of the exciting challenges that the Artemis II mission will face. Learn about educational materials available from NASA to help audiences identify with the Artemis generation and find their place in space. In addition, we will also talk about the NISE Network’s Voyage through the Solar System kit as well as the apps DIY Sun Science and DIY Solar System.
Learn more and register
• Futures Thinking - Exploring Ideas and Developing Skills to Shape Our World
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
2-3pm Eastern
Join us as we share an introduction to the key ideas of futures thinking and resources for integrating this approach into your STEM engagement efforts. By exploring a diversity of values and orientations to the future, community members can work together to envision and shape the future we want to live in.
Learn more and register
PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS
Montana State University Celebrates World Quantum Day 2024
Partners at Montana State University (MSU) in Bozeman, MT, are excited to celebrate their first World Quantum Day! If you are not familiar, World Quantum Day is an annual celebration promoting public awareness and understanding of quantum science and technology around the world. Celebrated on April 14th each year (a reference to 4.14, the rounded first digits of German physicist Max Planck; Planck’s constant) since 2021, the event has been helping audiences better understand the science of subatomic particles and the critical role of such studies in everyday technologies like LED monitors, the inner workings of smartphones, GPS, and much more.
Learn more
FEATURED ON THE WEBSITE
Online Workshop Recording:
Practices, Principles, and Programming for Engaging Blind and Low Vision Audiences
During this online workshop, we heard from experts in the field who are striving to create more equitable experiences with Earth and space programming for blind and low vision audiences. The group discussed best practices, their own unique experiences, and shared a variety of the tools available for those interested in pursuing this work and enhancing experiences for all participants. (recorded on 3-12-24)
Learn more
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
Protect and store your solar viewing glasses
Store your solar viewing glasses safely to use again in the future; you don't have to wait for a solar eclipse to use your glasses to view the Sun! STARnet has a fun activity where you can make a protective case for your solar-viewing Glasses, available in both English and Spanish.
Partner tip: Churro bags fit solar eclipse glasses well!
Synthesis Project Fellowships from Children's Museum of Pittsburgh
This Fellowship program is a chance to join a national project to learn about how informal STEM organizations are engaging with anti-racism, anti-ableism, and equity work. Open to staff from informal STEM education organizations who identify as Black, Brown, and/or a person with a disability; stipends of $2,000.
Learn more
The State of Girls in STEM Report
National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP) held a meeting to bring together thought leaders for a candid conversation on the persistent issues facing girls and women in STEM. NGCP has produced a new report containing five recommendations for action.
Learn more
National Nanotechnology Initiative 20th Anniversary Symposium
Videos, pictures, and other materials from the March symposium are now available.
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.
Contact us
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
NANOTECHNOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
To prevent traumatic brain injuries, a new lightweight foam material could absorb impacts. The new foam material made from carbon nanotubes can dissipate an enormous amount of rotational kinetic energy from an impact. And as a helmet lining material, it could mitigate, or even prevent, traumatic brain injuries by weakening rotational kinetic energy before it reaches the brain.
NISE Network resources:
• Brain and neuroscience resources
GENETICS NEWS
Scientists take a step closer to resurrecting the woolly mammoth. A biotech company that hopes to resurrect extinct species said Wednesday that it has reached an important milestone: the creation of a long-sought kind of stem cell for the closest living relative of the woolly mammoth.
NISE Network resources:
SPACE & RADIO NEWS
Solar prominences may be visible on the Sun during the April 8 total solar eclipse during totality in North America, because the Sun is likely at the peak of its 11-year solar cycle, known as solar maximum.
NISE Network resources:
NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
Early experiments with neural implants have a handful of companies racing to develop this futuristic Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) health technology that allows people to communicate by translating neural signals into text and speech.
NISE Network resources:
• Brain and Neuroscience resources
CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
A recent article in Nature examines predicted sea level rise and flooding along US coastal cities which may be exacerbated by subsidence, the shrinking of coastal land areas.The study includes maps and predictions of impacts in 32 major US coastal cities.
NISE Network resources:
QUANTUM NEWS
Researchers find first experimental evidence for a graviton-like particle in a quantum material. The team presented the first experimental evidence of collective excitations with spin called chiral graviton modes (CGMs) in a semiconducting material.
Learn more
NISE Network resources:
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
April
- What’s Up Skywatching Tips from NASA
NanoDays (March 30-April 7) - Citizen Science Month (April)
- National Kite Month (April)
- Global Astronomy Month (April)
- Mathematics and Statistics Awareness Month (April)
- National Arab American Heritage Month (April) - celebrate people in STEM
- National Public Health Week (first week in April) and World Health Day (April 7)
- International Dark Sky Week (first week of April)
- Star Trek First Contact Day (April 5)
- Solar Eclipse (April 8, 2024)
- Find Your Place in Space Week (April 6-13))
- Yuri's Night (April 12)
- National Robotics Week / RoboWeek (second week in April)
- World Quantum Day (April 14)
- World Art Day (April 15)
- Earth Day (April 22) and National Environmental Education Week
- DNA Day (April 25)
May
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Month (May)
- National Physical Fitness and Sports Month (May)
- Black Hole Week (May 6-10, 2024)
- May the Fourth Be With You - Star Wars Day (May 4)
- Air Quality Awareness Week (first week of May)
- National Children’s Book Week (May 6-12)
- International Day of Planetariums (May 7)
- International Day of Light (May 16)
- National Public Works Week (mid-May)
- International Museum Day (May 18)
- Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) (May 16, 2024)
- National Paper Airplane Day (May 26)
NATIONAL MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
International Symposium on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST), April 10-12, 2024, Zacateca, Mexico
- Association of Children's Museums (ACM) InterActivity, May 15-17, 2024, Madison, Wisconsin
Learn more - Visitor Studies Association (VSA) Conference 2024, July 16-19, 2024, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Learn more - ASTC Conference, September 27 - October 1, 2024, Chicago, Illinois
Learn more REVISE InformalScience.org conference calendar
National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conferences