March 15, 2010

SciTech at the Carngie Science Center

Hello everyone, and welcome back from Spring Break! This past weekend, while you were all sleeping in and playing Halo, Ibuki and Leenie were representing CMSS at the Carnegie Science Center's biannual SciTech Days. Super fun!

SciTech is an year-round initiative that features Pittsburgh projects in Biotechnology, IT, Robotics, Advanced Materials Processes, Environmental Technology, Nanotechnology, and Green Technology. The SciTech Days (held in November and again in March) is a week-long event geared towards Middle and High School students in the Pittsburgh area.

Last week's SciTech Days (March 9-13) set aside special "Green Technologies Area," where our exhibit was featured. We put together a few presentations and brought in some toys for the kids to play with -- out endurance motor mount, a model solar panel, and the requisite foam/ fiberglass composite. Anyone who's interested in checking out our display boards can find them propped up somewhere in the High Bay.

See below for pictures!

First day! Clearly, this was after the woman in charge explained to us in three different ways why we couldn't block the exit with our posters...and before she explained to us using the phrases "sharp edges" and "small children" at least four times why we couldn't leave the motor mount on the floor.

Some awards we dug up in the High Bay. Go us!

Ibuki explains the motor mount. Leenie listened carefully in the background so she could repeat his spiel to future visitors and make them believe she knows how a motor works. They were a good tag team.

Day two! By this time, we were experts at not creating a hazardous environment of blocked exits and sharp edges.

Our neighbors during the second day of exhibits. These people were pretty neat -- they create solar-powered art installations. The integration of art and technology makes both disciplines more accessible to artists and techies alike.