Happening in Stores Nationwide

June 10–12

This June, hundreds of authors will appear at Barnes & Noble stores nationwide for B-Fest™, a three-day event celebrating the best books for teens. Join us for the biggest weekend of author events in B&N history, plus trivia, exciting sweepstakes, giveaways (while supplies last), and more. Be the first to sample upcoming teen novels, take part in games, and discover great new reads. Follow along with the fun at #BFestBuzz! or click here for details on their web site.

Now is the time to get ready for the Kane-DuPage Passport to Adventure.

From the website:

                 As easy as 1-2-3!

1) Each summer from May 1 until Labor Day, pick up a (free!) passport booklet at a participating museum or participating local library.

2) Visit as many sites as you wish - museums, nature centers, and historic sites - described in the booklet. Receive a stamp at each participating site. Some sites are free, some charge a modest entry fee.

3) Some sites may offer a prize if you've visited a certain number of sites. Return your stamped booklet to the location from step 1. 


The Passport to Adventure Program is designed for children between the ages of 4 and 12 and is sponsored by the Kane-DuPage Regional Museum Association.

Dozens of museums are included. See the website for a complete listing.

My family has some unique traditions.  For one, we always have scavenger hunts for birthdays.  This started when the kids were three and could recognize numbers.  They followed the trail of numbers to the stash of birthday presents! It has become ever more elaborate! My 18-year-old had a four-hour scavenger hunt with six friends that included dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, a visit to a game store and a bookstore, and dessert at a different restaurant. (Yes, there were clues hidden in the fortune cookies!)

Another tradition in our family is to have the not-Greek relatives (my side of the family) join the Greek relatives (yep, my husband’s side of the family) for Greek Easter, which is rarely on the same day as Easter. We put together a fabulous egg hunt for the little ones, with every child receiving his or her own assigned color making the hunt more “fair.”  Then we play the red egg cracking game. The objective is to be the last person with an uncracked egg. Each person selects a hardboiled egg that has been dyed bright red, and an opponent. Opponents bash their eggs against each other.  The winner moves to the next round. Strangely, one egg always cracks and the other never does. You learn quickly that eggs are strongest at their tip. (What? You didn’t know that eggs have tips?)

There are so many more traditions. We always celebrate Pi Day by having two pie courses for dinner on March 14^th, say shepherd’s pie followed by apple pie. Mother’s Day is actually grandmother’s day, as mom futzes in the garden. But perhaps our quirkiest tradition is backwards leap year.  Instead of receiving gifts for gift giving occasions we give them.  This means we are particularly busy around our own birthdays, between making or buying gifts, wrapping them and preparing birthday cake! (Yes, I am planning a scavenger hunt for mine, though that is not until November!)

Join us on Facebook and share some of your quirkier family traditions!

Newenka DuMont

The Hemingway Society, the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park, and Dominican University are thrilled to announce their partnership in hosting the 17th biennial international Hemingway Society conference at Hemingway’s hometown of Oak Park, Illinois.

Celebrate Hemingway’s 117th birthday with the largest gathering of scholars and fans from all over the world. Click here for conference registration information

AT HOME IN HEMINGWAY'S WORLD 

JULY 17-22, 2016

Conference participants will enjoy excellent presentation venues at Dominican University, beautiful event venues in Oak Park and River Forest, including the birthplace and the North Kenilworth home, and opportunities for exploring the Art Institute, the Newberry Library, and other historic Chicago sites. Participants are encouraged to join The Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park in celebrating Hemingway’s birthday with the community the weekend following the conference.

In addition to scholars from around the world sharing their expertise: 

• Novelist Tim O'Brien, author of Going After Cacciato (National Book Award), The Things They Carried, and In the Lake of the Woods, will deliver a keynote evening talk. 
• Documentary filmmakers Lynn Novick (director), Sarah Botstein (producer), and Geoffrey C. Ward (writer), all longtime collaborators of Ken Burns, will discuss their creative process as they embark on a documentary biography of Hemingway. The film, co-directed by Burns and Novick, is a production of Florentine Films, and will air on PBS in 2020.
• A selection of Grace Hall Hemingway's paintings will be exhibited.
• Parallel programs will offer opportunities for veterans to discuss Hemingway and war literature through "Talking Service"; for teachers seeking continuing education; and for undergraduate Hemingway scholars in a one-day symposium. 

Spread the word, stay tuned for more information, and we hope to see you in Oak Park!

Students in 10th through 12th grade are invited to apply for the QuarkNet internship program, which offers summer research opportunities in science and technology. Students will work with scientists for six weeks on projects related to the Fermilab research program. The application period begins March 1.

Program Description

• What are neutrinos telling us?
• Are there extra dimensions of space?
• What happened to the antimatter?

High school students living in the Fermilab area work full-time with scientists and engineers who advance our understanding of the nature of matter and energy. QuarkNet offers summer research opportunities in science and technology for students who have demonstrated a strong interest in and aptitude for science and mathematics. Students work with scientists for six weeks on projects related to the Fermilab research program.

Research Topics:

• Direct detection of dark matter using the COUPP bubble chamber
• Building 3D electronic circuits to trigger events at the LHC
• Making neutrino detectors more sensitive
• Using interferometers to measure holographic noise
• Developing software for imaging spectroscopic cameras
• Building better accelerators
• Using astronomical surveys to study dark energy and dark matter
• Looking for particles at the LHC

I have two daughters.  The oldest was a typical first gifted child; there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that she was gifted. She read and did multiplication before kindergarten. Her vocabulary was advanced and her thought processes were sharp as a whip; she picked things up with ease and passed every test with flying colors. Of course she qualified for the gifted program! (She is old enough that Illinois still had gifted programs in most districts. These programs were systemaically dismantled starting in 2002, but that is the subject of another post!)

Along came child number two.  She is four years younger than her sister and has always adored her! She did not read or even add before kindergarten.  She was shy and quiet.  One day in preschool she announced, “My sister is the smart one and I am the cute one.”  Instead of academic pursuits, she engaged in every sort of imaginative play.  She put on plays with her friends. She played with “guys,” building elaborate scenes that could not be dissassembled until the story had played itself out.  She told stories and later wrote stories and poetry. 

I figured I had a gifted child and a “normal” child, okay by me!  I had both girls tested when the youngest was in Kindergarten when we briefly considered switching from our local public school to a private gifted school.  I was amazed to learn that she and her sister were both not just gifted, but profoundly gifted! I have since learned that it is quite common for giftedness to present completely differently in siblings and uncommon for siblings to be more that about 10 IQ points apart. 

When I asked her second grade teacher for a letter of recommendation so she could take classes at the Worlds of Wisdom and Wonder, the teacher said, “But she isn’t gifted.” Unlike her sister, she did not qualify for the local gifted program at the end of second grade. One of the many tests they required for admission was a picture test, which she did not do well on.  On one of the questions they were given four choices for what goes with a dolphin.  These were something like a fish, a swan, an elephant and turtle.  I asked her why she chose the swan and her explanation was priceless, “They both move with same undulating motion.” Definitely not gifted. 

Now she is at the top of her class in high school, has taken scads of APs and is a National Merit Finalist. She can compete academically with the best of them, but her real strength continues to be her creativity and imagination.  She writes fantasy, plays and creative non-fiction. She composes music and writes songs.  She writes and performs slam poetry. She draws and creates games.  And she sees connections between things and bridges across things that are novel and exciting. She is extremely imaginationally overexcitable.  And she is clearly gifted!   

Newenka DuMont

The Society of Women Engineers - Northwestern University Chapter

CAREER DAY FOR GIRLS

2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208
8:30 am - 3:30 pm 
The Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University is pleased to announce our 45th annual Career Day for Girls, scheduled for Saturday, February 27, 2016. 

Saturday, February 27, 2016 McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

This program is designed for female junior high and high school students who have an interest in science and mathematics. The program will contain educational and career information about opportunities in engineering and applied science. Our speakers are women who have engineering degrees and current female engineering students.

Cost: $10 for lunch. Registration closes February 5, 2016 or when the program reaches capacity. Click here for complete details.

Join the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) - Chicago Professionals Chapter for our National Engineers Week Expo! The Expo takes place on February 27, 2016 at the Illinois Institute of Technology. We have a full agenda with interactive and exciting Engineering and Science activities for Kindergarten - 12th grade students. Some workshops include App Design, World of Polymers and the Marshmallow Challenge for grade school students and a college panel and Speed Networking for high school students.

We will also host a local NASCAR Ten80 competition, but you must be a registered racing team to participate.

*** Registration closes Friday February 5, 2016 ***

Parents & Educators are encouraged to stay and talk to our Engineers! Find out how to engage your children and hold their interest with fun experiments at home.

No walk-ins, no on-site registration, no cash, no medical forms and no permission slips will be accepted on the day of the event, NO EXCEPTIONS.

Tickets are $11.54 per person and include lunch. Click here for details and registration.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To learn more about our chapter, go to http://www.chicagonsbe.org/ 
or to  http://www.nsbe.org to learn about our national organization.

Follow us on Twitter  @NSBE_ChicagoAE and Facebook athttp://www.facebook.com/ChicagoNSBE

NSBE Mission: "To increase the number of culturally responsible Black Engineers who excel academically, succeed professionally and positively impact the community."

NSBE-Chicago is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. For donations to support our STEM Programs, please add ticket type "Support NSBE-Chicago STEM Programs" to your order.

Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day

Saturday, February 20th

9 AM - 5 PM

Various buildings on UIUC's Engineering Campus - details to come

Description: High school girls are invited to the third annual Introduce a Girl to Engineering Day (IGED) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Saturday, February 20, 2016 from 9 am to 5 pm. The students will have an opportunity to learn about the different types of engineering through hands-on activities, participate in a design challenge, and present their designs challenge ideas to judges. A concurrent program for the parents is also provided. The event is free (deposit required, but will be fully refunded upon attendance), and lunch and a T-shirt will be included. Registration is first come, first serve and is limited, so register soon! Deadline is February 5, 2016.

See complete details here,

My youngest is a poet.

One of her most recent poems is about the beauty of calculus. Another is about the mysteries of music. As she heads off to college, what will she study? So many gifted kids face this paradox of choice. I have heard that many gifted children actually find their life’s work in the first field that does not come easily to them! As though the one thing they truly crave is a challenge!

This question: “What will you be when you grow up?” is one asked of kids all the time. When my youngest was in first grade, she told me she knew just what she wanted to be: On Mondays and Tuesday she would be a writer, on Wednesdays and Thursdays she would be a paleontologist. Yes, I asked what about Fridays; she said that weekends were too short! (Smart kid!) I am not sure that this plan has stood the test of time, but I am confident that she will find lots of interesting things to learn about going forward and will settle on something amazing. On the other hand, I am considerably older than my then first grade daughter, and have to admit that I do not have a definitive answer to that question for myself!

Happy new year to all of you. May this year find you and yours figuring out what you want to be when you grow up, or at least what you want to be doing for now!