Cicada-shell hunting is part of our summer fun. We hear the cicadas starting sometime in July and to me it's an integral part of the summer experience: it means heat, warmth, and (for the most part) days without hard agendas. My son knows I love insects and he's into it as well, often picking up ants, and of course participating in another fun summer-time activity: firefly catching. (We of course only catch them for a short period of time and release them — as I've told the kids, they've got a short period of time to find a mate, so we should probably let them get in as much time as they can to do so.) Anyway, we like hunting for cicada shells and my son came in and asked if other animals "molted." They do indeed — it's how insects and other animals (including arachnids and crustaceans) grow. Dragonflies, caterpillars, and crabs are but a few of the examples. But cicada shells are the easiest of those for us to find given our proximity to a small, but awesome, woodsy area. In truth, snakes do as well but I don't relish the idea of finding one of those. 

I've found that "treasure hunting" -- whether it's for chocolate, insects, leaves, etc. — is something that kids are into and can be educational (not the chocolate-hunting part, though I guess if you live near cacao trees, you could certainly do that, and if you are doing that, please send pictures!). You can talk about the process of how different animals grow, why they do so in particular ways, (why don't we humans leave 'shells' lying around?) and explore nature in general. Warning however: not everyone likes to be approached with cool exoskeletons as playground "show and tells." I can't imagine why. 

[Edit: I forgot I wanted to add a few examples of how this process works. A couple of sites for you, one from one of of my go-to insect sites, insectidentification.org: www.insectidentification.org/process-of-molting.asp and the other from a NOAA Fisheries page on crab molting: www.afsc.noaa.gov/Kodiak/shellfish/cultivation/crabGrow.htm

Last week, I had the pleasure of volunteer blogging for the World Science Festival, which took place throughout the five boroughs in NYC. I did three sessions geared for the Youth and Family portions of the festival. In the picture to the left, you can sort of make out a cicada crawling on Conor's fingertips. While he wouldn't stay for the whole program — a mix of conversation on the fascinating mating rituals of our six-legged friends and music inspired by the same and provided by musician David Rothenberg — Conor did at least enjoy handling the little bugs at the Cicada Serenade program, held at the New York Botanical Garden. Some of the conversation at the Serenade program was probably interesting only to older kids and adults — for example, the fact that some cricket ears may provide the basis for developing improved hearing aids because of the natural sophistication of these crickets' hearing capabilities. But a fun fact that kids might like: cicadas produce a sound of about 100 dB (decibels) which is equivalent to the sound of a jackhammer; the difference is that the cicadas are dispersed, so while loud, they don't collectively seem to produce a sound as "harsh" as a nearby jackhammer. 

I also attended two sessions (one in English, one in a combination of English and Spanish) of Pioneers in Science, featuring Dr. Nora Volkow, a psychiatrist and scientist whose work in brain imaging has shown that drug abuse is indeed a disease. Contrary to popular belief, the brain's connection to the frontal cortex is damaged by addiction and in that way it makes it extremely difficult for an addicted person to stop, even if they want to. Also of interest, younger people are more likely to form addictions because their brains respond faster to stimuli. 

My favorite session was definitely the "What is Time?" session with Alan Alda. Three scientists all expanded on the topic as per their particular field of study. While I enjoyed all three scientists' presentations, Dr. Alexandra Horowitz had a particularly fascinating one on how dogs tell time. That's kid-friendly fact #2 that I loved: dogs smell time. That is, if you leave the house, the diminishing intensity of your scent lets a dog know how long you've gone. Thus, if you come back after a longer period of time, your dog will probably exhibit submissive behaviors welcoming you: body shakes, lip-smacking/licking, and of course, a wagging tail. The rate of those behaviors is faster the longer you've gone. I observed this on Charlie yesterday after we came back from a particularly long day out (we went to the AMNH to meet friends): sure enough, she was doing the body shakes, lip-smacking, and tail-wagging at a faster rate than she does when we've just been out less than a few hours. It was so cool to see it now that I understand it. And dogs aren't the only animals that can sense time passing. 

Dr. Max Tegmark showed the audience how if you were able to travel to the edge of a black hole (you don't want to fall in), and you were able to then Skype your loved ones on Earth, you'd see them as if they were in a "fast-forward" mode, while back on Earth, those on the edge of the black hole would look as if they were doing everything at a half-time pace... veeeery sloooowly. 

I highly recommend watching the video of the What is Time? session on the World Science Festival site. In addition to the three scientists who presented on time, it also has the announcement of the 2013 Flame Challenge winner. The winners in both video and written presentation best explained (according to the judgement of 20,000 kids worldwide) the answer to the question which themed the session in a way that was ideal for 11-year olds. I'm already looking forward to next year's challenge!