(Check out the hair on this mummy head!! Can you believe how awesome that is?!)

One thing that has always been very important to us as parents is spending quality time together as a family. I’m sure that most of you feel the same, but like us it can also be hard to find things to do that are fun and worth it. Utah is such an amazing place to live because there are things to do in every season, and we happen to have a great downtown area with lots of opportunities to play and learn with our kids. The Leonardo Museum is one of those places that absolutely every family should visit together at some point. Plus, right now there’s mummies! Mummies at the Leonardo is a new exhibit that runs to the end of May.

Our oldest is currently finishing up her year in first grade and a lot has changed this year. She’s so much more independent and we’ve already noticed that things are changing in our house. She feels older and doesn’t need us the same as our 2 year old does. This has really made us stop and think. We want to make sure that our children have strong relationships with us and each other. We’ve found that the more we spend time unplugged together, doing something fun and new, the better we relate and function as a family. Seriously, try it. Go do something cool together, educational is even better, and see how you are able to talk a little more and your day goes a little better. Hopefully down the road we can continue to grow together and stay closer even through the teenage years. (Yes, they scare me. I need these girls to know how much we love them and want to be together!)

Recently we had an opportunity to head up to the Mummies exhibit at the Leonardo Museum. Our kids are young, but oh my goodness they were excited. I was a little nervous that it would scare them, so we did take the time to talk about what a special experience this would be. We discussed that people have been on this earth for a very long time, and we would get to see how people lived differently and believed certain things about burying their dead etc. We were very respectful while there and made sure that our girls saw us only be fascinated and never grossed out or nervous. Children will follow your example most of the time if you put forth the effort.

It was fun to walk around and talk about what we were seeing. It was such a great night for our family. Can you believe that there’s a baby there from over 6,000 years ago?! That’s incredible!!  It was fascinating to think that these mummies were real people with lives, jobs to do, feelings, trials, loves, losses etc. I wish I could have asked them about their lives, stories and families. Learning about the past tells us so much about who we are and it’s such a great reminder about who we want to be in our lifetime because it is in fact such a short time.

If you have a chance, pay the money and go to the museum. Go for a date or with the kids. It’s worth every dime. When will you ever get the chance to see someone from thousands of years ago?

The Leonardo Museum

(801)531-9800

209 East 500 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84111

To learn more about Camp Leo and sign up (better hurry, spaces are limited and filling up fast!) click here or paste theleonardo.org/summercamps2013 into your browser.

We talked to Leonardo staff members to get the inside scoop on Camp Leo. Answering questions are Erika DuRoss, education manager, Brooklyn McNaughton, education facilitator, Katherine Leksander, Leo on Wheels coordinator and education facilitator, Ben Leonhardt, education facilitator and Elly Baldwin, education facilitator.

What are some interesting, weird, funny, unusual things about you that young people taking the classes this summer should know? 

Erika DuRoss (education manager): I’m a bit of a frog fanatic. I grew up chasing frogs as a kid. As an adult I got paid to chase frogs, snakes, tortoises, salamanders and lizards for a handful of years in my work as a wildlife biologist/herpetologist. Unusual fact: I can touch my tongue to my elbow. Can you?

Brooklyn McNaughton (education facilitator): I can wiggle my nose just like Samantha on the old “Bewitched.” I’ll accept any challenge for Hands-up Stands-up, can’t really stop so well when on rollerblades, and sometimes, when I get bored, I like to imagine that the ground is made of trampolines. Try it!

Ben Leonhardt (education facilitator): I love sports and used to work for the NFL, NBA, and Minor League Baseball; I also played football, basketball, and pole vaulted in track, I loved the physics of it! I was even a track coach for three years, so if you misbehave I’ll make you run laps around the building.  Learning about science is cool and all, but having a hands-on teaching activity to demonstrate that knowledge is really what I’m all about.

Katherine Leksander (Leo on Wheels coordinator): I love climbing trees, chasing a soccer ball, telling jokes, and learning/using a new word of the day.

Elly Baldwin (education facilitator): I am an artist and I’m currently working on a project making my own books. I’m also from the Pacific Northwest where it is overcast 95% of the time, so I am preparing to tackle my first full summer here in Utah with a really good pair of sunglasses and lots of sunscreen.

Please pick one of the workshops you will be facilitating and tell us why you’re excited to be running it. 

Erika: As education manager I won’t be facilitating any camps but I will be involved in developing curriculum and will certainly pop in to see how kids are connecting to the concepts.

Brooklyn: I’ll be teaching a lot this summer! I’m particularly excited about SUM Fun Sports—I’m a former collegiate athlete as well as a firm believer in students using kinesthetic learning to explore concepts, which are sometimes lofty or difficult to grasp. There’s also the added benefit of calling the campers “mathletes.” Cool, right?

Katherine: I’m excited to run SUM Fun Sports because I love games. Sports are my favorite kind of games, because you get to run around! With this workshop we get to run around and play, while also learning some techniques to make our skills better. In explaining those techniques we’ll cover the math and science behind why those techniques make our game (and ultimately our skills) better!

If you were going to pick one of the other workshops to take part in (if you were a kid), which one would it be and why? 

Erika: If I were picking just one camp camp to go to, I’d be first in line for the Crazy ConCOOKtions camp. Lucky for me though, I don’t really have to choose one because I can pop into them all and experience the thrills of being a kid at camp all over again. I’m not only a science “geek” but I love all things food. You could say I’m “hungry for science.” My passions around food include using science as I tend to the fruits, vegetables and herbs growing right in my own backyard, experimenting with new flavor combinations, preserving the harvest, photographing the array of colors and textures, playing with different cooking techniques and ultimately sharing food with friends and family. I enjoy the sense of accomplishment of making my own food. My husband recently asked me if I would categorize my cooking as more of an art or a science. Honestly, I don’t know. Similar to science, good cooking is almost always the result of many failed attempts in the process of finding just the right combination. I use my understanding of science to inform my cooking and then bring in the art/creativity.

This camp will be a series of hands-on lab explorations investigating science phenomena connected to daily experiences with food. When all is said and done, it will be interesting to see whether the kids attending camp consider food preparation an art, a science, or the perfect blend of the two disciplines.

Brooklyn: Man oh man, I don’t know if I could choose just one. I actually developed these workshops, so it’s kind of like choosing a favorite child; I may or may not have one, but I’ll never admit it…

Ben: SUM Fun Sports for sure! You get to play all day and learn some cool science that could help make you a better athlete! It’s a win-win.

Katherine: I would pick the Animation Fun Fest, because I’d get to make my own movie out of stop motion animation characters! This makes it a bit easier to make a movie by yourself if you’re the only actor… I love making movies, but sometimes my friends aren’t into the same thing I am into. So, this would be a chance for me to fulfill a creative outlet that I enjoy doing, without needing my friends to help.

Elly: I would sign up for Urban Art. It’s such a cool opportunity to hang out with SLC street artists and experience firsthand how art can make a social statement or help build community.

Why is the Leo the place to be this summer? 

Erika: The Leo is a great place to give your curiosity a little nudge. Come ask questions, wonder with us about how and why things work the way they do, test your hypotheses, make new friends with similar interests, play with ideas and technologies, design something you can call your own, learn while playing, see our cool exhibits, need I say more…?

Brooklyn: Where do I start!? Not only is The Leo just a way rad place to be anyway, but our summer programs are geared toward campers who want to have a spectacularly fun experience without turning their brains off for the season. What’s not to love?

Ben: Your parents want you to keep learning even during summer break, but you want to play around and have fun, right? So come here and do both! That way you get to tell your parents about all the cool stuff you learned, but really, you were just playing around having a good time, and learned a bunch of really cool stuff in the process.

Elly: The Leo is the place to be all the time, but especially this summer because it’s the only place you can find such a wide range of fun camps that any kid would want to join.

theleonardo.org/summercamps2013

Built in 1964, our building was originally the Salt Lake City Main Library. The building was an immediate hit, lauded for the introduction of the “New Formalist” architectural style. At the time it was one of the rare municipal buildings that also featured public art. The sculpture at the south entrance of the building by and the large, untitled painting by V. Douglas Snow  in the atrium still stand, exactly as they did when the library opened in 1964. In fact we’ve gone to great lengths to preserve many of the old library’s original features!

So! What can you expect on Saturday? Grab your go-go boots and bob your hair as Library Square transforms into a 1960s themed party! Expect vintage cars, ’60s cover bands, costume contests, dance contests, free comic books, a free community writing workshop, and lots of activities for the kids. The events on Library Square are free, and admission to The Leo will be free of charge as well!

Hope to see you there! More info here.

 Then:

Now:

Well, I never went to Mill Hollow or any sort of woodsy summer camp. I was too afraid of being struck by lightning or becoming a bear snack. I did, however, go to a different sort of summer camp.  As a large-headed ten-year old boy I showed a knack for writing, scrawling out short stories in handwriting only slightly less legible than my current handwriting. My parents recognized this knack and enrolled me in a two-week long summertime creative writing program at what would eventually become my high school.

I ended up going to these “camps” three summers in a row. I loved being in a new environment, even if it was a classroom. I loved that the high school had vending machines and I could spend some of my allowance on Fritos. I loved honing my writing skills, learning how to take my weird little made-up stories and actually do something with them. Learning how to give them a middle and an end. Learning a bit or two about grammar, in a way that didn’t feel like I was just learning about grammar. My creative-writing aspirations haven’t slowed down since then. It’s why I’m writing this blog, it’s why during the day I write copy and at nighttime I write fiction.

I bring this all up because this summer The Leo is offering some daytime “camps” and workshops of our own. The budding young artist in your life can learn about and create Pop Art or Urban Art. Curious sorts can delve into the world of fractals in a program that blends math, art, science, and design. One of the programs takes a look at the perhaps surprising relationship between math and music,  and how that relationship interacts with all of our newfangled digital gadgets.

I’ll let you read more about them here.

Did you participate in any programs like this when you were a kid? Did you go to a traditional summer camp? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

Her whole life Hedy kept a quiet hobby, setting aside a room in her house for inventing. In 1941, with World War II raging in Europe, Hedy designed a communication system called “frequency hopping.” Her idea was that radio-guided torpedoes could switch between various radio frequencies, to make the torpedoes harder for the enemy to detect and jam. She was awarded a patent for this and presented her idea to the US Navy, but the Navy didn’t use the idea until much later, in 1962. The patent remained forgotten until 1998 when it was acquired by a company called Wi-Lan. Hedy’s invention served as the basis for “Spread Spectrum Communications Technology,” which we know better as bluetooth and wi-fi!

So anytime we see a businessman with a bluetooth receiver in his ear, or anytime we download an app onto our smartphone, we can thank Hedy Lamarr!

Big thanks to reader Annabelle Larson for suggesting Hedy Lamarr as a blog topic! Annabelle will get a pair of free tickets to The Leonardo. Still time to nominate your favorite female innovator for inclusion in this blog. Check out this Facebook page and put in your nomination!

Apps, programs, secret computer magics, whatever you want to call them, virtually every electronic device we use today runs on some sort of mathematical code. The idea of the computer program can be traced back to 1843 and “The Right Honourable the Countess of Lovelace,” Augusta Ada Byron, more easily known as Ada Lovelace.

In 1822 a mathematician named Charles Babbage proposed the use of a machine that would compute astronomical and mathematical tables. He called it The Difference Engine. The British Government funded the project but after 20 years of work Babbage still hadn’t delivered a functioning Difference Engine. He moved on to the more complicated Analytical Engine, which would be operated by punch cards, a practice used with computers into the 1960s.

While Babbage was doing all that, Ada Lovelace was studying math and science. At age 17 she showed a remarkable talent for mathematics, and the study of math became her primary focus in life.

She met Babbage and corresponded with him about his computer Engines. In 1842 Babbage gave a lecture about his analytical engine. Notes on the lecture were written in French, and Babbage invited Ada to translate the notes into English and to expound upon them. Her additions ended up being longer than the original lecture! She described an algorithm, the first ever specifically created for use on a computer.

In 1953 the notes were republished, and Ada Lovelace became recognized as having created the first computer program. In 1989 the London Science Museum finally built The Difference Engine based on Babbage and Lovelace’s plans.

“Forget this world and all its troubles and if possible its multitudinous Charlatans – every thing in short but the Enchantress of Numbers.”    - Charles Babbage, of Ada Lovelace

- Rosalind Franklin

Since it’s discovery in 1869 and continuing to this day, science has been trying to decode the mysteries of DNA. Friedrich Miescher first noticed it when examining used-up bandages. In 1927 Nikolai Koltsov suggested that inherited traits might be passed down through some sort of “hereditary molecule.”

In the early ’50s James Watson and Francis Crick modeled DNA as the “double-helix,” and became household names because of this. Well, maybe they’re only household names if your household is a junior high science class, but they received wide recognition and a Nobel Prize for it.

Here’s the catch: Watson and Crick get popular credit for discovering that DNA is shaped as a double-helix, but they got that notion from one Rosalind Franklin. In 1951 Rosalind presented a lecture in which she related facts she had uncovered about DNA, a lecture at which Watson was in attendance. Watson and Crick also had controversial access to an x-ray image Rosalind had created called “Photo 51,” the first “photograph” of DNA.

"Photo 51," copyright Nature magazine, used under Fair Use

Ever since she was a child, Rosalind Franklin had a love of facts and wanted to pursue a career in science. She was accepted into Cambridge University in 1938 but in what is becoming a trend on this blog, her father refused to pay, believing a woman had no place in higher education. She made her way in thanks to a generous aunt and while there she studied coal and graphite. Her research there led directly to the development of Carbon Fiber, a high strength, high resistance, low weight fiber used in all sorts of materials today, including prosthetic feet.

Rosalind went on to work with King’s College in London, where she personally made great advances in x-ray diffraction techniques, the photographic technique needed to capture chemical compositions. This allowed her to capture “Photo 51,” which for the first time showed us the double-helix structure.

The double-helix is considered one of the most important discoveries of the 20th Century. With the knowledge of this structure, scientists gained an understanding of how genetic information is stored and copied in DNA, and how hereditary traits are passed down.

Watson and Crick received Nobel Prizes in 1962, but Rosalind received little recognition for her contribution, and debate continues as to how much credit she deserves for the double-helix discovery. Regardless, she remained curious until the end, studying the Polio virus until her untimely death in 1958. To this day she is an inspiration for female scientists everywhere.

Sketch of Rosalind Franklin by Miriam Haworth

Elizabeth Holloway Marston and husband Willaim Moulton Marston. Archival Photograph, Bostonia Magazine

Elizabeth Holloway Marston was born in 1893 and was certainly a driven woman. Against her father’s wishes, she attended law school and paid her own way. Eventually her and her husband William found their way to the psychology department at Harvard. William was working on his Ph.D., which at the time was restricted to men only. Together they studied the link between blood pressure and deception. Elizabeth pointed out that when she was angry or excited, her blood pressure seemed to climb. Their research led them to create the systolic blood-pressure test, an early form of the lie detector test.

Elizabeth was a career woman and continued to work after having children, which was very uncommon at the time. In 1940 William was hired as an educational consultant for National Periodicals, the company that would eventually become DC Comics. He wanted to create a superhero in the fashion of that popular new Superman fella, with a difference being that this new character would use love instead of strength to solve problems. “Fine,” Elizabeth said, “but make her a woman.” Together, they developed Wonder Woman. The super heroine’s alter-ego, Diana Prince, was a Boston career woman directly modeled on Elizabeth. Wonder Woman’s “weapon,” the Lasso of Truth, was inspired by the couple’s earlier work with lie detection.

In the world of comics, Wonder Woman went on to be a founding member of the Justice League of America, and regularly helps Superman and Batman out of the jams they get in to. In the real world, Wonder Woman has appeared on a postage stamp, in her own TV show, and on the cover of the first issue of Ms. magazine in 1972. She’s been continuously published in various comic books since 1941, and is an instantly recognizable cultural icon. Her name is synonymous with female empowerment.

Elizabeth’s name is not widely known, but it doesn’t seem like she would have minded. Her daughter described her as “a small package of dynamite,” and when she died at age 100 Elizabeth left quite a legacy behind.

Wonder Woman stamp from the USPS

Don’t forget! Submit your own nominations for female innovators to be featured here on this blog. The five winners will each receive a pair of free tickets to The Leo! Leave a note on our Facebook page with your nomination, and why you think they should be chosen. Look forward to hearing from you!