July 1, 2000

Kids Will Love The Dirtmeister (and Learn Science)! Emmy Award Winner to Perform at MASS MoCA on Saturday, July 29

(July 1, 2000 -- North Adams, MA) The latest MASS MoCA's summer KidsLab event features "The Dirtmeister", Steve Tomecek, the writer and star of the Emmy award-winning television series, Dr. Dad's Phantastic Physical Phenomena, on Saturday, July 29, at 10:30 am.

Free with museum admission, the Dirtmeister's science show will feature dozens of interactive demonstrations and will include audience volunteers. The show reflects Tomecek's belief that "science should be an exciting adventure, where kids are encouraged to ask, create, and fail without fear."

His Phantastic Physical Phenomena show spurred the Emmy award-winning television series of the same name. In it, he explores some of the wonders of physics including Newton's laws of motion, light energy, sound and wave motion, and air pressure. If you're suffering from "Phear of Physics", then this show is for you! Naomi Freedman Serviss of Queens Neighborhoods said of a recent show "by the time [the Dirtmeister] was through with the assembly...kids had soaked up principles of displacement, gravity, electricity and sound. They never knew what hit them."

Steve Tomecek, the man behind the "Dirtmeister", is a real-life geologist and science educator who believes that science doesn't have to be boring to be informative! Tomecek started Science Plus, Inc. in 1985 with the mission of bringing science to the masses by making it interactive, educational and fun. Besides his work as a scientist, Tomecek has also served as the Associate Director for the Science Museum of Long Island and Program Supervisor for the NY Hall of Science. He has served as a consultant for the Children's Television Workshop, Los Alamos National Labs, Scholastic's The Magic School Bus and the Newton's Apple television show. Most recently, Tomecek was the writer and star of the Emmy award-winning television series, Dr. Dad's Phantastic Physical Phenomena.

As founder and Executive Director of Science Plus, Inc., Tomecek's main objective is to make the general public comfortable with science by providing people with real-life science experiences that are both educational and entertaining. In addition to his live shows and workshops, the "Dirtmeister" hosts a science segment on WNYC's New York Kids radio show. He can be reached on the Internet via the Scholastic Network where he conducts Dirtmeister's Science Lab and provides tools and resources to teachers looking to enhance their science lessons. Tomecek has written extensively both for magazines and his own children's books, including Bouncing and Bending Light which won the 1996 American Institute of Physics Excellence in Science Writing Award.

Phantastic Physical Phenomena is free with museum admission. KidsLab events are co-sponsored by WNAW (AM 1230)/WMNB (FM 100.1) in North Adams, WSBS (AM 860) in Great Barrington, and Berkshire Bank.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org