Mission Solar System

NASA and DESIGN SQUAD NATION team up to inspire a new generation of engineers. This guide has six space-based hands-on challenges for school and afterschool programs.
http://pbskids.org/designsquad/pdf/parentseducators/dsn_nasa_missionsolarsystem_complete.pdf

In a universe filled with planets and moons, comets and asteroids, imagine a robot-controlled spaceship that can send a drill deep below the surface and pull up materials never before seen by human eyes. What secrets does an alien core hold? What mysteries will it reveal?

For more than half a century, NASA has inspired the scientific imaginations of young people through the challenge of space exploration. Now, the excitement of space engineering is available for kids in the classroom and in after-school programs through Mission: Solar System; from NASA and Design Squad Nation.

Mission: Solar System is a free, curriculum-based educational resource that includes everything you need to bring the exciting challenges of real NASA engineers to life. There are

• leader notes with detailed instructions for each challenge and ideas for making curriculum connections
• kids handouts’ with helpful tips and illustrations that enable kids to come up with their own unique solutions to each challenge.
• video profiles of young engineers that explore the direct link between each challenge in Mission: Solar System and real-world problem-solving at NASA.
• and do-it-yourself videos are included to model how a group of kids can brainstorm a variety of creative solutions.

EF2D: Maps, Math, Magnets and Mars

Seminole Ridge SECME inspired an interest in the areas of science, engineering and math during the fifth annual Engineering Family Fun Day was held Saturday, November 3rd in Dreher Park, in West Palm Beach. Students and their families, teachers and counselors enjoyed a fun-filled, free educational event focusing on opportunities available in engineering. Each of the eight sponsored booth presented a hands on engineering related activity by which the students, parents, and engineers can interact with each other. For example, the Water Bottle Rocket involves aerospace engineering.

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 mini-catapults were sponsored in part by Lowe's Home Improvement of Royal Palm Beach, store #0654.

This year, SECME students senior Sam Smith and his brother freshmen Nick Smith, and coach Erich Landstrom invited event attendees to learn a little more about maps, math, magnets and Mars, by becoming “Inspector Detectors”.

Families had to make a magnetic field detector from simple objects like steel wool, scissors, and scraps of cardboard. They used their magnetometers to map for the magnetic anomalies, like the upcoming MAVEN mission to the planet Mars. People who correctly predicted the locations of magnets hidden beneath a model of Mars received a passport stamp and a piece of candy. The "Inspector Detector" activity was adapted from the upcoming “Beyond the Moon” guide written for NASA by the PBS show Design Squad.

The Society of Women Engineers Southeast Florida Section and the Palm Beach Alumni Extension of the National Society of Black Engineers are co-hosts.  The goal is to inspire an interest in the areas of STEAM (science, technical, engineering, artistry and math) fields in students in grades four through 12.
 

20121103 EF2D

(Click on the first picture to flip through a photostream of Seminole SECME at Engineering Family Fun Day 2012)

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.

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

Save the Date: Nov. 3 Engineering Family Fun Day

The fifth annual “Engineering Family Fun Day” is coming Saturday, November 3 at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach. The goal of the event is to educate the community on the opportunities available in engineering and inspire an interest in the areas of math and science in young students in Palm Beach County.

Sponsored by the non-profit educational and service organization, The Society of Women Engineers Southeast Florida Section, the intent is to increase the students’ as well as their parents’, teachers’, and counselors’ knowledge of engineering and other technical fields.

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)

Cruising to victory at Gotta Regatta

Third Place: US Kinsey/Palmview Elementary - 13 seconds
Second Place: Pierce Hammock Elementary - (tied) 11.2 and 12.5 seconds
First Place: New Horizons Elementary - 10 seconds

Smooth Sailing at the Gotta Regatta

(Click on the first picture to flip through the Seminole SECME team at "Let's Build Something Together" challenge "Gotta Regatta" rain gutter race during the SECME engineering Olympiad for elementary students on Saturday, February 11, 2012)

20120211 LBST Gotta Regatta at SDPBC Elementary SECME District Olympiad

The SECME program for the School District of Palm Beach County hosted its engineering Olympiad for elementary school children on Saturday, February 11th. In addition to students bringing and testing their previously constructed projects with them, such as launching water rockets and racing mousetrap powered cars, during the lunch Seminole SECME hosted a special on-site "Let's Build Something Together" challenge for them. Last year, it was the Design Squad pop-fly challenge. This year, it is the Gotta Regatta Raingutter Race. We challenged 51 teams of nearly seven hundred students to make the fastest ferry for a Ping-Pong passenger! Design and build a boat that travels across a container of water.

Gotta Regatta 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

Thank you to our first-mate sponsors Lowe's Home Improvement store #1962, the Marine Industries Association of Palm Beach County, and the Hawks of Seminole Ridge SECME: Captain Caitlin Miller, Kristen Cousins, Raychell Harris, and Ronit Liberman!

LBST Gotta Regatta

Let's Build Something Together challenge
PROTOTYPE
Raingutter Regatta challenge

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A boat is a watercraft design to float. Types of boats range from canoes to catamarans to cargo carriers. We challenge your team to make a boat that can ferry a Ping-Pong passenger!

MATERIALS PER TEAM
• Masking tape
• 3–5 paint stirrers
• 3 playing cards
• 1 plastic sandwich bags
• 2 rubber bands
• 2 drinking straws
• 1 Ping—Pong ball
• 3 oz paper cup

BRAINSTORM AND DESIGN
Look at your Materials and think about the questions below. Then sketch your ideas on a piece of paper or in your design notebook.

1.How will you make a boat that floats well enough to support a heavy load without sinking?
2.Should your boat be a platform (e.g., a raft or barge) or an open boat (e.g., a rowboat or canoe)?
3.What's the best way to make your boat waterproof?
4.How big do you need to make your boat?

Build, Test, Evaluate & Redesign
Use the Materials to build your boat. Then test it by floating it in a container of water and adding washers, one at a time. When you test, your design may not work as planned. When engineers solve a problem, they try different ideas, learn from mistakes, and try again. The steps they use to arrive at a solution is called the design process. Study the problems and then redesign. For example, if the boat:
•sinks easily—Increase its ability to float. When you set your boat in water, notice how it sinks down a bit, pushing aside some water. The water pushes right back, pressing on the boat's bottom and sides. The force from these pushes is called buoyancy. To change your boat's buoyancy, experiment with the boat's width and the height of its sides.
•leaks a lot—See if the straws are filling with water or if the plastic wrap is separating.
•tips easily—Check how near the weights are to each other. A boat can get tippy when one part is heavier than another.

Engineering Family Fun Day 2011

(Click on the first picture to flip through the photostream)


Seminole Ridge SECME inspired an interest in the areas of math and science in young students in Palm Beach County during the 4th annual “Engineering Family Fun Day” November 5 from 10AM – 2PM at Dreher Park in West Palm Beach.

Sponsored by the non-profit educational and service organization The Society of Women Engineers (SWE) - Southeast Florida Section, the intent is to increase the students’ as well as their parents’, teachers’, and counselors’ knowledge of engineering and other technical fields. SECME senior Caitlin Miller, and sophomores Sam Smith and Jarret Rimel assisted boys and girls during EF2D as they challenged children like cub scouts from Pack 147 to build 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.

LBST Raingutter Regatta

Let's Build Something Together challenge
PROTOTYPE
Raingutter Regatta challenge