Kids learn about electronics by combining fun pieces from a kit, creating circuits.
Today I checked out a truly amazing event! Expo Day capped off the week-long San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering (formerly known as the San Diego Science Festival), and brought out thousands of families and kids, eager to learn about science. STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education, was Expo Day’s principal focus. The seventh annual event nearly burst the seams of downtown’s big Petco Park stadium. There were so many cool exhibits, so much stuff to see, I only managed to experience about half of it! My poor old brain nearly exploded!
Here is a bit of what I saw!
Exhibitor map for the huge Expo Day, concluding event of the San Diego Festival for Science and Engineering.Lots of folks inside Petco Park (baseball stadium of the San Diego Padres) learn about science.This kid is way more interested in a map to cool science stuff than boring bags of cotton candy!A robot was moving mysteriously about, amusing people who were just walking along the concourse.Group demonstrates the structure of some common molecules.The STEM event focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education.Investigating organisms one might find in a mud flat.This balloon soon rose on a column of air and floated out of the tube!Young inventors assemble unique creations using all sorts of ordinary materials.Understanding genetic attributes using Boolean logic. Sounds complicated!Youth would attempt to break a Guinness World Record at Second Hour of Code mass coding event led by a Microsoft professional.I’ve never seen so many hands on experiments in one place!Don’t mess with this guy. He’s a super cool scientist dude!Kids test out non-Newtonian fluids which seem to harden like rubber when struck.Young scientific explorers are shown how to build their own spectroscope! And to think I was confounded by my Etch A Sketch!Test your own mental cognition and speak these colors really fast for yourself!Oh, man! Check this weird elephant out! I love optical illusions!This fancy lab aquarium acts as a flume, used to test the motion of fish and their muscular development.Pointing out a butterfly in a carefully classified collection.Wow! These youngsters are building DNA models! That’s way beyond me!Learning how smoking exposes people to all sorts of toxic chemicals.Girl learns about gyroscopes and angular momentum with a spinning bicycle tire.Some students built cool models of futuristic cities.Awesome robots were all over the place!People were jumping about as this robot dashed about scooping stuff up.This robot participates in the Lego League, trying to score points on an unusual course.This is a mechanical, computerized Rubik’s Cube solver that detects color.Looking down into Petco Park’s Power Alley, where more STEM exhibits were located.Lots of animal life on display included this beautiful long-nosed snake.Lady demonstrates how bio fuels are refined using filtration.Christmas lights helped to teach about energy conservation.Tens of thousands turned out for the big San Diego Festival of Science and Engineering Expo Day.Many businesses were showing their products, discoveries and technological advances.AirZooka vortex generator shoots circular pulse of air at the shimmer wall!This automated machine helps prepare lab samples in medical facilities.Kids left notes on a wall with their bright ideas.Planting some tomato seeds, to watch them sprout and grow at home!More kids making complex molecules with colored marshmallows! I guess they’ll be future scientists!Some art was being created to accompany all the science and technology stuff.This guy uses electromagnetism to launch cans skyward and splatter cucumbers!Petco’s sunny Park at the Park was jammed with families enthused by education.Demonstrating maglev (magnetic levitation) using eddy currents.Young people write down what they like about science!Young astronomers duplicate the colors of an enhanced surface image of asteroid Vesta.This NASA inflatable is the actual size of the Curiosity rover now on Mars.Everyone is fascinated by a cool NASA photograph of the surface of Mars.A member of the next generation lays his hands on our planet.
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Activist at EarthFair fights the Keystone Pipeline.
I couldn’t resist heading over to EarthFair today. What’s EarthFair? It’s a gigantic annual event that celebrates Earth Day in Balboa Park!
Put on by San Diego EarthWorks, this year’s EarthFair featured more than 300 exhibitors, promoting pro-environment concepts, policies, programs, business and education. The event is billed as a big tent celebration, and so the multitude of participants often seem an unlikely hodgepodge. From more traditional viewpoints, to those that are truly radical, all sorts of ideas and visions are expressed. It’s a colorful, thought-provoking and entertaining event with endless photographic opportunities!
Here are some pics!
Old objects reused to create art and jewelry.Learning to make yarn from plastic bags.Crafts at EarthFair include tennis racket mirrors.Kids have fun with great big bubbles.Costumed characters greet a child at EarthFair.Booth in Balboa Park promotes camping nude.Hemp enthusiasts check out wares at EarthFair.Meat eaters enjoy barbeque for Earth Day.1912 Baker Electric Car fitted with a solar panel!Kids learn how to set up teepees on a Balboa Park grassy area.Big Mama Earth provides green lessons for kids.San Diego Public Library’s booth with many interesting books.A lovely blue recycle bin poses for my camera!SoCal Parrot lady and a bright green friend.Earth Day activists conceal anti-abortion sign with banners.Toyota shows hybrid vehicles in front of Museum of Art.Old hiking gear can be fixed up and used again.Table with information about pest control using copper.Two rescued raptors shown to crowd on El Prado.Huge canvas interprets the reflecting pool with vivid colors.Mellow steel drum entertainment during EarthFair.Balboa Park’s trashcans were blocked with flower pots.Looking west down El Prado at huge Earth Day crowd.Advocating for the protection of seals.Activists oppose new power plant at Mission Trails Park.A table demonstrates the benefits of composting.Smokey the Bear stands near Surfrider Foundation booth.Man painted blue advocates for lower carbon emissions.High school student with Save the World Fridays sign.Scripps Aquarium brought some big shark jaws.Peace sign and coexist sign in the crowd.Banner in booth opposes eating animals.Petitions include dividing California into six states.Secret chemtrail and HAARP programs are opposed.Free hugs are offered to visitors at Balboa Park’s EarthFair!
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Balboa Park is a great place to see lots of street performers. It’s also a fine place to spot true believers. Lining El Prado on any given weekend, people who avidly believe in all sorts of religions, philosophies and political ideas hope to make converts of passersby. You can check out their posters and pamphlets, ask a question, or just walk on by. Being in southern California, it’s mostly laid back and good-natured.
I walked down El Prado yesterday and got a few pics:
Proselytizing in Balboa Park occasionally includes heated debate.Muslims use Jesus to engage possible converts.Atheists on El Prado make their case to passing tourists.Scientologists with mysterious stress-detecting machines.Hare Krishna advocates sit chanting their mantra.
Cool San Diego Sights! 