stemology

Delaware - Winning (too)

2011-04-11T09:30:00.000-04:00

Bolstering science education is essential for U.S. prosperity is the title of an article on DelewareOnline. Like every other article I've read lately, they claim that levels of math and science education are well behind what they should be in the United States.

What has happened in Delaware is that Dupont, along with educators in that state, have changed their curriculum and have seen great improvements in both science and math. Outstanding! What they don't say is what changes they made.

Everyone loves to see that students are performing better in math and science, and it even looks better when a big corporation is linked to their success (at least to that corporation).

I'd really like to know what curriculum changes they made. Things like this are something that should not be kept a secret. The title of the article is "... essential for U.S. prosperity" not just Delaware (or Dupont).

Invitation to the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis

2011-04-07T22:09:00.000-04:00

A nice video invitation to the 2011 FIRST World Championship has been on the Internet for a while and we are less than 3 weeks way from the start of the event, so I'm posting this invitation here. Take a minute and watch -

Morgan Freeman will be there, and you should too!

This will be the final "celebration" of the 2011 FIRST season. Unlike other competitions, this World Championship is more than finding the winners for 2011, it is a major celebration for all the hard work these students have invested. Don't get me wrong, the competition will be fierce, and the celebrations will be out of this world. It is a big deal, trust me.

For more information about FIRST, see the official FIRST website at http://usfirst.org or my own FIRST public outreach community at http://firstobjective.org

If you are going to be anywhere near St. Louis on April 27 - 30, do yourself a favor and check this out. Like always, admission is free and everyone is welcome.

Cross post at Roger on FIRST

Sample Return Robot Challenge

2011-04-05T18:44:00.000-04:00

A new NASA Centennial Challenge is about to be making news. The Sample Return Robot Challenge is a newish challenge of the Centennial Challenge and has recently been taken over by WPI. This link from WPI will be providing some of the details as they become available. Right now there are more questions than answers on the site, however they claim that the official rules will be coming this spring. The contest is set to take place in the spring of 2012.

From what I can tell the challenge tasks teams to build an autonomous robot to search a variable terrain for specific "samples". I'm not entirely sure what that means, but it sounds to me like your autonomous robot needs to be able to navigate a variable terrain (from rocky to granular (maybe sand)) in search of these samples, then return them to a designated "drop zone".

The purse for this event is $1.5M. I think it's time to start programming robots again. :)

This has been cross posted at Roger on FIRST

High School Robotics Curriculum

2011-04-04T11:21:00.000-04:00

As you may know I've been involved with a couple FIRST teams in the West Michigan Area. The first team I was involved with was a team that graciously took several of us in when our schools existing team couldn't find sponsorship and folded up. The second team I have been involved with, I helped start. This team is back at our school with new sponsorship and a very bright future.

So I've been around the horn 5 times, helping students engineer, build and program an FRC robot. The skills these students have learned, I think, are irreplaceable. This has got me thinking a lot about why this type of curriculum isn't taught in the classroom.

So I have many ideas of how I think a robotics class should / could be taught to students in the classroom during normal school hours. Students would learn some basic physics, mechanical engineering, electronics and computer programming. I intend to post some of my curriculum ideas here in the near future.

My question for you is, are you aware of a classroom robotics curriculum? If so leave a comment with any details you care to share. Thanks!

Science Day - Yay!

2011-04-02T12:21:00.000-04:00

Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ is hosting a Science Day for high-school students. Students and faculty from Rowan will be providing hands-on experiments and demonstrations targeted at exposing the high school students to subjects that will be available to them in college.

Faculty from Rowan University's astronomy, biochemistry / chemistry, computer science, math and physics departments will be on hand to facilitate these activities.

What is still unclear to me as the actual date of these activities. This article, written yesterday afternoon, and claims that this will happen Friday... Would that be April 1 or April 8? I couldn't tell ya, but either way, I like the fact that they are working to inspire students with science, technology and math. Good job Rowan University!

Economics needs Engineers

2011-04-01T22:04:00.000-04:00

If Mars need Moms, then economics needs engineers.

I'm reading an article by Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) "U.S. economic future needs STEM education" on The Hill's Congress Blog. In short, the article, which I must say I mostly agree with, proclaims that the United States needs more students educated in STEM for the benefit of the nation's economy. Duh...

As I wrote earlier today, NASA is sponsoring the STEM program - The Great Moon Buggy Race and also as I write this there are literally thousands of high-school students competing in the non-profit FIRST Robotics Competition this weekend.

My point is that there are great STEM programs that have been in place for many years (18 for the Moon Buggy Race and 20 for FIRST). People talk about STEM in recent months like it is something new. Not! I know NASA is a government agency and has funded for the Moon Buggy Race. If we want to continue to fund STEM programs/events, maybe a little more attention should be given to FIRST.

Fact: Our economy does need engineers, and there are programs across the country that are trying to make this happen. Pay attention to these programs and help them; they are doing amazing things.

The Great Moon Buggy Race

2011-04-01T16:37:00.000-04:00

I've spent some time today watching the 18th annual Great Moon Buggy Race on NASATelevision's USTREAM.TV feed. It's been fun! The race continues into tomorrow (April 2) so check it out. Here's a quick link if you're interested: http://bit.ly/e4lHoY

Here's a blurb from the NASATelevision USTREAM page:

The 18th Annual Great Moonbuggy Race will be held April 1 - 2, 2011 in Huntsville, Alabama, at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center. Students are required to design a vehicle that addresses a series of engineering problems that are similar to problems faced by the original Moonbuggy team.

This is great and I'm not sure why I haven't heard of this before, but thanks to the Internet, I'm now in the know. If you're interested in more of what the race involves, here's another quote from the USTREAM page:

Each Moonbuggy will be human powered and carry two students, one female and one male, over a half-mile simulated lunar terrain course including "craters", rocks, "lava" ridges, inclines and "lunar" soil.

If you have a chance, check out the race online. It's a lot of fun to watch.

Driverless Cars

2011-03-31T22:52:00.001-04:00

Last night I was remembering a couple of the all-time great races - The DARPA Grand Challenge & The DARPA Urban Challenge. These races happened a few years back and I watched the online coverage like old fat knuckleheads watch football. I did a quick online search last night to see if there were any new challenges, but didn't find anything.

Much to my surprise, I found this TED talk earlier today -

I know there are people who love to drive their cars (me included) but this kinda thing IS the future. I would love to see a yearly Grand / Urban Challenge. I'd buy a vuvuzela for that!

Robots - Juggling?

2011-03-31T10:01:00.000-04:00

You may have already seen this but I thought it was pretty darn cool and wanted to post it here anyway. The title of the video is Quadrocopter Ball Juggling, but I think it is more like robot tennis. Never-the-less it is pretty amazing stuff. Check it out:

Feel like leaving a comment? Go for it!

Google Lunar X Prize

2011-03-29T23:37:00.000-04:00

For quite some time now I've kept my finger on the pulse of the Google Lunar X Prize. If you haven't heard about this X Prize competition, it is simply a race to the Moon. Here is a short quote from their website describing the competition:

The Google Lunar X PRIZE is igniting a new era of lunar exploration by offering the largest international incentive prize of all time. A total of $30 million in prizes are available to the first privately funded teams to safely land a robot on the surface of the Moon and have that robot travel 500 meters over the lunar surface and send images and data back to the Earth. Teams must be at least 90% privately funded, though commercially reasonable sales to government customers are allowed without limit.

It looks like there are still about 29 teams competing, only 4 have withdrawn.

In the coming weeks I plan to follow the competition a little more closely and I will provide updates and commentary right here, so check back! This is going to be one fun race!

Federal Funding

2011-03-29T15:42:00.000-04:00

The College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison have listed a bunch of great funding opportunities. This site: Federal Funding Opportunities lists several.

The one that caught my eye was the one from the NSF - "Nanotechnology Undergraduate Education in Engineering". Here's a brief introduction of the synopsis from it's NSF page:

This solicitation aims at introducing nanoscale science, engineering, and technology through a variety of interdisciplinary approaches into undergraduate engineering education. The focus of this year's competition is on nanoscale engineering education with relevance to devices and systems and/or on the societal, ethical, economic and/or environmental issues relevant to nanotechnology.

This sounds pretty heavy-duty for an undergraduate degree, but that is what we need to be doin' - pushing the envelope! (and our brains)

Pennsylvania is getting it done

2011-03-28T12:29:00.000-04:00

Less than a week ago I posted "Pennsylvania - Winning" which highlighted the fact that the state would be getting extra funding for additional education for science and math teachers at the high-school level. If you haven't read that post, go back and check it out.

Now I've just read that Shippenburg University has a new degree that has been accredited by the American Board of Engineering Technology (ABET). The new degree is Computer Engineering. According to this article the school has the best tuition rates for study in this field for their state.

Computer Engineering is a good field, but it seems to me to be very competitive in the United States. It seems to me that a lot of this work is being outsourced, however we need to bring this back home.

So, Pennsylvania is Winning Again. Good for you!

To Garden or to Teach?

2011-03-27T18:37:00.000-04:00

This morning I read the article: "Idaho schools receive grants to grow school gardens". So basically Tom Luna, whom I wrote about in the post "Raise that Bar" on Roger on FIRST back in late August, says that the Idaho State Department of Education wants to give $30,000 to a few schools to teach gardening.

Now on one side of this I think this is great. All students should understand how food is grown and what it takes to produce healthy food that is good for you. That being said, I fell that maybe only a few of these students will end up in the farming industry. The farming industry is such huge business that it is highly unlikely most people will grow their own food. On the other hand, this is Idaho....

The flip side of this is, would this money be better spent on another teacher for one of the schools? Or are there other tools that this money could buy that would allow students better access to science, technology and math?

Do you have an opinion? Leave a comment.

Week Four Comes to a Close

2011-03-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

Week 4 of the FIRST Competition season has drawn to a close. Only 2 more weeks for the high-school robotics teams to show off their stuff before heading to the Championship, in St. Louis MO.

While looking for FIRST related stories online, I came across this article which I thought did a very good job at explaining FIRST. If you need a little more info about FIRST, check it out.

Students doing STEM right NOW! (again)

2011-03-24T21:07:00.001-04:00

Like I posted last week, there are high-school students all over the country, including Hawaii and even Canada, that are about to engage their robot creations in a seriously fierce competition.

FIRST Robotics Competitions are entering week 4 of the 2011 season. If you are anywhere near any of the following venues, do yourself a favor and go check out what all the buzz is about.

Regional	Waterloo Regional	University of Waterloo	Waterloo, ON Canada	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Los Angeles Regional	Long Beach Arena	Long Beach, CA USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Washington DC Regional	Walter E. Washington Conv. Ctr.	Washington, DC USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Hawaii Regional sponsored by BAE Systems	Stan Sheriff Center	Honolulu, HI USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Midwest Regional	UIC Pavilion	Chicago, IL USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	SBPLI Long Island Regional	Hofstra University	Hempstead, NY USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Autodesk Oregon Regional	Portland Memorial Coliseum	Portland, OR USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
Regional	Palmetto Regional	North Charleston Coliseum	North Charleston, SC USA	24-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
MI District	Ann Arbor FIRST Robotics District Competition	Skyline High School	Ann Arbor, MI USA	25-Mar - 26-Mar-2011
MI District	Niles FIRST Robotics District Competition	Niles High School	Niles, MI USA	25-Mar - 26-Mar-2011

These events are ALWAYS FREE. Go see this!

VEX Robotics

2011-03-24T13:07:00.000-04:00

I've often heard that the best kind of learning in the classroom involves hands-on work. I would agree, however I think the best learning in general involves hands-on work. I suppose that is why I have been involved with FIRST for a few years now.

When I started with a local FIRST team, VEX Robotics was both an integral part of the FIRST program and also used as a teaching tool in the classroom both during pre-season to our FRC competitions as well as during the season as a somewhat simpler platform for the beginners on the team.

The VEX kits were so much fun to tinker with, I bought one for myself! I've always thought of it as an erector set on steroids. The kit is a lot of fun to design and build different robots, as well as a great way to learn programming. There are several ways to program the VEX microcontroller, however I've set up Eclipse to allow for software development.

The VEX Robotics platform now has it's own series of competitions, check out this page on their site for more details.

VEX Robotics is an affordable robotics kit for both the individual or classroom. It is a lot of fun to experiment with and will provide hours of educational fun.

COMETS return

2011-03-23T17:20:00.000-04:00

In this post I provided an update on FIRST Robotics Competition Team #3357 - The COMETS. This is another quick update with an awesome video created by high school students on the team. This video shows our team in action at the West Michigan District event at Grand Valley State University. Check this out -

This really shows how The COMETS changed the game by playing extremely aggressive defense.

This coming weekend - March 25 and 26, The COMETS will be competing in Niles Michigan. Check them out if you are in the area, admission is always free to the public.

Cross posted at Roger on FIRST

Pennsylvania - Winning

2011-03-22T16:24:00.000-04:00

The Bayer USA Foundation has awarded a $750,000 grant to ASSET Inc., (Achieving Student Success Through Excellence in Teaching) to establish the "Bayer Professional Development Academy" at ASSET and support the creation of new Regional Professional Development Centers and Satellite Sites across Pennsylvania.

That says it all. Quote from this article on csrwire.com.

In a nutshell, Pennsylvania and Bayer USA see that teaching math and science successfully, come from well educated teachers. This grant is for ongoing professional development for existing teachers to enhance their teaching style and deepen their knowledge of science.

Unfortunately in Michigan, I see teachers being cut, classroom sizes are growing and teacher's unions are being dissolved (at least that is the goal of the state government).

Congratulations to the teachers in Pennsylvania, someone recognizes your value.

Super Moon Hype

2011-03-22T14:07:00.000-04:00

You may have heard about the "Super Moon" that we experienced a few days ago. This happens when the Moon is full AND the Moon is at it's perigee in it's orbit. When the Moon is at perigee, it is closest to the Earth in it's elliptical orbit.

Even if it took a little hype to get the average Joe outside to look at the Moon, then I guess it's a good thing. People should be taking in the night sky, no matter the occasion. There are always lots of nifty things to observe.

Yes, I did call the Super Moon hype. Even though the Moon is as close as it ever gets to the Earth, there is hardly any discernible difference. Keep in mind that the Moon's complete orbit around the Earth happens every 27 or 28 days. In another 4 weeks, it will be back at it's perigee again, however it will not be full.

Anyhow, if you went out the other night to view the Super Moon, good for you! If you thought the Moon was a lot bigger than normal, I might all be in your head. Never-the-less, get out and observe the night sky, it's always amazing!

COMETS

2011-03-22T09:11:00.000-04:00

As you may or may not know, I've been a coach / mentor of FIRST Robotics Competition Team #3357 - The COMETS. Unfortunately, this year, I've needed to take a back-seat during the most exciting part of our year. I have not been involved as much as I would like; maybe next year will be different.

At any rate, The COMETS - an acronym for Creating Outstanding Minds, Embracing Technology & Science, are in the middle of a very competitive season. A couple weeks ago the team competed in Traverse City Michigan and this past weekend they competed in West Michigan at Grand Valley State University. I just found an awesome video created by students on the team, using clips taken during the competition in Traverse City.

The COMETS were able to complete much of their work during the Traverse City competition, which made them much more competitive at the West Michigan competition. In fact, The COMETS were on the winning alliance at the West Michigan event.

In short, students assisted by adult mentors, designed and built the robot you see in the video above. The drive-train they built is one of the most complicated systems ever built by a team of high school students, and this is only their second year.

The COMETS will be competing in the Niles district event this coming weekend. If you are going to be in the Niles Michigan area on Friday or Saturday, make sure to attend this free event.

This post has been cross-posted at Roger on FIRST.

Radiation is good for you?

2011-03-18T18:34:00.001-04:00

For the past week I've watched the unfortunate events transpire in Japan. Enough said, EVERYONE already knows what has happened and I'm going going to go into the details. I do want to add that I feel simply horrible for what they are going through.

I just found a simply ridiculous article by Anne Coulter claiming that things aren't really as bad as they appear in Japan. Her claim is that the radiation in Japan is actually good for you! She says that the Japanese will actually have a lower risk of getting cancer now that they have been exposed to this radiation....

I think Ms. Coulter is actually smarter than that and she is just attempting to drive more people to her site, see her advertisements and maybe even buy her book to see what other ridiculous claims she makes.,

Anyhow, science shows that radiation is not good for you, and that's what I'm going with.

Students doing STEM right NOW!

2011-03-17T16:56:00.000-04:00

Starting right now is week 3 of regional / district FIRST Robotics Competitions

If you are near any of these venues, do yourself a favor and check out an event. Events run either Thursday - Saturday or Friday - Saturday for district events. Admission is always free.

What you'll see - 120 pound robots crashing into each other, students learning and having heaps of fun at the same time. You will also see lots and lots of Gracious Professionalism.

Regional	Arizona Regional	Hamilton High School	Chandler, AZ USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Sacramento Regional	UC Davis ARC Pavilion	Davis, CA USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Peachtree Regional	Gwinnett Center	Duluth, GA USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Boilermaker Regional	Purdue Armory	West Lafayette, IN USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Bayou Regional	Alario Center	Westwego, LA USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Chesapeake Regional	Baltimore Convention Center	Baltimore, MD USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	St. Louis Regional	Chaifetz Arena	St. Louis, MO USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Oklahoma Regional	Cox Arena	Oklahoma City, OK USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Lone Star Regional	George R. Brown Convention Center	Houston, TX USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
Regional	Seattle Olympic Regional	Qwest Field Event Center	Seattle, WA USA	17-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
MI District	West Michigan FIRST Robotics District Competition	Grand Valley State University	Allendale, MI USA	18-Mar - 19-Mar-2011
MI District	Detroit FIRST Robotics District Competition	Wayne State University	Detroit, MI USA	18-Mar - 19-Mar-2011

Google Alerts

2011-03-17T11:49:00.000-04:00

For a long time now I've used Google Alerts to find interesting stuff to read. For at least a couple years I've had alerts for FIRST Robotics, Science Education & Engineering Education. You might be aware that I've been blogging about FIRST on Roger on FIRST. This blog was originally on the blogspot server, but I moved it to my own server about a year ago.

For several months in a row I would write daily about FIRST and never saw any of my articles appear in my Google Alerts. Even though I had submitted my server (FIRSTObjective.og) to Google and could see that I was getting crawled daily, my posts never appeared in an Alert.

When I started this blog, I decided to return to the Google owned Blogger (blogspot). My posts still haven't appeared, but this blog isn't even 2 weeks old yet, so I'm not terribly concerned.

What does bother me is that the majority of Science Education Alerts I receive are from stories in Asia, India and other far away countries. Is Google not realizing there is science, technology, engineering and mathematics going on right here in the USA?

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

STEM Career

2011-03-16T19:54:00.000-04:00

I just happened to find STEMCareer.com which appears to be an excellent resource for students, teachers and parents. They also offer a wide variety of links to other sites. The best thing is that this site is based here in the US.

Let's Talk Science

2011-03-16T11:50:00.000-04:00

Here we go again - more funding to promote math and science, just not in the United States. Canada, more specifically Ontario, has announced federal support for their program called Let's Talk Science.

I was just reading this article on the Voice of Toronto. It seems that our friends up north seem to get it:

“Our Government recognizes the importance of preparing today’s youth for today’s high-tech economy,” said Prime Minister Harper. “Our support will help give youth the tools they need to become the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs and problem solvers. And by developing our future talent pool of scientists and engineers, we can help drive innovation in southern Ontario for years to come.”

While the United States government feels that it is time to cut funding for education, Canada sees things differently. I wonder who is right...