Getting down and dirty on Day 2

IMG_4638 copyThere was an exciting buzz in the air this morning with the red and blue groups eager to go on their field trip to the Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER)! The day definitely lived up to their expectations as they got to explore many different aspects of energy and energy consumption in Kentucky in particular. The students interacted with nearly 25 of CAERs research faculty and staff in their laboratories. They brought home a handmade paving stone. Be sure to ask them about the properties and differences of concrete and cement! The stones will need a few days to cure…if it gets a little crumbly or starts to crack, some water on the top should help that out while it cures. The students spent all day out there so there was no robotics for them today.

Bq6bol2CcAERAL6IMG_2210 copyMeanwhile back on main campus the students had a fun and exciting day with Dr. Uneeda Bryant, from UK Veterinary Science. At last year’s camp, this group of students experience medicine from the human side and so this year we decided to give students exposure to the animal side of medicine. Dr. Bryant brought a great energy to the classroom and got the students very excited about pigs! The students loved the exploratory activity and were even more excited to get to touch and experiment with some of the other animal items she brought with her. I think there were a lot of eyes opened to different side of medicine that many had not considered before!

IMG_2146 copyIMG_2147 copyRobotics today for the yellow and green group meant a lot of time learning how to program. They are using the EV3s this year and the programming looks different than the NXTs. There was quite a learning curve with it, but it was so much fun to watch them catch on to programming and try to get their robots to go in a square and follow a line using the color sensor. They also explored the ultrasonic sensor and some got to the medium motor today as well.

It was another adventorous day for the students and the staff. We love having them on campus! It brings such energy and life to the building that is sometimes lost and forgotten in the late spring and early summer. The red and blue groups are eager to return to robotics and build some bridges tomorrow with Dr. Cindy Jong while I know the yellow and green groups are excited about their field trip to CAER. Don’t forget long pants and closed toed shoes!

In their words…

Veterinary (yellow and green groups)

  • ​I liked dissecting the pig because I am now interested in being a pathologist.
  • It was hands on and new
  • I would like to learn more about this topic because it will help me if I choose to become a biologist.
  • That we actually got to dissect a pig!
CAER (red and blue groups)
  • ​​I learned things that I had never even heard of before.
  • It was fun I liked the stones.
  • Many things like coal ashes can be recycled and turned into something new.
  • That not just the person teaching was doing it we all were.
  • That was FUN!

Conversation Starters…

IMG_6184 copyRed and Blue Groups

  • What did you learn on your energy walk today?
  • Where does Kentucky rank in comparison to the other states in energy usage? Why is our ranking so high when we have such a low population?
  • What in the world is Flocculation? (hint – pictured here)
  • What was your favorite part of going to the Center for Applied Energy Research?

Yellow and Green Groups

  • What did you like or not like about dissecting the pig today? (Some did not like it so it would be good to talk to them about why…especially some of them mentioned to us that they wanted to go into medicine but did not like dissection at all.)
  • What did you learn about pathology and veterinary science?
  • How did you like programming the EV3 robots? How did you know what to change when you were trying to make your robot go in a square?

Photo of the Day… 

We took our group photos today so there are two…click either one to get to the photo gallery. We did a much better job of capturing photos and tweeting today…thank you for your patience!

Yellow and Green Groups at Memorial Hall

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Red and Blue Groups at Center for Applied Energy Research

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Day 1 is in the books!

stem camp 2014_edited-1After the longest school year in a while and some other area camps, it is finally time for the 2014 See Blue STEM Camp! We are so excited to have 144 campers this year…together…at the same time…in the same week (Craig and I may be greyer by the end of the week 🙂 )! Registration went very smooth this morning and we appreciate everyone’s patience in getting all the forms turned in, etc. You all rock!

We will post a blog post each night with some highlights from the day and some conversation starters. We’ll also post a link to the photos we are taking throughout the week.

Today the blue and red groups (rising 5-6th graders) headed to Dr. Robin Cooper’s (Dept of Biology) laboratory to do some neurobiology experiments today. They got to use iPads (Backyard Brains app – it’s free!) to collect data about muscle movements. Additionally they built some structures out of pipe cleaners that you should ask them about. Most of them fit in their sack packs and so you should be able to have them talk to you about it.

The yellow and green groups (rising 7th-8th graders) got to experience different aspects of nanotechnology with Dr. Brett Criswell from the Dept of STEM Education. They conducted several mini-experiments and were pretty wowed over by many of them! He was a definite favorite amongst the students today…hopefully the rest of the presenters live up to the high bar he has set today!

In robotics, both groups started by reverse engineering their robots. They were given a fully assembled robot and they had to disassemble it and re-assemble it. They always love this part, but we’re eager to continue moving them on to basic programming challenges. This year, the red and blue groups will be working with the NXT robots and the Green City Challenge. The yellow and green groups will be working with the EV3 robots and the newly-released Space Challenge. The yellow and green groups got a glimpse at the new programming software today and so that was pretty exciting for them.

We got so excited about watching the kids robots take shape that we forgot to snap some robotics pictures! We promise to do better tomorrow.

Your kids will be working in groups all week long. The robotics groups are teams of 2 and will stay the same all week long, while the other groups formed will vary throughout the week. As the “real world” continues to become more team-work oriented, we want to help our students grow in that direction as well. We hope your child gets to work with a variety of students this week and in turn meets some great new friends!

In their words… – Each day we’ll post some excerpts from the students’ reflections of what they learned each day at the content session.

What I learned today…

  • Muscles contract and relax. When you get a muscle disease your muscles start to slow down and your heart stops and you can’t breathe. People who get it have to wear masks to breathe for them. I learned that you can record electrical activity from insects. (red/blue group)

  • I learned about how muscles work. That energy comes from your body. You could record energy going through your muscles. I did not know anything about muscles, but now I know about myosins. (red/blue group)

  • I found out that calcium chlorine and antacid make orbs. I learned that things that absorb water don’t absorb oil or vice versa. You can make magic sand water proof. I learned more about chemicals and chemical reactions. (green/yellow group)

  • Plants have waxy leaves to self clean. Peaches reflect water because of the peach fuzz. I learned about the practical uses of nanotechnology in everyday life, particularly when it comes to manipulating liquids. I learned that some materials repel water molecules. Nanotechnology and how it’s a world too small for the naked human eye to see.  (green/yellow group)

What did you like about what you learned today…

  • My muscles conduct electricity. Seeing electricity in my arm with the iPad. It was awesome! Everything! I learned a lot and i really enjoyed it! The myosin heads and how they work. (red/blue group)

  • It is really cool to know college/high school level stuff. I liked testing my biceps with the meter. That muscles have electrical activity. (red/blue group)

  • It was interesting and fun. I liked being able to use my hands in everything. I actually enjoyed everything. I enjoyed how it was hands on and not just sitting and listening. (yellow/green group)

  • The magic sand repelled water. Everything, but the fabric and with special fibers was my favorite. I liked that we actually got to experiment. The experiments were cool and hands on. What i liked about nanotechnology was when the spheres expanded and when we took them out. i liked everything we did. I liked playing with the “magic” green sand. I thought it was very cool the way it worked.  (yellow/green group)

Conversation Starters…– We know that your child is getting to the age where it might be like pulling teeth to get them to talk about their day beyond “It was fine.” “It was fun.” Each day we’ll post some suggested conversation starters centered on camp activities or STEM-related themes.

Red/Blue Groups (rising 5-6th graders):

  • I didn’t realize my body could conduct electricity…tell me more about that!
  • What was the pipe cleaner structure that you built? Tell me more about it.
  • What kind of tests did you conduct on your muscles? What were you testing? What were you looking for?

Yellow/Green Groups (rising 7-8th graders):

  • What is nanotechnology?
  • What kinds of things repel water? Why do they need to repel water?
  • How do you make magic sand?
  • Peaches reflect water? I’ve never heard about that. Tell me more!

Photo of the Day… – Each day we’ll post a photo collage highlight. Clicking on the picture will also link to all of the pictures taken at camp. Please note that we try to capture pictures of all of the campers, but we cannot guarantee that we will get every single one. We try our very best too! Also, we are STEM teachers and not full time photographers, so our pictures are not perfect and we leave them unedited, so if you love to edit photos…feel free! (We did not do very well with posting to Twitter and taking photos today, but we promise to do better tomorrow!)

Collage day 1

 

Is it really the end?

It is really hard to believe that today was our last day with these awesome campers! It truly has been a great second week. The students were very well behaved and were genuinely excited about the work they did this week. Today the students got to work with Dr. Tim Knaeur, the director of the MacAdams Observatory at UK. Dr. Knaeur gave a presentation to the students about outerspace in general and then focused on the Milky Way, where Earth’s presence is known. They got to explore more in-depth, Io, one of Jupiter’s moons. They even constructed a 3-dimensional representation of Io! (You probably figured that out already though as your student came home with it tonight)

Today was the final competition day in Robotics. The students made last minute changes to their robots and then it was off to the competition ring. There were mini-competitions and then each group ended with a large competition where all 16 robots competed against each other in the ring. The last robot standing won! It definitely kept the counselors on their toes trying to catch the falling over robots and those that got knocked out of the “ring”. The students really enjoyed it though and it was a nice way to end the week.

In their words…

What did you learn about today that you did not know before?
  • There is volcanic activity outside of the earth.
  • That Io is made of sulfur
What did you like about what you learned today?
  • We got to make Io.
  • How there’s always more to be discovered.

Conversation starters…

  • What new things about the earth did you learn today?
  • Talk to me about Jupiter’s moon, Io (pronounced i – o)
  • What was your favorite part about STEM Camp?
  • Out of all the things you learned this week, what was the most interesting?
  • What career do you want to pursue when you get older? What kinds of classes are you going to need to take in order to be successful in your career?

Photo of the Day…

A room full of Io’s … who knew Jupiter had so many moons!!??

Screen Shot 2013-06-14 at 6.57.38 PMCheck out the Camp Pictures here

Check out videos of the Product Presentations and the Robotics Competitions Here

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter – @seebluestemcamp

We thank you for a wonderful week with your students and hope you have an enjoyable rest of the summer!

Next year’s camp dates:

June 2-6, 2014 – incoming 5th & 6th graders

June 9-13, 2014 – incoming 7th & 8th graders

Fruit Flies, Fighting Robots, Oh my!!

Today the students got to go across campus to the Old Pharmacy building that has now been converted into a “multidisciplinary building” that houses several biology laboratories, including Dr. Robin Cooper’s. Dr. Cooper and several of his graduate students led the students through a series of different experiments involving neuroscience, specifically our senses and the sense of fruit flies. Students explored heart rates using sensors and computer programming – they were able to see an echocardiogram of their heart. They analyzed their heart rates at rest and when they were excited.

They also worked with fruit flies, conducting a variety of experiments with them. They gathered data and analyzed their results to produce scientific conclusions. One of their favorite experiments was inducing a coma:

Robotics proved to be exciting today with the mini-challenges over and the rings taped on the floor…it was “fighting” time today! The students took turns having their robots competing against each other…the last robot standing won! Most of the competitions were one vs. one, but I heard through the grapevine there were about 6 robots competing against each other at one point…

In their words… We ask the students the three questions below each day…here are some of their answers.

What did you learn about today that you did not know before?

 

  • That your heart rate changes when your scared rather than relaxed.
  • Flys can last 3 hours in cold temperatures
What did you like about what you learned today?

 

  • I made flies pass out…
  • I thought that looking at fruit flies’ behaviors was really neat because you could learn about why it is that they do the things they do.
Would you like to learn more about this topic?  Why or why not?
    • Yes, if I want to be a surgeon this will be vital to my success

Conversation Starters…

  • What are the rules of the sumorobots competition? How do you win? Do you program your robot for different moves or how do you take out your opponent? 
  • What does the light sensor on the robot do?
  • What did you learn about your heart?
  • What was the most interesting experiment you did on the fruit flies? What did you learn from it?
  • How long was your fruit fly in its coma?
  • Has this camp made you think about a career in mathematics, science, technology, or engineering? Why or why not?

Video of the Day…

Don’t forget about the pictures we have here! Can you believe tomorrow is the last day!!??