EF2D 2012 - Engineering Family Fun Day

The fifth annual “Engineering Family Fun Day” will be held Saturday, November 3 from 10AM – 2PM in Dreher Park – Pavilion 3 (across from the Dreher Park Zoo) in West Palm Beach. Palm Beach County students, along with their families, teachers and counselors will enjoy a fun filled and educational event. The events’ main focuses are on educating the community on the opportunities available in engineering and inspire an interest in the areas of math and science in students from 4th to 12th grade.

The Society of Women Southeast Florida Section and the Palm Beach Alumni Extension of the National Society of Black Engineers are co-hosts.  This event will increase the students’ as well as their parents’, teachers’, and counselors’ awareness and knowledge of engineering and other technical fields.

The event will involve eight booths. Each sponsored booth will present a hands on engineering related activity by which the students, parents, and engineers can interact with each other. For example the Bottle Rocket involves aerospace engineering and Making Polymers involves science and chemistry.

The EF2D event involves sponsored booths. Each sponsor presents a hands on engineering related activity by which the students, parents, and engineers can interact with each other. For example, the Bottle Rocket booth teaches students aerospace engineering and the Making Polymers booth involves chemistry. Last year, Seminole Ridge SECME students challenged children to learn the physics of projectiles by making a popfly launcher with paint stirrers, a PVC pipe coupler and a ping pong ball. The minicatapults were sponsored in part by Lowe's Home Improvement of Royal Palm Beach, store #0654.

This year, Seminole SECME will make magnetic field maps of Mars. Then the participants make "field detectors" from simple objects to predict the locations of the fields. The big idea of this demonstration is that the Sun and planets have different magnetic properties. Sunspots are related to magnetism on the sun. Earth has a strong simple magnetic field with two poles. But Mars has no magnetosphere!
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/topnav/materials/listbytype/Solar_System_Magnetism.html
http://mgs-mager.gsfc.nasa.gov/kids/magfield.html

(Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of 2011 EF2D)

We challenge you to…

…build a device that can that you can pass above a surface and detect magnetic fields.

1.    Brainstorm and Design

• How can you make sure that the metal shards stay in your detector and not fall off?

· How can you make it easy to see when the metal shards move?

· How will you hold the detector as you move it above the surface?

2.    Build

Invent your own designs.

3.    Test

· Try out your detector. At our booth, use the small magnet to test how well your detector works.

· Find the hidden magnets. Take your detector to the newspaper grid. (it represents a map of Mars' surface.) Find the magnets by slowly passing your detector over the grid, one section at a time.
· Map the magnets. Using the grid lines to identify the locations, mark each magnet with a dot on your map (NOT on the newspaper).

4.    Evaluate and Redesign

· If it’s hard to see the shards move… Design a window or remove parts that block your view.

· If your detector doesn’t respond… Check that you have enough metal shards and that nothing is interfering with how they move. Also check that you’re not holding it too far above the surface.

5.    Go Further

• Upgrade your detector. Make it sensitive enough to work six inches above the surface.
• Magnet Treasure Hunt. You’re surrounded by magnets! Use your detector and see how many invisible fields you can find. Check things like speakers and electric motors.

20121020 SECME Water Rocket Design Seminar

Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of October 20, 2012 SECME Water Rocket Design Seminar in the Acreage)

The Seminole Ridge SECME (science-engineering-communication-math education) club hosted a model rocket design seminar on Saturday, October 20, 2012 at the Acreage Branch Library, with launches at Acreage Community Park - 50 students, 15 school coordinators, 25 parents, and 2 district administrators attend the day long event to work on water rockets. Coaches Ed Batchelor and Erich Landstrom provided Palm Beach County students with the place, the parts and the prompts for their Olympiad entries.

Working in teams, SECME students constructed a simple water rocket from two-liter soft drink bottles and other materials. The bottle has a nose cone for streamlining and fins for stability. The rocket is powered by air pressure and water, and judged by longest hang time. Seminar students easily achieved flights of six seconds, with an record of 7.2 seconds of air aloft hang time for the day.

UPDATE: I received this feedback from teacher Liz Wenk, at West Boca Raton Community High School

Hi!
I just wanted to thank you so much for the water rocket workshop on Saturday.  It was extremely informative and also fun!
I forgot to turn in the evaluation form, but that is basically the feedback I can offer.  I came in with little knowledge of how the competition would work, and by the time that I left I felt comfortable using the equipment at our school.  My students loved it and definitely have a better idea of what direction they want to take in designing their rocket.
Thanks again for a well planned and executed workshop... I look forward to the ones to come!

In the SECME program, students are required to design, build, and test a variety of engineering research projects throughout the year. SECME student teams will construct water bottle rockets from two-liter soft drink bottles and other materials to launch for maximum hang time. The rocket is powered by air pressure and water. Essays, artwork, and banners communicating student interpretations of this year’s theme, “THINK it's imPOSSIBLE? THINK sySTEMatically. THINK SECME!” will be displayed and judged. The engineering Olympiad competition in February is the culmination of projects completed as a result of classroom activities, and of students, parents, and teachers participating in Saturday engineering design seminars. Design seminars familiarize students with the events in the annual Olympiad completion. They provide the people, the place, and the parts to work on SECME submissions.

DJ Earworm - Music For Sport - Victory

Engineering Family Fun Day Promotes Interest In Math and Science

On Saturday, November 3rd, Seminole SECME will be participating in the fifth annual “Engineering Family Fun Day” in Dreher Park – Pavilion 3 (across from the Dreher Park Zoo) in West Palm Beach. The Society of Women Southeast Florida Section and the Palm Beach Alumni Extension of the National Society of Black Engineers are co-hosts.

The event will involve eight booths. Each sponsored booth presents a hands on engineering related activity by which the students, parents, teachers, councelors and engineers can interact with each other. For example, the Bottle Rocket involves aerospace engineering and Making Polymers involves science and chemistry. SECME will be presenting "Inspector Detector" from the upcoming Design Squad "Beyond the Moon" guide.

We challenge you to…

…build a device that can that you can pass above a surface and detect magnetic fields.

1.    Brainstorm and Design

• How can you make sure that the metal shards stay in your detector and not fall off?

· How can you make it easy to see when the metal shards move?

· How will you hold the detector as you move it above the surface?

2.    Build

Invent your own designs.

3.    Test

· Try out your detector. At our booth, use the small magnet to test how well your detector works.

· Find the hidden magnets. Take your detector to the newspaper grid. (it represents a map of Mars' surface.) Find the magnets by slowly passing your detector over the grid, one section at a time.
· Map the magnets. Using the grid lines to identify the locations, mark each magnet with a dot on your map (NOT on the newspaper).

4.    Evaluate and Redesign

· If it’s hard to see the shards move… Design a window or remove parts that block your view.

· If your detector doesn’t respond… Check that you have enough metal shards and that nothing is interfering with how they move. Also check that you’re not holding it too far above the surface.

5.    Go Further

• Upgrade your detector. Make it sensitive enough to work six inches above the surface.
• Magnet Treasure Hunt. You’re surrounded by magnets! Use your detector and see how many invisible fields you can find. Check things like speakers and electric motors.

20121018 Popfly Launcher

Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of 2012 Popfly Launcher)

Pop-Fly Launcher.
 http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/pop-fly/

Summary:

In this lesson, student teams in grades 3 – 12 will explore the engineering design process by building a device that can launch a ping-pong ball high enough for them to catch it. We challenge students to make something that launchs a ball high enough for them to catch it, using the materials and their feet.

Learning Objectives: After this activity, students will understand how levers convert a small motion into a large motion, and how engineers consider resource constraints and the laws of physics when developing and improving their designs.

Common Core State Standards
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.HSG.SRT.D.11 Understand and apply the Law of Sines and the Law of Cosines to find unknown measurements in right and non-right triangles (e.g., surveying problems, resultant forces).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.3 Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.6 Analyze the author's purpose in providing an explanation, describing a procedure, or discussing an experiment in a text, defining the question the author seeks to address.

20121017 Raingutter Regatta

(Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of 2012 Raingutter Regatta)


Gotta Regatta Raingutter Race: Seminole Ridge HS physics students were challenged to make the fastest ferry for a Ping-Pong passenger. Using limited supplies teams had to design and build a boat that travels across a container of water.

Complete challenge is available here:
https://a629d397-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/seminolesecme/curriculum-of-the-consortium/2012LowesLBSTrulesRaingutterRegatta.pdf


The Raingutter Regatta Racde is adapted the Design Squad "Watercraft" and "Paddle Power" activities.
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/resources/watercraft.html
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/parentseducators/resources/paddle_power.html

Mousetrap Vehicle Calculations for Design Excellence

Mousetrap Vehicle Calculations for Design Excellence

There are two main stages of travel for mousetrap vehicles (MTV). The first is the powered stage and the second is the coasting stage. There is a possible third stage that should be avoided by careful routing of the string – the breaking stage – since this will reduce distance but with no positive offsetting effect.

Since the powered stage accounts for the majority of the distance and the time used, it is wise to optimize this phase. To begin the design, we’ll ignore length and weigh considerations (but they should be evaluated as part of the final MTV design). Once the initial design is complete, trade-offs and improvements can be made.

To calculate distance under power for an existing MTV design, you determine how many times the wheel will rotate and multiply that by its circumference to get total distance. If the vehicle does not perform as anticipated then you can look for losses due to slippage and other factors, or perhaps a math error. Include units in all calculations to avoid use of conflicting units (dimensional analysis).
https://sites.google.com/site/seminolesecme/curriculum-of-the-consortium/Mousetrap%20Vehicle%20Calculations%20for%20Design%20Excellence.pdf
based on a 2011 SECME Saturday Design Seminar originally presented at Pine Jog Elementary School.

Moneyville at CSX

Children’s Science Explorium’s new exhibit now open!

The new traveling exhibit Moneyville is now open! Moneyville uses the fascinating subject of money to build math skills and promote economic literacy in a fun and immersive urban landscape. Moneyville is open through January 13 during regular Explorium hours. There is a suggested donation of $5 per person www.ScienceExplorium.org.

Math Midway at MODS

Museum of Discovery and Science, Fort Lauderdale, FL

January 26 through May 5, 2013

The Math Midway begins 2013 with a first-time appearance in Florida at the Museum of Discovery and Science, a museum with more than 200 interactive science exhibits.



Dive into a world of mathematics with the highly interactive exhibit Math Midway. Students will be learning math as they pedal a smooth-riding, square-wheeled tricycle; create interesting pen and ink drawings using the Mysterious Harmonograph; or produce a distinct calliope tune with the Organ Function Grinder. Math Midway offers a plethora of enlightening and fun mathematical puzzles —all while learning the science behind each unique exhibit.

Can You KenKen?

KenKen is a logic puzzle that involves arithmetic. Similar to SuDoku, KenKen will exercise your mind as you fill in the blanks. KenKen is a game that helps students improve their calculation skills, logical thinking and persistence. The goal is to fill a grid with numbers so that no number appears more than once in any row or column. In addition, the numbers must combine to form a target number using a specific operation of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

KenKen logic puzzles were first invented in Japan by Tetsuya Miyamoto, promoted as “Kashikoku Naru Puzzle” or the "Makes You Smarter" puzzle. With the main goal to improve students’ cognitive abilities in mind, he developed a brain stimulating exercise that would be understandable, fun and challenging for students of all levels.

KenKen emphasizes logical thinking and problem solving in the context of basic operations. The math puzzle improves numeracy skills and logical thinking, and develops concentration, perseverance and stamina. The puzzle’s universality, with an array of difficulty levels and no language, gender or age requirements, allows all students the chance to participate.

The puzzle is used to teach Common Core mathematical processes and is prominently featured on the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Illuminations website. (NCTM is the world's largest organization devoted to math education). KenKen puzzles can also be played for free at http://www.KenKen.com.

The KenKen Classroom Program (KKCR) is a weekly set of puzzles that range in size from 3x3 to 5x5 grids, with two 6x6 teamwork puzzles, sent as PDF to teachers once a week, usually on Sundays. The puzzle sets are carefully selected to ensure that they are fit for all class levels and skill levels, from gifted children as well as for students with learning disabilities!

Rules for KENKEN
1. Every square in the grid will contain one number. In a 4 x 4 puzzle, use the numbers 1–4. In a 5 x 5 puzzle, use the numbers 1–5.
2. Each row and each column must contain the numbers 1 through 3 (easy) or 1 through 5 (challenging). Do not repeat numbers in any row or column.
3. A cage is a heavily outlined set of squares. Every cage has a target number in the upper left corner. The numbers in the squares inside a cage must combine to produce the target number using the given operation in any order to produce the target numbers in the top-left corners.
4. Freebies: Cages with just one square should be filled in with the number in the top-left corner. This is a good place to start solving the puzzle.



KENKEN and the Common Core CCSS.Math.Content.HSA-CED.A.1 Create equations and inequalities in one variable and use them to solve problems.
CCSS.Math.Content.HSA-CED.A.4 Rearrange formulas to highlight a quantity of interest, using the same reasoning as in solving equations.

AES Engineers Scholarship Deadline Oct. 5

Scholarship Deadline - October 5, 2012


We will be awarding $500 to the winner(s) each year.

Application Process

Students will submit an essay on one of the two topics that appear on the scholarship page of our web site http://www.aesengineers.com/scholarships.htm Full details are available on our site.

Seminole SECME Seminar on Water Rockets 10/20

WATER BOTTLE ROCKET SEMINAR
Hosted by Seminole Ridge SECME

WHEN: Saturday, October 20, 2012 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

WHERE: The Acreage Branch Library is on Orange Blvd. just east of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road, behind the Publix Super Market. For directions, visit http://www.pbclibrary.org/branch-acr.htm.
We will be launching around 1 PM at Acreage Community Park just down the road, 140th Ave & 67th St N. (weather permitting). Students are responsible for their own transportation to and from the event sites. Elementary and middle school students must be accompanied by an adult (either chaperon or parent).

WHY: Working in teams, students construct a simple bottle rocket from two-liter soft drink bottles and other materials. The rocket is powered by air pressure and water, and judged by longest hang time.

WHAT TO BRING: (2) 2 LITER BOTTLES (PER STUDENT REQUIRED), PACKAGING TAPE, PARTY HATS, FIN MATERIAL (SUCH AS FOAM DISPOSABLE DINNER PLATES, CORRUGATED PLASTIC (NOT CARDBOARD) FROM CAMPAIGN SIGNS, PERMANENT MARKER, MEASURING TAPE OR RULER, SCISSORS, NEWSPAPERS.

Click here to register!