Workshop Descriptions
Apply & Fly: The Use of Scientific Methods
Dr. Hui-Ju Huang, Sacramento State Department of Teacher Education
Students will design mini helicopters by applying scientific methods. They will have the opportunity to collect data and discuss how to make a better design.
*Paired with Build a Heart Monitor – See Your Own Heart Work or Edible Optics
Be a Creator of the Internet
Dr. Chia-Jung Chung, Sacramento State Department of Teacher Education
There are so many things that you can find on the Internet nowadays. Attend this workshop to learn the essentials about how to become a critical consumer of the Internet. More importantly, you will also learn how to be a creator of the Internet.
*Paired with Bone Detectives
Bone Detectives
Dr. Elizabeth Strasser, Sacramento State Department of Anthropology
How do forensic scientists, such as those in CSI, determine the sex and age of a skeletal burial? There are several straight-forward cues that can be learned in no time. This workshop provides hands-on experience using [casts of] human skeletal remains to learn those cues.
*Paired with Be a Creator of the Internet or Do You Want To Be the Next American Idol?
Build a Heart Monitor – See Your Own Heart Work
Dr. Warren Smith, Sacramento State Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Dr. Anita Bagley, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Northern California and Judy Smith, San Juan Unified School District
Workshop participants will make a miniature electronic circuit that is a heart monitor. You will use your heart monitor to observe your own electrocardiogram (ECG).
*Paired with Apply & Fly: The Use of Scientific Methods or Edible Optics
Can My Car Run on Almonds, Grapes or Corn?
Dr. Lisa S. Ott, California State University, Chico
Attend this workshop to participate in a hands-on activity where biofuel will be made from a variety of different edible oils. This is a hands-on workshop, and we will actually be making biofuel.
*Paired with Lighten UP! or Pop, Pop, Fizz, fizz….. Oh What Fun Chemistry Is!
Do You Want To Be the Next American Idol?
Dr. Jacqueline Carrigan and Dr. Mridula Udayagiri, Sacramento State Department of Sociology
How do TV producers choose who gets to be on the American Idol show? Attend this workshop to analyze the methods and science behind wildly popular TV shows. Explore how demography can explain who gets to be on the American Idol show. Find out how the study of numbers can be fun!
*Paired with Bone Detectives
Edible Optics
Dr. William DeGraffenreid, Sacramento State Department of Physics and Astronomy
Optical elements, such as lenses, mirrors, optical fibers, and prisms are all part of our everyday life. In this workshop, we’ll make and investigate the properties of several elements using some rather low optical quality, but tasty, materials.
*Paired with Apply & Fly: The Use of Scientific Methods or Build a Heart Monitor – See Your Own Heart Work
Fixing the Human Body: Muscles, Machines, Movement, and Motivation
Claudia Starkey, Physical Therapy
In this workshop, participants will learn ways to rehabilitate the body after injury or illness. Participants in this workshop will explore techniques to relieve pain and restore function using exercise, heat and cold, exercise, massage, and exercise. Hint: It’s physical.
*Paired with Getting to the Heart of the Matter or Fun with Food & Nutrition
Fun with Fish
Dr. Ron Coleman and Bianka Bommarito, Sacramento State Department of Biological Sciences
Attend this workshop and investigate the fascinating world of fish in the Evolutionary Ecology of Fishes Lab at Sac State. You will have the opportunity to watch live fish behavior and learn how to identify and work with fish in the Lab.
*Paired with Making Water Safe to Drink or Lighten UP!
Fun with Food & Nutrition
Dr. Lynn Hanna, Sacramento State Department of Family and Consumer Sciences
Learn some of the effects of food chemistry on cooking and health at this food and nutrition demonstration. Participants will learn how your body gets energy out of food by seeing a sugar cube burn and spark, learn how you sense flavors, and watch the chemistry that makes bread rise.
*Paired with Fixing the Human Body: Muscles, Machines, Movement, and Motivation or Solar Power - Bring it On!
Fun with Visual Perception
Dr. Emily Wickelgren, Sacramento State Department of Psychology
Workshop participants will participate in a number of demonstrations to illustrate fun principles of visual perception. Activities may include visual illusions, Stroop Effect, and vision altering goggles.
*Paired with So You Think You Can Science?
Getting to the Heart of the Matter
Dr. Jennifer Lundmark, Sacramento State Department of Biological Sciences
Workshop participants will explore the anatomy and physiology of heart function by dissecting real sheep hearts!
*Paired with Fixing the Human Body: Muscles, Machines, Movement, and Motivation
Lighten UP!
Connie Samla, SMUD
Lighting is the part of the spectrum we see and use daily. Young ladies will view different light sources and see their color qualities, write and reveal secret messages, as well as create their very own 3-D glasses to take home.
*Paired with Fun with Fish or Can My Car Run on almonds, Grapes or Corn?
Making Water Safe to Drink
Dr. John Johnston and Maureen Kerner, Sacramento State Department of Civil Engineering
Would you drink muddy water from a stream? In this workshop, we will talk about the processes and the people who create and deliver the clean, safe drinking water we rely on. We will also make our own drinking water using equipment in the Sac State Water Quality Laboratory.
*Paired with Fun with Fish or The Science of Secrecy: Code-Making and Code-Breaking
Pop, Pop, Fizz, Fizz….. Oh What Fun Chemistry Is!
Chemistry Club, Sacramento State Department of Chemistry
Attend this workshop and see how elements react and combine to form molecules with energetic consequences!
*Paired with Can My Car Run on Almonds, Grapes or Corn?
Solar Power - Bring it On!
Suzette Bienvenue DelBono, SMUD
Climate change and global warming are hot topics. Renewable energy technology is a rapidly growing industry with new careers being defined every day. Solar energy offers a huge potential for providing a much needed reprieve from our dependency on fossil fuels. In this workshop, girls will learn about photovoltaics and build a solar powered kinetic sculpture.
*Paired with Fun with Food & Nutrition or The Helping Hands Dance
So You Think You Can Science?
Megan Contreras and Elizabeth Shenaut, Explorit Science Center
What is it like to work in a science museum? Participants in this workshop will have the opportunity to meet the staff of the Explorit Science Center and try out activities while learning behind-the-scenes information about science museums. Activities include pondering over an “Inquiry Cube,” making “Explor-ick Slime,” investigating real sheep organs, and meeting some hissing cockroaches. Participants will have the slime of their lives!
*Paired with Fun with Visual Perception or What! Use Water to Power My Car?
The Amazing World of Plants
Jana Shober and Roxanne Phillips, Sacramento State Department of Biology
Ever seen a plant eat an insect or react to your touch? Attend this workshop to learn about these unique plant behaviors and find out how plants around the world adapt to different environments. You will have the opportunity to feed your own hungry plant (and take it home with you!).
*Paired with Transfusion Matching with Synthetic Blood
The Helping Hands Dance
Dr. Clare Lewis and Pati Stains, Sacramento State Department of Physical Therapy
This workshop will give attendees an opportunity to experience “hands on” involvement in the varied profession of physical therapy. Physical therapists use their hands to help people who have been injured or have a physical disability. Physical therapists must take care of their own bodies in the process and this is accomplished by doing the “helping hands dance.”
*Paired with Solar Power - Bring it On!
The Science of Secrecy: Code-Making and Code-Breaking
Dr. Michelle Norris and Dr. Kathy Zhong, Sacramento State Department of Mathematics and Statistics
The urge to discover secrets is deeply ingrained in human nature. Participants in this workshop will learn about the history of code making and code breaking, as well as engage in hands-on experience with both making codes and breaking codes.
*Paired with Making Water Safe to Drink or What Color Is Green?
Transfusion Matching with Synthetic Blood
Dr. Lori Smith, American River College
Attend this workshop to learn about how ABO-Rh blood type is genetically determined. You will perform blood typing with simulated blood to determine which fictious individuals are compatible donors for a recipient.
*Paired with The Amazing World of Plants or What Color Is Green?
What Color Is Green?
Janet Nelsen, Monsanto
Discover the chemistry of colors when you separate their components using paper chromatography. This workshop will be held in a hands-on chemistry lab with colorful results you can take with you.
*Paired with The Science of Secrecy: Code-Making and Code-Breaking or Transfusion Matching with Synthetic Blood
What! Use Water to Power My Car?
Dr. Dongmei Zhou, Sacramento State Department of Engineering & Computer Science
In this workshop, you will find out how to construct a model car to run on water powered by combined solar energy and fuel cell.
*Paired with So You Think You Can Science?