MRS and WGBH unleash nationwide materials science public outreach campaign
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MRS and WGBH unleash nationwide materials science public outreach campaign www.mrs.org/makingstuff www.pbs.org/wgbh/NOVA/tech/making-stuff.html “So…what do you do?” “I’m a graduate student in Materials Science.” “Materials science…” (perplexed silence) “What’s that?”
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ratories, and businesses in 17 states across the country will combine forces and create local and regional outreach partnerships to run engaging educational activities that transform “viewers” into active “doers.” Scheduled to occur in early 2011, these outreach activities are geared not only toward middle and high school youth, families, and educators, but also toward engineers and scientists. Among the exciting events lined up for this “Month of Stuff” is the Junk Fashion Show scheduled to occur at Discovery Place in Charlotte, N.C. where participants will strut their stuff along a catwalk to model wearable designs created from repurposed manufacturing scraps. By investigating the materials properties of the scraps in a hands-on manner, they will learn how the pieces can be manipulated and adhered together to produce entirely new fashion designs ranging from belts, bags, and Museum of Science, Boston and Twin Cities Public hats to complete outfits. Television (Dragonfly TV) at the 2009 MRS Fall Meeting Thanks to a partnership with WUFT-TV/FM, local Boy Scouts down in Gainesville, Fla. will also be able to sport new items—in the form of merit badges for Chemistry, Composite Materials, or Engineering—after successfully completing a special materials science workshop. Up in the East Village of New Materials Research Science and Engineering Center York City, a series of informal (MRSEC), University of Maryland, College Park science cafés co-organized by oes this sound like the beginning of a conversation you’ve had one too many times at parties, visits to your hairdresser, or even family reunions? Then, you’ll be excited to learn that the Materials Research Society (MRS) has teamed up with WGBH, Boston’s public television station and producer of NOVA, to create a month-long nationwide outreach campaign, Making Stuff, aimed at sparking an appreciation and better understanding of our material world. Museums, schools, universities, labo-
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MRS BULLETIN
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VOLUME 35 • SEPTEMBER 2010
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www.mrs.org/bulletin
New York University researchers, the Lower Eastside Girls Club, and BioBus—a mobile laboratory—are slated to take place at the Bowery Poetry Club. And, over in the West, a Making Stuff roadshow will tour the state of Idaho with demonstrations and hands-on activities for K–12 classrooms. In addition to the plethora of activities planned by the outreach coalitions, WGBH and MRS are working to create a materials science activity guide for afterschool settings targeting 4th–6th graders. In an hour, these simple hands-on activities using readily available materials will allow students to experiment with different materials, ask questions, and start to make connections—all in the name of materials science! Making Stuff also has activities in store for
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