The other day, my Skype alert started ringing during Future Engineers Camp. You know the funny sound it makes when someone is trying to call you? Well, since my laptop is linked to a giant speaker under the table, everyone could hear it loud and clear. Read the rest of this entry »
During the second and third week of camp, we began to introduce tools and machines. We wanted to give students a simple modeling project that would ease them into their use of the equipment and our safety rules and procedures.
Our design challenge was to brainstorm an innovative edible candy or sweet treat that could be marketed and sold in stores. The final prototype would be an over-sized model of the product, built out of foam, painted with acrylic paints and hung from the ceiling of the room by fishing line! Luckily, I ran into a very accomplished entrepreneurer over the summer, named Bridget Graham, who happened to have her own business along these same lines. Read the rest of this entry »
Thanks for continuing to follow my blog and letting me share my classroom experiences with you. This Summer, I’d like to take you away from my usual location at Gateway High School, and direct you to a new set of students and activities taking place at the Boys & Girls Club in Trenton, NJ.
First, let me back things up a bit and provide you with some background information. For the last three summers, I have been running a summer camp located at the Trenton Boys & Girls Club, which we call Future Engineers. The camp itself is just one function of a larger grant project, also called Future Engineers, which provides camps, after school enrichment programs and professional development throughout the year, in order to enhance K-12 Engineering Education in New Jersey. The grant itself is funded by the Martinson Family Foundation, and housed within the Center for Excellence in STEM Education, located within the department of Technological Studies at The College of New Jersey. This summer, I have 75 students, ages 9-15, enrolled in Future Engineers for a total of eight weeks. Read the rest of this entry »
Earlier this month, Chris Better and I took a team of five students to participate in the NJ Envirothon for the first time. In fact, we were the first team comprised of “Technology Education/Engineering” students, as the other teams were all assembled by their schools’ science teachers. There were 47 teams participating in total this year. People were quite receptive to our participation because the whole theme of the event was based around solving environmental problems, particularly those dealing with water conservation. Read the rest of this entry »
Student-made flashlight using an old baby bottle.
Out here in New Jersey, public schools were recently told to prepare for budget cuts across the state in every district. In the spirit of the sustainable design challenges and problem solving activities that we have been giving students all year, our current situation presented us a REAL problem to solve. Next year, we might have less money to buy new supplies, so it is important to conserve now. However, we want to continue giving students fresh design challenges that deal with sustainability and the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), as well as other 21st century skills such as innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration. Read the rest of this entry »
What is it like to build a “green” car from scratch? How far can an EcoCAR drive on a tank of gas? Where does an A123Systems battery go in an electric car? What decision did one EcoCAR team poll the entire campus about? These questions and many more will be answered on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 3 p.m. ET on the Inside the Green Garage blog (and on GM’s FastLane blog) during a live Web chat with the North Carolina State University and the University of Wisconsin EcoCAR teams. No registration is required; just come to the site and ask the engineering teams your questions! Please spread the word and we’ll see you on the Inside the Green Garage blog next week. Read the rest of this entry »
This year at Gateway we have been riding the “aquaponics wave” for quite some time. While we will continue to expand upon our biodynamic farming unit in biotechnology, we will also be getting deeper into a few other areas of sustainable technology.
At Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), we’ve developed a new “equation,” i.e. E3= C which stands for Energy, the Environment and Education equals Civilization. Read the rest of this entry »
Welcome to Teach Green, where educators share their tips and inspirations for teaching lessons about the environment.
