Mark Your Calendar!

I'm putting together a new season of Born to Do Science! Starting in January, we'll be meeting mostly on third Saturdays at 10:00 AM at the Stillwater Public Library in Room 119 (same as before).

These are the dates:

Jan 15, Feb 19, Mar 19, Apr 23, May 21

I do not have specific speakers lined up yet, though I'm working on that, and I'll let you know soon...

(If you are a scientist and would like to talk about your research with kids, please let me know!)

Songs From the Science Frontier is Here!

The new CD is now available! Songs From the Science Frontier contains 12 songs for learners age 8 and up. Most of the songs are based on research of the scientists who have been "Born to Do Science" guest speakers. If you've attended the program, then you've heard me perform them, but you haven't heard them like this! I worked with producer Chris Wiser of the Sugar Free Allstars, and he helped make the songs sound fantastic!

You can sample the songs and purchase CDs and/or downloads via these links:


iTunes
CD Baby
Order a signed copy

Happy listening!

Pre-Order Songs From the Science Frontier

Now taking pre-orders for the new Songs From the Science Frontier CD at www.montyharper.com!

CDs will ship in November. We're working hard on the recording process right now, and the songs are sounding fantastic!

We Did It! Songs From the Science Frontier is In Production!

Many thanks to all my backers and supporters! We passed the $9,000 funding goal on kickstarter.com early Friday morning - a day and a half before the deadline! The last $1K or so just seemed to melt away overnight!

So now I have a CD of science songs to record! Our first studio date is a week from today.

I spent Saturday celebrating with friends and supporters via a live video feed online! It was also my birthday, and as promised, I got a chocolate cake smooshed in my face! I know you are anxious to see that, so here you go...

Songs From the Science Frontier

Howdy, BTDS Friends!

Can you take a few minutes to help me out?

Remember those songs I started each program with over the past two years? I've been polishing them up, and I've got enough to make a really great science CD!

I'm excited about this because it will help bring the science and scientists that you've been enjoying in the live program to many thousands more kids.

I'm planning to record with producer Chris Wiser of the Sugar Free Allstars! He'll help me get a fantastic sound in a pro studio with amazing musicians. We plan to make a CD that families will want to hear over and over again.

All I need is the funding to make it happen!

Please support my fundraiser on Kickstarter.com. You can pledge any amount from $5 on up. (No money changes hands unless and until I reach my goal.) For a pledge of $20 you can pre-order a signed CD, and know that you helped connect more kids with science. Other amounts will get you various other rewards.

If I reach my goal by August 21, which is also my birthday, I'll throw a live online video party for all my backers, at which my wife, Lisa, has promised to smoosh a chocolate cake in my face!

Please check out my three-minute pitch video on kickstarter.com, then consider pledging to support my project.

Please also help spread the word. Below the video are buttons for facebook, twitter, and email that make it easy.

Thanks!!

P.S. Stay tuned for news about the next season of "Born to Do Science!"

P.P.S. Check out this "Born to Do Science" theme song (while available) and let me know what you think!

Super Wheat Follow-Up

Remember our first session this past season, "Super Wheat" with USDA wheat geneticist, Cheryl Baker? Remember she brought little vials of wheat for us to look at and taste? 

I got an email from the Slavens family a while back. They said, "Thank you for giving us the wheat. We planted it and look how much it has grown! Thank you lots! :)"

Recently I received this update: "We have harvested the wheat and hope to get it cleaned, the old fashioned way, with a sheet and some breeze. Our goal is to eventually make some bread! Wish us luck!"

Is that cool, or what? Good luck to you, and let us know how it goes with the bread!

Luminescence Dating

It's way late, but I'm finally posting my report and photos from our last session of the season!

Dr. Regina DeWitt was our guest, and she showed us how luminescence dating works. (See my previous post)

I sang a new song called "Grain of Sand" which explains the process from the sand's point of view. Just to set the mood, and to let our eyes adjust, I sang it in the dark.

Then we all headed into the closet. That's right! See what kind of shenanigans you've been missing? 

There's a large closet in the back of the room. It was the only available space we could make dark enough to see the demonstration Dr. DeWitt had prepared.

So everyone crowded into the closet, and that's when we realized that Dr. DeWitt's hot plate wasn't working and needed to be plugged into a different outlet. I had to scramble around in the dark to figure that one out. Turns out the outlet was near the top of the wall! 

Meanwhile it was getting pretty dicey with all those warm bodies crowded into a small dark space! But we got past it.

Dr. DeWitt heated up some dosimeters on the hot plate. They look like little white pills in the light. In the dark, as they warmed up, we could see them start to glow a nice pale green.

They work the same way as the sand grains Dr. DeWitt uses to date archeological digs. The dosimeter accumulates radiation damage, which basically means electrons are knocked loose and get trapped in flaws in the crystalline structure. (She had irradiated them ahead of time.)

When heated, the trapped electrons gain enough energy to escape and travel back to where they belong. Moving electrons emit light, and that's where the glow comes from.

Once we were all out of the closet, we had plenty to think and talk about. It was a pretty lively group. I'm thinking of starting every BTDS in the closet!

Dr. DeWitt brought a geiger counter in order to show us that many common things are slightly radioactive, such as bananas and nuts.

The kids had fun both during and after the presentation, testing different objects for radioactivity.

Watch for an announcement soon about our planning meeting for the next season of BTDS! If you are a researcher in or near Stillwater, OK, we'd love to have you as our guest scientist. Please write!

Luminescence Dating! Thursday May 20!

Don't miss our last "Born to Do Science" program of the season, this Thursday, May 20, 6:00 PM at the Stillwater Public Library.

No, it's not about amorous fireflies.

Luminescence dating is a way of finding out the age of a geological structure (such as a sand dune or river bed) or an archeological site. It works because grains of minerals in the soil accumulate radiation damage at a steady rate over time. If we hit them with a bit of energy, the damage is repaired, and the grains glow, or luminesce. The amount of light they give off indicates the amount of damage accumulated, which tells us how long they've been buried.

Our guest scientist, Dr. Regina DeWitt, is working on a device that dates sediment in this way, and will be small enough to fit in a shoe box. Why does it need to fit in a shoe box? Because NASA is funding the development of this instrument so that one day it might become part of a Mars Rover! Instruments on the Mars Rovers need to be small so that they can be launched into space and carted around on the surface of Mars.

This is going to be a really cool program! We'll get to play with a geiger counter, see an example of luminescence, talk about Mars, and as always, hear a brand new song.

I hope to see you there!

P. S. If you want to get a head start, here is Dr. Dewitt's webpage on the General Principals of Luminescence Dating.

USA Science and Engineering Festival Theme Song update

A quick update, since many folks have been asking about the USASEF Jingle competition.

Thanks so much to everyone who voted for my song! I heard from a lot of you that you were rooting for me, and I really appreciate it!

Well, all the finalists were deserving, and unfortunately mine did not win.
But congratulations to the winners:
USASEF Jingle Competition Results

I will be performing at the festival, October 23 & 24 in Washington D.C.
Maybe I'll see you there!!

USA Science and Engineering Festival Theme Song

I'm really excited about this, and I wanted to share it with my BTDS friends...

I submitted a song to the USA Science and Engineering Festival theme song competition, and it has been selected as one of seven finalists out of nearly 100 entries!! 

The USASEF is asking people to vote for their favorite finalists online. 

Could you click here, take a few minutes to listen, and if you like my song best, give it your vote? Thanks!!

P.S.

I will be performing at this festival in October, and I'll be singing many of the very songs you got to hear first at BTDS! See the countdown clock at the top right corner of this page? Can you tell I'm excited?

P.P.S.

Don't forget our last meeting of the Spring is May 20! We'll take a break over the Summer and resume sessions in the Fall.

See you soon!