After returning from the USA Science and Engineering Festival, the girls got back into their makerspace activities today, working with sphero robotics navigation activities as well as wool felting. Our first two sphero stations were set up with the girls navigating the spheros around a terrain park and two "bowling" alleys. Other girls continued their work with wool felting. In the coming weeks, we will be rolling out new sphero stations such as "painting" and "search and rescue." Stay tuned! It is notable that in the background of these other activities, students continue using the club's 3d printers. One girl was observed 3d-printing a mock Parthenon today to go with a social studies activity in her class. It's exciting to see the girls continue to use 3d printing for varied applications. On April 5th and 6th, 22 girls from the maker club traveled to Washington, DC, on an overnight field trip, escorted by chaperones Nikki Crumley, Deborah Dupree, Jennifer Houchins, Kevin Oliver, Mary Clay Vick, and Spencer Williams. The girls attended the USA Science and Engineering Festival in downtown Washington, DC, at the city convention center. This massive expo was spread across five exhibition halls and included interactive activities aimed at interesting students in STEM colleges and career tracks. The girls had an opportunity to visit booths ran by different STEM programs at leading colleges such as Georgia Tech and Penn State, as well as booths ran by numerous governmental organizations (e.g., EPA, NASA, Homeland Security, military, NSF, USDA, NIH), and numerous private organizations (e.g., SeaWorld, Lockheed Martin, PwC, Chevon). One of our club members even won a sphero robot from the PwC booth, and everyone came away buttons, bags, headgear, and other kid-oriented swag. Overall, the group had a great time and really enjoyed the opportunity to travel. Thanks to the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund for sponsoring this memorable opportunity. |
Purpose:Dr. Oliver's weekly update of activities in the iNEST Maker Club. Archives
April 2019
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