WBR Big Bang Theory's Mission Patch

Kyle's on crutches while he sat like that!
Thank you to junior Kyle Maglietta, artist and contortionist, who created this year's mission patch for the water rocket competition.



Each team will develop a patch design, used to symbolically commemorate the objectives of the mission. The team’s complete success will not solely be judged on rocket performance, but the combined effort of the team. Entries are judged on
Originality - Innovativeness of the design (30 points), Creativity - Uniqueness of the information depicted (30 points), Appearance - Attractiveness/neatness of the presentation (20 points), and Content - Representation of the team's name and SECME theme (20 points).

Water Bottle Rocket: In the middle of the patch is a rocket, split in half. On the right, it is a water rocket launched by compressed air and water, seen trailing a blue and white cloud. On the left, it is a conventional chemical launch vehicle, seen trailing red and orange flames, and grey clouds. The rocket is split to symbolize the present day and our future. The plan is we build rockets today, and tomorrow those STEM skills we gain in SECME help with what we want to be doing in the future. On the body of the water rocket side is written “HAWKS” for Seminole Ridge Community High School and our school’s mascot, the hawk.

The Big and Little Dipper: In the background are the star groups of the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. The asterism of the Big Dipper represents our SECME coordinators Mr. Landstrom and Mr. Batchelor. The Little Dipper represents the Seminole SECME students of 2011-2012 team.

SECME cyclone: In the lower right corner is the symbol of SECME, Inc., resembling a hurricane off the coast of Florida. A second SECME cyclone appears on the Moon to represent the first permanent lunar colony. The mission of SECME is to increase the pool of historically under-represented, under-served, and differently-abled students prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. SECME does this with project-based learning and hands-on competitions with model rockets, mousetrap racecars, and robots.

Earth and Moon: Earth is shown with the Florida peninsula prominent and a star to mark the location of Seminole Ridge High School in Loxahatchee. The rocket is seen en route to the Moon, targeted for the lunar outpost. Above the horizon of the Earth, along the body of the rocket, and along the rim of the Moon’s limb is written the 2011-2012 Olympiad theme “SECME: Plan It – Build It – Live It!” This symbolically represents in order: planet (“plan it”), manmade object (“build it), moonbase (“live it”).

Murphy's Law: Technical Drawing for Mousetrap Vehicle

EDITOR'S NOTE: For a change, the comments are being left ON. I welcome and would appreciate your thoughts -- this technical drawing has not been scored yet, so it will be interesting for your feedback to compare & contrast with the judges. Just keep it constructive, if you'll pardon the pun! :D

Murphy's Law mousetrap powered vehicle
Murphy's Law MTV, top and front views
Murphy's Law MTV, side view

Compare this year's to last year's MTV technical drawing at http://seminolesecme.blogspot.com/2011/01/technical-drawing-for-mousetrap-vehicle.html

Technical Drawing for Balsawood Bridge

EDITOR'S NOTE: For a change, the comments are being left ON. I welcome and would appreciate your thoughts -- this technical drawing has not been scored yet, so it will be interesting for your feedback to compare & contrast with the judges. Just keep it constructive, if you'll pardon the pun! :D


Excerpt of technical drawing for balsawood bridge

Technical Report for Balsawood Bridge

EDITOR'S NOTE: For a change, the comments are being left ON. I welcome and would appreciate your thoughts -- this technical report has not been scored yet, so it will be interesting for your feedback to compare & contrast with the judges. Just keep it constructive, if you'll pardon the pun! :D

Design Philosophy and Construction Procedure
As stated in the introduction, we used the Warren Truss, with slight alterations, for our design. Even before we began our research, our design was based on common sense, intuition and prior experience. With force being applied to the truss we knew that we had to build a design where it was distributed and transferred to the supports with as little stress as possible to the bridge. The top of the bridge is where the compression is located when force is applied, and if not handled appropriately the bridge will snap inwards; while if there’s too much tension, on the bottom of the bridge, it will slide apart and buckle. Knowing this, we decided to use equilateral and isosceles triangles, with 60-60-60 and 90-45-45 degrees to dissipate the force being placed on the bridge by both gravity and the machine.
The force of gravity (weight) is equal to the product of the mass of the bridge times the acceleration due to gravity, in accord with Newton’s 2nd law of motion (Fnet=ma). According to the 3rd law of motion, the bridge tester will exert a normal force back on the bridge that is equal in force to weight but opposite in direction. The bridge testing machine will apply force equal to the product of pressure times area (P = F/A or F = PA). The pressure will also be equal to the work done by the tester over the volume of the bridge, where work is the product of force times distance time cosine of the angle relative to the direction of motion (W=Fd cos θ), and volume is area times depth (V=Ad). So (P = W/V = Fd cos θ/Ad). As the crusher does it’s work, the force of the load is transmitted along our beams. That stress will cause deformation from shearing and strain of extension and compression as previously stated once we pass the point of elasticity (Young’s modulus).
Our first design used the triangular method, with two sides at an angle connected by a roadway, but on our bottom beam we had vertical pieces of would which we soon realized would snap under the stress of compression and used too much wood. Our second design consisted of three major triangles with one smaller one inside of the middle triangle all at 60 degrees. The change leading to our third and last design was adding another beam for more support and changing our corresponding triangles to equal angles with our major ones being isosceles or equilateral.
Although it may’ve been better to stand the whole bridge at an angle, we have it at 90 degrees, with space between, hopefully to displace the force with greater efficacy. The goal of our BBB bridge is to attain the highest amount of efficiency possible with the given materials. Efficiency is measured by taking the ratio of the mass of the bridge itself compared to the mass that the bridge can hold. That number is then multiplied by 100 to discover the percent of efficiency. A highly efficient bridge would have its own weight at minimum and the amount of weight it could hold, at maximum.

Bridge Construction
After the team agreed to on final design, we gathered the needed materials necessary to construct the bridge: one-quarter by one-quarter inch (¼” x ¼”) balsa wood thirty-six inches long (36”) provided for us by our SECME coordinator, and we began to cut the pieces. Beam lengths were as determined by competition rules (EX: no member shorter than two inches (2”)). Angles were joined at 60-60-60 and 90-45-45 degrees. Pieces were adhered together with cyanoacrylate glue. We allowed the glue time to dry with each piece so it would not compromise the structure of the bridge.

Top view: roadway span: 45 cm in length by 4.5 cm in width
End view: roadway span: 4.5 cm in width by 1.3 cm in depth, attached to truss 18 cm in height by 4.5 cm in width
Side view: total bridge height of 18 cm, with central truss height clearance of 2 cm and width clearance of 45 cm

Conclusion
As foreboding as this task was in the beginning, we predict that our bridge will do pretty well. With an understanding of how the force of gravity and the testing machine cause tension and compression on the bridge, we presume to have designed and built a bridge to withstand the stress, strain and sheering being placed on it. However, if we were to voice concern over possible failure areas it would be at the intersection of our 45/60 degree angles. Seeing as how the force is being directed towards the center of the bridge there’s a fear that tension will occur resulting in movement of supporting beams.

Selected Bibliography
- NOVA Online | Super Bridge. (n.d.). PBS. Retrieved February 22, 2010, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/
- "BrainPOP | Technology | Learn about Bridges." BrainPOP - Animated Educational Site for Kids - Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Arts. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. http://www.brainpop.com/technology/scienceandindustry/bridges/.

Olympian Tasks!

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team working hard to do their best for tomorrow's Olympiad submission deadline)

Hundreds Of Students To Compete In Upcoming SECME Olympiads

The competition will be intense when students from 55 elementary schools, 20 middle schools, and 15 high schools participate in one of two Palm Beach County SECME District Olympiads scheduled for February.

SECME (Science, Engineering, Communication, and Mathematics Enrichment) is a national organization with the goal of increasing the pool of students who will be prepared to enter and complete post-secondary studies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, thus creating a diverse and globally competitive workforce.

The Elementary SECME District Olympiad will be held Saturday, February 11, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Santaluces High School.

The Secondary SECME District Olympiad will be held Saturday, February 25, from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at Santaluces High School.

During each of the Olympiads, students will participate in a variety of competitions which will include bridges, mousetrap cars, water rockets, Brain Bowl, essays, poems, banners, and posters. The theme for this year’s SECME program is “Plan It٠Build It٠Live It!”. The winning entries in the essay and mousetrap car competitions will advance to the SECME National Student Competition which will be held in late June, at The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa.

Olympiad supporters include: Florida Atlantic University College of Engineering and Computer Science, Hazen and Sawyer, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, CH2M Hill, and FPL. Florida Atlantic University awards up to 25 four-year scholarships each year to qualified SECME students. SECME participation has been credited for encouraging career and occupational selections, stimulating college and university visitations, as well as establishing mentoring and internship programs for students with area businesses.

Bruce Wear, SECME district coordinator, says the competitions develop high-level thinking and problem-solving skills. “SECME is an excellent program that provides students with opportunities to apply “hands on” problem solving techniques to real engineering challenges. They get to design, test, re-design, and re-test until they produce a working model – pretty much the same way engineers do their jobs.”

For further information please contact Bruce Wear, 561- 357-1125 or email bruce.wear@palmbeachschools.org.

Scripps Florida to Bring New Interactive Exhibits and Activities to 3rd Annual Public Science “CELLebration” Day at The Gardens Mall

Scripps Florida invites Palm Beach County students and their families to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the opening of their state-of-the-art biomedical research institute. The “CELLebrate” Science community science festival will take place at The Gardens Mall on Saturday, February 04, 2012 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. The festival is exclusively for Palm Beach county students and families. It will include interactive science exhibits, exciting new demonstrations, opportunities to interact with scientists, and lots of family fun!

Careers in Nuclear Science Open House on Jan. 23

FIND OUT ABOUT CAREERS IN NUCLEAR SCIENCE

The field of nuclear science encompasses a variety of career options, including power plant technology, nuclear medicine and radiation detection conducted by public safety and homeland security professionals. Information on these careers, how to get the training you need to get started in this growing field and exciting new developments in nuclear energy will be presented in a Nuclear Science Career Awareness Open House on Monday, January 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. The event is sponsored by Indian River State College (IRSC) with Florida Power & Light (FPL) and the FPL Energy Encounter and will be held in the Kight Center for Emerging Technologies at the IRSC Main Campus, off 35th Street in Fort Pierce. The Open House is held in conjunction with National Nuclear Science Week.

The event will feature nationally recognized experts and employers in nuclear science, including representatives from the US Department of Energy; United States Navy; AREVA, a multi-national industrial and nuclear power company; Westinghouse, The Shaw Group, provider of piping systems and construction services for the power industry; the Center for Energy Workforce Development, Florida Banner Center for Energy, North American Young Generation Nuclear, the Regional Center for Nuclear Education and Training based at IRSC, and others.

FPL and IRSC representatives will provide information on the highly-successful Power Plant Technology Institute, providing a comprehensive education in power plant operations and technologies. Students completing the program earn an Associate Degree in Applied Science in Electrical Engineering Technology and specialize in one of four areas: instrumentation and controls, electrical maintenance, mechanical maintenance and radiological protection. In August, 20 graduates of the program were hired by FPL for full-time positions at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant. The apprentice-level wage scale averages $55,000 - $57,000 per year, in addition to an attractive benefits package. Graduates of the IRSC Nuclear Medicine Technology program work with physicians to perform nuclear medicine procedures used to diagnose and treat diseases. In diagnosis, NMT’s prepare, measure and give radiopharmaceuticals, known as tracers, to patients. Then, by using a radiation-sensitive camera, images of the internal organs and the tracer routing through the body can be viewed on a monitor. Information on this career option will also be presented at the Open House, as well as discussion of the technology and applications related to radiation detection in law enforcement.

The Open House will feature panel discussions, information booths, and opportunities to speak one-on-one with representatives in the various nuclear science fields. For more information, call the IRSC Call Center toll-free at 1-866-792-4772.

Scholarship Information from the Society of Women Engineers

Good Afternoon,

The Southeast Florida Section of the Society of Women Engineers has a scholarship program to honor high school females who have shown commendable ability in areas such as leadership, academics, and community activities.

SWE Southeast Florida will annually award $500 and SWE Collegiate Membership to one outstanding high school senior female student who intends to pursue a college degree in engineering.

The scholarship application must be filled out by the student (and signed by a counselor) and postmarked April 30th, 2012. SWE, at a national level, also has scholarships for outstanding high school female students.

This application form can be found on the National SWE website: www.swe.org.

Please help us in recognizing outstanding young women by distributing scholarship forms and filling out the award nominations. Please take the time to learn about our SWE Southeast Section and our outreach activities by visiting our website at:
http://www.swe.org/swe/regiond/sections/sefl/Templates/home.htm

Sincerely, Marisa Lopez
SWE Southeast Florida Scholarship Chair FY12
Marisa[dot]lopez[at]kimley-horn[dot]com
561-840-0863

Egg Drop Awesomeness during Design Squad challenges

(Click on the first picture to flip through the SECME Saturday at the Museum of Discovery and Science photostream)

20120107 SECME Saturday at MODS

SECME Saturday at the MODS

WHAT: SECME Saturday & SECME Sunday at the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale - A Build It Challenge Weekend

WHEN: January 7 & 8, 2012, 12:00 - 4:00 p.m.

WHY: Calling all Engineers! Test your skills with hands-on, friendly competitions and interactive activities in our Design Nation: Build It Challenge. Use teamwork to create a paper table sturdy enough to hold stacks of books and more engineering feats.

And see the traveling exhibit "K’NEX: Building Thrill Rides". Explore the science, math and technology behind hair-raising amusement park thrill rides. The display models will range from a 10-foot-tall roller coaster, to a 6-foot Ferris wheel all made from K'NEX regular and micro parts. The realistic actions of the models will bring scientific and engineering concepts to life for visitors, who will be able to conduct simple experiments to explore physical forces such as potential and kinetic energy, and linear and rotational motion.

Happily, children won’t have to leave their on-site creations behind – instead, they can purchase their designs, with pricing based on a Weigh & Pay model. The Explore Store will also have K’NEX sets on sale for aspiring young engineers and architects.

HOW MUCH: Special Admission price: show you are with SECME for a reduced rate. Wear your SECME tshirt or show your SECME membership card are received a discounted group rate which is $10 for exhibits or $14 for exhibits and one classic 45-minute IMAX film. Teachers/Coaches/Coordinators: FREE admission with membership to museum. See attached form!

WHERE: Museum of Discovery and Science &
AutoNation IMAX® Theater
401 S.W. Second Street
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
954.713.0915
www.mods.org