Last year, I asked the Science Buddies staff what science, engineering, or technology tools were on their wish lists. The compilation of responses turned out to be an interesting roundup of most-wanted gadgets, a list that reflects the wide-range of personal interests that make up the small group of us at Science Buddies.

Despite the size of our site and the depth of our resources, there are only a handful of us. We are a small and busy team. We keep our "plates" full (agar and non-agar ones), and we work hard to keep up with the demands of the ten million students, parents, and teachers who use our resources each year.

As we prepare to celebrate Science Buddies' tenth birthday, I give you this little glimpse of the real people who make it all happen. This year, I again asked, "What's on your wish list." And, again, the range of answers surprised me! I hope you'll enjoy our shared wish list.

• Ken, Founder and President, wants the Orion SkyLine Deluxe Green Laser Pointer. (We think he already has this, so it must be to add to his collection!)

  Why? "The beam of a green laser can be seen in the dark sky (red cannot), making it outstanding for pointing out astronomical objects to friends and family. Plus, it's really cool!" (But, be careful! To enjoy a laser pointer safely, check our Laser Safety Guide.)

• Courtney, Vice President, wants a Roomba.

  Why? "It's easier than getting the kids to vacuum, and it looks like we could jury-rig it to do something funny, too!" She also wants a Day 6 Plotwatcher Time Lapse Video CameraWhy? "I've always loved seeing plant growth sped up on nature shows on TV."

• Marisa, Director of Development, wants the iPhone Lens Dial from Photojojo.

  Why? "It's a compact photo-enhancing tool that sits on top of the iPhone's existing camera optic. It has a wheel attachment that spins, which allows you to take high-quality fisheye, wide angle, or telephoto pictures. It also has dual tripod mounts—one for portrait and one for landscape."

• Sandra, Lead Staff Scientist, wants a Summer Shower 5.

  Why? "This year friends and family did a good job convincing me, the quintessential city-girl, that camping is fun. But I still need my daily shower! (Of course, I could just make my own!)"

• Hugo, Chief Software Architect, wants LEGO® Mindstorms® NXT.

  Why? "Do I really need to say why? Programmable robots you can build yourself. I wish I were a kid again!" Hugo also wants a Kindle Fire. Why? "It's an affordable Android tablet. Read books, watch movies, play games, surf the web... what else do you need in the palm of your hand? I'd be walking around the house like a Star Trek guy with his tablet in hand!"

• Claire, Product Design Engineer, wants a SodaStream Pure Black Sparkling Water & Soda Maker.
  Why? " I love flavored and carbonated water, but it can be so expensive! This machine allows you to add carbonation to regular tap water or juices. I would use it all the time!"

• Debbie, Web Editor, wants a Rubik's Cube.

  Why? "I am determined to master the Rubik's cube! I was inspired by the "You CAN do the Rubik's cube" team at the recent Discovery Days Science Festival in San Francisco." You can download the guide and check out several Science Buddies Rubik's cube-based Project Ideas!

• Michelle, Staff Scientist, wants a gift card to her local hardware store.
  
  Why? "The hardware store is a place where I can pick up anything and everything I need to build all kinds of experimental set-ups. Pumps, paint, hammers, lumber, rocks, cardboard, utility knives..... Visiting the hardware store is almost like a treasure hunt!"

• Amy, Online Community Manager, wants a Squeezebox Touch.
  

  Why? "I love my original Squeezebox for playing Pandora music so much that I'd like one in another room. (The Music Genome Project is a pretty cool thing, too!)

• Sherry, Grants Manager, wants Bushnell Deluxe Binocular Harness.

  Why? "To avoid bird-watching neck strain from holding heavy binoculars. I will reach for this harness when responding to rare bird alerts and waiting for birds to emerge."

• Teisha, Staff Scientist, wants the Wingscapes WSCA04 Timelapse Outdoor PlantCam.

  Why? "Plants move in amazing ways, but because they move on such a different time scale than we do, it's often hard for us to notice. By taking a time-lapse video of a plant's movements over several hours, days, or even weeks, it's a lot easier for us to see how plants grow and respond to their environment. I'd use a time-lapse 'PlantCam' to watch the plants in my backyard, organic garden grow tasty vegetables!"





• Yvette, Support Staff, wants the Solio Classic Universal Hybrid Charger
  

  Why? "I'm constantly on the go, and this would be the perfect gift to help me charge my phone, MP3 players, and other electronic devices while being eco-friendly!"
  

(Editorial Note: Links to Amazon.com for some of the above products are provided for additional information. Science Buddies does not sell these items directly.)

Many of the Project Ideas in the Science Buddies library enable science exploration with common materials, ones you might find around the house. Some projects, however, require an assortment of materials, not all of which can be obtained in a single stop at a local store. Plus, for a single science project, you may only need a small amount of a product, not a full roll or bottle. While we offer links to online sources for many specialty items, we are excited to announce the availability of "kits" for some of our popular Project Ideas.

When you order a Science Buddies kit through the AquaPhoenix Education website, you'll receive everything you need to perform the experiment—except perishables (like orange juice).

The items included in each kit are detailed on the AquaPhoenix Education website, and when you open the kit box, you'll find items carefully labeled for easy identification. We hope you find that this new approach to ordering supplies for a science project makes the process easy and convenient so you can spend more time on the science—and less on the shopping.

Kits are currently available for the following Project Ideas:

• From Dull To Dazzling: Using Pennies to Test How pH Affects Copper Corrosion

• Is This Connected To That? Use a homemade electronic tester to find out if electricity can flow between two objects.

• Forensic Science

• Which Orange Juice Has The Most Vitamin C?

• Electrolyte Challenge: Orange Juice vs. Sports Drink

• Shaking up Some Energy

• Where There Is Charge, There Can Be Sparks!

• Spin Right 'Round with this Simple Electric Motor

• Build a Crystal Radio

• Veggie Power! Making Batteries from Fruits and Vegetables

• Investigating the 'Mpemba Effect': Can Hot Water Freeze Faster than Cold Water?
  

Note: 10% of the kit purchase price goes to support Science Buddies.

Professional Development Webinar for Teachers
Join us for a free webinar on September 14
Space is limited!
Reserve your webinar seat now!

Science Buddies is offering a free online webinar on September 14, 2011, from 3:30-4:30 p.m. PDT (6:30-7:30 p.m. EDT). We will provide a comprehensive, guided tour of the Science Buddies website and will highlight ways in which you can use Science Buddies resources and Project Ideas with your students. We will also introduce a new set of video and computer game design resources, developed with support from the AMD Foundation, for classroom instruction and student exploration at home.

All attendees who answer a brief survey at the end of the webinar will be entered into a drawing to win one of three external hard-drives (Mac or PC) donated by Western Digital.

The video and computer games guided portion of the webinar is sponsored by AMD Changing the Game, an initiative of the AMD Foundation, which is designed to spark students' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) learning by creating video games. We would also like to acknowledge Citrix Sytems, Inc. for providing the GoToWebinar software.

Title:   Professional Development Webinar for Teachers
Date:   Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Time:   3:30 - 4:30 p.m. PDT

System Requirements:

•    PC-based attendees:   Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server


•    Macintosh®-based attendees:   Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer

After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.

Science Buddies is getting a burst of summer energy from a group of top science students

This summer, Science Buddies welcomed its first set of Summer Science Fellows, a group of six entering college freshmen, all of whom competed at the Intel ISEF during their senior year in high school. These six students have been working on projects at Science Buddies in various areas of the organization, ranging from market research and analysis to the testing of Project Ideas in the Science Buddies directory. As a group, they are also working on a collaborative challenge project. The fellows have attended Science Buddies' monthly company meetings as well as special fellows-only meetings and seminars designed to cover skills they will use during their college years and beyond.

If successful, Science Buddies hopes to continue the Summer Science Fellows program in future years, cultivating a growing group of young scientists who spend time with Science Buddies during the transitional summer before college and become a part of Science Buddies' extended family.

Meet the Fellows

The participants in this year's Summer Science Fellows program are an eclectic group of students with diverse interests and wide-ranging areas of science expertise, a good bit of humor, and, in some cases, big appetites! We at Science Buddies have had a wonderful time getting to know these students in recent weeks and wanted to give you a chance to "meet" this inspiring group of science students!

		Blake Marggraff Hometown: Lafayette, CA College: Washington University, St. Louis, MO ISEF Project: "Treatment of Simulated Cancer Cells with Compton Scattering-Produced Secondary Radiation" Favorite Scientist: Marie Curie. "Nothing in life is to be feared—it is only to be understood." Most Important Scientific Discovery/Principle: Ionizing radiation What's on His Ipod: Lots of podcasts: Radiolab, This American Life, Science Friday, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, The Moth, and many more... Hobbies: Scouting, hiking, camping, Tae Kwon Do, Wikipedia
		Damon Kawamoto Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA College: Brown University Planned College Major: Computer Science ISEF Project: "Abundance Estimate of the Sacramento Chinook Salmon through the use of Genetic Data" Favorite Scientist: Mendeleev Most Important Scientific Discovery/Principle: What's on Her Ipod: Pandora—pop, pop-country Go-To Quote: "The greater our knowledge increases the more our ignorance unfolds."—John F. Kennedy Hobbies: Tennis, cooking, robotics On working with Science Buddies: "I think that the most exciting thing about working at Science Buddies is that I'm part of a group of people who are making science accessible and exciting to students and families everywhere. I've always loved creating mini experiments and would spend my weekends building structures and testing hypotheses. I am excited that because of the work that Science Buddies is doing, more students will grow to love science."
		Danielle Nguyen Hometown: Santa Cruz, CA College: McGill University Planned College Major: Biochemistry or microbiology/immunology ISEF Project: "Abundance Estimate of the Sacramento Chinook Salmon through the use of Genetic Data" Favorite Scientist: "Ben Franklin, but not only because he was an ingenious scientist, but because his ingenuity spanned across multiple disciplines. Very impressive!" Most Important Scientific Discovery/Principle: Harnessing electricity (go Ben!) What's on Her Ipod: Some dance music, pop electronica, and movie soundtracks (Inception&mdash';got to love that movie!) Go-To Quote: These are words to motivate me to do otherwise: "It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietude to the external regulations of society"—Nathaniel Hawthorne Hobbies: Flute On working with Science Buddies: "I'm working on kit prototypes right now with the purpose of helping develop ways to increase the accessibility of science to curious young scientists. Knowing the direct applications of my work keeps me excited about the project that I'm doing!"
		Kyra Grantz Hometown: La Selva Beach, CA College: University of Chicago Planned College Major: Currently undecided; considering Chemistry, Classical Languages (with a focus in Latin), Film Studies, Political Sciences, and Mathematics. ISEF Project: "The Effects of Ocean Temperature on Aerosol Particle Absorption" Favorite Scientist: Bill Nye the Science Guy! (I actually don't really have a favorite scientist, but I absolutely loved the Bill Nye videos as a kid.) What's on Her Ipod: Pretty much everything, but always the Rolling Stones, the Shins and movies scores (Morricone, Herrmann, Bernstein) Go-To Quote: "The world is wide, and I would not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum."—Frances Willard Hobbies: Basketball, swimming, theater production, volunteering at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, watching classic movies On working with Science Buddies: It's definitely hard to pinpoint the one thing I find most exciting when working for Science Buddies in and of itself is so inspiring. If I had to choose, I would say I am most excited about working with my fellow interns on our group assignments.
		Madeline Sides Hometown: Davis, CA College: Stanford University Planned College Major: Bioengineering ISEF Project: Favorite Scientist: Rachel Carson What's on Her Ipod: Classic rock Go-To Quote: "Friendship with oneself is important, because without it one cannot be a true friend to anyone else in the world."—Eleanor Roosevelt Hobbies: Skiing, art, travelling, outdoor activities On working with Science Buddies: "I am excited to be back with Science Buddies. It's a cool organization with nice people and an important mission/product. I look forward to building on my experiences from last summer and exploring other areas of the organization. I also hope to learn more about the workings of businesses and nonprofit organizations."
		Matthew Feddersen Hometown: Lafayette, CA College: University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, IL Planned College Major: ISEF Project: "Treatment of Simulated Cancer Cells with Compton Scattering-Produced Secondary Radiation" Favorite Scientist: Nikolai Tesla Most Important Scientific Discovery/Principle: Transistor What's on His Ipod: Classical, hip hop, soundtracks Hobbies: Karate, frisbee, piano, drums, robotics

Annual Science Buddies Award Recognizes Superior Community Service From a Top Science Student

Science Buddies is proud to announce Nithin Tumma, an 11th grader at Port Huron Northern High School in Port Huron, MI, as this year's winner of the Craig Sander Outstanding Mentor Award. The award is given in recognition of the quality of Nithin's contribution and commitment to the Ask an Expert Forums for the 2010-2011 season. Nithin will receive a $300 scholarship.

In addition to the time spent volunteering with Science Buddies, Nithin completed his own advanced science project this year. He won a first place award at the 2011 Michigan Science Fair and went on to participate at the 2011 Intel ISEF where he won both the Best of Cellular and Molecular Biology Category Award and a First Place Award for his project: "Identifying Novel Mechanisms of Cytochrome-P450 2E1 Regulation." There is a known correlation between having Type 2 diabetes and the increased likelihood of developing cancer. Nithin's investigation in rats of the ways in which insulin or metformin (two drugs commonly used to treat Type 2 diabetes) alters Cyp2E1, a liver enzyme that helps eliminate carcinogens, may help shed new light on the relationship between Type 2 diabetes and cancer formation.

Honorable mentions in our review of high school mentors at Ask an Expert this year go to Shyamprasad Radhakrishna, a 12th grader at Amador Valley High, Pleasanton, CA, and Yurimar Jaen, a 10th grader at Mast Academy, Miami, FL. Both students will receive an iTunes gift card in recognition of their strong performance as AAE mentors.

A Community of Science Experts Helping with K-12 Science Questions

Ask an Expert is an online forum that enables students and families to get assistance with science projects. Our team of volunteer "Experts" is comprised of adults from science and engineering fields and top high school students. These "Experts" work together to help troubleshoot experimental procedures, direct students who are having trouble finding or narrowing a topic, assist with questions about data and results, and offer guidance for students with questions about presenting a project at a science fair. At any step of the scientific method or engineering design process, students can post a question at Ask an Expert and receive quality help. With each answer an Expert provides, she may help a student move from viewing a project as "simply an assignment" to seeing it as something exciting and fun. For volunteers, Ask an Expert offers a way to make a difference in the effort to increase K-12 science literacy.

Giving Back Starts Early

High school mentors like Nithin receive community service credit for volunteering at Ask an Expert, a measure of social awareness that has become more and more important in college applications. Beyond the official community service credit, mentors who work with the program over the course of a school year find it a rewarding way to help the science community. They get to share what they know, interact with professional scientists and engineers, and be a part of a worth nonprofit organization. The program challenges these high-achieving students to articulate science concepts and suggestions to K-12 students in ways that are easy to understand, supportive, and encouraging, and mentors often do additional research in various areas of science in order to best respond to questions.

The Outstanding Mentor Award was established in honor of advisory board member Craig Sander to show our appreciation for exemplary AAE mentors.

Ken Hess, engineer, author, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and "Volunteer of the Decade."

Since he launched Science Buddies in 2001, Ken has worked to facilitate the creation of top-notch resources, tools, and project ideas designed to support students, teachers, and their families in all aspects of doing a science or engineering project.

For more information about Ken and his move from successful entrepreneur to author, educator, and philanthropist, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hess.

Please join us in congratulating and thanking Ken on close to a decade of volunteerism. Millions of students, teachers, and families have benefited from the services Science Buddies offers. And behind those services, at every step, has been the guiding hand and inspiration of Ken.

The Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) is awarded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Science.

• Video
• Announcement
• Press Release
• Science Essay

When you hear the word "spore," what comes to mind? Single-celled, self-replicating organisms? The whacky creatures in a popular video game? Something that grows and adapts? Something that spreads? Depending on the context, a "spore" might fit any of those descriptions. And with the encouragement of Science Buddies Project Ideas and resources, students can experiment with spores--or with slime molds or the use of water as a renewable energy source or patterns of bird migration or ocean acidification or chloroplast sequencing. They can even pinpoint the center of the Milky Way!

As founder and president Kenneth Hess notes, "every year, ten million K-12 students in North America must complete a science project." The hardest part of the process for many of those students is selecting a project. At Science Buddies, students can choose from over a 1000 projects in over 30 areas of science. From genomics to ocean and environmental sciences, students can access exciting free Project Ideas on the Science Buddies website, many of which enable them to follow in the footsteps of today's cutting-edge researchers, exploring new and developing science techniques, procedures, and questions.

For the last ten years, Science Buddies has been seeding interest in, and excitement for, science and furthering science literacy both in classroom settings and at home. This process of providing tools to support science literacy and to encourage students to explore areas of science they might not have considered has been part of Science Buddies' approach since its inception, and Science Buddies' offerings have continued to grow and evolve. Student by student, teacher by teacher, parent by parent, and researcher by researcher, the Science Buddies community has spread.

Today, Science awarded Science Buddies a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education, an award created to recognize "the best online materials in science education." "We want to recognize innovators in science education," says Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science.

"We're extremely honored to be recognized by such a prestigious publication that represents the entire scientific community," says Hess. "It provides tremendous validation for our efforts to advance science education and literacy."

And with recognition, science literacy spreads and spreads again and again and again. It's a replication process worth celebrating.

As I wrote my blog essay in celebration of Earth Day, I found myself in unexpectedly bug-laden territory, without a compost bin, wind turbine, or reusable food container in sight. But Earth Day is about all of those things. It's about taking a moment to recognize what's around us, to take stock of where we are, and to consider ways in which we can make changes, big and small, that can make an impact on the environment. It's about conservation and awareness. Do you turn off the water while you brush your teeth?

I asked members of the Science Buddies team to pick their favorite Project Idea for Earth Day from the Science Buddies Project Ideas Directory. Here's what they chose:

Courtney: Decomposing Energy: Extracting Heat Energy from a Compost Pile
Investigate whether the heat from a compost bin or pile can be used to efficiently and effectively heat water.

Tina: Uh-oh! What Do We Do With Our E-waste?
Examine how people deal with e-waste, and which electronic devices, if any, are most likely to be recycled.

Marisa: The Big Dig

Test how biodegradable different materials are, from paper products to different kinds of bags and other everyday items.

Hugo: Killing 'Vampires': Saving Money and Power by Turning Off Computer Peripherals
Investigate, and ultimately reduce, the amount of power that computer peripherals (like printers, monitors, and speakers) use.

Peggy: Swimming in Acid: Understanding Ocean Acidification
Many scientists are concerned that the increased absorption of carbon dioxide is causing them to become more acidic. What impact does that have on the marine life? In this ocean science fair project, you will demonstrate ocean acidification and investigate the effect on the shells of marine life.

Luisa: Going Green as You Clean: Are 'Green' Detergents Less Toxic Than Conventional Detergents?
Determine if green detergents are safer for the environment than conventional detergents.

Kaarin: Feeding Earthworms: Do Different Diets Affect Them and the Soil They Enrich?
Discover how the diet of earthworms affects their growth, reproduction, and the quality of the soil they process.

Justin: Ocean Currents: Modeling the 'Global Conveyor Belt' in Your Kitchen
Make a model of ocean currents and measure how the heat input affects velocity of the currents.

Claire: Get Down and Dirty: How Does Soil Change with Depth?
Observe and measure core samples of soil to see how soil properties changes with depth.

Debbie: Growing a Soil Menagerie
Make a mini biosphere (Winogradsky Column) to test the response of soil microorganisms to environmental changes in a closed system.

Michelle: Go Green by Growing Green: How to Extract Energy from Grass
Grow three different types of grasses and then determine which grass produces the most biomass and therefore, will produce the most energy.

Sandra: "Earth Day is about stopping to take the time to appreciate the outdoors and making sure that we humans are living in a way that allows future generations to do the same. Does that mean we're going to abandon our cars and turn off our electricity? Realistically speaking, I can't imagine doing that! Finding ways to solve environmental problems while maintaining our lifestyles seems more realistic. Here are two Project Ideas that I think allow us to start evaluating and tackling some of those environmental problems:"
• Do Your Storm Drains Keep the Ocean Trash Free?
  Test models of local grated storm drain inlets to determine if they are designed in a manner that keeps plastic litter from entering your community's stormwater drainage system. If not, design a new model!


• Water to Fuel to Water: The Fuel Cycle of the Future
  Follow in the footsteps of MIT researchers as you examine water's usefulness as a renewable energy source by observing how efficient a cobalt-based catalyst can be at helping to form molecular oxygen.

(Thank you to our partners and sponsors whose support helps up continue to produce environmentally-aware science and engineering projects and materials for K-12 students, teachers, and families.)

Middle school teachers, grades 6-8, interested in investigating ocean sciences or climate change are invited to apply for the 2011 Earthwatch Educator Program sponsored by Earthwatch and Northrop Grumman. The program provides a fellowship for an innovative hands-on expedition, an inspiring experience that teachers can then share with classrooms.

Last year, Erin Moore, a teacher in Illinois, was selected to participate in Northrop Grumman Foundation's Weightless Flights of Discovery Program. As Erin reported on the Science Buddies' blog, the experience of the Zero-G flight was exhilarating and life-changing, from start to finish.

The following Earthwatch expeditions are planned for 2011:

• Coastal Ecology of the Bahamas

  6/27 - 7/8, 2011

  Be a part of a team supervised by Dr Kathleen Sullivan-Sealey as you explore the Bahamian archipelago, a unique ecosystem in the northeast Caribbean Sea.

• Climate Change at the Arctic's Edge
  6/19 - 6/29, 2011
  Exploring the carbon-rich peatlands in the Arctic tundra will bring issues related to global warming rushing to the surface. Teams working with Dr. Peter Kershaw will monitor ecosystem changes in response to global warming and investigate changes in the permafrost—and the risks related to the release of greenhouse gases if the permafrost thaws.
  

Middle School teachers (grades 6-8) from Northrop Grumman communities are eligible to apply for the program (except for educators who participated in the 2009 or 2010 Weightless Flights of Discovery program or the 2009 or 2010 Space Academy for Educators). The deadline for application is February 4, 2011.

For more information, or to fill out an application, visit the Northrop Grumman Earthwatch information page.

Just a reminder, our free Professional Development Webinar for teachers is today, Wednesday, September 22 at:

• 4 p.m. Pacific


• 5 p.m. Mountain


• 6 p.m. Central


• 7 p.m. Eastern

If you are not registered yet and would like to join us, it's not too late! Please register now: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/389772962

To find out more about today's virtual tour of the Science Buddies website, see our previous blog entry.