SECME Summer Institute Evaluation

SECME Summer Institute DAY SEVEN
Sometimes as a teacher, I am faced with a dozen different demands that pull me in a dozen different directions at the same time. By the end of the week, I am running on empty. SECME helps refuel me, and the summer institute is the refinary!

AUDIO: Jackson Brown "Running on Empty" - Live 2004

Clemson "Clean Sweep"

SECME Summer Institute DAY FIVE

The first annual SECME VEX Robotics Championship, held on the Clemson University campus. This year's competition was Clean Sweep. VEX Clean Sweep is played on a 12'x12' square field configured as seen above. Two alliances – one "red" and one "blue" – composed of two teams each, compete in matches consisting of a twenty-second autonomous period followed by two minutes of driver-controlled play. The object of the game is to attain a higher score than your opponent's alliance by moving as many balls as possible onto their side of the field and by "locking up" small balls in the triangular goals. A bonus is awarded to the alliance that has the most total points at the end of the Autonomous Period.

The SECME Solution

SECME Summer Institute DAY FOUR


"The SECME Solution"
Remarks by Erich Landstrom on receiving the annual National Teacher of the Year award during the SECME "Evening of Elegance" Sunday, June 27, 2010.

Clemson, catapults and computer programming

SECME Summer Institute DAY THREE

I thought I might share some pictures of Clemson University campus and the SECME summer institute, so you can see what I'm doing daily.

Deep Impact, Higher Thinking

SECME Summer Institute DAY TWO
Module: Small Bodies, Deep Impact

Deep Impact accomplished its first successful mission on July 4, 2005, when the flyby spacecraft released its impactor spacecraft to create the historic encounter with Comet Tempel 1. The flyby spacecraft then skillfully maneuvered away from the comet's debris and has since been orbiting around the sun, awaiting its next assignment. The Deep Impact Extended Investigation (DIXI) will send the flyby spacecraft to investigate the surface of comet Hartley 2 on November 4, 2010.

NASA’s Stardust-NExT (New Exploration of Tempel) spacecraft will fly by the comet on Feb. 14, 2011, Valentines’ Day, at 5:42 pm ET. The low-cost Discovery Program Mission of Opportunity will expand the investigation of comet Tempel 1 initiated by NASA’s Deep Impact spacecraft. The mission uses the still-healthy Stardust spacecraft to perform a flyby of comet Tempel 1 and obtain high-resolution images of the comet and hopefully the crater made by Deep Impact in July 2005. The delayed arrival will provide project scientists the best chance of seeing both previously imaged areas and news areas of Tempel 1. By taking photos of previously imaged areas of the comet, scientists can analyze terrain changes caused by the comet’s close approach to the Sun on a successive orbit five and one-half years later.

The DIXI and SD NExt E/PO team offers a variety of online supplementary science resources for formal and informal education audiences that are aligned to national standards and allow students of all ages to engage in inquiry-based, hands-on learning activities.

And I See Your True Colors Shining Through

SECME Summer Institute DAY TWO

Module: True Colors


Based on the dominant "color" of our personality, we formed breakout groups. The groups then created a game to play with wooden eggs and spoons. The object was NOT to actually play the game, but to observe the social interaction between members of the same "color." So, the Green team shared using a single presentor, who explained one time how to create a catapult from the spoon to launch the egg, and then see whose egg goes furthest (or hits closest to target). But the Gold team sent up two presentors, who explained several different options of games they had created. And the Blue team was a support group of four people who had tried a catapult similiar to the Green team, but had used the egg as the fulcrum so their whole launcher was unstable and unable to work, and one of their team members had laryngitis and was unable to talk but went up to present with others as a show of solidarity.

To recap: If this was Star Trek, Green would be Mr. Spock, Blue would be Dr. McCoy, and Gold would be Mr. Chekov. And Captain Kirk? He's all orange, baby!

Now I'm Down in It

SECME Summer Institute DAY ONE
The bus ride from Georgia Tech to Clemson University was longer than the flight from West Palm Beach to Atlanta, but we are finally here! SECME Summer Institute has begun. We arrived just as lasagna supper was being served. After dinner, we went through our institue folders, then made a quick run over to Walmart. I just finished assembling my handout folders for tomorrow's presentation on comets and critical thinking. I might miss the first session after breakfast in order to prep and polish up my act.

Clemson hosts institute for science, math teachers

CLEMSON — Science, technology, engineering and math teachers will tackle an intensive eight-day training program during the 34th annual SECME Summer Institute at Clemson University, June 23-July 1, 2010.

Sixty teachers from a dozen states and Grand Bahama will attend the institute, which provides professional development for kindergarten-12th grade teachers.

Joining them during the institute will be as many as 20 teams of middle and high school students, all winners of regional engineering contests, who will compete in the design of mousetrap cars — which requires a scientific report, technical drawing and a team interview — and the construction of VEX Robotics, which are built from kits.

The institute is sponsored by SECME Inc., a national nonprofit founded in 1975 as the Southeastern Consortium of Minorities in Engineering, and hosted by Clemson's College of Engineering and Science and Diversity Office. SECME's mission is to increase the pool of historically under-represented students who are prepared to college studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

"STEM education has taken on increased importance as Americans compete for 21st century jobs," said Randy Collins, associate dean for undergraduate and international studies in Clemson's College of Engineering and Science. "Programs like the SECME Summer Institute are vital to helping teachers and students better prepare for scientific and technical disciplines. We're excited to host educators, students and SECME partners."

Instructors for the institute come from SECME member universities, industrial partners, and "master teachers" recruited from member school systems. Clemson is one of 39 engineering universities in the consortium, which also includes 40 school systems in 15 states, the District of Columbia and Grand Bahama.

Faculty and staff from Clemson's College of Engineering and Science, School of Education and Diversity Office will lead classes and make presentations on research-based best practices in STEM education, research innovations and perspectives on equity and inclusion initiatives.

The event provides teachers with curriculum activities that are aligned to national standards, as well as advanced technical and scientific training, and a framework for implementing a SECME program in their schools.

Student experiments flying on final shuttle flight

The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) has launched the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP), a historic opportunity for students to propose experiments for the final scheduled flight of the Space Shuttle, STS-134. SSEP provides middle and high school classes across the nation the ability to propose experiments to fly in low Earth orbit, and to celebrate that accomplishment with their local community and with national and global audiences. Entire school districts can participate, with student teams proposing experiments like professional scientists and engineers.

Selected student experiments would fly for 10 days aboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. Launch is tentatively scheduled for November 2010, but a launch slip to mid-January is expected. Endeavour’s flight will be used as a gateway to Phase 2 of the SSEP: sustainable, ongoing access to space for grades 5–12 students inspired to propose experiments for low Earth orbit aboard the International Space Station (with transport via the Russian Progress and Soyuz vehicles), and on suborbital space flights.

Visit the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program website for full details about this time-critical program opportunity, and a call to action in your community.

STEM Ed: Are We Beginning To See the Light?

A new snapshot of parent perceptions of STEM education was released June 2nd following a survey conducted earlier in 2010 by Public Agenda.

Americans are convinced that math and science skills are crucial for the future, with strong majorities who say there will be more jobs and college opportunities for students with those skills, according to a new Public Agenda survey. But while there's broad support from parents and the general public for K-12 national standards, more than half of parents (52%) say the math and science their child is getting in school is "fine as it is."

These are just some of many surprising realities facing science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in public schools, according to “Are We Beginning to See the Light?” a new Public Agenda survey exploring the views of more than 1,400 individuals nationwide, including 646 parents of children grades K-12. The national survey was underwritten by the GE Foundation.

WNYC/NPR's Radio Lab presents: Parabolas

A video inspired by the mathematician Steve Strogatz. At the age of 13, Steve was astonished to find that pendulums and water fountains had a strange relationship that had previously been completely hidden from him.

Do You Have Homework?

see more Funny Graphs

Pizza with the Panthers

Science is Cool!

Created by Seminole Ridge High physics students Andrew Piroli and Freddy Grunwald