Green City Challenge – Margaret Mohr-Schroeder

June 16, 2017June 16, 2017

Last day extravaganza!

It’s hard to believe the week is already over! The students were really sad, but we made sure they had a great time (and were worn out!) by the time they left us today. It’s truly been an exciting week of discovery, adventure, and curiosity. The students were awesome! They were inquisitive. They explored. They tinkered. They built. They programmed. They persevered through challenges and celebrated their successes. We loved seeing the transformations!

WKYT and the Herald Leader stopped by today for a visit. The students were so excited to show off their knowledge and show them how things are done in “STEM” 🙂

WKYT Videos – http://www.wkyt.com/content/news/Middle-school-students-code-robotics-and-study-DNA-at-UK-camp-428884543.html

Herald Leader Video – http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article156562794.html/video-embed

Red/Blue Groups

They were in a chemistry lab with Dr. Kenneth Graham, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and his graduate students in the Don and Cathy Jacobs Science Building today and got to test out different types of solar panels and even created their own solar panel! They tested them inside and outside to see how much energy was needed to power a LED light. In robotics, they wrapped up the Green City Challenge…there were lots of cheering going on as there were many, many successes today!

Green/Yellow Groups

They got to use mathematical modeling to build bridges with Dr. Jonathan Thomas, Associate Professor of Mathematics Education. They got to use a variety of materials to first build the tallest tower they could, and then they built a bridge. They had to keep track of costs though on the bridge building; the goal was to hold at least 8 pounds. There were some fabulous designs! The students used the design engineering process to design, build, test, tweak, test, etc. their products. In robotics, they wrapped up the Space Challenge…just like the other groups there were many successes and lots of high fives, big smiles and cheering going on!

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups

“Black Berries can make a solar panel!”
“Nylon is in tooth brush bristles.”
(Do you want to know more about his topic? )”yes so I could possibly make my house solar powered.”
“I liked making the solar cell”
“I learned what chemists did, how nylon was made, and how to make a solar panel.”
“You can make a solar panel out of a blackberry!”
“I learned the chimist are more inportant than I thought.”

Yellow/Green Groups

“Paperclips are a really strong building material.”
“I learnd that quality is not all about how it looks”
“how diffrent stuctures effect the strength of towers and bridges”
“I liked when we got to test our bridge”
“We got to build bridges”
“How to make sure a bridge works”
“how diffrent stuctures effect the strength of towers and bridges”

Conversation Starters…

Blue/Red Groups

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?
How did you create your own solar panel? Could you create one for our home?
What did you get your robot to do today? How did you do that?
What do you want to be when you grow up? How do you think STEM will help you in your career?

Yellow/Green Groups

What do bridges need to be strong?
How did you decide what materials to use for your bridge?
How did you decide on your design for your bridge?
How did your bridge do when you tested it?
How tall was your tower you built?
What did you get your robot to do today? How did you do that?
What do you want to be when you grow up? How do you think STEM will help you in your career?

Photo of the Day…

June 12, 2017

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…

June 8, 2017

Solar Energy, DNA and germs!

Thursday brought another hands-on exciting day at STEM Camp. This group of students is really something special…they are full of extra curiosity and questions. It has been awesome to witness this week!

Blue/Red Groups

In robotics, they continued with the Green City Challenge. Many of the groups made it pretty far today!

Yellow/Green Groups

It was Yellow and Green groups’ turn to be 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 continued with the Space Challenge. Most groups have made it pretty far and some completed theirs today and so are working on mastering the challenges from earlier in the week. Lots of movement and exciting programs happening!

In their words…

Blue/Red Groups

you can make dead muscle and heart tissue move with electricity
I realy want to learn more about solar power and hydroelectric
It’s fun to use comonly things to use it in a more complex way.
we got see it right in front of our eyes, and it was real
I got to make a water powered car.

Yellow/Green Groups

Its called nucleic acid because DNA’s in the center of the nucleus.
I liked the handson activities and being able to physically see my DNA
it has so many uses in the future
I thought it was really interesting learning about DNA, and how it bonds. We also got to extract some of our DNA.
I did not like swishing the gatorade in my mouth
Adenine connects to Thymine & Cytosine connects to guanine
it was very interesting, both doing it, and learning about DNA.
I learned the shapes of DNA and what DNA creates mutations.

Conversation Starters…

Red/Blue 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 challenges did you complete today in the Green City Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?

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 challenges did you complete today in the Space Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today? What was the hardest part about programming today?

Picture of the Day… (click the picture to go to all the pictures from this week)

June 7, 2017

Fruit flies, bacteria, and DNA modeling!

Another beautiful day in the Bluegrass as students explored more STEM topics with our awesome professors and graduate students!

Red/Blue Groups

Today the students 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 and then did some sampling to see what bacteria would grow (if any). They’ll get to view their results on Friday.

In robotics, the students started on the green city challenge. The green city challenge requires them to put multiple steps together and complete different tasks such as moving the dam or turning the wind turbine.

Green/Yellow Groups

Dr. Robin Cooper is a Biology professor at UK and has been a long time supporter at STEM Camp. The student always have so much fun in his lab as they experiment with drosophila (aka, fruit flies)! Today they did some sorting of the fruit flies under the microscopes in the lab. They had fruit fly “races” as well. They also did some physiological investigations on how the body reacts to certain flavors and spices. The students also got to spend time in the medical outreach facility where they get to look at and hold real organs, talk about their purpose and function, and look at EKG’s of themselves and their friends.

In robotics, the students started on the space challenge. The space challenge requires them to put multiple steps together and complete different tasks such as moving the moon rocks or opening the satellite.

In their words…

Blue/Red Groups

We got to extract DNA (for real) from our body
I did not know that you could get DNA fro your cheeks
it is weird and gross
working with biohazardous items
I loved learning about Dna & I love doing expirements.
I loved the expirements.
I learned lots about DNA. I learned that you can extract DNA with gatorade.
How DNA has to have a specific base pairs
Would you like to learn more about this topic? – Yes I would so I could help the earth.

Yellow/Green Groups

I learned about how the DNA of a fruit fly is very similar to that of a human and a bunch more about the human body and how it reacts (book).
I loved everything. -Learning about the body using the fruit flies -reading about the human body -actually touching the organs
I am fascinated with genes and biology.
Larva fruit flies roll away as a defense tactic.
Humans share 20% of DNA with fruit flys
if a cockroaches heads off it still can sense a persons from coming
I would probably faint at hte sight of Blood or Bugs
It was hands on gross stuff
That ockroaches can survive without their heads
It was hands on
That Larva are extremely agile

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 did you swab for bacteria today? What do you think you will see on Friday when you look at it again?
What challenge did you start with today for the Green City Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today?

Yellow/Green Groups

Why did you study about fruit flies today? What was your favorite part of working with the fruit flies?
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 challenge did you start with today for the Space Challenge? What was your favorite part about programming today?

Photo of the Day…

June 11, 2015June 11, 2015

Make your own gak, anechoic chambers, and new challenges!

Thursday was another eventful day at See Blue STEM Camp. The students are really engaging well with the content and material and the loudness of the chatter is increasing exponentially, which we view as a good thing. They usually come in pretty quiet and reserved at the beginning of the week, and as they get more comfortable with their groups, the structure of the camp, etc., they really start to come out of their shells. STEM Camp has a knack for bringing out the smiles and voices of even the ones who don’t usually talk!

The Blue and Red groups got to explore the wide and wonderful world of engineering today with Dr. Bruce Walcott, a professor in electrical engineering and one of the co-founders of STEM Camp. The students dove deeper today into the design engineering process they learned about on Monday and got to apply it further through small investigations. From a lesson on buoyancy to building small generators to looking at how sound waves move, many were inspired to consider a career in engineering. They got to tour the engineering complex and several of the laboratories where the UK students and faculty really get to build and test their ideas. They got to talk to the UK students and faculty; our students asked them some great questions! The favorite on the tour again today was the anechoic chamber!

The Yellow/Green Groups explored and learned about materials science today with Dr. Brett Criswell, a science education faculty member in our Department of STEM Education. He kept them very busy the entire time, conducting mini experiments, testing their hypotheses, discovering electrical properties of different mediums via squishy circuits, and even got to make their own gak! If the cornstarch in your pantry goes missing, you might check your child’s room… 🙂

In robotics today, each group started their challenge…red and blue groups started the Green City challenge which focuses on ideas around sustainability and energy. The yellow and green groups started the Space Challenge today which focuses on ideas around physical science and astronomy. Since it was new, there were some frustrations, but as they got the hang of the concept of the new challenges, there was some great excitement in the air. All are looking forward to the final day tomorrow where they will really get to put all of their skills together for some more complex programming.

It’s hard to believe tomorrow’s the last day! We sure have enjoyed having them this week. They are truly a great group this year!

In their words…

Red/Blue Groups

What did you learn about today that you did not know before?

that it is possible to create a room without echos
that slinkies have different sound waves
I learned how a boat floats
that concrete could float
dencity and how it works [sic]
how engineers solve their problem

What did you like about what you learned today?

learning about echolocation
making aluminum foil float
I love engineering!
calculus
how we got to build a genorator [sic]

Yellow/Green Groups

What did you learn about today that you did not know before?

glue+water+Borax = Slime!
I learned about how to make electricity out of playdough, the different sands and how to make goo
That kinetic sand can’t absorb water in any way

that scientists have to catigor things based on structur and characteristics [sic]
what material science is, how to make silly putty, different kinds of sand
that you could make a solid out of water and glue
You can make putty using borax, water, and glue. Also, magic sand is hydrophobic (water resistant)

What did you like about what you learned today?

Getting to make my own gak. An learning about the field of material science
I liked that I got to keep this gooey stuff and you could bounce it
you can turn corn startch into science
I liked making all the slime
the scientists can use the materials to make better modified items to change and solve problems
materials science is awesome. I’d like to learn how to make more mixtures

Conversation starters…

Blue/Red Groups:

What was your favorite part about the engineering tour today?
What is an anechoic chamber?
How many pennies did your boat hold? If you could build it again, what would you do differently? (The red group didn’t have time to get to this today)
Is there a particular field of engineering that you think might interest you?
What challenges did you work today in programming your robot for the Green City?

Yellow/Green Groups:

What is materials science? What makes it special?
You did an experiment with several different types of sand today…what were you trying to figure out? Did your results match your hypothesis?
I heard you watched a really cool video about corn starch…can you tell me about it?
What is so special about the Gak you made…and wait, you made gak!!??
What challenges did you work today in programming your robot for the Space Challenge?

Photo of the Day… (Click here to view the photos and click here to view the videos we’ve been able to get uploaded). Our teacher leaders are rocking the Twitter world this week, so don’t forget to follow us throughout the day!

See Blue STEM Camp was featured on UKNow today…you can read more about it here!