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DNA, Crawfish and Fruit Fly races!

There were lots of investigations and experiments done today at camp! The red and blue groups were in Dr. Robin Cooper’s biology labs today observing crawfish, leeches, and fruit flies. They got to use the microscopes and do some experiments on crawfish and fruit flies. They really liked looking at things up close! In the yellow and green groups, they were in the biology lab in the new Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building building models of DNA, looking at their own DNA and doing a germ exploration. They were fascinated with their own DNA and as with the group yesterday, there was some extra handwashing after the germ experiment 😉

In robotics, all four groups dug into their challenges. There were many challenges successfully completed today. The students really had to use their design engineering skills and be persistent in getting their robots to do what they wanted them to do. The students were excellent!

In their words…

Blue/Red Groups

    • “I learned that leeches cause rash and that black lungs are bad lungs.”
    • I didn’t know that leeches are used in hospitals.
    • “I liked that we got too poke crayfish and seeing our muscle activity.
    • “3 leeches could be loose!
    • “It involved stuyding insects fo the greater good of health benefits.”
    • “crawfish are cannibals and fruit flys are 70% genetically like human.”
    • “I think using a microscope is fun because you get to see small things up close.”
    • “I like that we learned about larvae and what they look like.”
    • (I did not like…) “seeing human lungs. It was creepy.”

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • “I learned how to create a solution so I can see my DNA
  • “I liked the spit DNA tab. I also enjoyed the DNA made out of candy.
  • I learned that DNA lives inside of chromosomes!
  • “I liked that I know more about DNA now then I did before.”
  • “I learned what DNA stands for.”
  • “I loved the way we constructed the DNA extraction experiment.”
  • “Yes, I think its interesting how DNA determine you hair color”

Conversation Starters…

Blue/Red Groups

  • Why did you study about fruit flies today? What was your favorite part of working with the fruit flies? (Same for Crawfish)
  • Why did you draw dots on yourself?
  • What organ was the most interesting to look at and hold today? Was there an organ that surprised you in what it looked like?
  • What surprised you the most about the experiments you did today?
  • What challenge(s) did you complete today? What was your favorite part about programming today?
  • What has been your favorite thing you’ve done this week?
  • What has been the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • How did you extract your own DNA today? What did you observe about your DNA?
  • What did you learn from the handwashing activity?
  • What challenge(s) did you complete today? What was your favorite part about programming today?
  • What has been your favorite thing you’ve done this week?
  • What has been the most interesting thing you’ve learned this week?

Photo of the Day…

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More Modeling and DNA Modeling Today

Although the students had to brave the downpour rain at the end of the day (again), there was a buzz and excitement in the air from the fun they had!

Red/Blue Groups:

The red and blue groups were in a biology lab in our beautiful new Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building with Brittany Rice, a graduate student in the Biomedical Sciences doctorate program in the College of Medicine. They were able to use state of the art lab equipment, wear lab coats, goggles, gloves, etc. as a real laboratory scientist would (this included some lab safety lessons as well 🙂 ). They made models of DNA and then did a simple DNA extraction themselves to look at their own DNA. They were very fascinated! Then they learned about bacteria and germs and how they grow and where they’re located. They did a bacteria activity with their hands…there was some extra handwashing that went on the rest of the day after they realized the germs on their hands 🙂 In robotics, they started the Green City Challenges. There were some initial frustrations as it’s a little bit different putting the programming together than with the football field and mazes. But they persevered and did awesome!

Yellow/Green Groups

It was their turn to be with Dr. Jennifer Eli, an alumnus of our program and current Associate Professor at University of Arizona, today! She loves to talk to the students about mathematical modeling and what tools we can use to model mathematics and other things. Today they specifically talked about polyhedra and made one of their own using a 3D Pen. Then they get to get creative and build and create their own items…once again, they brought their “A” game for creativity! We loved seeing their personalities come out in their creations and then watching them wear them around proudly the rest of the day. In robotics they started the Space Challenge. Some were bummed they didn’t get to finish the football challenge, but they enjoyed starting to put their programming knowledge together to work on the space challenges.

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups

    • “I liked everything. (except having to leave)”
    • “Of course!  I just think DNA is super awesome, and I would love to have another lesson.”
    • “People can clone other using DNA”
    • “DNA is abreviation for Dyrynucleic acid (or soemthign like that).”
    • “That we made a tripple axel out of candy which is our DNA lines”
    • “I would like to learn more about this topic because it is a big part of our world.”
    • “I liked being able to see what my DNA looked like in a visual form.”
    • ”That there are 25,000 human genes.”

Yellow/Green Groups

  • “I would like to learn more because of the difficulty and the fun of learning it.”
  • “I learned that focus and hard work pay off.”
  • “I liked that it was fun and we had freedom to be creative!”
  • “I learned how to make polyhedrons with a 3-D pen.”
  • “3D pens are not as easy as they look and that they have multiple buttons.”
  • “I liked creating the 3D structures”

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups

  • How did you extract your own DNA today? What did you observe about your DNA?
  • What did you learn from the handwashing activity?
  • What challenges did you start  in the Green City Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?

Yellow/Green Groups

  • What can you use 3d pens for?
  • Why is it important to build models of things?
  • How did you build your polyhedra?
  • What challenges did you start  in the Space Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?

Photo of the Day…

Click here to view the photos for today!

Photo Credit to UK College of Education PR Team

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Creativity and Motors!

Another great day at STEM Camp came to a rainy and stormy end. The kids really settled into the routines well and were excited about the different sessions today.

Red/Blue Groups

The students got to be with Dr. Jennifer Eli, an alumnus of our program and current Associate Professor at University of Arizona, today! She loves to talk to the students about mathematical modeling and what tools we can use to model mathematics and other things. Today they specifically talked about polyhedra and made one of their own using a 3D Pen. Then they get to get creative and build and create their own items…this group this week is very creative! We loved seeing their personalities come out in their creations and then watching them wear them around proudly the rest of the day. In robotics they dove deep into the program, working the See Blue Football challenge. There were lots of celebrations and hard thinking.

Yellow/Green Groups

Today the students split their time between Dr. Bruce Walcott and his graduate students. In Dr. Walcott’s session, students were immersed in the wonderful world of engineering…using their hands to build and explore just as engineers do. The students got to build simple motors and talk about what electrical engineers do. The motors were definitely a favorite!They also tested out their design engineering skills by building a boat out of aluminum foil and seeing how many pennies it held. The students also got to tour the College of Engineering facilities, including a stop in the anechoic chamber, and ending with an up close and personal look at the solar car and how the college students designed and made it! The students had fantastic questions they asked today. In robotics they dove deep into the program, working the See Blue Football challenge. There were lots of trials, re-programming, and finally some celebrations 🙂

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups:
  • “I really like the fact that we got to get a lot of hands on experience with 3D printing.”
  • “I learned that 3D drawing is hard, I didn’t think it would be hard, but I was wrong.”
  •  “I like how we got to be creative and how we made shapes”
  • “Plastic can go from solid to liquid to solid again very fast.”
  • “3D pens are fun to work with if you’re careful.”
  • “I learned more about geometric shapes”
  • “I did not know how useful a 3-D pen could be so helpful”

Yellow/Green Groups

  • “I would becasue with 3d-printing you can help alot of people.”
  • “I would becasue with 3d-printing you can help alot of people.”
  • “That solar cars can get up to 90mph and weigh less than 1000 lbs. Also, canoes can be made out of concrete.”
  • “Solar powers cars are clean and efficient. People race these and concrete canoes.”
  • “It taught me how to make soemthing I use every day”
  • “I liekd how we learned how to make a motor with househeld items because it show that you could do this easily at home.”
  • “I learnt how to remove enamel from copper wire.”
  • “Whenever you put a magnet near the copper(on the north) it starts to spin)”
  • “I liked constructing the motor.”
  • ”We learned through trial and error and got to conduct experiments”
  • “I liked using materials/hands on! The solar car was awesome!”

 

Conversation Starters…
Red/Blue Groups:
  • What can you use 3d pens for?
  • Why is it important to build models of things?
  • How did you build your polyhedra?
  • What challenges did you have in programming your robot today? How did you overcome them?
  • What successes did you have with your robot today?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • Is there a particular field of engineering that you think might interest you?
  • How many pennies did your boat hold? If you could build it again, what would you do differently?
  • What did the inside of the solar car look like?
  • How did you build a motor?
  • What challenges did you have in programming your robot today? How did you overcome them?
  • What successes did you have with your robot today?

Photo of the Day… Click the photo to access all the camp pictures.

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Day 1 Week 2 is off to a steamy start!

 

It was another great day 1 at the See Blue STEM Camp! It was a little steamy outside, but we are thankful the rain went north of campus and kept us dry as we walked to the different activities. We are very excited to welcome 228 campers this year! One hundred twenty-four of them started today! Registration went very well this morning and we really appreciate everyone’s patience as we got everyone checked in. You all are awesome!

Just a note about the consent and assent forms that we ask for every year. Our camp is subsidized by an NSF grant that requires research and reporting to the agency.  The purpose of the research is to develop a camp model that promotes STEM careers to adolescents and can be replicated. We also look at students attitudes towards STEM and the impact of our activities. Without this grant and consent and assent to participate the camp simply would not exist. We never report any names or any individual data…it’s always aggregated together! You can read about some of our work here.

We will post a blog post each night this week with some highlights from the day and some conversation starters. The conversation starters are meant to help you get over the “What did you learn today?” “Nothin’” or <shrugging the shoulders> we often see at the adolescent age. We’ll also post a link to the photos we are taking throughout the week. If at any time you want a photo removed that is of your child, please let us know and we’ll be happy to take it down.

Red/Blue Groups

Today the students split their time between Dr. Bruce Walcott and his graduate students today. In Dr. Walcott’s session, students were immersed in the wonderful world of engineering…using their hands to build and explore just as engineers do. The students got to build simple motors and talk about what electrical engineers do. They also tested out their design engineering skills by building a boat out of aluminum foil and seeing how many pennies it held. There was time left for them to explore a different type of robot, the Ozobot. They had a lot of fun exploring the Ozobots and why they worked! The students also got to tour the College of Engineering facilities, including a stop in the anechoic chamber, and ending with an up close and personal look at the solar car and how the college students designed and made it! The students had fantastic questions they asked today.

Green/Yellow Groups

The green and yellow groups got to spend time in our beautiful new science building – the Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building. They were in one of the labs and got to explore solar energy and how much electricity can be generated. The students got to collect data and make observations about the different panels in different types of light.

All four groups…

In robotics, students started by engineering their robots. They got to build their robot and get to know it. They then start on some basic challenges of getting to move their robots…on a UK football field this year! They had to move their footballs forwards and backwards.

In their words…

Each day we’ll post some excerpts from the students’ reflections of what they learned each day at the STEM Content session. We don’t correct for spelling or grammar in these 🙂 

  • “I learned that STEM can be used for a lot of real world problems”
  • Would like to learn more about this topic (Dr. Graham) “…because t is a way to produce more energy + that is useful.”
  • “I like that we learned about a type of clean energy which we will need more of in the future”
  • “Diffrient boyencys can hold diffrent weights on water.”
  • “I learned the calculas method and the Engineering Design method”
  • “I would (like to learn more about this) becasue for all my life I ahve been interested in aircraft and I want to be a Aeronautical Engineer.”

Conversation Starters… 

We know your child is getting to the age where it might be like pulling teeth to get them to talk about their day beyond “It was fine.” “It was fun.” “I didn’t do anything.” So, each day we’ll post some suggested conversation starters centered on camp activities or STEM-related themes.

Red/Blue Groups:

  • Tell me about how you assembled your robot. Did you follow instructions? Did you just try to figure out what parts went together?
  • Is there a particular field of engineering that you think might interest you?
  • How many pennies did your boat hold? If you could build it again, what would you do differently?
  • How did the Ozobots work?
  • What did the inside of the solar car look like?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • Tell me about how you assembled your robot. Did you follow instructions? Did you just try to figure out what parts went together?
  • What is solar energy? What can it do for us?
  • What did you measure today using your multimeter? What did you find out?
  • Was there a difference in the panels you looked at today?

Photo of the Day…

Each day we’ll post a camp highlight.  Click the picture and it will take you to the weekly photo album. Please note that we try to capture pictures of all the campers, but we cannot guarantee that we will get every single one. We try our very best to though! Also we are STEM teachers and not full time photographers, so our pictures are not perfect and we leave them unedited, so if you love to edit photos…feel free! 

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Last day excitement!

It seems I forgot to hit post on our last day of fun at STEM Camp on Friday 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing your student(s) with us this past week…we had a blast with them and we hope they came away with positive experiences in the STEM Fields!

Blue/Red Groups

The students actually got to spend the day with me 🙂 It’s been a while since I have been able to do a day of presenting at STEM Camp, so I was really excited! We spent the first half of the session talking about robotics and what makes a robot a robot. We then explored a different kind of robot and the different ways we could program it – the Ozobot. The students love the Ozobots and loved the different games they got to play to help program it. The second half of the session we talked about mathematical modeling and polyhedra. We broke out the 3D pens and used them to make their own polyhedra and then got to get creative and make their own models or use a template for the models. The kids were so creative and had a ton of fun! They brought home their creations to show you 🙂 In robotics, they finished up the Green City Challenge.

Yellow/Green Groups

They spent the day with Dr. Brett Criswell, one of our science (chemistry) educators here at UK. He focused on using different types of energy to power vehicles. The students got to make a car that was water powered and then got a chance to see the UK Solar Car and ask the students who created and race the car lots of questions. They loved making the small cars and then seeing a real solar car! In robotics, they finished up the Space Challenge and started our different racing challenges. Some went back to the football challenge to finish that one.

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups:

  • The world became better that robots can help people.
  • I love 3D printing
  • it was fun and it made me use my brain.
  • 3D pens R hard to use but fun
  • we got to use 3D pens and Ozobots
  • we got to make cool creations with the 3-D pen and make cool paths (with markers for a robot)
  • Ozobots have their own program
  • that not all teachnology is considered as a “robot.”
  • making and building things is fun!
  • It involved working hard ad through frustrations
  • It was epic!
  • it is hands-on
  • about the cheetah robot.
  • 3D printing is fun
  • How to use a 3D pen.
  • It was a hands on project

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • it’s very interesting to think about these new innovations.
  • it will help us in the future.
  • we need energy for the future
  • What did you enjoy? – That we got to make and put together
  • Thing can be powered by the sun.
  • water can move things
  • that hydrogen power cars exist
  • I liked the hands-on learning
  • I learned about different types of energy.
  • we got color changing beads
  • solar power is cool.
  • I want to learn about electricity

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue Groups:

  • What makes a robot a robot? Is a washing machine a robot? Why?
  • How did the Ozobots work?
  • How did you make your polyhedra with your 3d pen? What else do you think you could create with the 3d pen?
  • What was the most interesting thing you learned about this week at STEM Camp?
  • What do you want to learn more about?
  • How do you think you will use STEM in your career?

Yellow/Green Groups:

  • Why is it important to talk about different kinds of energy?
  • What did you do to make your car move today? How did the water make your car move?
  • What did you observe about the solar car?
  • What was the most interesting thing you learned about this week at STEM Camp?
  • What do you want to learn more about?
  • How do you think you will use STEM in your career?

Picture of the Day…