April 2016 – Full STEAM Ahead!

Session #2 at Metcalfe: Scribble Bots come to life!

The second YAW session consisted of a follow on exercise to the original session. The students were initially introduced to the simple motor project and learned the how and why about the force generated by electricity flowing through a wire when it’s in the presence of a magnet. During the second session the students were given a motor to start their project. This project’s purpose was to show the students how a motor can be used to build a toy that can generate art.

All students were excited and motivated to complete the project. Some students were able to complete the exercise by themselves while others required some assistance. My observations during the exercise revealed that additional preparation prior to the distribution of materials would benefit the overall goal of having a fully functional Scribble Bot by the end of the session.

Written by Michael McNeary, Metcalfe YAW Facilitator

Dispatch #2 from MESA and Professor Stern

Today we learned about the audio transduction (which is the passing of sound), different parts in your ears (like the cochlea), and how the ear drum works. Our ears have a lot of parts that move inside.

We went outside to make videos again. We had to be quiet in the first video, and loud in the second video. It didn’t really work for us because we were having computer problems. The examples he showed were neat, and I wish ours would have worked.

Questions we have now:

-How can an ear drum bust?

-How loud does it have to be for an ear drum to pop?

-Why do we have so many parts in our ears?

-Why do some of the ear parts move?

-How many inches are the bones?

-Is Nathanial coming again?

-How can I do that at home (what was done with our class?)

-How did you make the video?

A collection of fish tales from Trowbridge

sharp for trowbridge 1

Our friends from Trowbridge decided to contribute a series of writing narratives to the blog, which is excellent! These were created in response to observing and tracking the fish and plants of their school’s aquaponics tank.

Click here to download a school of Trowbridge fish tales.