STEM Forum Talk in Melrose

Tonight I served on a panel discussion along with Meredith (from the CEEO).  I wanted to mention several link from my presentation.  First, my presentation did not use Power Point, but used Prezi, which emphasizes connections between topics and the non-linear nature of discussions after a presentation.

I discussed the Science Team and mentioned several competitions where a science team could compete such as Science Olympiad, The Western Suburban Science League, the North Shore Science League, and the Science Bowl.  And I had to give a push for the Eastern Mass Physics Olympics which I am running.  I also had an interesting question as to what it takes to have a successful science team.  In short, interested students, a “team” of motivated teachers/mentors, and funding (for materials, transportation, uniforms, and stipends for those coaches).

I also discussed what goes into making a good research program.  I wanted to provide links for students who want to publish their work or their results: including the INTEL Science Search, Westinghouse Competition, the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, the Davidson Institute, and the Journal of Experimental Secondary Science.  Some team based competition I like can be found at the NASA Teaching From Space website.  This is where I learned about the opportunity to have my students design an experiment which I got to fly on the vomit comet. You can read about a lot of NASA opportunities in my mid-October blog post.

I also gave a push for the Melrose Robotics team, the iRaiders.   You can see students from Roosevelt and Melrose Middles School compete at the Boston University Academy FIRST LEGO League competition on December 10th!  You can see students from Melrose Middle School compete at the BUA VEX Robotics Competition on January 16th.

The summer programs at BU I wanted to promote include U-Design (engineering for Middle School students where I teach aviation and rocket science), Pathways, PROMYS, and Citylab.

And as a push for the great LEGO programs at the Tufts CEEO, check out the workshops we host there!