NanoDay: Small Science

Two pint-sized scientists, dressed in long, white lab coats, watched as Amber Cobb squeezed two drops of water into a cup filled with “Magic Sand.” The water sat on top of the mystical grains, unabsorbed. The mini researchers’ eyes grew big as they observed.

“This experiment explains how this sand is hydrophobic,” Cobb said. “The oil in the sand makes the water repel. See?” she asked, tipping the cup of “Magic Sand” forward for the viewers to see.

The lab-coated girls stared in amazement. “Wow!” they expressed, in unison.

NanoDay at Louisiana Art and Science Museum was filled with experiments and hands-on activities to teach visitors about nanoscience, the study of small matter.

Cobb, a junior at East Baton Rouge Laboratory Academy, performed her experiment at the Louisiana Art and Science Museum’s NanoDay today.The event celebrated nanoscale science, which is the study of matter ranging from one to 100 nanometers in size.

“To understand nanoscale, consider that a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter in size,” said Tara Kistler, LASM communications coordinator. “For example, a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers in width.”

NanoDay at LASM is part of a nationwide festival where educators, engineers, students and scientists create hands-on demonstrations to inform attendees all about tiny matter.

“This nationally takes place from March 24 through April 1,” Kistler said. “And it’s celebrated at more than 200 science museums, research centers and universities across the country.”

In order to host NanoDay, LASM applied to the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network. This is the second year for the museum to host the event.

“I’m an art educator that happens to love science,” said Tammy Frazier, LASM art education curator. “So when I first learned about the NISE Net and what a valuable resource they were for informal science education, I knew LASM needed to get involved. We hope to make it an annual event.”

Frazier believes hosting NanoDay is a way to both inform and excite the Baton Rouge community about the study of small matter.

“Our community is full of passionate scientists,” Frazier said. “By hosting NanoDay at LASM, we are able to bring many of these scientists out of their laboratories, research centers and classrooms to share what they know and love with children and adults in our community.”

Volunteers from organizations such as ExxonMobil, the J. Bennett Johnston Sr. Center for Advanced Microstructures and Devices, and the LSU Department of Physics joined high school students like Cobb to demonstrate the study of nanoscience.

Tammy Frazier, Louisiana Art and Science Museum art education curator, demonstrates how to make a carbon molecule out of candy and toothpicks at NanoDay.

Visitors enjoyed activities such as creating a giant nano-tube out of balloons and building molecular models of carbon from toothpicks and candy.

“It’s been fun to do the different experiments,” said Adrianne Crouse, of Baton Rouge. “The hands-on activities are really interesting.”

The event made it possible for volunteers and visitors to enjoy teaching and learning the intricacies of nanoscience.

“Science is exciting, and the scientists and educators that work with us at NanoDay want to share that excitement with everyone,” Frazier said. “I think this is what makes this event so successful.”

Red Stick Farmers Market: Buy Fresh. Buy Local

Buddy Miller, clad in a camouflage bucket hat that covers his wool-white hair, leans over his table, straightens his large-framed glasses and pops a pecan into a customer’s mouth. He sits back and gives a hearty, raspy laugh as the customer chomps on the salty-sweet snack Miller harvested with his own hands.

“What could be better than that?” he asks, a child-like grin covering his face.

Miller, owner of Plantation Pecan in Waterproof, La., sells his products at the Red Stick Farmers Market every Saturday in downtown Baton Rouge. He is one of more than 50 farmers who haul their locally grown products to market for customers to buy.

“To make what we do worthwhile, we have to have access to people,” Miller said. “And this market gives us the venue to achieve that.”

Buddy Miller (seated), owner of Plantation Pecan, teaches shoppers how to make perfect pancakes with pecan meal at the Red Stick Farmers Market Saturday, March 10.

Miller drives three hours every Saturday to sell a variety of crops at the market, including asparagus, peaches, nectarines and, of course, his famous crowd-favored pecans. This is Miller’s 10th year selling at the market.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to not only come and shop,” Miller said. “You’re sitting across the table from the person that raised your food, so you build a relationship with that person.”

2012 marks the 15-year anniversary of the farmers market, which continues to build strong connections between local farmers and shoppers.

“A lot of people remember when there wasn’t a lot going on downtown,” said Darlene Rowland, director of development for the Red Stick Farmers Market. “But the market always brought people downtown and really created a community-building experience.”

Every Saturday, rain or shine, this tight-knit community of residents and farmers buy and sell a variety of local products.

“So many people come religiously every week,” Rowland said. “It’s really a place where it’s more than just buying your vegetables and fruits; you make friends.”

Shoppers can also visit the Main Street Market, which is open six days a week and is located at the center of the farmers market in the Galvez Parking Garage.  This indoor market gives space to vendors, such as GoYaYa’s Crepery, which offers its crowd-pleasing Nutella-stuffed crepes. Visitors can also enjoy the Fresh From the Market cooking show every Saturday, where local chefs demonstrate recipes featuring seasonal ingredients.

“We have so many diehard shoppers that come,” Rowland said. “They’re here before the bell rings every Saturday. They go inside and have breakfast. We also have some different coffee groups that meet every Saturday and have coffee and breakfast together, and then come out and shop.”

The Baton Rouge Arts Market, which occurs in conjunction with the farmers market every first Saturday of the month, allows artists to sell their creations to the public. All three of the markets bring a mixture of creativity downtown, adding vibrant colors and people to the otherwise concrete jungle.

“It just creates an environment where people come downtown every Saturday, and there’s always something going on,” Rowland said. “It’s been said that it’s the best cocktail party in town, without the cocktails.”

Big River Economic and Agricultural Development Alliance is the parent association that organizes the Red Stick Farmers Market and the Main Street Market. Its mission is to build a strong, healthy local food system so that farmers, like Miller, can have a venue to sell their products.

“For many of these farmers, if they weren’t able to come here and sell at the market and sell direct, instead of competing with wholesalers, they wouldn’t be able to stay on their farm and continue farming,” Rowland said.

Jynell Glaser, of Glaser Farms in New Roads, La., sells strawberries to eager customers at the Red Stick Farmers Market in Downtown Baton Rouge on Saturday, March 10.

BREADA is also the Louisiana regional coordinator for Buy Fresh Buy Local, a foods campaign that highlights the importance of supporting Louisiana farms and keeping food dollars circulating in the state.

“This is a pure market, meaning that everybody here has to raise everything that they sell,” Miller said. “So you’re assured that all your money stays local.”

Regular farmers market shopper Jessica Walther, of Baton Rouge, said she buys local because it’s important for her to know where her food is coming from.

“I know whenever I shop at the market I’m supporting the local economy,” Walther said. “And you get to ask the farmers questions about the food you’re buying. You can’t beat that.”

While funding the local economy is a central aspect of purchasing local goods, the nutritional component of the foods is also a beneficial factor.

“Everything is generally picked within 24 hours before coming to the market,” Rowland said. “So you’re getting the highest nutritional content of vegetables you can find anywhere in Baton Rouge.”

Miller said the combination of local and fresh creates a better source of food than the grocery store.

“People are going to find a wide variety at this market,” Miller said. “So it’s a win-win in nutrition, in freshness and in supporting local business.”

Any visitor to the farmers market can find an array of local products that includes anything from meats to homemade soaps, and everything in between.

“You can find goat meat, guineas, plants, local honey – the list goes on,” Rowland said. “There’s a lot of amazing things here that you can’t really find at the grocery store on any Saturday morning.”

Shoppers like Walther enjoy the one-stop-shop experience created by the market, where customers can buy a large portion of food.

“I buy eggs, kale, oranges, some meats and seafood,” Walther said. “The variety and freshness are the best you can find.”

In addition to the Saturday market, farmers set up seasonally on Tuesdays at the Unitarian Church, located at 8470 Goodwood Blvd., and Thursdays at 7248 Perkins Road, weather permitting.

“Thursdays you’ll probably find between 12 and 20 farmers,” Rowland said. “It’s still a good mix and variety of items, but you may not see everything you see on Saturday. On Tuesdays, it’s a little bit smaller.”

While farmers like Miller continue to sell their local products at the Red Stick Farmers Market, shoppers continue to participate in the benefits of buying local and fresh, and reciprocal relationships form between the two.

“The market helps you build friendships,” Miller said. “And there’s a mutual trust in that there’s safety in what you eat, and there’s nutrition in what you eat. So, really, what could be better?”

Check out this clip of Darlene Rowland, director of development for the Red Stick Farmers Market, as she talks more about BREADA.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A compilation of photos from the Red Stick Farmers Market on Saturday, March 10 in downtown Baton Rouge.

2012 Adventure Destinations

This is a short article I wrote for City Social Magazine featuring National Geographic’s Top 10 Adventure Destinations for 2012.

Borrowing From the Past

Here are some screenshots of my article and photos featured in the bridal issue of City Social Magazine.

Clipping Coupons: One Student’s Attempt to Save Bucks

Here is my package about the art of coupon clipping and all it’s glory.

Boozing and Running: Happy’s Running Club

Come run. Come drink. Leave happy.

Every Tuesday, more than 100 runners, walkers and beer enthusiasts meet at Happy’s Irish Pub in downtown Baton Rouge at 6 p.m. Fifteen minutes later, they’ve hit the streets to run a 5-K as one of the largest running clubs in the country. After their 3.1-mile jog, they end up back at the bar to fill up their pint glasses and bask in the camaraderie of people from all walks of life.

In March 2008, Baton Rouge residents Michael Lang and Scott Higgins, along with Brandon Landry and Jack Warner, also of Baton Rouge, started Happy’s Running Club to combine a little bit of running with a little bit of boozing.

“I had read about some other clubs all over the country, and this was before downtown Baton Rouge really started its resurgence,” said Higgins, a native of New Orleans. “So we were like, ‘Alright, let’s bring some people downtown; let’s do something fun, very casual.’”

Lang and Higgins met when they played on the softball team of Forum 35, a program for young businesspeople aimed at bettering Baton Rouge. Lang, a Yankees fan, and Higgins, a Red Sox fan, bonded over their love of sports and community. The two formed their company, 2 Dumb Runners, which organizes Happy’s Running Club.

“We did a ton of races together, and so that was the genesis of our relationship,” said Philly native Lang. “We met through a casual athletic activity, and we said, ‘Wait, we love casual athletic activities, and we love the social side of sports, so let’s do a running club.’”

For $35, a member of Happy’s Running Club gets perks including two-for-one drafts every Tuesday at Happy’s after the run, a dri-fit running club shirt and 15-percent off at Varsity Sports.

“It’s a pretty damn good value,” Higgins said.

Since 2008, Happy’s Running Club now includes more than 3,000 members, making it one of the top-five largest “social” running clubs in the country. In 2011, the club had 850 paying members, but because of the relaxed atmosphere, many people just tag along.

“The number is hard to be specific on,” Higgins said. “We keep it casual, and I would rather someone hide in the back than annoy someone who is just a little late on catching up on their dues.”

As the club grew, Higgins saw the emergence of a new downtown – one that was more lively and full of people.

“Four years ago there was just not a lot going on downtown,” Higgins said. “There’s a lot more now, but we were sort of on the front end of that, which was nice.”

Happy’s Running Club brought crowds of people together to run, drink and see a part of Baton Rouge they may not have otherwise seen. Some Baton Rouge residents made it downtown for the first time ever because of the club.

Running club charter member Bobbi Joe Guerin said the group allows her to keep close to her Baton Rouge roots.

“Just experiencing downtown Baton Rouge is awesome because it’s now just becoming what it used to be,” Guerin said. “My family is from Baton Rouge, so now sometimes I feel like I’m experiencing the same thing that they were.”

The running club isn’t the only way Lang and Higgins became a part of revamping downtown. Through their company, Ethos Events, which plans races in Baton Rouge, the pair created the Happy’s 5000, an event combining exercise, food, music and art.

“We try to do things very differently, and we’re always trying to promote Louisiana culture,” Higgins said. “In the years past we’ve done it along Third Street, and we’ve basically made a block party out of it.”

To make the Happy’s 5000 different than other 5K races, the duo focused on features to make it stand out from the mundane.

“I hate getting a plastic bag with 15 coupons I’ll never use and a Gildan cotton, crappy t-shirt,” Higgins said. “So our goody bag is a pint glass with our race logo on it — that’s all you need.”

Along with the Happy’s 5000, Lang and Higgins created the Red Carpet Road Race, where runners trot a 5-K route downtown in tuxes and evening gowns. Both events make up the run Nightlife Series and always happen in the evening to counteract the tradition of early-morning races.

“We said, ‘OK, what are all the elements I don’t like about 5-Ks in town?’” Higgins said. “First of all, I don’t like getting up early on Saturday morning, so we decided we were going to do it at night, which no one does.”

The 2 Dumb Runners are also spreading the running club to Happy’s in New Orleans, bringing the meet, run, drink routine to the Crescent City.

When Lang and Higgins first started the Baton Rouge club, they knew meeting at the same place, at the same time and in the same spirit was an important part of bringing people together to enjoy hitting the pavement and slugging back some cold ones.

“We have met every Tuesday for over four straight years,” Lang said. “And every Tuesday you know that there will be a ton of people – fast, slow, black, white, young, old – it doesn’t matter.”

And every Tuesday, rain or shine, the assorted crowd breezes through the streets of downtown – sometimes even in costume.

“The Halloween parties are fun,” Guerin said. “Everybody dresses in great costumes, and runs in them, and then we go back and dance and cut it up.”

The mix of people with all types of athletic backgrounds is what Lang and Higgins believe to be a driving force in the group’s success.

“The level of runner that we have is from elite runners all the way down to a walker – and I mean a true walker,” Higgins said. “It’s just a huge, diverse crowd.”

Although the club is filled with people of all abilities and ages, a strong sense of community at the center of the group binds its members together.

“I think the friends that I’ve made through Happy’s will be a part of my life always,” Guerin said. “Runners have electricity about them. They’re just good, social people to hang around.”

And as the miles rack up with each slap of sneaker to pavement and the beer flows from keg to cup, Happy’s Running Club and its members continue the Tuesday tradition of a fun run, followed by a couple brews.

“It’s just really nice, laidback, casual people that like to get some exercise,” Lang said. “So come one, come all and come every Tuesday.”

And while some may be intimidated to start running in a group of this size, Lang and Higgins stress the importance of experiencing this group’s inclusive appeal.

“It’s weird. Usually you imagine a group of that size gets very cliquey, but it’s really not,” Higgins said. “Everybody is real welcoming. It’s just a happy mood; no pun intended.”

View Larger Map

Happy’s Running Club – Route 1

View Larger Map

Happy’s Running Club – Route 2

View Larger Map

Happy’s Running Club – Route 3