The work of the Traveling Programs at MOS

Tomorrow we're going to be running Heartbreak Hill for the first time, which is a major hill in the Boston Marathon that comes up about 20 miles into the marathon.  We're running 8 miles for our long training run of the week, and it includes Heartbreak Hill.  As a present from my in-laws, I got a cool new running shirt that says "See you at the finish" and I'm planning to wear it to the training run tomorrow. 

We also got a team email this week about the recent work of the Traveling Programs at the Museum of Science.  Here are the things they've been working on lately:

• The team has taught programs for over 17,000 people in the past two months
• Currently prototyping demonstrations for their new multi-grade sound assembly Now Hear This: The Sounds of Science which will premiere in March (funded thanks to Marathon donations) 
• Premiering a new PreK-2 engineering program in January
• Purchase of a new van in January (funded thanks to Marathon donations)

If you want to help out with this wonderful program, please donate through my link on the Museum of Science website.  Thank you and Happy New Year!

P.S.  I should mention that I've been super hard core this week, running outside in Minnesota in the winter.  To be fair, the weather has been unseasonably warm, but still!

My friend Fiona is also running the Boston Marathon!

She's running to raise money for Community Servings, which is a fantastic organization.  Here's the link to her blog (if you want to donate, scroll down to the bottom): http://fionarunsboston.tumblr.com/


Happy Holidays!

Thanks to my donors so far!

Thank you so much to my MOS donors so far!  I'm up to $150, which is a great way to take the lead on my team for fundraising.  However, I would love to raise more this week!  This week we got a list of the things that different donation amounts will pay for in the Traveling Programs.  Here's the list:

Museum of Science Traveling Programs Marathon Donation Amounts

1. $10 - 100 balloons for shrinking in liquid nitrogen for our States of Matter school program
2. $25 - A dozen wine glasses to smash using resonance and a speaker (no opera singer needed) in our ‘Now Hear This: The Sounds of Science’ school program
3. $50 - A tank of gasoline for our small vans which will allow us to drive over 350 miles to serve schools and libraries
4. $75 - One night stay at a hotel in rural Maine for an overnight traveling program
5. $100 - 4 tanks of liquid oxygen that we can condense into rocket fuel for the finale of our Heat and Temperature school program
6. $250 - A full scholarship for a traveling program assembly to visit a library or community center
7. $500 - A full scholarship for a traveling program assembly to visit a school (serves up to 200 people)
8. $750 - A full scholarship for 2 traveling program assembly programs at a school (serves up to 400 people)
9. $1,000 - Scholarships for a full day of workshop programming at a school (serves up to 8 classes)
10. $2,000 - 100 hours of staff time in the Museum shop spent building equipment like a musical tesla coil for our school program on sound that we are currently developing

As you can see, the Traveling Programs do a lot of cool things and reach a ton of students.  If you haven't donated yet but are feeling the holiday spirit, you can donate here.  Thanks again!!!

In other news, I'm home in Pennsylvania now and I've been running in the surprisingly good December weather.  I ran 4 miles today and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I also just finished reading Born to Run, which was an excellent and inspiring book.  I would definitely recommend it if you have any interest in running.  It's not a book about the mechanics of running or evolution, which is what I thought it was after hearing about it from friends and my brother.  It's a true story about the author and ultradistance running, which is anything longer than a marathon.  Who knows what I'll get into next?

A training video!

We've been training for the marathon for 3 weeks now, and last week one of the other runners took a video of Alan and me running (while he was running himself, which is why it's a bit jumpy).  Alan and I are both running to support the Museum of Science Traveling Programs.  Here's the video.

I am also extremely proud to report that I'm currently leading the team in fundraising.  I've raised $150 already!  Please help me keep my lead!  Here's the link again.  Thanks so much to my first few donors!  You guys are great!

Please support me! (also Happy Birthday, Mom!)

As you hopefully read in my last post, I'm running the Boston Marathon in April to raise money for the Museum of Science Traveling Programs.  Since not all schools can get their students to the Museum of Science for field trips, the Traveling Programs take the museum to them!  They do all sorts of science programs at the K-9 grade level, and the programs are available on a scholarship basis to schools that can't afford them.  My husband's school has been one of the beneficiaries of this program.  Last year, they got to learn about heat and temperature in October, and motion, speed, velocity, and acceleration in November.

I'm really proud to be running for this program, and I would be honored and happy if you wanted to support me by donating to the Traveling Programs.  If you want to donate, the link is here.  If you were thinking of getting me a present this holiday season, this would be a great present!  You don't have to get me anything else!

Of course, I'd also love to have support on the day of the marathon, so if you can come to Boston for April 16, 2012, that would be wonderful!

I'm running the Boston Marathon!

I haven't posted in a while, have I?  Well, it's been a busy semester.  I've been a teaching assistant, taking a full class load, working on my technology and policy thesis, babysitting, and I started an internship at the Museum of Science at the beginning of October.  And I recently found out that I'm going to be running the Boston Marathon!  It's on April 16, 2012, and I'm really excited!  I'm going to be running to raise money for the Museum of Science Traveling Programs.  We had our first training run yesterday, which was 4 miles.  We'll be working our way up over the next 4.5 months, and I'm lucky enough to be running with 2 of my closest friends!  I just can't wait to finish up with classes and my thesis so that I can concentrate on my internship and running.  We'll see how this whole winter running thing goes - there's no chance I'll be running 18 miles on a treadmill, that's for sure!