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...good stuff going on at NY.sci!...some of my activities are at
www.chicago-center-for-systems-biology.org/education/overview.....barry

On 12/30/10 9:11 PM, "Eric Siegel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> Great to hear from you Barry!  Your projects sound very cool.  Can you shoot
> me a link to any activities?
> Happy New Year.
> 
> Eric
> 
> On Dec 30, 2010, at 9:09 PM, Barry Aprison wrote:
> 
>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>> institutions.
>> *****************************************************************************
>> 
>> Hey Charlie and Eric,
>> 
>> I'm sure universities and colleges will be interested in partnering with
>> local science centers and museums on projects like this.  At UC we're
>> working on research-based initiatives to make fascinating things to
>> investigate living matter. Some groups are designing synthetic molecular
>> circuits, fusion reporter genes, and bioinformatics visualization
>> algorithms. Mentoring and hands-on systems biology experiments for high
>> school and undergraduate students are on-going summer activities. I look
>> forward to hearing more about collaborative DIY projects. Design, build, and
>> test programs in diverse areas of formal/informal STEM education, including
>> biology, offer great opportunities.
>> 
>> Happy New Year.
>> Best wishes,
>> Barry
>> 
>> Barry Aprison, Ph.D.
>> Senior Lecturer, Biological Sciences Collegiate Division
>> Education and Outreach Director, Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology
>> Committee on Genetics, Genomics & Systems Biology
>> Chicago Center for Systems Biology
>> Knapp Center for Biomedical Discovery, Rm. 10114
>> The University of Chicago
>> [log in to unmask]
>> 312-659-8848 c
>> 773-834-2787 w
>> www.chicago-center-for-systems-biology.org
>> On 12/30/10 2:01 PM, "Eric Siegel" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> 
>>> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
>>> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
>>> institutions.
>>> 
****************************************************************************>>>
*
>>> 
>>> Hey Charlie:
>>> 
>>> All fair points made with your characteristic certainty.  And that is in
>>> fact
>>> part of the point.  Things look a certain way from San Francisco, but they
>>> look different elsewhere.  So while the current maker culture may in fact
>>> have
>>> the roots you describe (though there are glassbowers in Seattle who might
>>> quibble, and probably several dozen other making enclaves), the real
>>> question
>>> is how to extend it beyond the bay area gang.  To me, that suggests looking
>>> at
>>> communities of makers that are both older and broader than the one you are
>>> describing.
>>> 
>>> The other day I was at a funeral service in queens for the husband of a
>>> co-worker. Before the service I was talking to her nephew, a 30 something
>>> african american man from queens.  He's an auto mechanic: he got into it as
>>> a
>>> kid, all he wanted to do was draw cars and hang around people who were
>>> modding
>>> cars.  He loved engineering, but couldn't hack the math the way it was
>>> taught
>>> in school, went into the service, came out a master mechanic, and is working
>>> at a pretty high end shop in queens.
>>> 
>>> I know another kid obsessed by guitars, takes them apart, puts them back
>>> together, swaps out components.  There are guitar making camps all over the
>>> country, he would have a ball in one of those.
>>> 
>>> I don't know how these stories begin, or how to generalize from them.  But I
>>> know that they extend well beyond the bay area in the 70's. So what we hope
>>> will become the defining feature of our work in the maker arena is to
>>> include
>>> people who are not part of the story you are telling, but who are part of a
>>> wider community of people who are passionate about something that they can
>>> build.  I don't want to speak for Dale, but I think he shares that interest,
>>> which is why he started Maker Faire's in Detroit and Queens, NY.
>>> 
>>> Definitely STEM and Burning Man.  Get the President out there onto the
>>> playa,
>>> and he'll give a speech, and it will be off to the races.
>>> 
>>> Happy New Year!
>>> 
>>> Eric
>>> 
>>> On Dec 30, 2010, at 2:07 PM, Charlie Carlson wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hi Eric, 
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks for sharing the report.  It looks really nice and I like making.
>>>> 
>>>> I would observe however that I, and every scrap of research, that I know
>>>> demonstrates that hands on learning is a vital component of human
>>>> development
>>>> (since before we were human) and that access to materials and unfettered
>>>> options, and mentorship characterize liberty,freedom and brain development.
>>>> Is this something new and recently discovered?  Probably not; more likely
>>>> it's not new at all. The report, unfortunately reminds of the "back to the
>>>> land," get to our roots movement of 1960's and a host of past social
>>>> engineering strategies that characterize and eventually stifle human and
>>>> social development.
>>>> 
>>>> I think it unfortunate that report itself reflects a lack of balance and
>>>> the
>>>> smallest glimpse of historical perspective.  While I share many of the
>>>> thoughts, observations, conclusions about the beneficial nature of hands on
>>>> engagement and its relationship to science, engineering, and math, it seems
>>>> unfortunate to cast the Maker Culture independently of its roots. It is
>>>> more
>>>> than a background. It is more likely than not that the development of the
>>>> make culture and its focus in the Bay Area emerged from the presence of
>>>> California's free-wheeling tolerant attitude, a young demographic UCB,
>>>> Stanford, UCSF, the Exploratorium, expanding economy and wealth, and to wit
>>>> the greater context.
>>>> 
>>>> Next it will be STEM and Burning Man.
>>>> 
>>>> All the best in the New Year,
>>>> Charlie
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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This email is intended only for the use of the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged and confidential. If the reader of this email message is not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, or copying of this communication is prohibited. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and destroy/delete all copies of the transmittal. Thank you.

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