Science

THINK & DRINK
Cleveland's brainiest happy hour . . .

Raise a glass with the Museum on select Thursdays and explore our different topics and latest discoveries with scientific experts — and drinks brewed by Northeast Ohio's best breweries — as your guide!

With a short walk in University Circle, I went from photography from 1940–1950 at the Cleveland Museum of Art to the world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. Normally, these museums are not open late on Thursdays, but Thursday, March 21, 2019, was special!

This post about the Think & Drink -- Fantastic Beasts of the Natural World is the second of two blog posts about my evening in University Circle.

Cleveland Museum of Natural History has nature hikes at Mentor Marsh. We learned that the Museum's Natural Areas Department has over 9,400 acres of land on 56 natural areas.

When Julie and I heard about the May 6, 2018, Bald Eagle Fest at Mentor Marsh, we were excited to check it out!

My CMNH friends, adult programs coordinator Ashley Hall, and preparator and lab manager Lee Hall, had often recommended that I attend a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Members Behind-The-Scenes Night. They told me that attendees get to explore the normally off-limits lower levels of the Museum.

Therefore, when Spike Radway invited me to attend with him and Henry Lee, I knew I needed to make time to go.

My wife and great co-blogger, Julie, and I enjoy attending the Starship Troopers, the Reel Science event featured a science talk by the museum's collections manager of invertebrate zoology, Dr. Nicole Gunter. This was the last of the 2017-2018 Reel Science series. The Museum's adult programs coordinator, Ashley Hall, is already gathering ideas for next year's films -- send her your recommendations! 

A flurry of activity! In late April and early May of 2018, I had eight busy days of activities! I originally created this as one single blog post listing all nine events, but later decided to publish nine posts to make it easier to find for my website visitors to read.

I still think of it as one post that I hope will not only give you insight into my eight-day week, but more importantly, encourage you to support these organizations with your presence at future events.

On August 21, 2017, the first total solar eclipse in the continental United States since February 26, 1979, occurred. It was also the first total solar eclipse to cross the entire country (from Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean) since June 8, 1918! We knew this would be a special day!!! Stuart used his last available vacation day to fully experience the phenomenon, and our son Kevin joined us as well.

To celebrate Earth Day, most years, we attend the Earth Day Coalition's EarthFest, and have written blog posts about our experiences at the event the past two years.

Earth Day 2017 was different -- out of some very negative things happening in our country, a very positive movement to take action grew! We mean, of course, the national March for Science in Washington D.C.!

The same day that it was announced that the national March for Science would be held on Earth Day, April 22, 2017, we learned to our delight that there would also be a March for Science in Cleveland!

The good people of Northeast Ohio came out in force! Congratulations to the March for Science Cleveland for this grand success!

January 18, 2017 - Biomimicry!

This is the third blog post we have written about a Cleveland Museum of Natural History Think & Drink with the Extinct event. Each event has been a unique experience.

Think & Drink

Raise a glass and increase your knowledge of the natural world at one of the brainiest happy hours in Cleveland!

We did not know that the very first Think & Drink with the Extinct that we would attend, with our brand-new membership, on January 18, 2017, would feature the University of Akron Biomimicry Fellowship Ph.D. candidates we had already written about in our blog twice! We were excited to learn of their new product based on biomimicry principles, and meeting some of the other students. It is great that the museum gives the opportunity for many people to learn about the unique ideas being developed at Akron University's Biomimicry Fellowships!

We had a great time at the Wednesday, October 19, 2016, Cleveland Museum of Natural History's Think & Drink with the Extinct, so we wanted to share our photos and tweets from the evening. The theme for the night was "Wildlife," which Stuart knew would be of special interest to Julie. It is always fun to be able to get close to the animals at the museum.

During the 2014/2015 program year for Cleveland Museum of Natural History, I remembered hearing about Think & Drink with the Extinct events. Since I have attended astronomy programs and other public events at the museum, I was intrigued, and started promoting the events in my @sos_jr tweets. Promoting events/meetings is the reason I starting using Twitter.

I did not think that it would take until Fall 2015 to finally have a night that I could attend. I decided to share my photos and tweets from the evening to thank the organizers of the event, and to encourage others to attend. I will not attempt to fully express what the event is like -- it is something you need to experience for yourself -- but I will say that if you like having access to extremely bright people from whom you can learn, then you should attend.

On October 21, 2015, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History (@goCMNH) had their monthly Think & Drink with the Extinct (#ThinkandDrink). The evening's theme was "Paleontology - Fossils and Ferments." October 21, 2015, just happened to be Back to the Future Day -- somehow it seemed right to be in a museum to celebrate.