Miss Sarah and I were invited to the local traveling exhibit, The Curiosity Cube when it stopped at Milwaukee, Wisconsin for a visit this July. Put together by the good folks of MilliporeSigma, this retrofitted shipping container is traveling the United States and sharing STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) concepts with the munchkin set in easy to understand mini lessons. Having a very limited size to work with, we were amazed at what the volunteers were able to share with us. The kids were able to run an experiment and see their DNA, play with a virtual reality human skull and even a 3D printer. Miss Sarah loved looking at the pieces of a brain under the microscopes…even if it was “gross”. Tour after tour of little people filed through and a definite path was followed to maximize the efficiency of the space. Local volunteers were stationed just outside to entertain the little people who were eagerly awaiting their time to enter. The fun didn’t stop there … [Read more...]

Biopics, or Biographical pictures, are movies that tell the story of a real existing person. These films are often very hit or miss. Sometimes a biopic can cleverly tell a person’s life story in an engaging way that keeps you entertained while you learn about them. Other times they are awkward, adding fictional plot elements to make the film seem more exciting. Luckily, Hidden Figures movie is one of the good ones. This lovely story kept me engaged the entire time and I left the theater very satisfied. The Hidden Figures movie focuses on Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), an African American NASA computer scientist back in the 1960s. She, along with other African American women, works in a “colored department” where they go out and assist the other employees in making calculations. She and her two friends Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), are all brilliant individuals, and it seems the only thing keeping them from moving up in their fields is … [Read more...]