After a red-eye to Chicago, the picture to the left could be what my eyeballs looked like on Sunday morning. But it's not. It is a map showing the extent of aurora in the far northern latitudes for Sunday July 15. A CME was produced by the sun on Friday and headed straight towards Earth. Fortunately, the solar wind and storm that followed was not severe. Yay! My Heliophysics education begins Monday, July 16 at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago, Il. With the sun throwing temper tantrums, I cannot think of a better time to learn more :)

I return to the 'Windy City' for a workshop that brings together the NASA Heliophysics Education Ambassadors (HEAs) from the past three years. We share our experiences and student work samples from the GEMS Space Science Curriculum, developed by the Science Education Folk at Lawrence Hall of Science, UC Berkeley. GEMS, is an acronym. It stands for Great Explorations in Math and Science. And they are. Wanna learn more about GEMS click here . The Adler Planetarium (right) is my office for the next two days.

I am way too early for my hotel check in so I unload my cumbersome luggage, and away I go to the Museum of Science and Industry, just a stone's throw from Adler on Lakeshore Drive. It's a nice day to wander around the huge facility. Plus it is heavenly air-conditioned, now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!

OMG!!!! In my sleep deprived state, I mixed up the Museum of Science and Industry with the Chicago Field Museum. I kept on asking the docents where the stuffed Mastodon was. But it turned out to be a better match because of the influence of the Engineering Design Process in STEM. YES!!!