Science

1806 - 2024 - 2099! The April 8, 2024, total eclipse was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence for Ohio!!! We want to share here what we and our son, Michael, experienced during the three-day celebration (April 6-8, 2024) leading up to the start of the eclipse at 1:59 pm on the third day, and the amazing total eclipse as it happened at 3:15 pm.

We ended our blog post about the 2017 partial (80%) eclipse with the message "See you in 2024!" and a countdown clock. After waiting seven years, it feels strange that the countdown clock now shows the number of days since the event happened! Total eclipse 2024 is now history!

The moment of the total eclipse was incredible (it really can't be put into words), but we also want to note that the three days of eclipse celebration also featured many of the great organizations that improve the quality of life for those of us who live in the Greater Cleveland area. We hope to capture here not just what we observed during the 2024 total eclipse, but also the spirit of our community at the Cleveland events we attended.

I am so glad that I finally toured The National Museum of Psychology on Wednesday, March 20, 2024!! The National Museum of Psychology is within the Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (CCHP), which is located at The University of Akron.

I think I first learned about The National Museum of Psychology about five years ago. I must have learned about the museum from shared social media announcements when they completed their 2019 building renovations. At that time, I immediately said to myself that I must go to explore this museum, but my visit to the museum kept getting delayed. I had earned a double major as a college undergraduate in psychology and history, with my psychology major being what I considered my primary emphasis, so I was excited to know there was a nationally recognized museum focused on my area of my interest so close to home.

Since The National Museum of Psychology does not open until 1:00 pm on Wednesdays, I first stopped to see the LeBron James Family Foundation's House Three Thirty facility - very impressive. It has a cabaret, museum, coffee shop, taco restaurant, sweet shop, bank, and more. This was my first time visiting.

In addition to The National Museum of Psychology, I also visited the Institute for Human Science and Culture (IHSC), which is on the 3rd and 4th floors of the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (CCHP).

I was very fortunate to happen to pick a Wednesday (March 20, 2024) that the Summit County Children Services had arranged a special tour, pizza dinner, and informational session at the psychology museum, which they invited me to attend. I enjoyed hearing from the agency staff and from students benefiting from internship opportunities offered by this important agency.

I knew I would enjoy visiting Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (CCHP), and I am glad I finally did visit after the long delay since I learned of it five years ago. Thank you to the Cummings Center for the History of Psychology (CCHP) staff for my visit. We are very fortunate to have this great resource in Northeast Ohio.

Thank you, NASA Glenn Research Center, for the NASA Aviation Day which was a free, public event that took place on Wednesday, September 13, 2023, at the Cleveland IX Center. I enjoyed talking to NASA Aeronautics staff members. They shared their knowledge about new technology developments with great passion.

I am sharing my photos, videos, and comments about the day in this blog post, since I appreciated the opportunity to learn about the latest NASA developments for the aviation industry. I also want to thank Tom Kunsman for recommending that I attend this NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) event! I recommend following Tom on social media (on BlueSky), since he does an excellent job of promoting all things NASA happening in Cleveland.

I enjoyed the morning's panel discussions at NASA Aviation Day. I learned about very new technology and safety developments happening at NASA Aeronautics.

Four Transformations for Sustainability, Greater Mobility, and Economic Growth:

• ULTRA-EFFICIENT AIRLINERS
• FUTURE AIRSPACE AND SAFETY
• HIGH SPEED COMMERCIAL FLIGHT
• ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY

After the morning's NASA Aviation Day panel discussions, I toured the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) display area. People usually associate NASA with space travel, but at this event, the emphasis was on the first "A" in NASA -- Aeronautics.

I truly enjoyed talking to NASA Aeronautics staff — they have such incredible passion for what they do, and are willing to share their knowledge as I ask questions .

NASA events are always interesting. I look forward to attending more of them in the future.

The Cleveland Public Library, for their Ninth Annual Maker Faire Cleveland, did the event a little differently than in past years. Instead of just a one-day maker event, they planned "family-friendly, free events at Cleveland Public Library locations across the city" for a full week! The week-long maker activities culminated in the Maker Faire Cleveland Showcase 2021 on Saturday, November 20th, at the Great Lakes Science Center.

In this blog post, we will share tweets with photos/videos leading up to and including our attendance at the Maker Faire Cleveland Showcase 2021.

A BIG thank-you to Tom Kunsman who made it a point to be sure that we knew about the Showcase. If it weren't for his tweet, we might have missed this year's event.

In addition to the Cleveland Public Library's Cleveland Maker Faire, we also learned about the The Best Buy Teen Tech Center, which is in partnership with The Clubhouse Network.

Thank you, Cleveland Public Library, for the FREE night at the Great Lakes Science Center for the Maker Faire Cleveland Showcase 2021! We appreciate that the Cleveland Public Library plans interesting tech and NASA-related events. We have attended several of them! The library is "The People's University" in Cleveland.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• 30th Anniversary of the NASA Glenn Graphics & Visualization Lab (GVIS)
  November 7, 2019.
  A special thank-you to NASA Glenn Research Center Computer Scientist Herb Schilling for this invitation-only event. Thank you, Tom Kunsman, for arranging an additional private tour of the NASA Glenn Library.

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

I am a very lucky man! In October and November 2019, I was very fortunate to attend many great events. I am publishing seven blog posts today because I really want to thank the organizers of these events. With so much happening, I have not been able to publish my blog posts on a timely basis, but still wanted to recognize and recommend these organizations.

In the interest of time, these are not my usual full blog posts, so I encourage you to click on the links and watch the videos in the tweets to learn more:

• NASA Hackathon! Space Apps Challenge Cleveland 2019!
  October 18 - 20, 2019.
  I want to thank the Space Apps Cleveland leaders (Tom Kunsman, Herb Schilling, and Sarah Dutkiewicz) for inviting me to attend. I highly recommend you learn more about the winners on these special Space Apps Cleveland web pages:
  Global Nominee: Dust Bunnies
  Global Nominee: Hackranauts
  Local People's Choice Winner: Escapees from 318 V2

I am truly grateful to all those who made these great events possible.

This whole year, I have been looking forward to the Michelangelo: Mind of the Master exhibition, so imagine how excited was to I receive an invitation to attend the Media & Influencer Preview of "Michelangelo: Mind of the Master."

Once I entered the exhibtion, I found it interesting to see people interacting and learning about the exhibtion. I also greatly enjoyed talking to others I knew at the preview, and sharing impressions with people who I met for the first time, as we enjoyed the drawings.

On the same evening as the Michelangelo: Mind of the Master preview, I attended the last hour of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Think & Drink with the Extinct event. It was a great way to end the evening in University Circle.

I am grateful to be able to attend many great events as a member of both the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History!

THINK & DRINK
Cleveland's brainiest happy hour . . .

Raise a glass with the Museum on select Thursdays and explore our different topics and latest discoveries with scientific experts — and drinks brewed by Northeast Ohio's best breweries — as your guide!

With a short walk in University Circle, I went from photography from 1940–1950 at the Cleveland Museum of Art to the world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Normally, these museums are not open late on Thursdays, but Thursday, March 21, 2019, was special!

This post about the Think & Drink -- Fantastic Beasts of the Natural World is the second of two blog posts about my evening in University Circle.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History has nature hikes at Mentor Marsh. We learned that the Museum's Natural Areas Department has over 9,400 acres of land on 56 natural areas.

When Julie and I heard about the May 6, 2018, Bald Eagle Fest at Mentor Marsh, we were excited to check it out!

My CMNH friends, adult programs coordinator Ashley Hall, and preparator and lab manager Lee Hall, had often recommended that I attend a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Members Behind-The-Scenes Night. They told me that attendees get to explore the normally off-limits lower levels of the Museum.

Therefore, when Spike Radway invited me to attend with him and Henry Lee, I knew I needed to make time to go.