Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Don't Stress Me Out!

Don't miss the next exciting "Born to Do Science" Café!! Tuesday December 2 at 6:30 in the hastings coffee shop here in Stillwater, OK. We are the only science café in the world (as far as I know) catering to kids and families.

Dr. Jennifer Byrd-Craven will speak about her research into how friendships can influence stress.

I met with Dr. Byrd-Craven the other day to plan our session, and this promises to be a lot of fun. We will set up a mock study and give our audience members the experience of becoming experimental subjects! (Don't worry, it won't stress you out too much to participate!)

Please be there if you can, and please tell and/or bring a friend! We make a conscious effort to keep these sessions fun and informative both for adults and kids in second grade and up. 

This is our last scheduled café for the Fall season. Watch for info on the Spring season coming soon, and keep your first Tuesdays open!


Tuesday, November 25, 2008

The Microbe Hunter

Howdy Friends,

On November 4 we had a great café with Dr. Mostafa Elshahed, "The Microbe Hunter." I kicked it off with a brand new song using the same title.

I gave a three minute summary of Dr. Elshahed's research. Then we passed around some bacteria cultures for everyone to look at, and I wrote down a bunch of questions from the audience.

We spent the bulk of the time answering and discussing questions about bacteria, and about how Dr. Elshahed identifies and isolates new species. Here are a few photos...

Examining a bacterial culture:

Dr. Elshahed:

Me, in the foreground, taking questions:
Answering questions:

These kids are lined up to see...

Bacteria under a digital microscope, thanks to our friend Dr. Bruce Ackerson, shown here setting things up.