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” 🙂
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?
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?
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
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 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)
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?
It’s hard to believe that we’re already at the end of the week! Today was an even busier day since it was the end of the week and the students were extra alive today from all the activity this week. The blue and red and groups got to experience Dr. Brett Criswell’s wonderful awe-inspiring world of nanotechnology. From experimenting with peach fuzz and different types of plants, to talking about polymer-chains found in over-the-counter indigestion medicines, the students were taken to the teeny tiny world of nano-land. They had a great time conducting different experiments and even remembered such things as Congo Red! In robotics, they wrapped up an awesome week with finishing many challenges in the green city challenges. There were lots of screams of excitement, joy, and high fives going around as the students became more communicative within their groups and more confident in their programming skills. We tried to capture some video of it today. Clicking on the video will take you to our YouTube Channel where you can view more videos from today.
The yellow and green groups got to experience the wonderful world of engineering with our resident engineering expert, Dr. Bruce Walcott. The students got to tour the engineering complex at UK and got to go into many of the different laboratories that UK College of Engineering has. There were faculty and graduate students onsite in the laboratories so they were able to show the students some of their latest research discoveries and experiments and let the students tinker with some of the lab materials as well. Seeing real research happening is always inspiring to the students and they really ask great questions that sometimes even stump the researchers! Of course the favorite again was the sound proof room. I’m not sure what it is about that room, but they always enjoy it! They also built mini motors and talked about simple machines with Dr. Walcott. They really enjoyed the various engineering design activities and applying their content skills. They ended their engineering time with some teamwork activities, including the favorite Hula Hoop Challenge. Students often forget that in the real world, most of our work is done in teams and communication is vitally important. So the students had a great time learning to communicate and talk to each other more.
Lego robotics for the yellow and green groups was much more successful today. We even had a couple of groups do all the challenges on the Space Challenge! The Space Challenge and EV3 programming is definitely a lot different from the NXT programming, so some were frustrated a couple of days ago, but were much more confident today. It was such a joy to watch them grow over the past week in this area. They really enjoyed the Space Challenge…it is definitely more complex than the Green City they were used to before!
We all had such a great and enjoyable week with the students. It would not at all have been possible without the tremendous staff that we had this year! I had a bit of a panic moment when (because of snow days) we decided to combine both camps into one week; but some quick creative thinking brought on an awesome opportunity for our preservice teachers in our middle and secondary programs and our doctoral students at UK. Some of the college students took a Robotics class with me prior to camp starting and assisted Mark Evans and Robbie Randall in the robotics rooms and some of the college students just wanted to help out with the camp. I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you to and thank our staff this year.
We have a great group of graduate students in the STEM Education department at UK and these 5 are no exception!
L-R Back – Kayla Blyman, Floyd Broughton, Thomas Roberts; L-R Front – Maranda Miller, Marla Lemmon
Our inservice teachers are priceless! Robbie and Mark take the lead on the robotics, Brooke (Green Group), Tavin (Yellow Group), Megan (Blue Group), and Candice (Red Group) were our team leaders this year, of course Craig is the inventor, creator, and director of the See Blue STEM Camp. The camp is a way for our inservice teachers to stay connected to the university, provide high quality mentoring to the preservice teachers involved, and even have the opportunity to engage and learn new content and materials alongside the students.
L-R Back – Robbie Randall (Beaumont MS), Mark Evans (Jessie Clark MS), Candice Cprek (Henry Clay HS); L-R Front – Brooke Powers (Beaumont MS), Tavin Feheley (Jessie Clark MS), Craig Schroeder (Beaumont MS). Not pictured – Megan Vogel (Tates Creek MS)
Since we were going to 1 week with 144 students, we knew we had needed to have more help. It was an obvious choice to offer the opportunity to the preservice (future teachers) middle and secondary mathematics and science students in our College. Through this unique experience, they got to work with the students in a smaller, low-stakes setting that allowed them to really practice their classroom management skills, their questioning techniques, and work on developing appropriate relationships with students. They were mentored through this process by the high quality inservice teachers as well as the college faculty we had involved. Although they were exhausted by the end of the week, they all stated this was the best learning experience they have had thus far and really enjoyed the opportunity to grow as future educators and felt they gained a lot of STEM content knowledge alongside the students as well.
L-R Back – Andre Henderson, Brian True, Alex Freeman, William Schooler, Michael Delfino, Eric Garwood, Zeke Edwards; L-R Middle – Ben Wolfe, Maria Richards, Brittney Denton, Lydia Speler, Amy Allen, Tyler Waters, Chris Rogers, Clay Rehmel, Shelby Cameron; L-R Front Row Katherine Poe, Alanna Briggs, Jamie Kosel, Michael Plas
Craig, myself, Christa Jackson, Mark Evans, Gabe Brown, and Bruce Walcott are the team that make up the directors of the camp. We do everything from logistics to food to parent communication to anything else that needs to be done to help things run smoothly.
L-R Craig Schroeder, Christa Jackson, and Margaret Schroeder; Not pictured- Mark Evans, Bruce Walcott, and Gabe Brown (they were making sure everything was running smoothly while we were snapping pictures!)
Conversation starters…
Red and Blue Groups
What is nanotechnology?
What kinds of things repel water? Why do they need to repel water?
How do you make magic sand?
Peaches reflect water? I’ve never heard about that. Tell me more!
What challenge(s) did you complete in the Green City Challenge?
How do you and your partner(s) work together to program and complete the challenges?
What was your favorite part about STEM Camp?
Out of all the things you learned this week, what was the most interesting?
What career do you want to pursue when you get older? What kinds of classes are you going to need to take in order to be successful in your career?
Yellow and Green Groups
What is a sound proof room? What makes it sound proof?
What was your favorite lab you visited? What made it your favorite?
What challenge(s) did you complete in the Space Challenge?
How do you and your partner(s) work together to program and complete the challenges?
What was your favorite part about STEM Camp?
Out of all the things you learned this week, what was the most interesting?
What career do you want to pursue when you get older? What kinds of classes are you going to need to take in order to be successful in your career?
Video of the Day… This video really exemplifies why we do this and why we feel it’s important for students to have these opportunities.
We thank you for a wonderful week with your students and hope you have an enjoyable rest of the summer!
Next year’s camp dates are tentatively set for June 8 – 12, 2015 at the University of Kentucky Colleges of Education and Engineering for rising 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.
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!
Red/Blue Groups
