This weekend was an exciting one, with a trip to Corvallis for my fellow Sea Grant Scholars and I.\u00a0 Corvallis was playing host to a science and arts festival called da Vinci Days<\/i> .\u00a0 What makes this festival stand out from the other science and art festivals is that it is meant to remind people, especially artist and scientists, that the two pursuits are intertwined.\u00a0 One of the demonstrations that the festival featured to do this was by having\u00a0community built\u00a0kinetic sculptures.\u00a0 Kinetic sculptures are sculptures, pieces of art, which using the power of science are designed to be moved by human motion and in the case of da Vinci Days<\/i> to race over obstacles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oregon Sea Grant also had a booth at the festival which my fellow scholars and I had the privilege to work.\u00a0 For me it was a great opportunity to reach out and discuss rockfish conservation issues with the festival goers.\u00a0 Before arriving in Corvallis I was asked to make a poster describing the work I do and my experience as a summer scholar.\u00a0 The poster was to be hung while I tended the booth on Sunday morning, with the hopes of catching attention and creating an opportunity to engage people in my work.\u00a0 To my delight I found quite a few people attracted to my poster and with whom I was able to engage.<\/p>\n
The real highlight of the event though was going with the other Sea Grant scholars to listen to Dr.\u00a0Jane\u00a0Lubchenco speak as key not speaker for the festival.\u00a0 As the former director of NOAA, she spoke about how Washington D.C and politics interact with environmental issue and how important it is for scientists to communicate their science in a manner that is easy to understand.\u00a0 She also spoke to and demonstrated how\u00a0the art of narrative story telling can easy the barriers to communicating science. She did this by relaying her experiences as the director of NOAA in a series of short story, which she collectively titled Dr.\u00a0Jane\u00a0goes\u00a0to\u00a0Washington<\/span>.\u00a0<\/p>\n I am very lucky and appresiative of Oregon Sea Grant to have had the opportunity to attend the 2013 da Vinci Days<\/em> festival and left more inspired and determined than ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This weekend was an exciting one, with a trip to Corvallis for my fellow Sea Grant Scholars and I.\u00a0 Corvallis was playing host to a science and arts festival called da Vinci Days .\u00a0 What makes this festival stand out … Continue reading