Science is Cool!

I've been sitting in on a 5th grade class at Allen Elementary to observe how science it currently taught. It's been very educational and will greatly help in crafting my master's degree final project.

I'm excited at working to solve a problem in California schools; the lack of science education they get per week. According to a report earlier in the year, students are lucky to get 1 hour of science education a week. 1 hour!?!


The United States of America needs more engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and many many other types of science/math people. It keeps us economically competative. It also benefits society by increasing the number of individuals who can successfully listen to, analyze and draw conclusions from the enormous amount of media we're bombarded with daily.

I believe that most Americans need these skills in order to:

• protect themselves from being taken advantage of (i.e. consumer debt)
• challenge their governing bodies/institutions (i.e. civil rights infringment sanctioned by legislation such as the Patriot Act) and


• help advance humanity in a positive direction through better decision making (i.e. choosing to use mass transit instead of driving, paying more for "green" products instead of products that use destructive chemicals and manufacturing processes).

While my project focuses on a specific aspect of science education, increasing it, I hope that it has far reaching effects upon society and people.

iDo: Bench Round 2

Well, now with the wedding crazies gone, I'm able to focus on iDo: Industrial Design Outreach.

Last year we rolled out a Community Bench Curriculum. It was so successful that the principal and teacher asked us back to offer the project to the next class of Thurgood Marshall students.

So far, so good. As compared to last year, the students are having a hard time grasping the concept of "community". Many of them think of sports, video games, family, marriage and pets. It's interesting to think about what community really is. How is it defined? What makes up a community...

For myself, I can say my family, my friends (which are like a family - we do Sunday dinners together), the crew of folks that I go to Burningman with, the crew of folks that I go snow skiing with, and my outdoor camping crew are all the communities that I strongly identify with. But, how would I represent that in the medium of a bench? Each community is unified by a similar point of view towards life, how we interact with others, and a belief in what our purpose is on earth. How in the world would I visually represent that??!!

It's no wonder kids have a hard time putting visuals to such a personal and sometimes shifting concept that is shaped by so many variables...


One student proposed a bench on the bench... interesting, but why a bench on a bench. She said it was because benches help to create community by providing a place for people to gather at, talk at and meet other people. Seems like a pretty good idea!

Wedding Accomplished

The one thing I keep asking myself is how is it possible that I planned, dreamed of and experiences the entire day and not really remember it all? Thank goodness we had an awesomely creative photographer, Jerry Yoon and Ingrid. I am ecstatic that we went with them, because their creative point of view and amazing skills shine in the photographs.

Anyone looking for vendors for events, I whole hearted recommend:

Jerry Yoon Photography (Oakland, California) - Ask for Jerry
All Seasons Catering (Mill Valley, California) - Ask for Stan or Gay
Fiori (Burlingame, California) - Ask for Tina or Lindsey

They made our wedding spectacular!!! Everyone keeps raving about how it was the best food they'd ever had at a wedding, how awesome Jerry and Ingrid were, and how beautiful the flowers were.

The location was super too: The Golden Gate Club in the Presidio of San Francsico...