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Importance of Play Men In The Arts

How Justin Roberts Celebrates the Wonder of Being A Kid … And Maybe Even A Monster

Justin Roberts
3-Time Grammy-Nominated Musician, Songwriter, Family Entertainer and Author

Justin Roberts’ music has been the soundtrack to my kids’ lives since before either of them could walk. When you’re a work-at-home-dad of toddlers, you quickly become acutely aware of how long the work day is and the need to fill it with fun, creative activities for the little ones – and for your own sanity.

So, to make our days at home more enjoyable, not long after RocketteGirl was born in 2007, I scoured iTunes and loaded our pre-Alexa iPod with music that would feed her childlike wonder, nurture … READ MORE

Women In Science

How to Make Ordinary Materials Stand for Something Big (Like Science!)

Science ArtThe Visionary Paper Technician: Kelli Anderson

 

 

Artist, designer, coder, author, and tinkering science enthusiast Kelli Anderson’s gallery exhibits encourage visitors to touch, tinker, poke, spin, and otherwise interact with her art! You may have seen the paper technician’s pop-up work This Book Is A Camera displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), or spotted Kelli in the pages of National Geographic KIDS’ By the Numbers, which features people who use math in unusual ways in their professions. You may even have caught her surrealistic 2015 music video for the band They Might Be … READ MORE

Women In Science

Through A Childhood of Exploring Science, This Girl Became A Scientist

Exploring ScienceClaudia Fiorini, PhD – Research Associate in Pediatrics

Boston Children’s Hospital

Division of Hematology/Oncology

When I was a child in elementary school back in Italy, I was often sick and had to stay home from school for a few days at a time. Pneumonia – you know, that sort of thing.  That gives you a lot of time to think and plan for disasters.

When I was a little better, but not well enough to go to school, my mom would entertain me by letting me basically destroy the apartment as I wished with all sorts of experiments.

Also, lots … READ MORE

Importance of Play

Laughing Your Way to Better Parenting Through Playful Parenting

Playful Parenting

 

PhD Larry Cohen, author of Playful Parenting, gets serious about play with Raising Nerd.  From growing up as an anxious child and transforming into an adult who can find play even when a gun is pointed at him, read his expert tips on how to get more play into your day.

 


“Put connection first in every aspect of parenting.  That means LIGHTEN UP, because humor is more connecting than seriousness. “


How did you become an “expert” in play and Playful Parenting?

Playful Learning

I was a very serious and anxious child, so play didn’t come easily to me … READ MORE

Women In Science

Measuring The Ice Sheets to Understand Our Changing World

Brooke Medley, PhD

Research Scientist, Cryospheric Sciences Lab, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

We reached out to Brooke Medley immediately after seeing her and her work featured in the Great Big Story short film Operation Ice: Melting the Heart of Man. The film provides background on Greenland’s melting glaciers and how Brooke and her team of scientists from NASA’s Operation IceBridge are studying the global impacts of that reality.

Brooke’s research is focused on understanding how our planet’s ice sheets are changing to help quantify their role in sea-level rise. Specifically, she uses airborne and field measurements of snowfall … READ MORE

Importance of Play Men In The Arts

How A Lifetime of Learning Through Play Inspired A Disney Imagineer

Learning Through Play

 

Matt Conover
Disney Imagineer

 

Being An Imagineer

Back in the early 1950’s, Walt Disney was beginning to crystallize his vision for a theme park – different from the amusement parks he had visited with his kids. A theme park that would bring to life the stories he and his animators had created on film in an immersive, family-friendly environment. He took some of his animators and hired some engineers and coined term “Imagineer” — combining imagination and engineer as he believed these jobs and people had to dream as much as they applied the math and … READ MORE