JANUARY 2024
NETWORK NEWS
Happy New Year!
As we reflect on the past year, we want to extend our gratitude for you and your work to engage people in your community in STEM experiences. The NISE Network would not be possible without the amazing work of our partners, and we are excited to continue our work together in 2024 and beyond.
NISE Network Year in Review 2023
When reflecting on this past year, we are filled with gratitude to be able to collaborate with all of you! This past year we continued to increase our capacity as professionals and organizations to engage the public in STEM topics throughout the United States. Our strength as a Network comes from our collaboration as dedicated professionals, and our impact comes from the work we all do to engage our local communities.Thank you to everyone who participates in our community!
Here are some of our favorite Network moments of 2023.
Online Report for the Explore Science: Voyage through the Solar System Kit - Please Submit ASAP!
Reports were due on December 1st, but if you have not yet submitted your kit report please submit it ASAP so we may continue to consider your institution for future opportunities!! All partners receiving physical kits are required to submit an online report, even if you did not use your kit in 2023. You can learn more, preview a PDF and Word Doc template, and find the link to submit completed reports.
Learn more
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
Online Workshop:
Totality or Bust! Partners Talk Planning for the 2024 Total Solar Eclipse
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
2-3pm Eastern
Join us for this online workshop to hear from NISE Network partners on and off the path of totality about their plans for events in 2024.
Learn more and register
2024 Total Solar Eclipse - Monday, April 8, 2024
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be seen in the US from Texas to Maine. States on the path of totality include: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. All of North America will have at least a partial solar eclipse (if skies are clear).
• Compilation of resources: nisenet.org/solareclipse
• Online workshop recording (recorded 9/12)
• Online workshop registration (1/9/24)
PARTNER HIGHLIGHTS
NanoInventum in Spain and Grupo Quark in Mexico – Nano Co-creation Projects Provide Students with Creative and Meaningful Engaging with STEM
There have been a number of international groups who have taken digital resources from the NISE Network’s NanoDays kits and done their own remarkably big things with the science of the super small. For example, NanoDays at the 2015 International Beijing Science Festival and NanoPiccola - a junior academy established in Italy to educate and inspire youth in nanoscience. Among these exemplary programs showing what is possible with great passion and partnership is Nanoinventum in Spain and Grupo Quark (Quark Group) in Mexico.
Learn more
FEATURED ON THE WEBSITE
Talking with Children about Tragic Events in the News
Parents, caregivers, and educators can all play an important role in helping children recover from exposure to tragic events in the news as well as traumatic experiences. Below is a compilation of resources for talking with children about tragic events in the news including war, violence, racism, and natural disasters. Navigating these conversations isn't easy, but these resources can be helpful for both children and adults.
nisenet.org/tragic-events
Meteorites and Asteroids
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx successfully returned to Earth in September 2023 with material from asteroid Bennu. The Psyche mission that launched in October 2023 will visit a metal asteroid. Meanwhile the Lucy spacecraft encountered its first asteroid Dinkinesh in November; over the course of its mission, Lucy will explore the belt of asteroids known as the Jupiter Trojan asteroids.
nisenet.org/asteroids
Solar eclipse resources for planning your 2024 eclipse community engagement event
On Monday, April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will be seen in the US from Texas to Maine. States on the path of totality include: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. All of North America will have at least a partial solar eclipse (if skies are clear).
nisenet.org/solareclipse
COMMUNITY RESOURCES AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
Send Your Name to
Jupiter’s Icy Moon Europa
Join the mission and have your name engraved on NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft as it travels 1.8 billion miles to explore Jupiter’s Moon Europa, an ocean world that may support life. NASA’s Message in a Bottle campaign invites people around the world to add their names.
Learn more
Science Near Me
Science Near Me is a free resource to help the public engage with STEM opportunities. The National Girls Collaborative Project (NGCP), in partnership with Science Near Me, is looking for new partners to share their events and programs through the database. New partners are eligible for a $1,000 stipend to join this initiative.
Learn more
Visitor Studies Association Conference proposals
The session proposal deadline is January 12th, 2024 for the Visitor Studies Association (VSA) Conference taking place July 16-19, 2024, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Learn more
SCIENCE IN THE NEWS
MICRO & NANO NEWS
Nikon’s 2023 Small World annual photomicrography competition winners have been announced for still images as well as movies or digital time-lapse photography taken through the microscope. These images and movies showcase the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope.
NISE Network resources:
• Microscopes and Tools for the Small
GENETICS NEWS
In a landmark decision, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first gene-editing treatment to alleviate human illness. The FDA approved gene therapies for sickle cell disease, a life-threatening blood disorder. Doctors can remove cells from each patient's bone marrow, edit a gene with CRISPR, and then infuse billions of the modified cells back into patients.
NISE Network resources:
• Should We Edit the Genome forum
• Rewriting the Human Genome forum
SPACE NEWS
A rare light spectacle has caused a bit of buzz this year as the Sun is entering its most active period. The phenomena dubbed “Steve” appears closer to the equator than auroras and is characterized by a purple-pink arch accompanied by green, vertical stripes. Steve is visually different from auroras, which are caused by electrically charged particles that glow when they interact with the atmosphere and appear as dancing ribbons of green, blue or red.
NISE Network resources:
NEUROSCIENCE NEWS
According to a neuroscience study by Drexel University, art-making activities such as drawing, coloring, or doodling can activate the reward pathways in the brain, which is known to boost mental health and creativity.
NISE Network resources:
• Brain and Neuroscience resources
ENGINEERING NEWS
Cyborg cockroaches could be the future of earthquake search and rescue. From drivable bionic animals to machines made from muscle, biohybrid robots are on their way to a variety of uses.
NISE Network resources:
• Engineering and robot resources
RADIO WAVES NEWS
The IEEE professional association has recently adopted a new standard called Li-Fi for light fidelity which has opened the door for an era of wireless communication for advanced Wi-Fi technologies. Li-Fi enables Wi-Fi to use light waves instead of radio waves to transmit and receive data.
NISE Network resources:
• Electromagnetic spectrum resources
CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS
The United States Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States. The report includes regional chapters that assess climate risks and an atlas to help Americans anticipate change.
NISE Network resources:
CHEMISTRY & SUSTAINABILITY NEWS
Scientists have developed a way of using polyethylene waste (PE) as a feedstock and converted it into valuable chemicals, via light-driven photocatalysis. Polyethylene is the most widely used plastic in the world including for daily food packaging, shopping bags and reagent bottles.
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
January
- What’s Up Skywatching Tips from NASA
- Winter activities
- National Mentoring Month (January)
- Predictions for the New Year (January 1)
- National Bird Day (January 5)
- National Static Electricity Day (January 9)
- Martin Luther King Day (third Monday in January)
February
- Black History Month / African-American History Month (February) - celebrate people in STEM
- NASA Modern Figures Toolkit
- African Americans in Science and Technology internet resources from the Library of Congress
- NASA Museum & Informal Education Alliance resources (log-in required)
- Celebrating Black Innovators poster from SPIE the international society for optics and photonics
- HistoryMakers ScienceMakers biographies and oral histories of African American scientists and toolkits of hands-on activities connecting to scientists
- NISE Network Racial Justice Resources
- Groundhog Day (February 2)
- Use Exploring Earth: Bear's Shadow activity to make and experiment with shadows
- STEM topics to explore include: signs of spring (animals emerging from hibernation), signs of winter (clear, cold days), and seasons (February 2 lies midway between the winter solstice and the spring equinox)
- NASA Space Place seasons resources
- National Inventors Day (February 11)
- Inspire and encourage young inventors; February 11 is the birthday of of the inventor Thomas Alva Edison
- National Inventors Hall of Fame list of inductees
- International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11)
- World Radio Day (February 13)
- Valentine's Day (February 14)
- Engineers Week (February 18-24)
- Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (February 22)
- National Battery Day (February 18)
- Great Backyard Bird Count (February 16-19)
- Some bird feathers (such as peacock feathers) are iridescent due to nano-sized structures within the feathers; for more about iridescence check out:
- NISE Network butterfly resources
- NISE Network biomimicry resources
- Leap Day (February 29) (every four years)
NATIONAL MEETINGS AND CONFERENCES
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International Symposium on Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST), April 10-12, 2024, Zacateca, Mexico
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Association of Children's Museums InterActivity, May 15-17, 2024, Madison, WI
Learn more -
Visitor Studies Association Conference 2024, July 16-19, 2024, Saint Paul, Minnesota
Learn more -
ASTC Conference, November 11- November 15, 2024, Chicago, Illinois
Learn more -
REVISE InformalScience.org conference calendar
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National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) Conferences