Welcome

The Utah Science Center (USC) is merging with The Leonardo, the new center for Science, Art, and Culture opening in 2011 in the newly remodeled old Salt Lake City Main Public Library Building on Library Square.

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What’s New   Jul. 03, 2009

June 20, 2009

Curious about Nano Technology?  Check this out!

June 18, 2009

USC and The Leonardo are merging! The Boards of the two organizations met June 5 and unanimously agreed to merge, effective July 1. The merged organization will be known as The Leonardo. The merger has been in the planning stage for the past 5 or so years.

With Salt Lake City’s release of the bond for remodeling of the building and with the signing of the lease for the building between the City and The Leonardo, the lights are all green (finally!) for moving forward with The Leonardo. It’s been a long, tortuous path, and there’s still (and always will be!) much work to be done, but The Leonardo will be fully born in early 2011. Thanks to all involved who have worked so hard.

This web site will be functionally incorporated in The Leoardo site

(www.theleonardo.org) after July 1. Current News on this site will not be posted after July 1. Updates and current news will appear at www.theleonardo.org under Current News and on The Leonardo Blog (see the Blog report of the June 2nd Leo on Wheels’ 5 Years on the Road celebration). Note that The Leo is also on Twitter (tweet with us!) and Facebook (we want to be your friend!).

All USC operations and staff will be fully incorporated and included in The Leonardo. Three of the five members of the Utah Science Center Foundation Board now serve on The Leonardo Board. Joe Andrade, USC Director and Board Chair, will serve as Science Advisor and Manager of Special Projects with The Leonardo.

Thanks for your interest in, support of, and involvement in the Utah Science Center and its programs over the years. Now we all move to the challenge and excitement of building, opening, and operating The Leonardo - and maintaining, improving, and expanding our ongoing programs.

Welcome and thanks.

May 25, 2009

Welcome, Jae Kim! Dr. Jae Kim is with us this week to work on a range of exhibits and activities updating and enhancing software and graphical outputs and helping with completion of several new exhibits for Leo on Wheels and our Community Events and eventually for The Leonardo building. We will also be updating our Exhibit descriptions and related materials on this web site. Stay tuned!

 

May 18, 2009

Rasmus Groth of LILA (www.lila.io) - a Danish firm developing a very versatile design, visualization, and presentation software package - spent the day with us presenting and instructing on LILA. Our dynamic LILA-enabled team—and Rasmus (the tall guy in the middle)—are in the photo below. Tusind tak LILA for a very productive collaboration and resource!

click image for a larger version

May 13, 2009

Our visit to Idaho Falls and the associated Leonardo on Wheels—Science Community Night on May 13th, the Fueling Sustainable Futures team showcased its first Biodiesel workshop. Here are the slides prepared and presented at the event. Download now.

May 11, 2009

Thanks KIDX of Idaho Falls for featuring our visit to your fair city! Click the video below to watch the news segment they aired.

May 7, 2009

Going to Idaho! Leo on Wheels, having completed a very full and successful 08-09 year of Utah school visits, is heading North to Idaho Falls. Thanks to our program sponsor, Idaho National Laboratory, we will be in Idaho Falls next week, at Eagle Rock Jr. High School, 2020 Pancheri Drive. Community Night is Wednesday, May 13, 6-8 pm. Tell your Idaho friends to participate in this unique opportunity.

Fueling Sustainable Futures (FSF): Biofuels Workshop in Idaho Falls

FSF is a new program of the Utah Science Center and The Leonardo, in collaboration with Clean Cities Coalitions throughout the region. The program will launch and test its first regional workshop in Idaho Falls on Wednesday, May 13, 6:30-7:30 pm at Eagle Rock Jr. High School, 2020 Pancheri Drive. The workshop is a special, extra event associated with the visit of Leonardo on Wheels-Science, which is visiting Idaho Falls for the first time. Visitors to the Leonardo on Wheels Community Night, from 6 to 8 pm at the school, can also participate in the Biofuels Workshop. Both events are free and open to the public.

 

April 30, 2009

Hamthrax Flu, Maps, and Models: take a look, but don’t be alarmed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/health/30contain.html

April 28, 2009

President Obama spoke at the National Academy of Sciences yesterday in Washington, DC. Read his speech.

Swine Flu is of major concern--the best source of current information is the Federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) swine flu site:

http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/

 

April 27, 2009

The Utah Energy Forum had a wonderful session on Climate Change and regional weather on April 6. The exceptionally good and well illustrated talks are available at:

http://real2.state.ut.us:554/RAMGEN/energy/2009-04-06energy.rm.  

The Leonardo’s science team and its activities were well represented at ATK’s Expanding Your Horizons event Saturday morning. This girls only event motivates and encourages young ladies to consider science, engineering, and math. One of the organizers said that any men who might be present “are just for moving boxes.” (At least we’re good for something!).

And on Saturday afternoon we were out in force at the City Library Art and Science celebration in the library foyer and the second floor. In addition to Leo on Wheels exhibits, we had the wonderful Magic Planet projection system in action, helping visitors become more aware of planetary subjects and issues, including climate disruption.

Thanks to all who made these events happen and to the many motivated participants.

Leo on Wheels rolls this afternoon to Hyrum, UT in Cache Valley, delivering incredible science experiences to the students and community associated with the South Cache Center.

April 15, 2009

Happy Birthday, Leo! Leonardo da Vinci was born 557 years ago today, in Vinci, near Florence, Italy. No academic credentials, never published in his own time, and yet-500 years later-he is our icon, inspiration for creativity and invention and for the development of our own The Leonardo. Happy Birthday, Leonardo da Vinci.

Earth, Utah, The Leonardo- Better Pictures, Better Stories is the presentation which 4 University of Utah students make tomorrow to the annual conference of UGIC (the Utah Geographic Information Council). Laura Shearer, Sose Matuauto, Jeremy Smith, and Jacob Hansen have been working all semester on their unique stories using the Magic Planet spherical projection system, flat screen maps, and caricature maps via www.worldmapper.org. The talk is part of our plans for the Center for the Big Picture in The Leonardo. Click here for their poster.

April 13, 2009

Rockwell Collins is now the MAJOR sponsor of Leo on Wheels-Science (LOWS). Nick Gibbs, Sr. Director of Visual Systems, presented their second annual $25,000 check today for ongoing sponsorship of LOWS. In addition, Rockwell Collins has developed a custom, interactive flight simulation system to help youths and adults get excited about science, engineering, mathematics, and geography. The user can select to take-off and land at 30 different airports around the world, including Salt Lake City. The "pilot" sees highly realistic topography, weather, and 3D features at a high resolution due to Rockwell Collins’ unique imagery-based out-the-window scene-rendering capabilities. The FlightSim exhibit will be a highlight of our upcoming flight and aerospace event, June 1-3 from 2 to 5 pm each day, at the Salt Lake City Main Library’s Urban Room. Thanks Rockwell Collins for your interest and support!

ARUP Labs also continued its annual support of The Leonardo and USC programs.

Our sponsors are all recognized on the Sponsors link above.

April 8, 2009

See you on May 5! Today’s SL Tribune ‘Stars Align for Leonardo’ article:

http://www.sltrib.com/ci_12084332

notes the public meeting on May 5 for input on The Leonardo. Come and show your interest and support.

Di Esperienza is a new Plan B Theatre play which premiered in Salt Lake last week. It does a great job of getting to know da Vinci, his personality, and his accomplishments (and lack of them!).

SLVSEF 09 winners, awards, sponsors, and other information is on the site. Click on the SLVSEF icon on the left.

Leo on Wheels keeps rolling! Click on the icon on the left and play with our interactive map (click on Where we’ve Been) See if we’ve been to your school yet.

NanoDays 09 was a great event in the City Library foyer last week, involving UU Nano Institute students, the Governor’s USTAR program, and, of course, our USC team.

 

March 28, 2009

You can now watch complete half hour episodes of the DragonflyTV Nano season online on PBS Kids Go. The six episodes were filmed at a number of NISE Net partner sites and feature kids conducting inquiry-based investigations, scientist profiles, and more. Watch now. There are great educator resources to go along with each episode as well. Be sure to check them out.

SLVSEF 2009 is now history! The cheering and the congratulations are over. Thanks to Jody Ostrander,  Dr. Brenda Mann, and their wonderful team along with the hundreds of judges, students, teachers, and parents for a wonderful competition and event. The winners are off to the International Fair in Reno in May. Congratulations and good luck!

See the SLVSEF portion of this site for details

Leo on Wheels is rolling East (in our ‘new’ diesel truck) to Altamont, Mar. 30-April 2; Community Night is Mar. 31, 6-8 pm at Altamont High School.

NanoDays April 2-4 at the City Library, 3 pm to closing. Join our team and U of Utah students with the new Nano Institute they’ll be doing nano demos and experiments. Learn about the State’s USTAR program and its nano-initiatives.

See nano-links, below.

And more Events to come.  Stay tuned.

March 19

Diesel Wheels! We now own a 2003 Ford F250 Diesel truck—a much more reliable vehicle with which to deliver Leo on Wheels–SCIENCE throughout the state. We thank our industrial sponsors for helping with this acquisition. We went for a diesel as part of our renewable fuels interests and activities. We should be running a biodiesel blend soon–and the truck then becomes a key part of our Energy exhibits and programs.

The LOW-S team is in Cedar City this week at Cedar Middle School–with the ‘new’ truck. We are very pleased to now have reliable transportation! See how pleased we are?:

click to see bigger

March 14

NanoDays are coming! April 2-4, afternoons, at the SLC Main Library foyer. The Leonardo—Science and University of Utah students are participating in the National NanoDays celebration. Come and experience scale, strange properties, and cool new applications.

A great video introduction of nano tech can be viewed here.

...and to go along with the above, a great nano-song and beautiful voice can be heard here.

Be sure to view a local University of Utah entry to the nano-video contest here.

Nano’s always been around—we used to call it Chemistry and Physics. But it really is cooler and more exciting today—with some really wild career opportunities!. Experience NANO with The Leonardo—Science and University of Utah.

February 20

More The Leonardo in the News! Congrats to Peter Giles

February 17

Mayor Ralph Becker talks to KCPW’s Jeff Robinson about his recommendation to move ahead with The Leonardo. Listen now by clicking play below:

Please download the Flash plugin to hear this audio.

Leo on Wheels in Central Utah: The LOW-S team was in Salina last week and will be in Gunnison this week.  See the full calendar here.

February 11

City Council unanimously endorses The Leonardo project!

The Salt Lake City Council unanimously endorsed The Leonardo Project and the release of the $10M voter-approved bond at last night's Council meeting.

Read the story in the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News.

Thanks to Allan Roberts, Peter Giles, and Alex Hesse for the New Plan and The Leonardo's new way forward. And thanks to all the others who worked so hard to get us here, including Rocky Anderson, Winter Horton, and the many members of The Leonardo and Utah Science Center teams. 

January 6

The Leonardo Microscope Gallery... see what others have captured with our neat little digital microscope. view gallery

 

December 15

The 350th day of the year! So what? Well, 350 ppm is the CO2 concentration most feel is reasonable to avoid severe and catastrophic climate change due to global warming. The concentration now is about 400 ppm, so not only do we have to stop increasing CO2, we actually have to produce much less to eventually decrease it to the 350 ppm level. See www.350.org for details. The 350th day of the year is becoming a symbol for the 350 ppm goal.

Need help with Math--see today's Deseret News story: 'Need help with Math?'. 

and search KhanAcademy on YouTube.

Math--the language of science!

Joe Andrade speaks with KPCW in Park City about The Leonardo on Wheels outreach program before a visit to Heber City. listen now

Science Links! We’re going to start posting links to interesting science videos, articles and more on our links page. If you have ideas for good links to share with others, then please let us know. Our first link is a great video about a dot and a line. Check it out!

LOW-S Blog, current and entertaining, at:

http://utahsciencecenter.org/lows/our_blog/

We’ve moved! The Utah Science Center/Leonardo on Wheels offices have moved, with The Leonardo staff, to The Leonardo building. We have generally worked from home or on the road, so it is nice to finally have a place to call home. The mailing address and phones, as well as email addresses, all stay the same for the time being. Our shop continues to be at the Salt Lake Center for Science Education (SLCSE) thanks to our collaborations with the SLC School District.

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