This summer, the Discovery Center took our monthly guest speaker series online. Our educator Dave McDonald kicked off our virtual Super Stellar Friday back in June, with his presentation on the summer solstice. In July, our Membership and Volunteer Coordinator, Katie Marinoff, put her math degree to use by talking about the Pythagorean theorem, and in August, our Education Director, Mirka Zapletal, shared her doctoral research on carnivores along the Louisiana coast.

Today we’ll provide some projects that you can do to bring more plants and animals to your home. Even if you live in an urban area, you can still do everything listed. Check out the fun activities below.

Whether we live in urban or rural settings, most of us can say that we’ve visited a natural place such as a forest, lake, pond, mountain, beach, or meadow. If you haven’t, that’s okay; it’s never too late to explore the outdoors. Being in nature for many can be a peaceful, exciting, and educational experience all at once.

This post will cover some different types of natural spaces that you’ll find on Earth. We’ll also list some great ideas about how you can get out in nature and learn to observe the wild world around you. Even if you live in the city.

We had a lot of fun yesterday figuring out long-term changes in the environment of a location by looking at fossils from different periods in time- if you missed the guided virtual activity, the video is on our Facebook page here and you can find the downloadable documents here.

Rockets and other spaceships are featured in many science fiction books and movies. In these stories, high-powered spaceships are usually able to travel to multiple galaxies without much effort. Unfortunately, we are not able to travel like that in the real world, but rockets are still used a lot for human space flight and other means. We’re going to show you a simple yet fun rocket building activity that’s perfect for anyone who enjoys space. Adult supervision is recommended for this activity. You’ll also find a bonus story-writing activity below that you can use to feature your new rocket.

If you enjoy reading, then it’s possible you’ve read a science fiction book. Science fiction, or sci-fi, is a genre of fiction that usually deals with futuristic themes such as advanced technology, time travel, space exploration, alternate reality, artificial intelligence, and alien life. The sci-fi genre is related to, and often intertwines with fantasy, horror, and superhero genres as well. Reading sci-fi books and watching sci-fi movies are often exciting, since the stories are usually action-packed and fantastical.

In this all-ages virtual event, participants will use fossil evidence to study ancient organisms and reconstruct the past environments (ecosystems) where they lived—accompanied by live guidance from our Director of Education! ​ Sunday, August 2 at 2:00 PM, on Facebook Live. Read this post to learn more.

The goal of the Artemis Program is "to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024... hopefully making advances that will allow us to someday send humans to Mars."​

Learn more about this history-making project in an exclusive virtual chat with speaker Patricia Moore, Museum Liaison for NASA's Deep Space Exploration Division!​ Click here to learn more about this upcoming virtual event, Tuesday, August 11 at 2:00 PM.

In order to make sense of their surroundings, humans have been making maps for thousands of years. One of the oldest surviving maps of the world is actually a small clay tablet dating back to 700 to 500 BCE called The Babylonian Map of the World. It shows the City of Babylon in the center with the Euphrates River crossing through the city, with the ocean surrounding it.

Join us Friday, August 7 at 7:00 PM as we explore the impact of climate change on local ecosystems in the next Virtual Super Stellar Friday!

The search for adventure and exploration is inside many of us, and has been part of human history for thousands of years. Ancient people used boats, horses, or their own feet to explore. Today, we use high-tech devices such as airplanes, submarines, and rockets to explore the world and beyond.

The one thing that we modern people of today have in common with ancient people is that we record and track our exploration in the form of maps.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

In this first-person article, follow along as Juliette Lee, a marine science instructor at Catalina Island Marine Institute, shares her interests, professional journey, and insights on the relationship between environmental conservation and public policy.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Sarah McAnulty is an American squid biologist and science communicator, specializing in cephalopods. Open this post to learn about her work, interests, and more.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Jess Phoenix is a vulcanologist—a geologist specializing in volcanoes—as well as an ecological activist and advocate, who also recently ran for a seat in U.S. Congress. Learn more about this dynamic STEM woman here.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Katie Marinoff is the Discovery Center’s Membership & Volunteer Coordinator, and resident mathematician! In case you missed it, here is a recording of her recent presentation for Super Stellar Friday, about Pythagorean geometry.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Dr. Katie Bouman is an associate professor at the California Institute of Technology. She is a part of the Event Horizon Telescope team that in 2019 released the first ever image of a black hole. Click here to read more about this scientist and her pioneering work!

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Michelle Larue is a conservation biologist and ecologist who uses satellite imagery to understand polar animals. Learn more about her and her work here.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Maria Skidmore is a college student and one of the Discovery Center’s 2020 Summer STEM interns. Learn more about her experiences as an emerging STEM professional here.

Welcome to our virtual Celebration of Women in STEM! All day today—July 20, 2020—we’re sharing the stories of real women working in science, technology, engineering, and math professions. Through interviews, videos, and storytimes, we’ll learn about the work, inspirations, and educational pathways of historical and current women engineers, scientists, and mathematicians!

This event is one component of an ongoing project at the Discovery Center, in which we aim to support equity in STEM by increasing the diversity of people depicted in our exhibits and programs. The project is supported, in part, by funding from the Association of Science & Technology Centers & Lyda Hill Philanthropies' IF/THEN initiative: If we support a woman in STEM, then she can change the world!

Rosemary Mosco is a naturalist and science writer whose making biology more fun and approachable with her nature comics, art, and children’s books.