Upper School Tech Byte #9- Engineering Project

Upper School science teacher Mike shared a project completed by the students in his "Engineering Principles and Practice" course, which is offered as a Science elective.  Students used Google SketchUp, 3D modeling software, to design a space tackling the issue of urban sprawl.  The example Mike shared featured a 100% self-sustainable, all-inclusive community space complete with apartments, underground parking, a restaurant, a gym, a pharmacy, and a clothing store.  The building's highlights included solar panels as well as a geothermal system for heating and cooling.

tinkering with teachers

Yesterday I attended a MEMSET (Massachusetts Elementary and Middle School Educational Technologists) meeting at the Kingsley Montessori School in downtown Boston for two hours of "tinkering" along with other BB&N educators Jennifer Levenberg, Carol Fine, and Svetlana Grinshpan and my daughter Hannah.  We all used conductive copper foil tape to make a simple circuit with a battery holder which lit an LED following a video tutorial by Jie Qi from the High-Low Tech MIT Media Lab using a template.  We also discussed the possibility of arduino in the classroom by exploring the SparkFun inventors kit with a peer from the Pike School and looked at Makey-Makeys and how they interact with the Scratch programming environment with educators from the Chestnut Hill School.  If you are interested in exploring tinkering in the classroom, BB&N has Makey-Makeys, pico boards, arduino kits, and raspberry pis to play with.  We also have several books in our library if you would like to read up on engineering and programming.  Below are a few of our titles:

• Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom by Sylvia Libow Martinez and Gary Stager, Ph.D.
• Super Scratch Programming Adventure by the L.E.A.D project
• Getting Started with Raspberry Pi by Matt Richardson and Shawn Wallace
• Sew Electric: a Collection of DIY Projects that Combine Fabric, Electronics, and Programming by Leah Buechley and Kanjun Qiu
• Encyclopedia of Electronic Components by Charles Platt
• Learn to Program with Scratch by Majed Marji
• and lots of books on programming with LOGO

Talk to an ATS if you are interested!

Update on LEGO WeDo at the Lower School

4th grade students just completed their second LEGO WeDo creation and are beginning their third model. Students built and programmed a mechanical lion that makes sounds and is motorized to lift and lower its front legs as if it is sitting up and lying down. They “trained” their lions to sit up and roar, then lie down and snore when they threw it a “bone” made with a tilt sensor. Now the students are in the process of building a mechanical bird that makes sounds which are activated by manually tilting the bird up and down to lift and lower its head and flap its wings.
(The looks of surprise captured on the children's faces in the photograph above are due to the lion's head popping off as the students were trying to figure out the correct motor power and number of rotations required to make the lion sit up properly.)

-Megan Haddadi

Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach Open House

The Center for Engineering Education and Outreach will be hosting its 3rd Annual Open House on December 9th, 2010 from 4pm-7pm.

474 Boston Ave ~ Curtis Hall, lower level

Come and Explore a day in the life of working at CEEO!

• conduct research studies like their graduate students
• test their educational technologies like their product developers
• think of ways to teach engineering like students in their STOMP Outreach Program (STOMP for STEM)
  
• and, of course, play with LEGO products!

Win LEGO prizes!
Kids take home a bag of LEGO bricks!
Play a part in the CEEO's largest SAM movie!
Meet the amazing faculty, students, and staff of CEEO!

Register at http://ceeoopenhouse.eventbrite.com
(You do not have to register to attend)

WeDo at the Lower School

This week, 4th graders at BB&N will be using the LEGO WeDo kits for the first time. Their first project will be to build and program an alligator that opens and closes his mouth in response to sensing an object in front of the motion sensor in his mouth. Check back for updates.