Join Kevin Wanzer as we get the Academy of Zoom Blue and Rust off to a roaring start!

With Dr. Angela Speck, the work IS rocket science.  Join Dr. Speck as she communicates with us about popular science, infrared astronomy, and the study of space dust.

Rachel Miller regularly speaks to thousands of students at the St. Louis Holocaust Museum and Learning Center about being a hidden child during the Holocaust. Join us for her amazing history.

American popular music can have endless meanings, depending on the perspectives from which you approach it.  Learn and discuss with Maya Gibson.

Netflix no longer allows for easy screen sharing/watch parties, so new plan: please watch the documentary 13th on Netflix on your own and then join Doug Valentine on Zoom (Friday at 4pm) to discuss the film. Topics will include historic and contemporary racial inequity in policing and incarceration, race and racism in the United States, as well as current political arguments involving social theories of racism and history curricula in public education.

The fantasy role-playing sensation Dungeons and Dragons predates MSA by about a decade, but you can be sure it’s been a part of every Academy for over 30 years.  Whether a beginner OR a full-blown wizard, ranger or bard, you are welcome to come and play some D&D with the assistance of our own MSA rogue, Dr. Mike Kersulov.

Prepare to engage with this panel discussion of MSA alumni who are courting current events and practicing the art of political science.  (Panelists:  Cort van Ostran, Nicholas Jain, Ayanna Shivers, and Fares Akremi)

Join Missouri State’s Dr. Steve Senger for an ole fashioned romp through some of his passions:  the mayhem and mythologies of music and mathematics.

Bunsen burners bluster under beakers; flasks of various liquids bubble and churn and smoke as the mad scientist toils with graduated cylinders and pipettes.  Just another day in the chemistry laboratory with Dr. Steve Keller.  Join us for some very reactive office hour demonstrations and discussions.

Interested in learning some basics of American Sign Language? Join MSA alumna Katherine Wortmann to get your sign on! We’ll be covering letters, numbers, colors, animals, activities, basic phrases, plus a quick Deaf culture discussion!

Join Kevin live and in person for a follow-up conversation.

The fantasy role-playing sensation Dungeons and Dragons predates MSA by about a decade, but you can be sure it’s been a part of every Academy for over 30 years.  Whether a beginner OR a full-blown wizard, ranger or bard, you are welcome to come and play some D&D with the assistance of our own MSA rogue, Dr. Mike Kersulov.

If you are feeling particularly artistic, creative, or crafty, then this is the experience for you!   No supplies are necessary (though you can bring anything you want), and artists of ALL ability levels are encouraged to join!  You’ll create some expressions with (literally) household items, you’ll talk about art with a first-rate artist/teacher, and you’ll be regaled with music and dad jokes.  It’s a win-win-win!

Presented by Christine Nobbe, DESE Director of Gifted Education and NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador.  During the Artemis program, NASA will land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.  We will collaborate with commercial and international partners and establish sustainable exploration for the first time.  In this presentation, Christine will briefly review the highlights of Apollo 11, discuss the Artemis program, and lead participants to think about how we can live and work on the Moon, and why it is important.

How do you write?  Neil Gaiman suggests, “This is how you do it:  you sit down at the keyboard and you put one word after another until it’s done.  it’s that easy, and that hard.”  If you are interested in the craft and want to know more about writing, authoring, composing, publishing and more, this discussion panel of fiction and nonfiction writers is for you!  (Panelists:  Brian Katcher, Cole Gibsen, Dr. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver)

Math problem solving for non-mathematicians is intended for scholars who want to work cooperatively with other scholars who do not compete in math competitions to practice some math problem solving strategies.  Everyone, however, is welcome.  Scholars will get a set of problems and a list of some strategies.  Participants will work in breakout rooms in groups on the problems and eventually get solutions to the problems.  Its sure to be fun and informative to math-out with the MSA O.G., Paul Rahmoeller.

Here’s the Zoom link: https://umsystem.zoom.us/j/97145247121?pwd=L1FQS0NEamdWRHNUeWJPbzRMMnk3Zz09

Ibiyinka Alao is an artist, filmmaker, author, and arts ambassador with the United Nations.  One of his views on art is that, “It is healthier to look out at the world through a window than through a mirror.  Otherwise, all you see is yourself and whatever is behind you.”  Come and enjoy the view out the window and into the world of Ibiyinka.

Studies estimate that between 2% and 7% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent.  Come hear the story of one such former prisoner and learn how The Innocence Project fights for the justice we all deserve!

Missouri’s 2014 Teacher of the Year and veteran MSA faculty Chris Holmes takes us on a journey of discovery, with topics ranging from gifted education to motivation, and a lot of stops in between.

Dr. Beth Stewart of the Oncology Department of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital researches high risk pediatric solid tumors and other novel treatments.  See how she is making the world a better place by finding cures and saving children.