The exhibition details how women in San Diego history, from the 19th century to the present, have excelled in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, leading to important contributions in different fields.
There’s a special emphasis on young women pursuing career paths in STEM today. Various organizations are highlighted that can help those with STEM aspirations.
Young people, upon seeing this exhibition, will understand that pursuits in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics can do more than make a world a better place, but can be personally very rewarding.
Examples of what visitors will find…
ECOLOGIK was launched at Cabrillo National Monument in 2017. The free program engages children and young adults in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics. There is an emphasis on ecology and environmental sciences.Girls Who Code has reached over 760,000 students through virtual and in-person programming. The organization helps to spark an interest in transformative technology.Dr. Charlotte Baker was San Diego’s first practicing female physician. She moved to San Diego in 1888 and ten years later she became the first female president of the San Diego County Medical Society.During World War II, many women helped with military manufacturing in San Diego. In the aircraft industry, women made up to 65% of the workforce in 1943.Dr. Janese Swanson, graduate of SDSU, was a pioneer at the dawn of the digital age. At Broderbund Software, she helped develop the popular game Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?Dr. Ellen Ochoa grew up in La Mesa. An engineer and astronaut, she was the first Latina astronaut in NASA history. She would log nearly 1,000 hours in space!
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I wondered. Why are hundreds of little wooden stakes sticking out of the sand at South Ponto Beach in Carlsbad?
Reading a nearby sign provided the answer. Habitat restoration in progress. The fence, shims, and plants will build dunes and keep sand on the beach.
I never heard the word “shims” used this way.
I found a webpage that explains how to “make land from air.” Biomimicry uses 14- inch-long, narrow cedar shims which are randomly inserted several inches into the sand. The shims are placed 10-14 inches apart, in a random matrix, along the upper beach. This matrix stabilizes existing sand while also collecting new sand, by generating turbulence in laminar ocean storm winds.
There’s another fascinating word!
Biomimicry. Definition: The design and production of materials, structures, and systems that are modeled on biological entities and processes.
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Western Flyer, the world’s most famous fishing boat, will be visiting San Diego on March 26, 2025, and you have the opportunity to tour it!
If you’ve read John Steinbeck‘s famous book Sea of Cortez, you’ll recognize the name of this fishing boat. In 1940, Steinbeck and his friend Ed Ricketts explored the Gulf of California in this very boat.
For decades the boat was lost, then it was found and restored by the Western Flyer Foundation. It now operates as a floating classroom, educating youth about the intersection of science and literature.
With a General Admission ticket, visitors to the Maritime Museum of San Diego will be able to step aboard and tour the legendary fishing boat as it makes its visit to our city!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Wow! Look what’s coming up at the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater in Balboa Park! It’s Leo and the Science Project!
If you have young children and you’ve never been to the Marie Hitchcock Puppet Theater, you’re missing out on a long-time San Diego tradition and tons of happy fun.
This coming show looks awesome! Its description: The Magic Jacket Kids are back! Join Leo, Zhuri, and Elijah as they create fun science projects for school and learn that when they work together, everyone succeeds!
(I hope these smiling characters succeed better than my poor attempts at Science Fair way back when!)
Leo and the Science Project will be presented February 21 to 23, and February 28 to March 2. Showtimes are 11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. Grab a ticket at the box office window in front when you arrive!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
A new public park, nature center and educational facility is rising in Mission Valley!
The River Center at Grant Park, an amazing project of the San Diego River Park Foundation, is gradually taking form on Camino del Rio North, immediately east of Qualcomm Way.
I walked in Mission Valley yesterday afternoon and took photographs of the River Center over the surrounding construction fence. It was exciting to see how one building is now standing near the center’s entrance.
Last summer I enjoyed a tour of the new River Center and posted a blog here. Since then several structures have appeared, as you can see in these photos.
A kiosk has appeared outside what will be the River Center at Grand Park.I love the artwork on this long construction wall at one end of the coming park space.I took this photo near the park’s future entrance.I believe this building near the Entry Courtyard is The Den pavilion structure. It will include restrooms.A walkway at the park entrance that will lead to an outdoor amphitheater. (The construction you see near the top of this photo is a completely separate commercial project on the opposite side of the San Diego River.)The San Diego River Foundation needs you to join their volunteer team!
Feeling inspired? Would you like to help the San Diego River Park Foundation?
Opportunities include habitat restoration projects, river clean-up events, educational volunteer experiences, joining the Grant Park River Center care team, becoming a community engagement volunteer, and administrative support opportunities.
Doctor Who and science fiction fans, take note! The exhibition Doctor Who Worlds of Wonder: Where Science Meets Fiction is coming soon to San Diego!
Both fun and educational, the world-class exhibit will open at the Comic-Con Museum in Balboa Park on March 15, 2025.
The museum will be overflowing with iconic props, sets, and behind-the-scenes materials from Doctor Who, the world’s longest-running science fiction television show!
BBC Studios and scientific advisors will help produce an interactive experience that will inspire Comic-Con Museum visitors, as they learn about scientific topics touched upon in episodes of Doctor Who. As a promotional flyer explains: It is a must-see for families, school groups, Doctor Who fans, curious minds and future scientists, whether or not they have seen the TV show.
People I spoke to at the museum today are super excited to be hosting this epic exhibition.
Mark it down on your calendars! I can’t wait!
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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The San Diego Natural History Museum celebrated its 150 year anniversary today with a big “block party” in Balboa Park!
Shortly after 9:30, presentations were made on the museum steps by San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, California’s Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins, and Judy Gradwohl, President and CEO of the San Diego Natural History Museum. Not to mention a friendly dinosaur! Then everyone watching enjoyed free morning admission to the museum!
Those who ventured into the San Diego Natural History Museum could experience fascinating exhibits and enjoy live entertainment. By heading down into the building’s basement, visitors could see the museum’s amazing new Paleo Center. I did just that, and posted photos of it here!
The big outdoor block party attracted visitors to numerous canopies situated on either side of the museum, which sheltered environmental and educational organizations from throughout San Diego County.
Scientists from the Fleet Science Center were happy to be asked anything! I asked two daunting questions. What is existence? What is consciousness?The San Diego Air and Space Museum showed kids how to make straw gliders and paper helicopters!The Coronado Public Library was showing how to made a newspaper pot for plants!A smile from the Earth Discovery Institute! They are helping with natural habitat restoration and conservation.A kid uses a stamp to print an image using red ink from ground up cochineal, at the Balboa Art Conservation Center table!I correctly answered Balboa Park Facts for 500 at the Forever Balboa Park table and won a cool pin!Inside the San Diego Natural History Museum during their 150 year celebration block party!Great live music inside the museum.Back outside, on the north side of the museum, on the lawn near the Moreton Bay Fig and the Natural History Museum’s new nature trail.The Friends of Famosa Slough in Point Loma were showing award-winning photographs. I need to return to the slough for another bird watching walk.All sorts of great information was available concerning Mission Trails Regional Park.Cans4Books recycles cans and bottles and uses the proceeds to provide books for kids!Reef the Whale is a fun sculpture on a trailer used by Cans4Books to collect recyclables!A wood plaque shows that Reef the Whale was born in Point Loma this summer!So many organizations were present for The NAT’s big block party.Amazing sculpture of a California Red-legged Frog made of unrecyclable plastic collected at the museum. A cool creation of local nonprofit Endangered Concepts.San Diego Botanic Garden had lots of plants to check out.A big, wonderful smile!I learned construction of the San Diego River Park Foundation’s new nature center in Mission Valley is making good progress!Thank you for helping to maintain our beautiful San Diego River!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
The new Paleo Center had its soft opening today at the San Diego Natural History Museum!
The Tom Deméré Paleontology Center has opened in the museum’s basement, where visitors can view a huge number of fossils behind glass windows and scientists at work in their processing lab! The new Paleo Center is a state-of-the-art facility that provides adequate room for the museum’s extensive fossil collection and frees up space in the museum for other collections and exhibits.
Visitors this morning could enter The NAT for free as the museum celebrated its 150 year anniversary with a “block party” in Balboa Park. (I’ll be posting a blog about the big event shortly!)
I walked down stairs to the Natural History Museum’s basement not knowing what to expect, and look what I discovered!
In addition to the processing lab and fossil storage space, museum volunteers and scientists had assembled several puzzles and displays for both young and old.
The Paleo Center is still being worked on and is scheduled to fully open in Spring 2025. Visitors were asked for suggestions for the center’s name. I suggested The Paleo Vault!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Lots of pumpkins were chucked off the roof of the San Diego Air and Space Museum today, to the delight of watching children! The event was part of the museum’s annual Halloween-themed Pumpkin Chunkin’ celebration!
Some pumpkins were frozen, some not. Some pumpkins were hollow, some not. Some had parachutes attached, some not. As they were dropped in pairs, curious onlookers could view and compare the results of each toss!
The pumpkin launching was just one family-friendly activity hosted at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. I photographed several of the outdoor drops during my walk through Balboa Park!
Inside the museum, kids (many wearing costumes) could construct a catapult and parachute to launch and safely land candy pumpkins, use 3D pens to make creepy sculptures, and drive robot ghouls!
Did you know October is Kid’s Free Month at the San Diego Air and Space Museum? It is!
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
Various works belonging to the San Diego Civic Art Collection can be experienced by visitors to the Rancho Bernardo Library. I took photos of three prominent examples a couple weekends ago.
The first work is titled Ampersand. Matt Rich, Assistant Professor of Art at the University of San Diego, created the eye-catching acrylic on canvas in 2018. It hangs on a wall above the library’s main stacks.
This particular painting is part of a series of works that riffs on the symbol of the ampersand. The ampersand holds, both symbolically and formally, the ability to represent the idea of connection.
Connection perfectly describes any library. Shelves connect readers with unexplored worlds.
The next artwork I observed in the library hangs high on a wall roughly opposite the front desk. It’s titled Salta pa’ lante (Jump Forward), by artist Alida Cervantes. The dynamic art was created in 2020. A pair of aluminum panels come alive with acrylic spray paint and oil.
Alida Cervantes is a Mexican artist who lives and works in the Tijuana and San Diego border region. Traveling daily between the US and Mexico, Cervantes’ work is characterized by an interest in power relations between race, class, gender and even species.
This diptych…is part of the artist’s exploration into the Mexican casta (caste) paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries…Cervantes presents two figures that are the offspring of individuals not only from two different races but also from two different times in history: the present and the colonial…
Finally, here’s a piece titled Primary Waveform (half circle), by artist Kelsey Brookes. The optically mysterious acrylic on wood was created in 2018. You can find it up on the second floor of the Rancho Bernardo Library, at the top of the stairs.
Kelsey Brookes is a research scientist turned artist. His paintings experiment with pop, abstract, and traditional styles while exploring scientific subject matter, including molecules, atoms, and modern biochemistry...
This sculpture is one of a series of works inspired by the Fibonacci sequence and waveforms...
From a distance the painted wood almost appears like basketwork, but give it a closer look. What are those tiny figures? Is that a reflection you see, or a complete circle that curves beyond your reach?
Stand near Primary Waveform (half circle), then gaze across the library for a commanding view of those first two works of art!
Additional works in the San Diego Civic Art Collection can be found at the library’s glass wall and gate entrance, exterior courtyard, and in the library’s study rooms.
Why not visit the Rancho Bernardo Library and see it all for yourself?
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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!
I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.
