Speedrun Through Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movies

SciFi

If you love science, you probably also love science fiction (sci-fi) movies.  Sometimes you just don't have the time to watch the entire movie, but you need a quick fix. I found a great YouTube user account - 1A4Studio - who does beautiful hand drawn versions of sci-fi flicks that are only one minute long. They are very well done and hilarious - you'll definitely see your favorite scenes!  

40 seconds into Star Wars A New Hope is a marvelous reenactment of the Obi Wan - Darth Vader fight. 26 seconds into the Matrix you see Morpheus doing the STOP TRYING TO HIT ME AND HIT ME stance during the dojo fight. 40 seconds into Back to The Future shows George McFly knocking the stuffing out of Biff with a well-timed Mortal Kombat uppercut.

If you can't see the videos below, please click here.​

​This post also appears on TWIB.

Curiosity Kills The Gap: Helping Kids with STEM

This week's White House Science Fair is another great example of presidents using the White House to push a scientific agendaLevar Burton, one of the co-hosts of the event, ​often repeated Obama's saying that you should be invited to the White House whether you win an sports championship or a science fair. Not only is it great to see young scientists celebrated on a national stage, but you also get super adorable photos like this:

​Levar Burton and Bill Nye The Science Guy help interview three young budding scientists

​Levar Burton and Bill Nye The Science Guy help interview three young budding scientists

It's a beautiful scene, isn't it? It's one that needs to replicated in cities and towns across the country. Not only do we owe it to the future generations to be scientifically literate, but we need to avoid being among the bottom of developed countries for math and science. The gap needs to be eliminated.

Philadelphia does a better job than most cities when it comes to promoting science. I've previously covered the Philadelphia Science Festival, ​which turned the heart of the city into a big playground of ... bugs and stuff. The George Washington Carver Science Fair (yes, the website sucks ... Facebook is somewhat better) gives elementary and high school kids a chance to show off their science skills, with judges from the community (like my friends the Black Tribbles). But even with these resource, the everyday school experience of a significant amount of students is devoid of the science resources that are needed for success. The situation is even worse with other cities that don't have fair at all.

​All in a day's work at the Philadelphia Science Festival

​All in a day's work at the Philadelphia Science Festival

When most people think science resources, they mention labs, circuit boards to wire, hydrochloric acid to burn things, fetal pigs to dissect, etc.  These are all important, but they are secondary to the truth issue. The most important part is making sure that kids have the space to be curious and creative. This is extremely important because kids with all the resources in the world will waste them if they don't have a spirit of curiosity. Similarly, kids with nothing have and will continue to change the world of scientific discovery because they were allowed to poke around, fail, and fail again in their creative pursuits.

​Panelist at the WURD Speaks: Blackout event in Philadelphia. From L-R - Robert W. Bogle, President & CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune; Brigitte Daniel, Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems; Sara Lomax-Reese, President & …

​Panelist at the WURD Speaks: Blackout event in Philadelphia. From L-R - Robert W. Bogle, President & CEO of the Philadelphia Tribune; Brigitte Daniel, Executive Vice President of Wilco Electronic Systems; Sara Lomax-Reese, President & General Manager of 900AM-WURD; Mignon Clyburn, FCC Commissioner; William Crowder, Managing Director of DreamIt Ventures & Lead Advisor of the Comcast Ventures; Navarrow Wright, CTO Interactive One

I attended an event by Philly's only Black owned talk radio station WURD called Blackout: Reinventing Media in the Digital Age. There was an amazing panel, including FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, that all echoed a similar concern - we need to instill an environment of entrepreneurial spirit, curiosity, and creativity in our kids at a very young age. We live in a time where we can do research on anything that a kid displays affinity towards and help them understand it on a deeper level.  This is how we can kill the gap between have and have not when it comes to science education both within our country, and between our country and the rest of the world.

Philadelphia Shows How To Rock a Science Festival

​The festival from the steps of the Franklin Insitute

​The festival from the steps of the Franklin Insitute

Philadelphia held its 3rd annual Science Carnival in the heart of the city on Saturday, April 20th.  Anchored by the Franklin Institute, the festival extended from 20th St to 22nd St on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.​ The Carnival is a major part of the overall Philadelphia Science Festival, which features various science events all over the city from April 18th - 28th.

An important ingredient for any successful festival is to keep it fun!  There have been times when I've spoken with friends about science festivals and I could feel them rolling their eyes or yawning (some people magically did both). Thankfully, you won't find any overly wordy examples or boring lectures at this festival. It's all about interactivity and immediate satisfaction with the experiments being offered. The participating scientists were always ready to engage for further banter, and had business cards and websites at the ready for anyone who wanted more information (like me!). 

Another thing I love about this festival is the different kinds of people that it attracts. You get a true sense of the diversity of the city when you see various ages, genders, and races all having fun together. Check out my pictures below to appreciate all of Philly coming together in the name of science!

The festival with the Philadelphia Free Library in the background

The festival with the Philadelphia Free Library in the background

​The festival with the Sheraton in Center City in the background

​The festival with the Sheraton in Center City in the background

​The festival with the main skyline in the background

​The festival with the main skyline in the background

​Wind power! Wind power!

​Wind power! Wind power!

​See the stars with this telescope that also resembles a chaingun

​See the stars with this telescope that also resembles a chaingun

​Fly away, fly away ...

​Fly away, fly away ...

​Big Ben overlooking of all this science goodness

​Big Ben overlooking of all this science goodness

​Watch your blood cells bubble up and down in this makeshift artery

​Watch your blood cells bubble up and down in this makeshift artery

​Or crawl through these HUGE arteries right in front of the Brain Bar!

​Or crawl through these HUGE arteries right in front of the Brain Bar!

​If Skeletor can stay in shape, so can you?

​If Skeletor can stay in shape, so can you?

​Kids using multimeters on graphite (lead) to measure voltage and current .. it made me squeal with joy

​Kids using multimeters on graphite (lead) to measure voltage and current .. it made me squeal with joy

​Teach your kids how to program early .. the job market will thank you

​Teach your kids how to program early .. the job market will thank you

​A robot that throws and catches frisbees. We're all dead.

​A robot that throws and catches frisbees. We're all dead.

​Crime scenes are definitely science, but this is still a bit morbid

​Crime scenes are definitely science, but this is still a bit morbid

This post also appears on This Week In Blackness.

Google Glass & Dynamic Textbooks

Google Glass, an upcoming glasses / camera / internet hybrid, is finally in the hands of developers.  There are a few videos of people walking around and doing ... normal things, but the one that really caught my attention was this go kart race by Google's Josh Armour. This video shows off the smooth, high definition video that can be captured at decent speeds.

My imagination runs wild in terms of STEM education.  Imagine bringing a group of kids to a carnival and having a fun day of go karting. How about using a video editor to mark two points and time the distance between them, to calculate velocity? How about measuring the change in velocity between points to calculate acceleration?  Now imagine this with trains ... or roller coasters ... or airplanes!

How about having kids throw the ball around, and thing bring it back to class and examine the parabolic motion of a ball? How about showing that you can reasonably calculate the horizontal and vertical position based on how hard it was thrown and the time? This could also be used to show how equations are for ideal situations and that variables such as wind, humidity, etc can affect measurement. You don't even have to mention the term "projectile motion" for the kids to get it. - because it would be their own physical actions!

Opportunities are everywhere to teach our children how physics is represented in the world around us. This can all be done with current technology, but having the ability to easily create videos from our vantage points puts the stamp of personality that resonates heavily with the "me" generation reared on YouTube. Essentially, it's a dynamic textbook where the examples are tuned specifically to the student - a far cry from the stale books that bore most students today.

If technologies such as Google Glass can get into educator's hands and avoid the $1500 developer price, we all win.​

Check out other cool Google Glass videos on Gizmodo!

This post also appears on This Week In Blackness.