Monday, March 24, 2014

Wednesday Night Lite

Hi everyone!

Our new Wednesday Night Lite lecture series began this week!  There are four talks scheduled on topics regarding biology, earth science, and conservation, starting at 7pm – and all are completely free to attend!  All of these talks will be given by experts in their field.  Our guests are all eager to share knowledge of their fields with members of the community, so everyone interested in learning about these fascinating topics are welcome to come attend.  Light refreshments will be provided before and during each talk.
This week, the talk was given by our executive director, Dr. John Tanacredi.  We watched the preview of “Alien Crabs,” a Nat Geo Wild show on horseshoe crabs.  The show covered their 485 million year history, their biology, the important use of horseshoe crabs in the medical field, and the current research and conservation efforts that has been taken on to help recover the dwindling horseshoe crab populations.

The dates for our next three talks are below.  All will take place on Wednesday nights at 7pm. Reserving a seat is highly recommended, but if you find yourself free one of these dates and have not reserved a spot please don’t hesitate to come! All are welcome.

If you would like to attend one of our public lectures simply give us a call at (516)-627-9400 ext.10 or fill out a request form byvisiting our website at www.smli.org

Have a wonderful weekend!

- Stephanie

April 30  -  Long Island Glacial Geology: a Coastline on Ice
Herb Mills, Professor of Geology/Nassau County Geologist (Retired)

June 4  -  Aquaculture and Hydroponics: the Greening of Urban Rooftops
Dr. Martin P. Schreibman, Brooklyn College – CUNY AREAC

June 25  -  Dolphins, Seals, & Whales; Oh My!

Dr. Artie Kopelman, CRESLI/CERCOM

Monday, March 3, 2014

Holiday Recess Week

We here at the Science Museum of Long Island just enjoyed an amazing week of holiday programs that occurred from February 17th to the 21st. One of the highlights of my week was during out “Fly Me to the Moon” program. Throughout the day we taught about outer space. The kids even made their very own film canister rockets. But one of the best reactions I’ve ever received in a class was during our Planet Walk.
In our planet walk we used flags to represent each planet and we used steps to represent their distance from the sun. In this demonstration the kids see that the first few planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are very close to the sun. For example, the distance between the Sun and Mercury is only one step. Then they see that the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are much farther away by comparison. At least, that’s the message we are trying to convey, but sometimes kids don’t get that sense of awe that we’re hoping for. Until now.

 After we had finished the fifty or so steps from Saturn to Uranus we turned around to see just how far away we were from the sun. Now, if you’ve never seen the lights flip on in a child’s eyes, wait for, because it will astound you. There was complete silence as we turned to see that the sun was over a hundred feet away. But in the midst of that silence I heard one girl give a low, barely audible, “Woah.”
This week of holiday programs was wonderful, and I am very much looking forward to the next one which will be occurring from April 14th to the 18th. We are going to be covering some awesome topics, including things like, Survivor, Buried Treasure, and Egg Stravaganza! It should be a great week, so sign up today!


-Owen 

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