Last month of Rad Science at the Indiana State Museum

I finally made it over to the State Museum to snap a few pictures for a post about their current exhibit, Rad Science. Rad Science is a cool, interactive exhibit presented in partnership with Purdue to encourage people to have fun while learning about science. It’s a great exhibit, not just for kids, but for people of all ages who like to goof around. I had a chance to check it out on opening day when they invited CINSO to have a booth at the Rad Science Skate Park in September. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you still have time. The exhibit is open until January 3 so you can check it out when you stop by the museum for Celebration Crossing.

Tour of Science: The Field Museum in Chicago

I finally fulfilled a long-time dream! I went to the Field Museum in Chicago and saw Sue, the largest and most complete T. rex found to date! Chicago is only a few hours from Indianapolis, so there is no reason it has taken me this long to visit. A dear friend recently got married in Chicago, so we took the opportunity to stop in using our Indiana State Museum membership to get in free.

Sue!

My highest priority on this visit was to see Sue! She is the first, beautiful thing you see when you walk in. I fangirled pretty hard.

I’ve been dreaming of getting this picture for years. Literally. Years. I knew I was going to pretend to run away from Sue years before I saw her. #DreamBig I practiced this pose last year with a dinosaur in North Carolina.

Book Reviews: Learning from Mistakes, Serious Business Talk vs. Booger Jokes

I have been listening to a lot of audio books lately. I started reading several leadership/business books in hopes of going from pretending like I know what I am doing running a nonprofit to actually knowing what I am doing. One topic I am particularly interested in is learning from our mistakes an not letting the fear of failure keep us from trying something new. I believe this is one of those transferable skills you learn as a graduate student in science. (For this and other lessons learned the hard way during my graduate career, check out this post). But it is still easy to feel like I fail more than others or that successful people somehow naturally make the best decisions all of the time. I found a book called Mistakes I Made at Work by Jessica Bacal which features stories from a number of successful business women. I was super excited when I started listening. Immediately after Mistakes, I listened to Aisha Tyler’s book Self-Inflicted Wounds. If you haven’t heard of the gem that is Aisha Tyler, she is a hilarious, intelligent, and nerdy comedian who I first fell in love with as the voice of Lana in the adult cartoon “Archer.” I quickly realized that successful business ladies are not nearly as honest about their mistakes and embarrassments as comedians, and there are many more worthwhile lessons to be learned from Aisha Tyler.

Tour of Science: The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

So, my Tour of Science brought me to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences… over a year ago. Man, I’m like the worst blogger ever. I was in North Carolina for the annual conference of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC, the same ASTC that runs the science center passport program that you really need to look into). While I was there, I also visited the Museum of Life + Science in Durham. It was a very fun and busy trip, so I was never able to get around to posting about both museums when I got back. This year’s conference was recently held in Montreal. I wasn’t able to attend, but I thought now would be as good a time as any to share my trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh featuring the “Daily Planet.”

This might be the best museum I have been to yet on my Tour of Science. The major reason why I posted about the Museum of Life + Science but not the Museum of Natural Sciences was because there was so much to write about. Aside from the fact that the museum is very big and full of amazing things, the Museum of Sciences was the host for the conference. Workshops weren’t held there, but there were a number of special events so I spent quite a bit of time there. I have so many pictures, and there were so many things to see that I am still overwhelmed trying to decide what to share. But, one year later, there are a few things that still stick with me.

They have a lot of live animals and a vet window

Book Review: How to Fake a Moon Landing: Exposing the Myths of Science Denial

I have always loved to read, but when I get busy and overwhelmed, reading for fun is usually the first of my hobbies to fall to the sidelines. So lately, I’ve been really happy to find entertaining and informational non-fiction books that are laid out in quick and interesting chapters that can easily be read in a few minutes, like Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science- and the World (reviewed here).

My husband and I are big fans of Half-Priced Books, and I came across “How to Fake a Moon Landing” during a recent visit. A non-fiction graphic “novel” about many of the “controversial” science myths popular today? Just looking at the table of contents, I knew I had to have it.