POPVOX: Ensuring Congress Hears

A couple weeks ago, I received an email from Netted by the Webbys that had election related apps and websites. Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to highlight some of their finds before the election was upon us. But, one of the sites will be very useful to us even when the election is totally over.

The site is called POPVOX, and it gives constituents a chance to more effectively communicate with Congress. Basically, POPVOX asks you to create an account so they can verify whether or not you are a legitimate constituent. Once that's accomplished, they have bills pending before Congress on their website, and you choose to support or oppose them. After you've done this, you have the option of commenting on the legislation and sharing what you find via social media.

One of the major stands of POPVOX is not editorializing, so instead of commenting on the bills themselves, they let advocacy organizations log onto POPVOX and give their two cents.They also tabulate the number of people who are supporting or opposing each bill, and tracking what they are saying about them.

In addition to bill information, POPVOX contains info on Members of Congress, states, and districts. This gives you an idea of what is going on, and also makes it easy for Congress to see what people are concerned about. Ultimately, POPVOX gives you an easy way to look up what bills are coming down the pike, and then gives you an easy way to say something about them.

The result; congress hears what you say. The POPVOX site comments, "When the information coming into your Members of Congress is public, counted, sorted and searchable, your voice is amplified — and Congress can’t ignore it."

If you are interested, you can visit the Why POPVOX Works page for more information. 

Glow in the Dark Experiments

Who doesn't like stuff that glows, and I figured it was appropriate for Halloween :)

Glow Sticks

An easy way to get glowing is glow sticks. Basically it is a chemical reaction between two compounds that, when mixed, release excess energy as light. If you are interested, it is a process called chemiluminescence.I found that the kids understood the idea of a chemical reaction if you talk about mixing baking soda and vinegar, as most have done that.

Once we understood a little more about chemical reactions, I actually cut open one of the glow sticks. Each glow stick is actually made of two sticks; one plastic one that you feel, and one glass one that is lodged inside. When you crack a glow stick you are actually breaking the inner glass tube that releases one chemical into the other and presto, instant light!

Glow Paint

Let your participants paint a design on a black piece of paper without telling them that it is glow in the dark paint. Once they are finished, turn off the lights and watch their surprise. Once they've seen the affect, you can talk about the science behind it called photoluminescence (the paint absorbs photons and then releases them in the dark is the short answer hehe. Another way of thinking about it is the paint getting excited and then releasing this excitement as light, just like we might release our excitement by dancing).

Finally, we mixed some GAK with glow paint (but glow powder would work just as well). This experiment is fun to do no matter what, and seeing it glow in the dark after you mix it just makes it that much cooler =D

The Scorch Trials: Out of the Maze, Into the Fire

The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Why did I read it?

Because I couldn't stop reading the series after The Maze Runner =D

What happened?

SPOILER ALERT

While Thomas and others from The Glade thought they were finally safe...nothing could be further from the truth. It turns out that the very people who "saved" them were the very people who had put them in the maze in the beginning, and their next challenge starts now!

In the maze, the Gladers had a sense of control. They had figured out their surroundings and their was a certain amount of safety behind the walls of The Glade. But now, there is nothing protecting the Gladers from the terrifying reality of planet Earth. Apparently, huge solar flares have ravaged the surface of the planet, and if Thomas and his friends want to survive, they have to reach a haven that rests on the other side of the worst desert on the planet.

But, getting across The Scorch is going to be everything but easy. If the lightning storms don't kill them, it will be the Cranks (people who have been affected by a terrible disease called The Flare). Or will it be each other?

What did I like or not like?

Dashner does a great job of keeping this story fast-paced, exciting, and mysterious. Around each turn and new character there is danger, and slowly, ever slowly, we start getting glimpses of what might be going on here.

Thomas helps us with this as he slowly starts to remember things that happened before the Glade. But, the more he remembers, the more he wonders if he ever wants to remember at all...

While many second books suffer from a lack of story line as the author waits for the third installment, this book has plenty of action, character development, and plot. Once I got done with it, I had a hard time not reading the third and final book, The Death Cure. 

Infographic About How the Internet Works

Posted from Open-Site.org

Goth Girl Rising: Lashing Out or Moving On

Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga

Why did I read it?

Because I finished The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and had to know if Kyra was going to be able to work through her problems, or if she was going to get worse...

What happened?

SPOILER ALERT

So Donnie thought that he might have unintentionally told Kyra to kill herself, so he freaked out and called her Dad who swiftly dropped her back in the mental hospital. Oh sweet!

Well, Kyra just got released, and she is still ticked at her Dad and Fanboy (Donnie)! But, she is willing to give Fanboy a chance because she really did like him, and even though he still has a lot of work to do on Schemata (his graphic novel), he understands girls better than any other boy she knows.

But, she very quickly realizes that she can't forgive Fanboy like she thought. Not only did he not write her a single email while she was imprisoned, he seemed to forget she even existed and completely move on without her. He even had the nerve to publish Schemata in the ridiculous school art paper.

So needless to say, Kyra is not happy, and she is going to stop at nothing until she has absolutely destroyed Fanboy!

What did I like or not like?

As I mentioned, I decided to read the sequel because I had to figure out what was going to happen to Kyra, and I also got totally drawn into these characters and this world. Lyga's sequel doesn't disappoint. You still have the same interaction and characters from Fanboy and Goth Girl, but instead of it being from Donnie's perspective, this time we get a peek inside of Kyra's head.

Similarly to Donnie's experience, Kyra goes through a whole bunch of things that ultimately make her realize that she isn't as alone as she might have thought. But even more ultimately, Krya finds a way to deal with her anger, and her mother's death, that is both realistic and hopeful.

P.S. Just like the first title, there is language and sexual references throughout this one.

"Five Things I've Learned" from Yours Truly

Hey everybody =D

So I was looking through the statistics on my blog yesterday, and this is my 202 post! Thank you to everyone who reads and supports me. You are awesome!

While this isn't quite a Techno Tuesday, I thought it would be cool to link to my earliest post, and give you a synopsis of what I've learned since then. 

I started posting on April 9, 2012 with a post called From Page to Librarian, which told a little bit about how I got from shelving the books to working as the Young Adult Librarian.

Since that time, I've learned quite a bit more about how to do my job, and these are some of the highlights =D

Let me preface by saying I haven't perfected any of these, and that I'm a big advocate of the first one!

1. Be Teachable

Things are always going to be changing, so be willing to roll with the punches.

2. Be Fearless

Things aren't always going to be easy, but the hard stuff often pays off.

3. Be Consistent

Things need to build on themselves, and it works really well if you get them out consistently.

4. Be Collaborative

Things don't always work in a vacuum, so ask questions and be willing to ask for help. 

5. Be Resilient

Things aren't always going to work or work out, so keep on trying.

Thanks again for reading, and here's to constantly growing and improving!

Make Your Own Pretzels

Does anybody else ever have trouble coming up with program ideas? At the end of the summer, we obviously start planning for our Fall programs, and its always a crazy time trying to figure out what we're going to be doing.

One of the programs I struggle with the most is our Play With Your Food cooking program. While I'm not totally inept in the kitchen, it is still a little intimidating to be in charge of telling kids how to cook something that is going to taste good when you are finished.

But, the programs we've done so far have been successful, fun, and have tasted pretty good, so I guess I'll just try to do what I've been doing =D

All of that to say, the first program we held for 3-5 graders this Fall was Make Your Own Pretzels. I grabbed a recipe from allrecipes.com, and went for it. Turns out that the recipe is quite fabulous, and the kids had a really good time making them.

One thing the recipe didn't mention that we tried was making our own shapes instead of everyone sticking with the traditional pretzel shape. We made chips, hearts, balls, and even a lizard.

While the program worked really well, the one problem we had was with the dough. It tended to be a little dry which made it harder to mold, but adding a little bit of extra oil seemed to help, and they turned out awesome in the end.