Road Trip Across Arkansas!

The Arkansas Discovery Network Launches Museum Road Trip Across the State!

Families can win cool prizes just for jumping in the car and taking a road trip to some of Arkansas’ best museums this summer. In July, the Arkansas Discovery Network launches its Museum Road Trip collection that includes seven fun, hands-on exhibits that will make their way to museums across the state.

Beginning July 16, visitors to the Network’s seven museum partners will collect virtual puzzle pieces to be entered for a chance to win a two-night stay at an Arkansas State Park and other cool prizes. Participants collecting all seven pieces, one from each museum, will automatically double their number of entries in the contest.

  

Contest rules and details will be posted July 10th!

The adventure of collecting puzzle pieces along the way and having a chance to win great prizes, on top of exploring museums and brand-new exhibits across the state, is an activity the whole family can do together.

Teachers Go to Summer Camp

Our teachers are preparing for a 4-week trip to San Francisco for training workshop at the Exploratorium Summer Teacher Institute! They will be headed out on the weekend before the first day of the workshop, June 22nd!

The Exploratorium Summer Teacher Institute is a 4-week professional development experience that will invigorate the teachers with techniques to inspire students to become excited about learning. This year's Institute is June 22 through July 17, 2009.

Congratulations to this year's teachers!

Theresa Fuller
Cross Country High School, Cherry Valley

Than D. Andros (Andy)
South Mississippi County School District @ Wilson, Wilson

Tiwana Katrina Flagg
L.R. Jackson Elementary School, West Memphis

Curtis Smith
Elmwood Middle School

Christine Grauer
Eliza Miller Jr. High School, West Helena

Paula Hatcher
East Poinsette County

The workshops are a rich mix of hands-on activities based on Exploratorium exhibits, content-based instruction, web-based teaching resources and machine shop experiences.

Thanks to the generous grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, the Arkansas Discovery Network can provide teachers with the opportunity to share these inquiry teaching methods with other teachers across the state.

Check back for pictures and updates on our teachers!

Previous Attendees and more information!

Join in on the Geocaching Craze at GPS Adventures Arkansas!

Whether you're an experienced geocacher or want to give it a try for the first time, GPS Adventures Arkansas is an exhibit you'll love. Wind your way through a maze and learn everything you need to know about geocaching. The exhibit also highlights the hugely popular geocaching opportunities throughout Arkansas State Parks.

You'll actually be able to hold GPS-enabled gear and try your hand at finding hidden caches on the grounds of the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources. Take a Road Trip to Smackover this weekend and see what all the buzz is about!

GPS Adventures Arkansas was developed by Groundspeak and Minotaur Mazes with development support from the National Executive Committee of Space-Based Positioning Navigation & Timing and technological contributions from Magellan and Spatial Solutions, in cooperation with the Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources and the Arkansas Discovery Network.

Find out more about GPS Adventures Arkansas!

Meet the Artist - Behind the Scenes with Science & Art! Meet Scott Snibbe!

The Digital Canvas

Scott Snibbe uses his knowledge of computer science and filmmaking to create artwork that interprets scientific ideas.

"As an artist, i conceive of an idea and let my mind range widely, often having no idea how i will actually create the work. Then, i put on my engineer’s hat and start investigating which technologies will achieve my vision."

—Scott Snibbe

At Science & Art, “meet” Scott Snibbe — electronic artist, computer scientist and science communicator. Snibbe's piece, Three Drops, is a full-body, multimedia experience that will introduce you to the concept of nano-scale in a way that only art can do. As you move in front of a large screen, you interact with projections of water at the macro, micro and nano-scale, you will really be able to see how the physical properties of water change at the different scales.

Explore how at this tiny scale, the physical laws we are used to don’t always apply. Nano-science is a pioneering and yet very abstract area of science and offers new and possibly lifesaving technologies.

Scott Snibbe creates immersive interactive art that evokes powerful emotions and inspires social engagement. His works are known for fostering a sense of interdependence, promoting social interaction among strangers, and increasing viewers’ concentration. His artworks have been installed in more than one hundred art museums, performance spaces, science museums and public spaces worldwide since 1995.

More info on Scott Snibbe and the Science & Art exhibit!

Meet the Artist - Behind the Scenes with Science & Art! Meet Leah Buechley!

Leah Buechley blends her knowledge of electronics, programming and sewing to create e-textiles that blink, flash and buzz.

Leah Buechley’s research explores the intersection of computational and physical media, focusing on computational textiles or electronic textiles (e-textiles) — soft, flexible, fabric-based computers. Her work in e-textiles includes developing a method for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) and designing the commercially-available lilypad arduino system, which enables novices to build soft wearable computers.

Buechley became fascinated with the technical and artistic potential of conductive threads fabric. She thought it was utterly magical that it was possible to combine the hard, square universe of electronics and computers with the soft, colorful universe of textiles and fashion. Buechley has been inspired by Maggie Orth, one of the founders of the electronic textile field — her works include musical instruments made from soft embroidered pillows, textile wall-hangings that change color in response to different stimuli, and some of the first beautiful and truly wearable computers.

More info on Leah Buechley and Science & Art!

Meet the Artist - Behind the Scenes with Science & Art! Meet Tristan Perich

"My art and my music are about simple forms and complex systems—the intersection of randomness, order and composition. I am inspired by the aesthetics of math and physics." —Tristan Perich

Tristan Perich keeps himself very busy as an artist, inventor, composer and performer. He began formally composing at age 10 and currently is an active performer of his own compositions. Perich’s 1-Bit music combines his musical compositions with primitive, hand-programmed electronics that investigate the foundations of digital sound. He has integrated 1-bit elements into his compositions for solo instruments, small ensemble and orchestra. Perich’s machine drawings — pen on paper or wall drawings executed by a custom-built machine — use randomness and order as raw materials within a composition. Perich studied music, math and computer science at Columbia University and Interactive Telecommunications at Tisch School for the Arts.

Visitors to the Science & Art exhibit will see the creation Perich calls 1-Bit music—eleven 1-bit compositions delivered to the listener via on/off switch, micro-chip, battery, earphone jack and volume control all squeezed into a plastic CD case. Labels describe the function of each component while other graphics — including photos and quotes — explore the artistic vision and process behind the work.

Physics, math and computer science form the basis of Tristan Perich’s exploration of electronic sound. According to Perich, mathematician Kurt Gödel had a big influence on his interest in the fundamentals of math and science. At a time when theorists thought that mathematics had the power to formalize and prove any true statement, Gödel revolutionarily showed that any formal theory will always be limited — that there will always be true statements that are outside the reach of logic. Since computers by definition also embody formal systems, this inspires how he works with them. Perich grew up surrounded by art and music — his mother and grandmother each ran art galleries, and his father has been using machines to create art since the ’70s. He learned the piano in elementary school and, began composing from the beginning.

More information on Tristan Perich and the Science & Art exhibit

Meet the Artists — Behind-the-Scenes With Science & Art! Meet Ahna Skop

Ahna Skop believes passionately that art and science are two ways of knowing the world, and she is active in both. She was raised by parents who were artists who taught her that creativity is present—in fact essential—in every field of endeavor. She is enthusiastic about what she sees through the lens of a microscope and driven by the beauty of it.

Ahna is assistant professor of genetics at the University of Wisconsin, and is recognized for her innovative research into the mechanisms of cytokinesis, “…one of the most fundamental of cellular events,” she says. “It is fundamental to growth and development of all life on this planet.”

In 2007 Skop received the Presidential Early Career Award for scientists and engineers. Her work with C. elegans has led to discoveries that offer potential treatments for cancer.

Skop loves sharing C. elegans with the world: "I look through my microscope and the organisms I see are beautiful and exciting. I take pictures of this microscopic world so that I can share it with others. At the same time, these creatures are also the focus of my research. For me, science
and art are intertwined."

Read the latest about our latest exhibit and learn more about Ahna and our other scientist/artists!