Gifted Atlanta

It won’t be long until fireflies make their evening appearances, signaling one another in their age-old dance. They’re a sure sign summer’s coming, and they also provide an opportunity to become a citizen scientist, helping researchers learn more about changing firefly populations.

The Museum of Science Firefly Watch is easy to do with kids. Just spend 10 minutes per week counting lightning bugs in your yard, or a park, or whatever spot you choose. Record some simple data about weather conditions and the flash patterns you see. Then, report your observations online. For extra fun, you can see what data others have collected, all over the country.

My kids and I have done this, and it’s a great learning project. Sign up now so you’ll be ready when the lightning bugs show up where you are!

Tracy Caldwell Dyson, an astronaut who’s lived on the International Space Station, will speak this Thursday, April 18, 2013, at Fernbank Science Center, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

On Saturday, April 20, the center will celebrate National Astronomy Day, with family activities and planetarium shows.

To avoid confusion, these events will take place at the Fernbank Science Center on Heaton Park Drive, not the Fernbank Museum of Natural History.

Fernbank Science Center in Decatur has two upcoming programs for young scientists.

First, this Saturday, March 30, from noon to 3 p.m. will be NanoDay. This free event will include a nano magic show and hands-on activities. In addition, the event will have a special activity area for children ages 3 to 7.

Then, on April 5, the science center will host Science Night Out, for students in third to sixth grades. From 6 to 9 p.m., graduate students from Georgia State University will conduct hands-on activities that teach kids about nutrition. Registration is by U.S. Mail only and is $15 per child.

Note: In the interest of avoiding confusion, these events are at the Fernbank Science Center, owned and operated by DeKalb County Schools, not the Fernbank Museum.

You have one week left to register for this school year’s final session of Saturday School at Georgia State University.

The 2013 Spring B session begins March 30. Classes are held on Saturdays in the mornings and afternoons on the GSU campus. Classes will be offered in a variety of topics, including claymation, bridge building, minerals, sharks and business.

Saturday School is open to children in kindergarten through 8th grade. The program is geared toward students who have been identified as gifted by their school, but kids who haven’t been formally identified can be granted provisional enrollment for one year.

The registration deadline is March 13.

It’s a little late notice, but this weekend — including Monday — is the annual Great Backyard Bird Count, which gives ordinary folks the chance to help collect data on local bird populations. All you need to do is spend 15 minutes recording the number and types of birds you see in one location, then send your data to the scientists. Your work helps ornithologists study how bird populations are growing, declining, or changing their ranges.

If you’ve got a shutter-bug in your home, they can enter the GBBC photo contest by sending in a picture by March 1.

If this weekend just won’t work for your young bird watcher — or if one weekend a year isn’t enough — you can count birds anytime using eBird, which collects data from all over the world for ornithologists, educators, and conservation biologists.

Kids can learn to capture photographs from the Smithsonian’s robotic telescopes by taking part in the Digital Astronomy Workshop, Friday, March 1, 2013, from 8 to 11 p.m. at the Tellus Museum in Cartersville.

The workshop will teach participants how to instruct the telescopes to capture images for download. As “homework,” these newly trained digital astronomers will be expected to process and share their best images with Tellus. Some of the images may be displayed at the museum.

Open to ages 8 and up. $15 for Tellus members, $30 for non-members. Call 770-606-5700, ext. 417 to register.

Creative Career Academy in Roswell will offer a day camp during spring break, April 8-12, 2013. Campers will learn computer animation, game design, app development and web design.

The camp is from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. Most campers will be between 10 and 16 years old, but slightly younger kids are welcome.

Creative Career Academy also offers after-school programs in technology, art, foreign language and more, and has some classes during daytime hours to accommodate homeschool students. They also have a summer camp, although the complete summer line-up is still under development.

Fernbank Science Center tells me they still have spaces open for next Friday’s  Science Night Out. The topic of the January 25, 2013 session will be junior engineering.

If that session isn’t convenient, registration will open next week for the Feb. 22 session on LEGO Mindstorm robotics.

Science Night Out is aimed at science lovers in 3rd – 6th grades. The program runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Registration is $15 for one child and $10 for additional siblings. Registration is by U.S. Mail only. The class will be filled on a first come, first served basis.