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Day 3 See Blue STEM Camp

We had another wonderful day and the weather was great as well.  We were able to view the sun today through the clear sky thanks to Dr. Knauer bringing over his telescope during lunch.  We got out on campus and walked to the Minining and Mineral Resources Building for this viewing.
For our daily presentation Dr. Christa Jackson worked on spatial reasoning through several activities.  She had the students blindly draw pictures based on their partner’s directions, make a 3-dimensional object from several 2-dimensional pictures, and design a bridge out of limited materials and  describe their design to their classmates.  We had lots of great bridge designs out of straws and pipe cleaners.
In LEGO the students worked on the first three challenges for the Green City board.  This involved closing a dam and also raising a new clean energy smoke stack.  The students had to build upon their previous days work to program the robot to complete all of these tasks.
Tomorrow robotics will get more difficult in terms of challenges.  The students will have to navigate around objects in order to complete their tasks.  Dr. Robin Cooper from the Biology Department will be presenting on neurobiology in crayfish.  The students will be visiting his lab and working with his graduate students tomorrow.  We’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures!
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Day 2 STEM Camp 2012 Recap

We had another fun, enjoyable day today.  The weather was much better and we had a great presentation from Dr. Bruce Walcott in the College of Engineering.  The students worked on engineering design and worked in pairs to build motors.  He finished his session off with a trip to the Environmental Engineering building and a tour of some of its neat features.  I am jealous as I haven’t been able to get over there myself!
In robotics the students worked on programming the robot to move forward in the “close shave” challenge in which then need to shave a lego placed at a given distance.  They also programmed for the maze in which the robot must follow a maze to end up in a box.  The challenge is they must program it forward and backward.
The weather forecast looks good for tomorrow at noon, so we are trying to work in a short visit to the observatory for a daytime viewing.  Dr. Christa Jackson will be working with the students tomorrow on 3-dimensional figures and spatial reasoning.  She does a great job of transitioning between 2-dimensional drawings and 3-dimensional models.  In robotics they will be starting the Green City Challenge.  They will take all they have learned and program the robot to complete many challenges on the board.  Each has a point value and it will culminate in a competition on Friday.
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Unbridled Learning: College and Career Readiness for All

Senate Bill 1 (2009) has a new name…Unbridled Learning: College and Career Readiness for All. As in everything education, I have acronym’d it…UBL. At University of Kentucky, we’re working on creating a resource page for everything around UBL/SB1. We have the basic structure and basic links up now: http://sites.education.uky.edu/sb1/

We’ll be adding lots more to it in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

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Senate Bill 1 Basics

Today my colleague, Les Burns, and myself presented a session on Senate Bill 1 (approved in March 2009) to the College of Education at our annual Faculty Retreat (really a glorified long meeting). We presented the attached document and then facilitated discussion amongst small groups. It’s the start to a long rode of teacher education reform. I hope the faculty can start to see this as an opportunity to engage more in influencing policy decisions and getting a voice at the state level.

SB1 Presentation.UK COE Faculty Retreat