In the eye of Hurricane Interns.

Although I haven't really posted about this year's crop of interns since the draft, there has been quite a bit still going on behind the scenes with regards to the intern program to prepare for their arrival in July. The offers went out, and happily every single offer was accepted (might this be a first?)! Unfortunately, some time later one of our interns had to drop out due to an unexpected family emergency; so although alternates were told the selection process was complete and they were no longer under consideration, we dipped back into the pool to select a replacement.In the end we have 13 summer interns for 2013: seven girls, six boys, coming from eleven different schools, and two from outside New York State.

Recently I have been busy assembling their hiring paperwork (just like last year) and getting things arranged with HR for in-processing coming up on June 17. HR actually decided to use our interns as a pilot group for a new I-9 procedure that begins online, instead of being a written-out form. I tried logging in and it seemed pretty straightforward, so, we'll see how that goes!

You've got mail!

Meanwhile, we tried something new this year, which I don't think I have mentioned yet. Because of the huge number of applications this year, we actually opened up our applicant pool to the rest of the College of Science in case they might want to hire someone for the summer. Most of the leg work was already done, and organizationally over the summer we would integrate any other interns with our own - so if someone wanted some free labor for the summer with very little effort to have to put in to coordination, here are 75 well qualified candidates. Well, only two people took us up on our offer, and in the end only one of them came through. So over the past few weeks I have been working with them to select some candidates from our applicant pool, schedule and carry out interviews, and ultimately select an intern - it's like intern interviews all over again! It has been a fair amount of work to duplicate these efforts, especially when weighed against the unexpectedly low level of interest we got from COS, so I wonder whether we will attempt anything like this again next year. The other interesting angle to this is that this position is unpaid, so it will be a learning experience to see how this whole experiment works out.

Anyways, now we are approaching the time of year that I can finally catch my breath, in between the crazy springtime outreach/recruitment/intern-selection rush and the arrival of the interns. I'm looking forward to catching up on a number of things and getting to branch out into some other projects I haven't had time to pursue yet. Ahhh, Late May and June - I'm so happy to see you!

42nd annual Science Exploration Days: Day 2

In my previous post I detailed Science Exploration Days (SED) and the public event. Today was the portion of SED designed for middle and high school students. We were told we would be seeing upwards of 1500 students over the 3.5-hour event, so thank goodness I was to have student volunteers helping me again. But could I trust them to show up on time and actually help me set up? Well luckily setup was less of an issue, since we were able to leave almost everything securely in the Fisher gym overnight, so all I took with me was the FLIR. There was, however, going to be food before the event again which I was counting on; and thanks to a MASSIVE traffic jam (what should have taken me 40 minutes took AN HOUR AND A HALF), I had to hope that someone would be there to help me so that I could grab my breakfast and not turn into Cranky Bethy again.

Well, by the time I got there, there was one student helper. Yep, one. And not one of the ones who had been so late helped out the day before. In fact, the two returning volunteers (who carpooled) left their car lights on overnight, so they needed a jump. And they apparently waited a long time for it. And apparently the security person helping put the leads on the wrong way. And then, since that whole debacle took so long that they missed the free breakfast, they decided to take EVEN LONGER by stopping to get Dunkies on the way. Seriously?

Ranting aside... I did make it in time for breakfast, so really I wasn't that cranky (once the traffic jam road rage cooled off). The one student and I set the booth back up just in time for the first wave of students to start trickling in. Thankfully our booth was far away from the entrance, so there wasn't too much traffic before the other volunteers showed up to help.

Day 2. Our collage of example pictures stuck onto the projector screen keeps growing.

And when it rains, it pours... before long we were in super production mode. Mobs of students passed by and wanted their pictures taken. Every one of the 4 of us was occupied trying to keep up with the crowds. While there were some students that got into it and wanted to experiment, most of them felt too rushed, or simply wanted to use our exhibit as a glorified photo booth. Then there were the students who didn't care about anything, they were just there because they wanted a day out of school. The event that seemed like it was going to be the gold mine recruitment-wise ended up not really turning out as such. As I teased in my previous post about Day 1, even though we got exposure to a great number of students today, the quality of that interaction was not nearly on the level it was last night. Because of the volume of traffic and rush of the students, there wasn't enough time to explain much about what it was they were seeing, much less anything about what Imaging Science is. But, at least our CIS stickers were on the back of the pictures they received, so maybe one day they'll see that and decide they want to look into us more.

Meanwhile, at one point early on I glanced over to my left, and what to my wondering eyes should appear, but... ANOTHER FLIR?! Someone else totally showed up just today and was stealing our show! One of the students, who is far more curious than she is shy, decided she would go and talk to the exhibitor to find out what the deal was. Apparently he has exhibited a FLIR in past years, and wasn't aware that we would be there with one, especially since he wasn't there last night. At least he admitted that our camera was better than his. Also, we had a printer and he didn't.... BUT, the way the traffic pattern was in the gym, all of the kids who followed the exhibits in order would see his before they rounded the corner to ours. Suddenly we were old hat copycats! But it didn't really matter, because with the crowds as they were there were more than enough students to go around, and it's not a competition anyways. Besides, it wasn't his fault (though maybe the organizers should have said something, so as to reduce redundancy - but maybe all they were concerned about was getting as many exhibitors as possible).

During one slow time, one of the students and I went on a little excursion and visited the creatures at the Ward's Natural Science table...

Tarantulas!

And snakes!

And millipedes - oh my!

And.... hissing cockroaches.... okay.
Just kidding, apparently they make great pets.

How could we possibly compete with living creatures that you can actually PLAY with? Oh, right, it's not a competition... And anyways I got my brief play time with them too so that's cool. (Did I ever mention that my parents' first date was to Wards?) Meanwhile, I wonder how well those animals deal with thousands of kids manhandling them all day. I hope they're okay.

When all is said and done, the official tally for the number of students in attendance was 1554. Wow! So in terms of pure volume, this was probably our largest outreach event of the year (not including Imagine, which is not strictly outreach focused).

At the end of the event, we were treated to a fancy and delicious lunch. With llamas.

Yeah!

All in all, a fun and hopefully-effective event. THANK YOU to the students who helped out, to the event organizers, and to everyone who came!

42nd annual Science Exploration Days: Day 1

Yesterday and today compromised the 42nd annual Science Exploration Days! SED is made up of exhibits and seminars all about science and technology, aimed at middle and high school students. Although Joe has participated in the past (but not recently), this year I was going to be an exhibitor for the first time! This was particularly exciting for me because I visited SED for many years when I was a kid, so I was looking forward to being on the other side of the table and giving back.

My general plan for a CIS exhibit was to set up the FLIR thermal camera and its accompanying printer, similar to what we did at the RMSC last week. Once again I lined up a few student volunteers to come and help me out (if it became busy; or to keep me company if crowds were sparse). This approach is both a blessing and a curse: students are way fun and super helpful, but they are also unreliable sometimes (sorry, students, but I've worked with you enough times to observe a pattern). Luckily I'm used to doing events alone and being self sufficient, but that doesn't help when you have tons of equipment and materials to carry and no one ends up showing up to help you load and unload your car and since you get stuck doing it by yourself it takes twice as long as expected and by the time you've just gotten everything to your table and someone finally shows up to help so you have a chance to go get dinner the food is ALL GONE. (In case you couldn't tell from that irritatingly long run-on sentence, I missed the free dinner I was counting on; and when Choate gets hungry, CHOATE GETS CRANKY.) Not cool.

Anyways, Thursday night of SED features just the exhibits and is open to the public. This is the part I went to when I was a kid. Things started off a little slow so at first it was mostly us playing in front of the camera...

...while some random guy is there. The whole place is empty, but that guy manages to be right there.

Our setup. They gave us two tables, which ended up being really handy, except for the fact that we only had one nice tablecloth.

So, a few days ago I scraped myself in a few places. Can you guess the location of one of my scabs?

Before too long, some families started showing up.

And then the guy from IS&T started taking over our shtick.

Dinosaur RAWRs in visible light...

...and in thermal IR.

Oh shoot, did I lose one of our students?
Oh no wait we found her, hiding crouched in that trash bag over there. NBD.

Then we found out what happens when you put a balloon in front of your face.
Scientific experimentation XP + 1 

Thursday night's exhibitions ran from 7-9PM, and reportedly attracted 214 children and adults. Now, we had a fabulous time (definitely better than last Saturday), but I have to admit I am disappointed by that attendance. The place should have been PACKED! Maybe I'm just remembering things differently, but I could have sworn that when I was a kid, this event was full of people and you had to wait your turn to shoulder your way in to see a table (especially a table as cool as this one was). Where was everybody?! Don't you like science??!? No wonder we have such a difficult time getting kids interested in STEM. It made me sad when I drove home past the huge "FREE SCIENCE SHOW!" signs out in the front of campus. Doesn't anybody care? (I care...)

Anyways, this isn't to say that I am disappointed in how last night went. Actually, I thought it went splendidly. The families were all genuinely interested, and the level of interaction was excellent. There were many parents encouraging their kids to interact and ask questions, and most parents got involved, themselves. We were able to explain the science behind what they were seeing, and kids experimented with the items we had at the table. I think there was a lot of value in the public display, and I'm encouraged by the learning that I witnessed taking place. There may just be hope, yet...

Meanwhile, today was promised to be the busy day, with Jr. and Sr. high schools sending in busloads of kids. But is volume enough to make an event effective? I'll discuss that in my next post, about Day 2. Stay tuned!

Summer Short Course: Foundations of Imaging Science

I just got an urgent request to make a flyer so... Yep! Here it is!

The Center for Emerging & Innovative Sciences, based at the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences at the University of Rochester, is offering a series of Optics, Photonics, and Imaging (OPI) short courses for the summer of 2013. CIS is pleased to be included in this offering with a 10-day course in Foundations of Imaging Science. Full scholarships are available - contact Susan Farnand (farnand@cis.rit.edu) for more info.

Announcing: The CIS Class of 2013

I just completed the posters for Commencement 2013, which is THIS FRIDAY! It's so hard to believe this year is already over and we will be congratulating and wishing good luck to another class of outstanding students. (*cue feelings of wanting to graduate again.....wait for it.... now.) ConGRADulations (har har), Class of '13!!!

That day at the museum that it was so quiet, you could hear Steve's lunch chirping.

Next up in the springtime outreach/recruitment frenzy was a Science Saturday at the RMSC (Rochester Museum and Science Center) today! I was first invited to participate in Science Saturdays last fall, and it was actually by mistake. A new coordinator had taken over organizing the series, and for some reason had my contact info on behalf of CIS. I had actually never presented as part of the series before (at least not in my current role; I did help out at one when I was an undergrad about a million years ago...), so once I passed on the e-mail to the Insight Lab (who I assume the e-mail was intended for, as I know they participate regularly) I seized my chance. The dates they were hoping to have me in were either May 4 or May 11, and since the 4th was ImagineRIT, I gladly accepted 5/11. Well... you know what else is 5/11? The first Saturday of the Lilac Festival. Oh.

Now, I didn't realize the significance of this until, oh, 1 o'clock this afternoon. Why? Well, to put it plainly: RMSC was a ghost town. I couldn't believe it. You mean there is a SATURDAY that you can go to a science museum and have the place to yourself?! Under any other circumstances, this would have been a dream come true - but given that I was there for outreach, well, this dream turned out to be a nightmare. Okay, that's being way over dramatic; actually, today was pretty awesome. I just wish we could have shared it with more people.

Anyways, the plan was to set up a table with the FLIR, some objects to interact with in front of the camera, and the printer so that people could take pictures of their IR-selves back home. I asked for a screen to project onto and instead was given a huge plasma TV, which made me nervous because I wasn't sure whether I would have the right connections, but it ended up working just fine and looking superb. (Now I just wish I didn't bother lugging the projector around.)

For a while it was just me and Phil. And by that, I mean, JUST me and Phil. After a half hour or so the rest of the students who had volunteered to help showed up. Thank goodness, because if we didn't have any general public wandering by to entertain, we could at least entertain each other...

...which then at least started attracting some other people who wanted to see what all the cool kids (I'm referring to us, obviously) were doing.

a-HA! She's gonna bite.

More takers!

Then things died down again, so Chris and Phil went off exploring while Jess, Jon, and I held up the fort. Then we got a txt saying that Chris and Phil were stuck in an obstacle course...

..so I took this picture of them, then left them to perish.

I came back and the same group was still there, but this time they put one of their kids in a trash bag.

Classic.

Then there was a squirrel.

Then it was Jess's and my turn to go off on an adventure while the boys (who did safely make it out of the obstacle course eventually) manned the table. First we found a FLIR hidden up in a quiet corner on the top floor.... awwwwwo. Our display wasn't even unique anymore. (Why didn't anyone tell me?) Then we wandered into the Carlson Inquiry Room (obviously we should go there, Carlson being CIS's namesake and all) and inadvertently ran into Lauren from Alumni Relations, who also works at the museum. She gave us a special personal mini-tour and introduced us to the animals that kids who do birthday parties there get to play with. (WAIT - kids can do birthday parties there??!? Is there an age limit?)

This is Steve.

Jess with the corn snake (sorry I can't remember her name), who I caught with her tongue out.

Corny getting fresh.

When we got back to the table, there was only a half an hour or so left before our time was up. I was hoping for a mad last-minute rush, but it never came - especially because the weather was ever-improving, meaning even more people would go to the Lilac Festival instead. All in all, we probably saw around a dozen groups/families throughout the day. Unfortunately, the kids that were there for birthday parties were only interested in presents and cake, so they never even stopped by; and many other people just passed us by without even looking on their way from the mastodon to the rock climbing wall. I was shocked that the attendance was so light (note to self: in future, patronize museum on first Saturday of Lilac Festival), but I am still glad that we participated. At least WE had a lot of fun! And the fact that I had a bunch of students help out and that they didn't feel like they wasted their Saturday sets a really good precedent. Hopefully when they share their experiences it will encourage more students to get involved in outreach, and with any luck we'll foster a culture of giving back to CIS (and actually being a part of the Ambassador Program!).

HOT or NOT?

Today was the annual Science Fun Day at Hilton QUEST Elementary School! This was my second time participating, the last time being two years ago. (For a description of everything Science Fun Day entails, click that link.) Since I presented to students from two grade levels previously, I took a year off so that I wouldn't be a repeat show to any kids.

This time around, I had a better idea of what to expect out of such young students. I dumped the ipad presentation I included last time that showed other examples of thermal imaging (why did I ever think that was a good idea?), but added a space blanket to play in front of the camera with. Also, I didn't bring the printer, because it is a pain to lug around and takes up too much time to print pictures. I also took more precaution ahead of time with regards to my location - last time I was in a small library room that had no chairs, so kids just sat on the floor. Not only was this awkward, but they didn't want to get up to get in front of the camera, and the room layout was dangerous because they were forced to step over cords. So when I saw that I was going to be in the same room as last time, I politely asked that I be assigned a different room that had chairs and more room to move around in. It seems like a trivial detail, but I think it made a huge difference in the overall dynamics of the presentation. And as a bonus, the room had a sink and paper towels, which came in very handy (you'll find out why). I don't remember what I did as a workshop description last time, but somehow I inadvertently scored a home run with this year's title: "Hot or Not? See the Invisible! Scientists can use special cameras to be able to see what's invisible. You can find people in burning buildings, injuries in animals, and maybe even ghosts! Find out what you look like in infrared!" - For some reason, the kids thought the name was really awesome. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this was so popular, but I'm just glad it got the kids excited before they even knew what they were in for.

I started off my presentation with a question: "Who knows how rainbows are made?" After briefly discussing that, complete with kids proudly reciting their ROY G. BIV's, I tried to get kids to think "outside the rainbow". In an effort to get them to make a connection between rainbows and infrared/ultraviolet (which at least have parts of their names that sound like colors), I asked, "Does anyone know the names of some colors we can't see?" The answers to this question were hilarious - Green! Pink! Brown!? CLEAR! Okay, I admit it's kind of a misleading and inaccurate question, but most times someone would eventually get to IR or UV, or if they didn't I would get a bunch of "OHHHHHHH YEEEAAAAAHHH"s when I gave the answer. Although the scientific accuracy of my segue into teaching about thermal infrared could be disputed, it seemed to make a useful connection for the young students (much better than my old ipad slideshow ever did).

This time around, practically ALL of the kids wanted a chance in front of the camera. We played with ice (with no whiny complaints like last time, I might add), looked at mixing hot and cold water, saw the difference between plastic and metal as heat conductors, and of course checked out the space blanket, a trash bag, and glass in front of the camera. In every session, the students were so interactive that we easily filled the entire 35 minutes (so it's a good thing I didn't bring my printer, anyways). This time around I totally resonated with the students as if I actually knew what I was doing. Not only were the kids engaged, but they were quite intelligent, too; it's funny, often times I am disappointed in high school kids when it comes to their scientific knowledge and reasoning, whereas these 5th and 6th graders really impressed me with theirs. To be honest, there wasn't a huge difference in the types of answers I was getting to the questions I posed... But then these kids would remind you how young they are when they'd do things like lift up the garbage bag they're in so they could see, and would then say, "Oh yeah! I can see myself!"

In what seems to be a new trend, I had TWO students dump full containers of ice water over their heads! Hence why the paper towels came in handy.
This time I finally got a picture.

Does this picture terrify anyone else as much as it does me?

All in all, today was a blast. And apparently the kids loved it, too - I've been told I was voted a "fan favorite"! And here I thought Bubble Mania was a shoo-in.

What WILL we think of next?

IMAGINERIT 2013 IS TOMORROW!!!! Check out this website I made today with all the CIS-related exhibits and their information listed on it (we have no fewer than 17 incredible exhibits this year!!!). And if you have no idea what I'm talking about (is that even possible?) check out my blog post from last year.

Hope to see you tomorrow! (If that's even possible... with the weather forecast for tomorrow, I'd be really surprised if we didn't have another record-shattering attendance this year. Luckily my pink hair helps me stand out from the crowd of 30,000 a bit...)

Greece Career Exploration Day 2013

Today was the 5th annual Greece Apollo Athena Career Exploration Day! See what I did there? Well, things were a little different this year, since Greece has restructured its schools and Apollo no longer exists. Since one of our principal players is now at Athena, this year's event was planned for 8th graders from that school. On my end of things, the shift represented little more than a name change, except for one other significant difference - we were up to 100 students attending! (Meaning: each of my two groups would be around 50, versus last year's ~25.) This is great since we're reaching more students, but would groups so big turn out to be too hard to handle? Well, I wasn't too worried since historically this event has always been one of the smoothest.

This was my fourth year leading the Imaging Science workshop (omg, have I really been here that long?), and each year I wonder how the kids can possibly outdo the class from the year before. This event consistently brings me the most enthusiastic and engaged groups, who always surprise and impress me with one thing or another - one year there were kids asking me for autographs, one year the kids were so excited to interact with the camera that I couldn't even finish my presentation, and last year brought a whole new level of interaction with the integration of Twitter into the presentation. What could possibly happen this year to top all that?!

As usual, the kids did not disappoint. Both of my groups were incredibly interactive, relaxed, and FUN. They intelligently answered questions, and were raucous without being disruptive or disrespectful. I think part of the success of the event is due to the fact that the teachers get into it, too. (Even though one teacher got so into it that he spoiled part of my routine... but that's okay, I gave him a hard time for it and the students liked that.) In fact, when I got to the part where I hypothetically suggest that I dump my entire vessel of ice water all over whichever student is in the hot seat, one of the teachers said, "Go ahead!" I responded with, "I'm not sure what this says about your school, that your teachers are suggesting I drench one of your classmates with ice water..." which was met with boisterous laughter, but then the kid actually goes, "Yeah, I'll do it." Well, alright then.... and he ACTUALLY DID. (Why didn't I get any pictures of this?? I guess I was just too shocked.) I have never had anyone do that before!!! So, way to go, Athena 8th graders 2013 - you have managed to outdo all of the previous classes. (Except maybe the one that asked me for autographs... that was pretty exceptional.)

Just look at the faces on these kids.

Another highlight from this year was this one student in the front row who was obviously the class brain. He would raise his hand for EVERYTHING - to answer every question, to volunteer at every opportunity, literally everything. After the first couple times he proudly answered my questions, I started to say, "Okay, can anyone else answer besides him?" and he would anxiously sit there waving his hand, wanting me to call on him. When it came to the FLIR, I promised him I'd give him a chance, but I told him he had to wait because I had a plan for him. Even so, his hand would shoot up every time I asked for a volunteer - so every time I'd have to say, "Anyone besides him?" and he'd let out a little disappointed, "Awwo." It became a running joke after a while, and he was a really good sport. I wish I could get kids like that all the time... we had a good schtick going.

Anyways, the day overall went better than I can even possibly describe here. Because of their energy, enthusiasm, willingness to interact, and impressive intelligence, the Greece 8th graders hands down are my favorite group to host all year. They represent the ideal audience - they are smart, fun, respectful - and my presentations to them always go smoothly and exactly how I would hope them to. Actually, scratch that - these presentations usually exceed my expectations. My first presentation went so perfectly that one of the teachers told me that I "have a gift", and suggested that if my job ever falls through that I should seriously consider being a teacher. Wow,

Thanks to things going so well this year even with the school change, we have another whole group of teachers and administrators that are now convinced of the value in offering these important opportunities to students. In fact, a school board member was there and made sure to come up to me after the presentation to tell me how much he enjoyed it. What wonderful feedback! I look forward to hosting Greece Athena again next year, and with any luck, having more events such as this one in the future.

UPDATE 5/7/13: Survey results are IN! I will let them speak for themselves:

# of students who completed survey = 93

Imaging Science Workshop:

• 92 out of 93 rated the workshop as either good or excellent
• Common suggestions: Most said it was great and/or their favorite part, the content was easy to understand for most, and they especially loved the infrared camera experiment, a few said that would have liked even more "hands-on" activities

Information Technologies Workshop:

• 72 out of 93 students rated the workshop as either good or excellent
• Common suggestions: Really liked seeing the drone, would have liked more "hands-on" interactions such as using computers, more specific examples of how this science could be applied

Tour of campus:

• 92 out of 93 students surveyed rated the campus tour as good or excellent
• Comments: Would have liked a drink/snack/bathroom stop before tour, would have liked to see more of the sports facilities, liked seeing the art, statues, and fountains, really enjoyed waling around and seeing the students and campus

Lunch at Gracie's:

• All 93 students surveyed rated the lunch as excellent
• Comments: Many said the lunch was their favorite part and that the food was amazing, they enjoyed the experience and would have liked even more time in the dining hall

Overall rating of the experience:

• 92 out of 93 students rated their experience as either good or excellent
• Other suggestions: Some students said they would have liked a chance to "buy stuff", to make college students more involved in the experience, and to see a college class
• Comments: Students said it was "fun and educational", they were "thoroughly impressed", and they wished they could have stayed longer, 91% of students surveyed said either "yes" or "maybe" when asked if the experience had opened their eyes to potential job opportunities

What wonderful feedback from the students! Except for that one kid - there is always that one kid that wants to rate everything but lunch as bad...

UPDATE 5/21/2013: We just received the following wonderful note from one of the organizers in Greece (please excuse the impending shameless plug - to be fair, it's not a shameless SELF plug, since I did not write it...):

"For the past four years Greece Central School District has been sending a group of eighth grade students to RIT for a Career Exploration Day. The purpose of the program is to expose our accelerated Math/Science students to potential careers in the STEM fields. 

Through the generosity of RIT and the School of Imaging Science we have been able to bring over 300 students to RIT to learn about the field of Imaging Science, as well as a couple other programs. Throughout this time our follow up surveys overwhelmingly show that the Imaging Science presentation is their favorite part of our day at RIT, with the exception of lunch at Gracies of course! I wanted to be sure to let you know how invaluable Bethany Choate has been to the success of this program. Her ability to interact with our kids has been key in getting our kids involved in the presentation. It's not easy to hold the attention of up to 50 eighth graders in one room. Every year our teachers comment on her ability to keep them interested and participating. This year we had a member of our school board attend and he sought her out to thank her for the terrific job she did. I also wanted to let you know that without Joe Pow's help this program up may not have gotten off the ground. He was at our initial meetings and has given us tremendous support. 

I also want to share some very good news with you. The first group to go through the Career Exploration Day at RIT is now graduating high school. There were 72 students that attended the first program and eleven of them have applied to RIT, with seven of those kids applying to either a Math or Science program. 

Thank you for your terrific staff!"

I am particularly excited that we are able to start measuring the impact this program has had on these students, now that they are getting old enough to graduate high school! Perhaps I should make it a goal this coming academic year to reconnect with the students I saw back in 2010 (note to self)...

I give it two thumbs up

It's almost that time of year again...

Today I updated the flyer for the summer movie series and created a new online schedule with links to all the videos for 2013: http://www.cis.rit.edu/movies Enjoy!