mike gilliam: i'm mikegilliam. interactive museums, flying kites, the rubik'scube, and a special aquarium. it's all ahead as we find outwhat you can learn about science while havingsome summer fun. science&u!starts now! ♪ [theme music] ♪ carol anne riddell: i'm carolanne riddell. putting the fun in science by taking thelessons out of the classroom. that's ahead onscience&u!
andrew falzon: i'm andrewfalzon. a family trip to the museum over the summer canbecome a very pricey proposition, but we've found atechnology lab where the exhibits are hands-on, butit's hands off your wallet. we're visiting the sonywonder lab, that's coming up next onscience&u! ernabel demillo: hey, i'mernabel demillo. we are at the liberty science center injersey city, new jersey, where the rubik's cube iscelebrating its big 4-0.
that's right; the cube is 40years old. coming up on science&u!, i'll show youhow this little cube has contributed to music, art,and science. tinabeth piã‘a: i'm tinabethpiã±a. want to know when and how your child can actually touchexhibits at the american museum of natural history? stickaround to find out! coming up onscience&u! lisa beth kovetz: i'm lisa bethkovetz. the physics of kite flying, ahead on science&u!
mike gilliam: i'm mike gilliamfor science&u! we're talking summer fun, and do i havesomething special to show you! a chance to meet my littlefriend here. we'll tell you where, ahead, on science&u! carol anne riddell: i'm carolanne riddell. here's a fun way to learn about repeatingpatterns. we're at the long island children's museumwhere teachers are bringing science lessons to life bytaking them out of the classroom. take a look.
the long islandchildren's museum is closed to the public onmondays between september and june, but it's not closed tothese second graders. they're part of a partnershipbetween the museum and the westbury school districtthat opens both the exhibitions here and the minds of juniorscientists. we tagged along on a recent visit and saw theprogram in action. the goal: to get and keep childreninterested in stem topics -- science, technology,engineering, and math.
aimee terzulli: it's reallyabout access and getting kids engaged early. early learning isreally important. we want kids to be engaged in science,technology, engineering and math; we have to get them tounderstand it and to really spark their curiosityat a really young age. carol anne riddell: amy terzulliis the director of education at the museum. as she explainsit, the galleries here become learning laboratories for thestudents, an extension of the classroom outsideof the classroom.
aimee terzulli: it's allabout applied learning, and giving them directexperiences that they really can take away and say, "aha!"we want them to have those aha! moments here at themuseum. we also work alongside the teachers, and getting themcurious. we told them, "throw out your textbooks.we don't want any textbooks in this program. we want you tolearn how to grow a seed, and actually grow it; not justread about it in a book. carol anne riddell:pretty cool pattern, right?
male student 1: yeah.it makes brown, red, brown, red, brown, red, brown, red, brown. carol anne riddell: childrenlearn about patterns, symmetry, and motion by doing;whether that's spinning a top or turning a wheel. female student 1: you can makeanything a pattern, and patterns are all aroundyour world. carol anne riddell: in thismapping class the students tackle geography and units ofmeasurement, creating a map
of their own to help theirteacher find a treasure chest hidden in the room. teacher: great job,boys and girls! patsy ann joinnides: this helpsclose the education gap. for some of these children,this is their only opportunity to visit a museum! carol anne riddell: thecommunications center helps kids understand how the sciencebehind technology evolves at lightning speed! many ofthem have never seen a relic
like this before; aphone with a dial and a cord. male student 2: hello? male student 3: hello. jennifer loughran: it's muchmore hands-on here than it can be in the classroom. itgives them much more freedom to move about and toexplore their physical space. carol anne riddell: whypush stem topics? take a look at these numbers. according tothe national science foundation, for 2011, only35% of 8th graders performed
at or above what's consideredproficient for their grade in math. that numberwas 32% in science. aimee terzulli: we needinnovation! we need curious thinkers! we need children whoare thinking outside the box- carol anne riddell: so where tobegin? perhaps by harnessing what already comes naturallyto children: enthusiasm and the thirst to know more. carol anne riddell:what do you think of science? female student 1: ithink it's really cool.
carol anne riddell: the programis now in its fifth year and recently expanded to include 1stgraders as well as 2nd graders. it will continue next year,bringing more young scientists into the museum. i'm carolanne riddell for science&u! andrew falzon: i'm andrewfalzon. if you enjoy technology, then the sonywonder lab should be on your summer to-do list. even though the targetaudience is kids ages 8-14, we found children ofall ages having a good time,
and best of all, admission isfree. located on madison avenue in midtown, the sony wondertech lab is a place where kids can learn about the past,present, and future of technology. once inside,you're immediately immersed in technology as you're askedto sign into the lab using an id card. it stores your picture,and allows you to sign in at each exhibit you visit. corrine doron: they have tofirst feel a connection in order to want to learn more and tounderstand. so the key is
really to kind of lure themin with something that they might experience in theireveryday lives or find interesting, and then kindof go from there. andrew falzon: corrine doron isthe senior program manager at the sony wonder techlab and gave us a tour of the museum. at the nanotechnologyexhibit, small is put into perspective using the earth anda green pea as an analogy. exhibit recording: she wouldbe a billion times -- that's a thousand million timessmaller than she really is!
so she would be one nanometer tall! she'd be a billion times smaller than real life, if shewere standing on an earth the size of a green pea. andrew falzon: next, kidstry their hands at open heart surgery. it's one ofthe more popular lab exhibits, where even the steadiesthands are put to the test. corrine doron: we basicallytake them step by step through the process, and whatwe wanted to show them is a
technology called haptics,which is what surgeons use when they're training in surgery.and it allows them to feel the sensation of what it is to cutinto a body and to perform surgery without using an actualbody. our goal is really to show kids real worldapplications of technology, so it was important for us toreally give them a sense of how this is used out there in thereal world, and in careers. and surgeons have to learnas well; they have to train just like everyone else.
andrew falzon: from virtualsurgery to virtual broadcasting, kids get a chance to channeltheir inner news anchor as they stop by thesony wonder lab studio. corrine doron: we reallywanted it to be very lifelike and very much simulated toa real broadcast studio. we brought in real studiolights; we simulated the blue screen. we have real studiocameras here, and we even put in back of house. so we have adirector role, we have a sound engineer, we have a technicaldirector as well, because we
wanted kids to understand thatthere are many different things that come into playin creating a tv broadcast. andrew falzon: a fun wayto kill some time while waiting for your turn at the wonderlab studio is the interactive light floor. corrine doron: so we wantedsomething that kind of kept the kids busy while they werewaiting to do certain exhibits, but also brought in ourtheme of how technology helps kids -- helps people, rather --connect and create.
andrew falzon: alongwith the light-up floor, kids can use motion captureto make animations dance. after steppinginside the control capsule, the computer automaticallyrecognizes the user and their movements. corrine doron: i think,you know, kids and adults together are very fascinated byrobots-- andrew falzon: which iswhy the museum included these drivable robots as anotherfeatured exhibit. the robots
are controlled by the kids andshow their picture from their id cards. the flashinglights on the robots appear to be a big hit. corrine doron: so basically thegoal of the exhibit is to turn lights on on the floor of thezone. once all the lights are turned on, there's actually alittle light show. and the robots are equipped with rfidtags underneath them. andrew falzon: a little deeperinto the museum, light and music come together with grammyaward winner alicia keys,
as different tracks from hersong new york light up and travel across this interactivelcd table. you can change up the mix by adding orremoving different instruments, adding your own touch to a toppop hit at a top summer spot in new york city. even thoughadmission is free to the sony wonder tech lab, tickets arestill required. you can find more information online atsonywondertechlab.com. i'm andrew falzon for science&u! ernabel demillo: hey,i'm ernabel demillo.
we're at the liberty sciencecenter in jersey city, new jersey, celebrating the 40thanniversary of the rubik's cube. this little cube has inspiredall this and much more. how many hours have you spenddoing this: twisting and turning the rubik's cube? well, you're not alone. based on estimates of toys sold,one out of every seven people in the world has played withthe rubik's cube, some more successful than others. thisyear, rubik's cube turned 40, a perfect reason to devote aninteractive exhibit beyond
rubik's cube at the libertyscience center in jersey city. paul hoffman: so with libertyscience center, we wanted to not just celebrate the 40thanniversary -- which is cool, it's the world's bestsellingpuzzle; it's sold at least a billion -- but it's inspiredpeople in so many fields. ernabel demillo: indeed.in the cube's 40 years on this planet, it has inspiredmusic, arts, games, and of course, science. paul hoffman: here's theprototype of it, the original
one, made from wood, rubberbands, and paper clips. ernabel demillo: so hesaved it? paul hoffman, the center's director, andthe man behind the exhibit, is a big fan of the puzzleand its inventor, erno rubik of hungary. paul hoffman: he was in his 20s,and at that time he had just gotten a phd in design,and he was teaching his first undergraduate course of kidsthat wanted to be architects or designers, and he wasfrustrated by what he perceived
as their inability to picturethree dimensional objects in their mind's eye. hethought, "how are these people going to be architects if youshow them a simple blueprint, a two dimensional drawing,and they can't see the object?" so he invented rubik's cube asa pedagogical aid to improve his students' senseof three dimensional geometry. ernabel demillo: the originalcube, which is on display here, was called the magic cube. thename later changed to rubik's cube when the toy was producedand sold to the mass market in
the united states. it was themust-have toy in the early '80s. paul hoffman: i mean, it did,it sold 160 million in one year. the top three books on the newyork times bestseller list were books on how to sell a rubik'scube. a guy invented -- it was basically a hammer,a rubik's cube smasher to smash it in frustration -- he soldmillions of them. i mean, it really was phenomenal. ernabel demillo: sales droppedoff in the mid '80s, but thanks to speed cubing competitionsand robotic science, the rubik's
cube made a comeback. speedcubing competitions are held all over the world, includingthis recent one at the liberty science center. it's all aboutmathematical algorithms and fast hands. the current recordis 5.55 seconds. amazing, right? especially when you hearhow many times the cube can be moved. how manytwists and turns can a rubik's cube make? paul hoffman: right. okay. soit's 43 times 18 zeroes
after it, okay? an unfathomablylarge number, 43 quintillion. and each of those positionscan be unscrambled to this position in at most 20 twists.okay? but nobody knows what those 20 moves are; only themathematical god in the sky does. these speed cubersthat do it, humans that do it in 5.5 seconds -- that's theworld record -- and robots that now can do it in 3 and athird second -- they do it in 50 to 70 moves, okay? 50 to 70,in only 3.3 seconds. and yet there's a 20 move solutionthat, at the moment, is beyond
computing power, and it'sbeyond human ingenuity. ernabel demillo: so thecubers have something to aspire to. even the residentrobot at the exhibit likes to practice. this denso vs650 industrial robot is one of the more popular sites here,mesmerizing young and old. paul hoffman: yeah, the robot'sreally fun. this is a robot that -- it's an industrialstrength robot that normally paints cars on an assemblyline, and my team took that same robot and programmed it to dorubik's cube, and it does a
victory dance when it solvesit. and i don't think it wants to go back on the assemblyline 'cause it doesn't get to do a victory dance afterit paints a car. i think the next one just keeps oncoming. ernabel demillo: show off. butin all seriousness, the cube has contributed to roboticscience. paul hoffman: when rubik's cubefirst came to the west there were quickly human speedcubing competitions; who can solve it the fastest, but thencomputer scientists wanted
to build robots. and it was nota trivial task back then in 1980, because robots weren'tgood at vision. the first thing you have to be able to do totry to solve it is know where the colors are. so they had tomake advances in computer vision to solve rubik's cube.and then the last thing robots got good at was the fine motorskills necessary to actually manipulate the cube. so it'sled to advances in robotics. ernabel demillo: thecube also inspired art. you'll find artwork madeentirely with the cube, or you
can help make one. the exhibitincludes an interactive section, where museum goers can helpcreate the statue of liberty. the cube has also inspiredjewelers. check out this 18 carat $2.5 million version ofa rubik's cube -- and yes, this one can also be movedmore than 43 quintillion times. paul hoffman: an aspect ofit that i love is that it was one man's ingenuity that cameup with that mechanism. and the rubik's cube couldhave been invented 50 years earlier. it didn't depend onsome scientific or
technological advance. so ithink it's amazing in our highly technical age thatsomeone can come up with something, just by theircreativity and ingenuity, and touch one in seven peopleon the planet. i think that's great, and that's inspiring. ernabel demillo: haveyou solved the cube? paul hoffman: well, i'mgonna go and break the 5.5 seconds when i finish talking -- ernabel demillo: you're trainingright now, right?
paul hoffman: i'm training.exactly. ernabel demillo: okay, good.beyond rubik's cube will be on exhibit here at the libertyscience center through november, and then it's off on aworld tour for the next seven years. i'm ernabel demillofor science&u! tinabeth piã‘a: i'm tinabethpiã±a. the american museum of natural history has launcheda program that introduces kids to a wide variety of scientificdisciplines through hands-on investigations and interactivetours of museum exhibits.
aradhna da silva: it was fun. jack collmer: i did a spaceone. william edgar: it's coollearning about, like, scientific stuff. tinabeth piã‘a: these kids areexcited by the museum's new program, calledadventures in science. alix cotumaccio: scienceis so important, because it's really about understandingyour surroundings, becoming science-literate, being ableto know what's going on in
the world as you grow up. soour purpose here -- we design these courses, these workshops,these camps, to engage these kids; get them scienceinterested, allow them to investigate a little furtherinto these topics, and hopefully becomelifelong learners of science. tinabeth piã‘a: year round,the museum offers kids from pre-k to 8th grade a varietyof workshops, exploring all different aspects of science,including one called unlocking the mystery of poisons,for both parents and kids.
jack collmer: we learnedabout poisonous frogs, snakes, venomous-es, andtoxics and poisonous-es. owen katz: i like how,like, animals can camouflage. and i like, like, how tortoises-like, different animals have different, like, special things. arlene hill: in this programthey're really allowed to ask questions. in class they have toget through a lot of stuff and there are so many more kids. butin this class they're really -- they're encouraged and theyhave the time to ask as many
questions as humanly possible.and that's what we want them to do! to ask questions, comeup with their own questions. and that's really - we give themdata, we give them observations, we give them dioramas andstories and things to look at. and then from that firstobservation, they can generate their own questions and thenhopefully even come up with their own answers. william edgar: it's so coolbecause you get to learn a lot of stuff and then you get toknow that for the rest of
your life, and you can be like,the smartest person ever. tinabeth piã‘a: childrenalso get guided tours of the museum's exhibits, and get tosee and sometimes touch collections that the generalpublic doesn't have access to. alix cotumaccio: what youcan't touch normally in the exhibit, you still can't touch,but you do get the inside knowledge about it. and then wedo take our students behind the scenes into the laboratoriesand the collections, and that's where they cantouch these things.
tinabeth piã‘a: what aresome of the exhibits that are involved in the program, here atthe museum? alix cotumaccio: so we useall of our exhibits. it really depends on what the topic ofthe camp is. so for instance, our poisons in nature workshopthat we are going to see today, they go into the power of poisonexhibit. we have paleontology camps, and they go into allof our dinosaur halls. arlene hill: it's an amazingresource to have the museum at our disposal; we can havescientists come in for some
classes. last week we had alive snake come in and they were able to hold the livesnake! we have so many collections, realanthropological collections, and those are resources youcan't get anywhere other than this museum. tinabeth piã‘a: there's noapplication process for elementary school camps grades1 -- 5, and registration is on a first come first serve basis. for science&u!, i'mtinabeth piã±a.
lisa beth kovetz: i'm lisa bethkovetz. every kite climbing into the sky is a sublime feat ofsimple physics. we turned to some kite flying experts togive us the low down on how a kite gets into the sky. sailor: a kite flies for thesame reason an airplane flies. destiny: a kite flies whenthe forces that lift overcome the forces of gravity. marcus: the downward force ofgravity -- zaki: - is also known as weight.
lucia: a flying kiteis a successful battle of lift over gravity. lisa beth kovetz: and theseforces of physics that lift a child-size kite are the sameforces that lift a much larger, grownup kite. we're her at thenew york kite center where kite flying is taken to the extreme.owner john pereira explains to us how these samebasic principles of physics apply even when the kiteis flying the kid. john pereira: at the end ofthis bar, there's a giant kite.
when i push the bar away, iget less lift, and when i push the bar in, i get more lift. lisa beth kovetz: and that'sbecause, just like pulling on the string of your little kitewill make it dip or soar, changing the angle of yourgiant kite alters the amount of wind it can hold.more wind, more lift. less wind, less lift. john pereira: yes, so the forcesof lift are not the only forces in play here. we also have a lotof pull generated from the
kite. so as i dive the kite intoposition, it's going to pull me downwind in that direction.it's much like sailing; if you notice, a sailboat willgo across the wind back and forth, and actually has theability to go upwind as well. those forces in play arethe same as kiteboarding. so this board here is somethingthat is pretty common for kiteboarding, and it allowsyou to, again, push on the water in a certain way that's goingto allow you to glide across the water. the lift of the kitereduces the forces of gravity,
which actually allows youto stand on the water. lisa beth kovetz: kite boardersuse science in all kinds of interesting ways. anybodywho's playing on the water is concerned about the weather,but how do you predict the wind? john pereira: this time of theyear we get a lot of thermal winds. that's created becausethe temperature of the land is much warmer than thetemperature of the water, so as the air rises off theland, it draws in air from the ocean, creating a sea breeze, orthermal winds.
lisa beth kovetz: and by keepinga close eye on changing temperatures, kite boarderscan get a pretty good idea of how strong that breeze willbe, which is very important, because a lesser breezeneeds a bigger kite to win the battle against gravity.kite boarding may look extreme, but the new york kite centerteaches kids and parents and grandparents, and there's nobetter place to learn than our great south bay. turns out,geography is very important in kite boarding, and new york'slarge, flat expanse of
waist-deep water with windfrom multiple directions is the perfect combination.from amityville, long island, this has been lisa beth kovetzfor science&u! mike gilliam: i'm mike gilliamfor science&u! this is the maritime aquarium in norwalk,connecticut. it's a very special place, a great place, to bothlearn and also have some good, summertime fun. now, dave sigworth here is goingto serve as our guide today and show us around here andshow us some of the neat
things that you can see if youjust come up here for a visit. dave, let'sstart with this right here. what do you have? dave sigworth: so this isa huge map of long island sound. so we're a little bit differentthan most aquariums because almost 90% of our exhibitsare about long island sound. there's no nile tankhere or amazon tank here. we want our visitors tounderstand about the environment and theanimals of long island sound.
so we start you off with thishuge map to let you sort of orient yourself to where youare. a lot of people like to look to see where theylive. mike gilliam: andi see the striper in there! dave sigworth: the striper'shere. so what we're trying to do is, we have little kioskshere, and we're gonna ask you some questions about someof the animals and the environment of long island soundat these kiosks. the answers will show up on the big map.and that actually starts you
thinking about what you're goingto see when you go through the aquarium galleries. mike gilliam: the aquariumsits steps away from the mouth of the norwalk river and thesound. it's home to a lot of touchy-feely exhibitslike this area. dave sigworth: thisis our shark and ray touch pool, so you can actually touch alive shark or ray, and you can do it and come back with allten of your fingers intact. so we've got some nurse sharksand some smaller species of
sharks down here, as wellas several species of rays. and it's really cool to gohome and say that you touched a shark today. mike gilliam: oh, dave, now thisis something i usually don't like to see when i'mout in the sound, jellyfish! dave sigworth: right. now,and we call 'em jellies, because they're not fish. mike gilliam: really. dave sigworth: and same, we tryand teach people about starfish;
are sea stars, 'cause they'renot fish either. dave sigworth: so these aremoon jellies. so you may have seen jellyfish that are sort ofred? those are lion's mane. you don't want to touch those.but these are moon jellyfish, and if you use two fingers,just like at the ray touch pool, you can touch the tops of theirbodies. they do have tentacles, but they're very benign to us. imean, if you were a little piece of -- like a shrimp orsomething, this would hurt, it'd hurt you. but they don'treally hurt to us. but you have
to be very careful. you have toknow what kind of jellyfish or jelly you're talking about --sort of like mushrooms. mike gilliam: i won't tell youwhat they feel like. you have to go and see for yourself. theyalso have the other things you look for at an aquarium,including the huge shark tanks- dave sigworth: sothey do a little recycling. mike gilliam: - the seals,complete with a feeding schedule. okay, nowi've saved the best for last. this is the lorikeets exhibithere, and it's only here this
summer -- what?through labor day? dave sigworth: through laborday, yep. yep. so it's an interesting experienceto have all of these birds come around you. and ifyou have one of these little cups of nectar,well, they love it, and they'll land on your headand your arm and your -- mike gilliam: oh dave, let'sgo see the 'keets! come on! dave sigworth: so these arelorikeets, they're native to the south pacific. i think there'sabout 55 of them in here of
11 different species. justreally beautiful coloration. mike gilliam: oh, so youhave one who's already landed on your hand, here. and they'lldo this for the nectar, right? dave sigworth: theylove the nectar. they have an adaptation that their tonguesort of expands as they sort of put their tongue in there.so it's more of a -- just very quick dabbing. they'll land onyou, they'll walk up and down your arm; they'll land onyour head, your shoulder. mike gilliam: and yousay you have about 55 of them?
dave sigworth: there's 55 ofthem, 11 different species. mike gilliam: big-timesummer fun. if you plan on visiting the maritime aquarium,it's a good idea to check out their website. there youcan find the price of admission and also the hours of operation,and you can also see some great deals from metro northrailroad. remember, it only takes about an hour toget to norwalk from grand central. that'sour show. i'm mike gilliam,
and we'll see you nexttime on science&u!
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