Fwd: The Mountain Science Expo at The NC Arboretum

[Asheville Makers]

Forwarded from the Asheville Makers email address....

We were the highlight of the event last year. 1) Is anyone interested in going again? 2) Any ideas of what to do / bring this year?

Avi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Michelle Pearce" <mpe...@ncarboretum.org>
Date: Nov 12, 2014 1:14 PM
Subject: The Mountain Science Expo at The NC Arboretum
To:
Cc:

Good afternoon,

I am emailing because your organization has been recommended to me as a possible participant in the 2015 Mountain Science Expo. Below are some details about the upcoming event, and some background information.

Mountain Science Expo 2014: Full STEAM Ahead!

Saturday April 11, 2015

Event Time: 10am-5pm

Tabling Time: 9am-5:30pm

What's new this year?
What is Science without Math? What is Engineering with out Technology? What is Art without Science? All of these fields are so interconnected, whether we realize it or not. I'd like to focus on how we use all of these in our everyday lives, and how easy it is to grow into one of these professions just by taking our hobbies to the next level. If kids LOVE video games, let's show them how they can design them. If a millennial is always up to date with the newest technology, let's help them discover a way to turn that interest into a career. Let's show folks who love taking pictures of the seasonal changes how they can help scientists learn more about species migration and phenology.

We will also continue to celebrate the Project EXPLORE students, with 22 groups participating this year in school yard citizen science!

Why should you participate?
Last year's event brought in around 2400 visitors, which means that we have doubled our attendance each year! That's 2400 people who got to learn all about the participating organizations through hands-on demonstrations, interactive media and displays, and talking one-on-one with representatives from those organizations. We would love your help to make this number continue to grow while we spread the word about science in our region.

Our data shows that visitors spent longer amounts of time with us last year, some for 2 or 3 hours. That means we were keeping them engaged and developing connections!

We also had the pleasure of partnering with Buncombe County Libraries again, who helped spread the word about MSE, and science in general, far across the county.

What will we accomplish this year?
This is a community event, and I want you all to have the chance to contribute to our professional community. I want to increase the amount of presenters this year to make the event even more interdisciplinary. The Mountain Science Expo is an official expo of the NC Science Festival so be sure to check their website for more information on this state-wide event, and how we are connecting North Carolina citizens to Science!

The deadline for commitment to the event is January 31, 2015. Please let me know if you can fit us into your calendars! On February 3, 2015 I will send out the Call to Presenters forms.

Thank you so much, and I look forward to seeing you all in April.

--

Michelle Pearce
Youth Education Coordinator
Membership Chair for Environmental Educators of North Carolina
The North Carolina Arboretum
100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way
Asheville, NC  28806
Phone: 828.665.2492 ext. 224
Fax: 828.665.2371

[Steve Altemeier]

Avi, I am interested in helping out with this event, and I will try to give some thought to what we might do.  If others are interested, perhaps we could get together and brainstorm some ideas at one of the Tuesday meetings or another time.  Do you know what we did last year?  Thanks, Steve

[Avi Silverman]

Last year as a "group" we did paper rocket building / launching, but individually we also brought a ton of other stuff. We had a makey-makey based 2player team tetris game, an arduino based tinfoil wrapper touch capacitive synthesizer, a handful of quad-copters (which were flying around taking arial footage) and some other random stuff. I think what made us so popular with folk was all the interactivity.

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[Tom Heck]

We also had the hovercraft and gave demos and rides.

If the group decides to do paper rockets again I'm happy to share my rocket design. I've improved the design so the build uses only half a sheet. This is the same design I've been working on and improving for my work at the LEAF festival. My half sheet design is now well tested. 

I'm hoping I'll be in town for this event. 

Tom Heck

[Kari Richmond]

My son (now 9) loved the hovercraft and rockets, and those seemed to be popular with everybody.  Just a suggestion, but my kiddo is obsessed with marble runs.  He's been wanting to make one forever.  Would it be possible to have some kind of "help us build a marble run with leftover toilet paper tubes" (or working machine of some kind), something that's hands-on, and where the kids can see the working parts?  That's maybe kind of vague, but a starting idea anyway.

[Nicholas Rake]

Kari, that would be awesome. I had a marble drop as a kid and it proved to be one of my favorite toys.