DeSTEMber’s online activity blogs and write-ups are provided as a resource to explore STEM at home, or for educators to use in their classrooms. Each year of the DeSTEMber curriculum is archived and available for educators and families.
Can you illuminate an LED using graphite? Draw a design to make your LED shine as you explore circuitry with a sheet of paper and pencil. Meet Shruti Anand! Job Title: Core EDA Solutions Sales Manager at Synopsys Shruti Anand is an Electrical Engineer turned High-Tech Sales Professional working in Austin’s Semiconductor and Electronics Design …
Watch your garden grow! Observe how seeds can thrive when their basic needs -- air, water, nutrients, sunlight, and space -- are met. Meet Gioia Massa! Job Title: NASA Life Sciences Project Scientist Gioia Massa is a NASA scientist at Kennedy Space Center working on space crop production for the International Space Station and future …
Move over, coleslaw—cabbage is key for this colorful chemistry activity! Combine easy- to-make red cabbage juice with various household liquids and watch as the mixtures turn every color of the rainbow. Experiment with the power of hydrogen (pH) and discover which combinations yield your favorite greens, yellows, pinks and purples.
Track the Moon this DeSTEMber to learn about the different Moon phases! Head outside every evening to observe and document how the Moon changes.
Science Action Club wants to encourage you to use community science to find nature anytime, anywhere this winter. Community science, also called citizen science, is a global movement through which scientists and non-scientists alike make observations, collect data, and help answer some of our planet's most pressing questions. Youth can learn to use iNaturalist, a citizen …
Create a superhero, design their superpowers, and defeat the enemy. Become a computer programmer as you code your own superhero game using Scratch™! Meet Sam Marcellus! Job Title: Bioinformatics Fellow at Texas Department of State Health Services Was there a specific person, program, or event in your life that led you to your STEM career? …
Can you outsmart a computer? Channel your inner software engineer to write micro:bit code. Then, it’s you versus the micro:bit in a high stakes game of Rock Paper Scissors! Meet Marcae Bryant-Omosor! Job Title: Software Engineer @ USAA Can you briefly describe what you do? I am a tenacious problem solver, solving today’s IT challenges …
Celebrate computer science everywhere! Participate in the Hour of Code™ 2021 with Girlstart as part of Computer Science Education Week! The Hour of Code™ is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Spend an hour (or more!) learning to code with blocks, JavaScript, or …
Meet your STEM heroes virtually! Use Augmented reality (AR) to ‘Reach Across the Stars’ and learn about women who have blazed trails in space and STEM. Meet Kimberly Arcand! Dr. Kimberly Arcand is one of the world’s preeminent experts in astronomy visualization and has been a pioneer in 3D imaging and extended reality in astrophysics. …
Meet Shannon Messner! Job Title: Sr. Designer and Illustrator, Artemis Communications Team, NASA Shannon Messner is a graphic designer and digital illustrator who currently resides in Reston, Virginia. She discovered her love for art and illustration as a young girl, and this discovery lead her on a path that eventually became her life-long career. What is …
Ready to look at bubbles in a whole new light? Bubbles are simple to play with, but they have some pretty complex science behind them. For Dr. Lauren Zarzar, a scientist at Penn State University’s Center for Nanoscale Science, bubbles are a great example of how the properties of materials can change depending on the environment around them—sometimes in surprising …
Continue reading "The Franklin Institute – Light and Bubbles"
A color-changing toy! Explore the connection between the science of light and human eyes as you create a Benham’s Disk optical illusion.
Propagation is any method or process that grows new plants from a variety of sources, including seeds, cuttings and other plant parts. Seeds are typically produced as a result of sexual reproduction. As a result, the genetic makeup of the resulting seed is a recombination of the contributing plants. Cuttings, though, are a method of vegetative reproduction. This means the new plants are a clone …
Continue reading "Guest Blog Courtesy of Dallas Arboretum – Plant Cuttings: Super Rooters"
Design your own silent disco! Investigate how a coat hanger and string can be used to produce musical sounds that only your ears can hear.
Throw some pi! Understand Buffon's needle problem as you toss toothpicks to calculate an important math ratio.
Happy Moon Observation Saturday! Did you know that there will be a full moon outside tonight? That’s right! On Saturday, December 18th, the Moon will be in its “full moon” phase. The full moon phase happens when the Moon appears to be completely illuminated by the Sun. A full moon happens once per month when …
Squeaky clean! Explore how membranes keep things in and out of our cells and how soap ‘pops’ the membranes of viruses. Meet Bre MacKenzie! Job Title: Principal Scientist, Lung Therapeutics, Inc I am a research scientist that designs and performs laboratory experiments using human cells and tissues as well as animal models of human diseases, …
Opposites attract! Discover how electron transfer causes positive and negative charges while creating an electroscope from straws and tape.
Harness the power of the wind! Learn how to generate renewable energy by creating your own wind turbine prototype. Meet Lyndsey McMillon-Brown! Job Title: Research Electrical Engineer at Glenn Research Center Dr. Lyndsey McMillon-Brown is a research electrical engineer, holding her Ph.D. and master’s in chemical engineering from Yale and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical …
Why do objects sink or float? Explore the density of household items in this layered experiment. It’s sure to “stack up” your knowledge! Meet Neha Kharche! Job Title: Senior Research Chemist @ Function of Beauty Neha Kharche is a Senior Research Chemist at Function of Beauty. She has over seven years of experience in the …
It’s a bird... It’s a plane... It's flying tinsel! Use the power of static electricity to make your tinsel dance. Meet Kate Biberdorf! Kate Biberdorf is a chemist who is breaking stereotypes and blowing stuff up—all in a good pair of heels. She became interested in chemistry during high school, and her mother encouraged her …
We hope you had a great time tracking the Moon during the month of December. Here are some fun facts about the Moon that you can share with your family and friends: The Moon orbits the Earth every 27.3 days. Earth’s Moon is the fifth-largest moon in the Solar System! The Moon is 238,900 miles …
“Do not look at stars as bright spots only. Try to take in the vastness of the universe.” - Maria Mitchell, Astronomer Welcome Astronomers! Just like Maria Mitchell, you have the power to look at the vastness of the universe. One of the ways that you can do that is through the Globe at Night …
Would you like to see more stars in the night sky? Design a streetlight shield prototype to protect night sky observations from light pollution!
Clouds play an important role in maintaining the Earth’s temperature. One of the ways they regulate the amount of light (energy) coming from the sun is their opacity. The terms transparent, translucent, and opaque describe how much light gets through a cloud and help us understand why clouds make shadows. Let’s head outside and observe …
Up, up, and away! Engineer a high-flying helicopter to learn about the forces that make it soar.
In this activity, make your own ice storage device using simple at-home materials and a little bit of imagination! Challenge yourself to create something that traps cold air inside and keeps warm outside air out. Emilie Beaudon is a glaciologist who travels to icy slopes around the globe to collect frozen records of past climates. …
