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🎁GIVEAWAY🎁 To celebrate the release of Incredibles 2 and the amazing time I had sharing my experience at the #scienceofpixar exhibit, I’m doing my first giveaway! If you want to win this exhibit shirt, Incredi-files 📕 of secrets, and some delicious Jelly Belly candies, doing all of the following: ❤️Like this post 💛Follow @thephdprincess 🖤Comment below with which super power you wish you could have and tag two friends you think are incredible Earn extra entries in the following ways: 💛1 entry per additional friend tagged ❤️15 entries if you subscribe to my blog at phdprincess.com DM your e-mail if you do this one! Giveaway will close at 11:59 PM PST on Sunday June 24th! This giveaway is not affiliated with Disney, Instagram, Pixar, or the Museum of Science and Industry. #disneygiveaway #pixarpier #pixarfest #incredibles2 #disneyblogger #sciencebehindpixar #disneylandap #wdwap

Tony Award winning productions all around. Swipe for more bug facts! . . . Speaking of Tony’s, a man named Tony Gustin aka the Bug Whisperer, is hoping to open an “insect theme park” near Milwaukee in the near future. It may not be a Disney level theme park, but I think I still may want to visit. . . . What’s your best punny bug-themed musical? . . . #tonyawards #tonyawards2018 #scienceofdisney #itstoughtobeabug #bugslife #broadwaymusical #scienceofmusic #insect #entomology #theaterproduction #puns #musicpuns #disneyblogger #sciencepuns #bugs #wdwapholder #wdwap #disneyapholder #scientist #bugs #insects #musicaltheatre #musicaltheater #scicomm #sciencecommunication #sciencecommunicator #pixarfest #pixarmovies #pixar #bugsland

Missing the Flower and Garden festival (and the humidity and thunderstorms of Florida) on this rainy day in Chicago . . . Lightning during thunderstorms (abundant in Orlando) makes nitrogen more available to plants by supplying the necessary heat and electrical charge to bind nitrogen with oxygen to form nitrous oxides aka nitrates. These nitrous oxides are then dissolved in the formation of raindrops; rain carries nitrates to soil. . . . Plants then assimilate (a special name for a reaction converting nitrates NO3- into ammonium NH4+) nitrogen to form many other molecules, including NADPH which aids in the photosynthesis reactions of converting carbon dioxide into glucose and in forming ATP to power other reactions. . . . Check out my Instagram story for more flower science and a hint for the topic of the next blog post! . . . #flowerandgardenfestival #flowerandgarden #violetlemonade #rainyday #flowerpower #lightning #scienceofdisney #disneyscience #thunderstorm #thunderandlightning #gardening #plantgrowth #photosynthesis #flora #plantbiology #biochemistry #epcotfestival #umbrella #phdstudent #disneyblogger #wdwap #popularscience

Speeding towards the weekend because the Science of Pixar exhibit is coming to @msichicago Many more Science of Disney blog posts to come! #flowerandgardenfestival #flowerandgarden #lightningmcqueen #scienceofpixar #scienceofdisney #disneyworld #epcotfestival #topiary #pixarcars

Happy Mother’s Day to these mother geese and all of the other moms brave enough to go to Disneyland with hungry children . . Fun fact: Geese flying in a v formation (called a skein; and a gaggle on land) enables them to fly 70% farther than if not in a V formation. . . And my grad school cohort mates who study agent-based modeling would also really like you to know that the V formation is not a result of following an alpha bird of any sort but rather an emergent process that results from the way air flows around geese in flight. . . There is less air resistance to the side of each bird and thus flying in a V formation saves the birds energy. By following simple rules of flying in the path of least resistance, the V shape emerges! . . How did scientists figure this out? By strapping heart monitors to pelicans and endangered ibises whose migration patterns scientists were helping to guide! Birds in the back had lower heart rates than birds in front. And they didn’t have to learn it from their parents. . . Check out a 2004 piece by Ed Yong in National Geographic to learn more! #momsofdisney #disneylandmom #disneymom #disneymoms

Happy #teacherappreciationday to all of the teachers who have helped me and the field of Learning Sciences better understand what it means to teach and learn by opening their classrooms to being observed and video-recorded, by telling stories of their journeys and of their students’ successes and challenges, and by spending their valuable time to design and test new interventions. . . The work that teachers do is SO much harder than Americans usually give them credit for and is often taken for granted as something anyone can do. I’ve tried to be a classroom teacher and I think it is the most emotionally and cognitively challenging profession that exists anywhere. This photo is only a handful of the books I’ve read on teaching because we still don’t know how to help every teacher solve their greatest challenges. . . Who has been your favorite teacher? . . . . . #teacherappreciationweek #teacherappreciation #books #phdlife #book #phdstudent #learning #teaching #learningsciences #education #teachertuesday #teachingtuesday #educator #math #mathclassroom #mathclass #phd

Just like Aesop’s fable in which a lion and a mouse mutually rescue each other, we have been able to learn a lot of life-saving information from mice. And I’m not just talking about all the good life lessons that Mickey and Minnie demonstrate in cartoons. . . Although it is a bit controversial, researchers use mice in several types of science experiments due to many advantages. . . 1) mice have similar nervous systems to humans which facilitates our understanding of brain function, especially for diseases and scenarios that would be extremely unethical to test on humans . . 2) mice only live 2-3 years and reproduce quickly so more experiments can be conducted in a shorter period of time . . 3) we know a lot about the DNA of mice so we can study the effects of genetic changes across mice that are genetically similar, reducing the error due to confounding variables . . 4) mice are easy to house and are relatively docile which greatly enhances the feasibility and speed of science . . I personally think the benefits of using mice for science outweigh the disadvantages but that doesn’t mean these practices are always human or that I haven’t wanted to get my own pet mice to make up for what most mice have to endure for the sake of science. . . Where do you stand on using mice for research?

The Jungle Cruise joke about the most feared animal in the jungle being the African male elephant’s mother-in-law may have some truth to it. Elephants live in close-knit matriarchal family groups of up to 40 related females and their calves. So I definitely wouldn’t want to anger any female elephants for fear of 40 family members disliking me. . . But human fear of elephants often leads to the death of the elephants. Disney researchers in partnership with the @thewcs have been studying ways to reduce human-elephant conflict to protect these gentle giants. . . You can avoid purchasing ivory and donate to @savetheelephants to help these efforts. . . #disneyanimals #partyfortheplanet2018 #partyfortheplanet #disneysanimalkingdom #animalkingdom #dak #wdwapholder #wdwap #scienceofdisney #disneyscience #elephants #elephant #matriarchy #junglecruise #junglecruisejokes

Wishing I could migrate back to Disney World like the Siberian crane that migrates from China to Russia and back again every year. . . One in eight of the world’s birds are threatened with extinction. Disney has been helping to restore the endangered whooping crane population and has been restoring wetland habitats with @birdlife_insta and @savingcranes . . Besides learning about cranes and other birds at the new Up! A Bird Adventure show at Animal Kingdom, check out your local parks and preserves to see if you can make a donation or volunteer to protect the habitats of birds that live near you! #partyfortheplanet #partyfortheplanet2018 #disneysanimalkingdom #dak #wdwap #wdwapholder #disneyannualpassholder #disneyphotopass #scienceofdisney #conservation #disneyconservationfund #crane #cranes #birds #endangeredspecies

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