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A group of museums is conducting research on informal science institutions and escape rooms experiences. An escape room is an increasingly popular physical adventure game in which players are “locked” in a room and as a team must solve a series of puzzles to “escape” the room. The purpose of this survey is to the gauge the level of interest among the informal science education community in pop-up escape room experiences that would engage visitors in a group problem-solving activity while teaching basic, NGSS-aligned science content. This survey should only take a few minutes to complete and should cause no more [...]

Are you interested in starting a conversation about climate change in your community? On April 18th, NOVA aired its newest climate change documentary, Decoding the Weather Machine. This two hour special takes a deep dive into our climate machine to explain why scientists agree that our climate is changing, how climate change will impact our daily lives, and how we can be resilient—and even thrive—in the face of this enormous change. We are looking for partners across the country that are interested in bringing a screening of Decoding the Weather Machine to their community. NOVA will provide your school or organization [...]

In our most recent family science program, we featured owl pellet dissection. This allowed for hands on science exploration for youth in grades K-5 with a grownup using tools and resources to mimic scientists in the field. Here’s what we did. Program supplies included hand wipes, tweezers, pencils and plastic jars with lids. We ordered barn owl pellets from a science supplies distributor via Amazon. We learned that barn owl populations are on a decline so we limited our program to use 12 pellets, for a total of 12 children plus their adult caregiver. From previous programs, we had [...]

Bring the outdoors into your library! In conjunction with the release of the new 3D IMAX film Backyard Wilderness, HHMI Tangled Bank Studios is offering libraries across the country the opportunity to host a beautiful backyard wilderness exhibit and outreach campaign designed to get kids excited about exploring the outdoors and observing the ecosystems they live in. Click here to find out more and join them for a pre-application webinar on April 24, 2018.

The STAR Net Program at the Space Science Institute’s National Center for Interactive Learning, in partnership with NASA’s Universe of Learning, is proud to announce the following library and museum partner host sites for the Discover Exoplanets exhibition, starting its tour this August: Pueblo City County Public Library and Rawlings News Museum (Pueblo, CO) – Pilot Sites Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum and Children’s Library Discovery Center (Queens, NY) The Library Station and Discovery Center of Springfield (Springfield, MO) Oldham County Public Library and Oldham County Health Department (LaGrange, KY) Sierra Vista Public Library and Henry F. Hauser Museum (Sierra [...]

by Emma Marcucci, Girls STEAM Ahead With NASA Hello NASA@Library community! Over the past year you may have seen information in the Star Net blog or attended a webinar related to resources for “Girls STEAM Ahead with NASA” (GSAWN). We’re contacting organizers from libraries who may have held GSAWN youth events in 2017 to ask you to complete this brief but important survey. We’d like to hear from you even if you did not hold a GSAWN event in 2017, just because we know you were interested in NASA materials and resources. If you did hold any GSAWN events, all the [...]

Guest post by Theresa Schwerin, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies/GLOBE Observer Team [photo above] Children estimate cloud cover through this hands-on, arts activity using construction paper: Estimating Cloud Cover: A Simulation (Credit: The GLOBE Program).  The March STAR Net Webinar series featured NASA resources for library staff to use in their Earth Day programming this spring. If you missed the live event, or would like a refresher, check out the recording of this fast-paced, interactive webinar. It included a presentation on citizen science with NASA’s GLOBE Observer Clouds by Marilé Colón Robles, NASA GLOBE Clouds Team Lead, and Jessica Taylor, NASA Physical [...]