Tag Archives: STEM

Engineering toys for girls

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Ariel Schwartz in her Dec. 6, 2012 article for Fast Company’s Co-Design website describes three engineering toys, two of which are explicitly designed for girls while the other one is of interest to any child who might want to build a robot. From the article (Note: I have removed links),

Devised by Debbie Sterling, a Stanford-educated engineer, GoldieBlox is a brand new series of construction toys and books for girls that focuses on a young blond girl named Goldie who lives in what Sterling described to us as a “crazy engineering house,” chock full of moving parts and gears.

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A triad of women who studied mechanical engineering, neuroscience, and electrical engineering created Roominate, a modular hacker dollhouse that comes with connectable circuits. Alice Brooks, one of the designers, told Co.Design: “We started with a toy that girls already love, and added educational components that make the toy even more engaging.”

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Slightly older girls (11 and up) might enjoy the $199 Hummingbird robotics kit, created by BirdBrain Technologies (a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon University). The kit comes with four sub-kits: a light and vibration set with 10 multi-colored LEDs and two vibration motors; a control set that comes with an auxiliary motor power supply, a USB cable, and a screwdriver; a motion that includes DC motors and servos; and a sensing kit that contains sound, temperature, distance, light sensors along with a rotary knob; basically, anything you would need to build the robot of your dreams. [emphases mine]

You won’t be able to get GoldieBlox in time for Christmas as it doesn’t ship until April 2013. By the way, GoldieBlox was a successful Kickstarter project raising over $285,000 when the goal was $150,000. Here’s an image from their campaign,

GoldieBlox (image from http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16029337/goldieblox-the-engineering-toy-for-girls)

You can find GoldieBlox here and you will find that a little more culture diversity is being introduced.

Roominate looks like great fun and you can get that kit in time for Christmas, assuming they don’t run out of stock,

“A cooling fan that I wired myself!”

And then there’s this,

“A spinning dog for my pet shop!”

There’s one more picture from the home page and I must say I heartily agree with the sentiments,

“Every airport needs a cupcake shop and an aquarium!”

Personally, I’m particularly interested in the robotics kit from BirdBrain Technologies. Schwartz notes in her article that a group of eighth graders used the kit to build a scene from Carl Sandberg’s poem Sand. Here’s a video from inventor (it’s geeky),

Encouraging STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers while opportunities decline in Canada

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The problem never seems to get solved. One end of the organization or institution makes a decision without considering the impact on those affected. Take for example the current drive to encourage more students to undertake STEM (science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics) careers when there are few job opportunities (except for engineers).

The University of British Columbia has just announced a science outreach toolkit, from the Aug. 30, 2012 news release on EurekAlert,

Outreach programs that offer a taste of real-world science and pair secondary students with enthusiastic young researchers are key to promoting careers in science and technology, according to University of British Columbia researchers.

In a paper published this week in PLoS Computational Biology, UBC researchers document their work on the Genomics Field Trip Program hosted at the Michael Smith Laboratories (MSL). Joanne Fox, Jennifer McQueen and Jody Wright outline the benefits of research-based field trips, offering a blueprint for designing science outreach programs.

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The Genomics Field Trip program encourages exploration of the sciences through a full day genomics experience which takes place at the MSL laboratories. Program instructors are typically UBC graduate students who benefit from the experience by developing their ability to communicate scientific ideas to the general public. They also develop skills in lesson design and delivery, allowing them to enhance their instructional skills, something that does not always occur in teaching assistantship positions.

Fox hopes the success of the Genomics Field Trip Program will inspire other institutions to develop similar programs. The recommendations included in her paper can be used as a blueprint for science programs and an online genomics toolkit provides valuable information for lesson plans.

“This type of program helps graduate students remember why science is so exciting, and in turn inspires the next generation of scientists,” Fox explains.

The toolkit available here is designed for grade nine classes and it looks to be quite engaging. However, it is a disconcerting effort in light of the current situation for many STEM graduates. Nassif Ghoussoub (a mathematician at the University of British Columbia) in an Aug. 20, 2012 posting on his Piece of Mind blog writes about the diminishing opportunities for postgraduate science work (Note: I have removed links),

Canada’s “Natural Science and Engineering Research Council” has grown uncomfortable with the rapidly dwindling success rate in its postdoctoral fellowship programme, the latest having clocked in at 7.8%. So, it has decided to artificially inflate these rates by limiting the number of times young Canadian scholars can apply for such awards to … once. Never mind that the pathetic $40,000 salary (see comments below for corrections) for a highly trained Canadian post-doc hasn’t changed in more than 25 years, young Canadian scientists will now be fighting tooth and nail for the privilege of living on the fringe of the poverty line while trying to jumpstart their research careers. Welcome to Canada’s new lottery system for deciding the future of the nation’s capacity for advanced study and research.

I guess something needed to be done to cover up the fact that NSERC is now awarding 66% fewer fellowships than it did 5 years ago. Last year, we wondered whether the following numbers reflected a policy shift at NSERC or just collateral damage.

  • (2008) 250 awards/ 1169 applicants
  • (2009) 254 awards/ 1220 applicants
  • (2010) 286 awards/ 1341 applicants
  • (2011) 133 awards/ 1431 applicants
  • (2012) 98 awards/ 1254 applicants

These 98 fellowships are to be shared by 20 scientific disciplines and to be split among the 59 PhD-granting Canadian universities.

This theme is also addressed in an Aug. 24, 2012 posting by Jonathan Thon on the Black Hole blog which is now being hosted by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), Note: I have removed a link,

It should come as no surprise that by increasing the supply of graduate students (and in turn post-doctoral fellows), we have arranged to produce more knowledge workers than we can employ, creating a labor-excess economy that keeps labor costs down and productivity high (How much is a scientist worth?) – but is this what we want? While advantageous in the short-term, there is little room for additional gains and a more efficient and productive system will need to be created if we wish to actualize research-based economic growth.

As for opportunities in the industrial sector, Canada has a longstanding reputation for exceptionally low rates of industrial R&D (research and development).

I’ve yet to see the programme for the 2012 Canadian Science Policy Conference taking place in Calagary (Alberta) from Nov. 5 – 7, 2012 but I’m hoping this will be on the agenda.

Pop up event based on European Commission’s Science: It’s a girl thing on July 27, 2012 in Vancouver (Canada)

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The Society for Canadian Women in Science and Technology (SCWIST) will be holding a free ‘pop up’ event at Joey’s on Broadway (1424 W. Broadway at Hemlock St.) on Friday, July 27, 2012 from 6 pm – 8 pm.This event is a local outcome of the international discussion taking place about the European Commissions’ Science: It’s a Girl Thing campaign video (first mentioned in my July 6, 2012 posting and then in my July 18, 2012 posting).

Here’s more about the Vancouver topic and the event (from the July 20, 2012 posting on the Westcoast Women in Engineering, Science, and Technology (WWEST) blog on the University of British Columbia website),

Topic: It’s a girl thing: How do we get more girls to pursue STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics] careers?

What is a SCWIST Pop-Up Discussion? A casual evening of networking, socializing, and discussion on current and relevant media topics held at a local restaurant! It’s a chance to get out and chat and network with like-minded people!

There’s also information abut th4 event on the SCWIST  Facebook page.

Inspiring kids, again? High schoolers at Argonne National Laboratory

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C. P. Snow’s 1959 lecture and book, Two Cultures, spends a fair chunk of time on the issue of encouraging the next generation to study science and engineering. As Snow perceived the problem, the UK was falling behind both the US and Russia in the science race. I haven’t investigated what the perceptions were in the US and Russia at the time but I have noticed that descriptions of the race to get someone on the moon feature a great deal of anxiety in the US about Russian supremacy in science. Given human nature, I imagine the Russians were worried too. Plus ça change, n’est ce pas?

Today, everyone is worried that someone else is going to get there (wherever that might be) first and there is enormous pressure internationally to inspire the next generation to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers.

I see that the Argonne National Laboratory in the US has opened up its doors to high schoolers for a special programme. From the June 6, 2012 news item by Tona Kunz on Nanowerk,

In commencement speeches across the country, graduates have , been warned to expect rocky times breaking into the workforce. Unemployment hovers between 8 and 9 percent. Competition is tough.

Unless you studied science or engineering. Those jobs have a 2 percent unemployment rate, which has led some Fortune 500 companies to complain about offices they can’t fill.

So it’s no surprise that when the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory decided to give high school students a chance to test-drive a science career, it found students, parents and school officials from Naperville, Ill. eager to hop on board.

Kunz’s June 6, 2012 news release on the Argonne National Laboratory website mentions (Note: I have removed links from the excerpt),

…  Teachers received training in the workings of the Advanced Photon Source (APS), the brightest high-energy X-ray machine in the Western Hemisphere, and the Electron Miscroscopy Center (EMC). Students from Naperville’s two high schools then competed for slots on four research teams that used X-ray beams to decipher what matter is made of, how it’s built and how it reacts.

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More than 5,000 researchers from throughout the world use the APS and EMC annually to target society’s greatest challenges: how to make better pharmaceuticals, sustainable fuels and high-performance materials. These challenges will feed scientific jobs for decades to come.

“I think there is a huge push in our district from the community for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education,” said Tricia Noblett, a teacher and science club advisor at Neuqua Valley High School. “I think they are seizing on what has been out there in the media that STEM fields are where the jobs are and that science careers can be interesting.”

Students drew on experiences in their lives to choose research topics and explained their results to scientists at the annual meeting held in May at Argonne for users of the APS, EMC and Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM).

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Inspired by the recent cleanup of a contaminated portion of the west branch of the DuPage River near their school, one group of students studied how to increase the efficiency of water filtration systems.

Another group worked with the Naperville wastewater facility to evaluate how corrosion affects the lifespan of water pipes.

And another group looked at how to improve the efficiency of graphene, a nanomaterial that may hold the key to building faster semiconductors for smart phones and the next-generation of research tools.

It’s exciting stuff and I’m always glad to have a chance to pass on information about these kinds of programmes. As for the history, I find it interesting to note the similarities with and the differences from the past.

Science attitude kicks in by 10 years old

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There’s a lot of talk these days about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in the field of education. It seems that every country that has produced materials about innovation, economic well being, etc.  in English and I’m guessing all the other countries too (I just can’t read their materia]s) want more children/young people studying STEM subjects.

One of the research efforts in the UK is the ASPIRES research project at King’s College London (KCL), which is examining children’s attitudes to science and future careers. Their latest report, Ten Science Facts and Fictions: the case for early education about STEM careers (PDF), is profiled in a Jan. 11, 2012 news item on physorg.com (from the news item),

Professor Archer [Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at King’s] said: “Children and their parents hold quite complex views of science and scientists and at age 10 or 11 these views are largely positive. The vast majority of children at this age enjoy science at school, have parents who are supportive of them studying science and even undertake science-related activities in their spare time. They associate scientists with important work, such as finding medical cures, and with work that is well paid.

“Nevertheless, less than 17 per cent aspire to a career in science. These positive impressions seem to lead to the perception that science offers only a very limited range of careers, for example doctor, scientist or science teacher. It appears that this positive stereotype is also problematic in that it can lead people to view science as out of reach for many, only for exceptional or clever people, and ‘not for me’.

Professor Archer says the findings indicate that engaging young people in science is not therefore simply a case of making it more interesting or more fun. She said: “There is a disconnect between interest and aspirations. Our research shows that young people’s ambitions are strongly influenced by their social backgrounds – ethnicity, social class and gender – and by family contexts. [emphases mine]

I was particularly struck by the fact that attitudes are positive but, by age 10, researchers are already observing that children are concluding ‘it’s not for me’.

Here’s a little more about the ASPIRES project,

The ASPIRES research team, led by Louise Archer, Professor of Sociology of Education at King’s, is tracking children’s science and career aspirations over five years, from ages 10 to 14. To date they have surveyed over 9000 primary school children and carried out more than 170 interviews of parents and children. After the age of 10 or 11 children’s attitudes towards science often start to decline, suggesting that there is a critical period in which schools and parents can do much to educate the next generation of the options available to them. [emphasis mine]

As for the report ‘Ten Science Facts and Fictions’, you may be in for a surprise if you’re expecting a standard academic study. It’s very colourful and illustrated with cartoons; each fact/fiction has its own page and only one; it summarizes and aggregates other research; and the whole report is 16 pp.  It’s easy reading and the reference notes mean you can follow up and read the research studies yourself.

On a note related to the conclusions made the ASPIRES researchers, I came across a Jan. 27, 2012 news item on Medical Xpress about a US study where researchers attempted an intervention designed to encourage more teens to study science,

In a different intervention study aimed at changing teen behavior in math and science, researchers did not target the students themselves but rather their parents. The goal was to increase students’ interest in taking courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). “We focus on the potential role of parents in motivating their teens to take more STEM courses, because we feel that they have been an untapped resource,” says Judith Harackiewicz of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. [emphasis mine]

The participants consisted of 188 U.S. high school students and their parents from the longitudinal Wisconsin Study of Families and Work. Harackiewicz and her colleague Janet Hyde found that a relatively simple intervention aimed at parents – two brochures mailed to parents and a website that all highlight the usefulness of STEM courses – led their children to take on average nearly one semester more of science and mathematics in the last two years of high school, compared with the control group. “Our indirect intervention,” funded by the National Science Foundation, “changed the way that parents interacted with their teens, leading to a significant and important change in their teens’ course-taking behavior,” Harackiewicz says.

Given Dr. David Kent’s panel at the 2011 Canadian Science Policy Conference (David’s interview about the panel is in my Oct. 24, 2011 posting) where he noted we have too many science graduates and not enough jobs, I’m wondering if we’re going to see a Canadian effort to encourage more study in STEM subjects. It wouldn’t surprise me; I have seen policy disconnects before. For example, there’s a big effort to get more children and teens to study science while graduate students from the universities have difficulty finding employment because the policy didn’t take the end result (the sector [e.g. universities] that needed people [science professors] when the policy was instituted had already started to shrink and 10 years later no one needs these graduates) into account.

Schulich Leader Scholarship is Canada’s Rhodes scholarship?

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Touting the new Schulich Leader Scholarships as the Canadian version of the prestigious Rhodes Scholarships, as you can see in some of the newspaper headlines, seems a little precipitate. Personally, I’m thrilled to see this initiative and I think it has great potential. But there are some significant differences between the Rhodes Scholarships (as per this Wikipedia essay) and the Schulich Leader Scholarships. For one thing, the Schulich scholarships are intended for undergraduates (Rhodes scholarships are for graduate work); the Schulich scholarships are to be awarded to Canadian and Israeli students  (Rhodes scholarships are offered to students in many more countries); and the Schulich scholarships can be used in any approved Canadian or Israeli university while the Rhodes scholar must study at Oxford.

Here’s a little more about the Schulich Leader Scholarships from the Oct. 14, 2011 news article by Tristin Hopper for the National Post,

With $100-million — the second-largest endowment to Canadian academia in history — mining magnate Seymour Schulich is inaugurating what he hopes will be the Canadian equivalent to the Rhodes Scholarship.

“It’s about trying to create leaders,” said Mr. Schulich, 71. “If you call people leaders and give them 60 grand, some of them are going to turn into leaders.”

Dubbed the Schulich Leader Scholarships, when fully implemented by 2014 the award will grant $60,000 over four years to students enrolling in science, technology, engineering or mathematics programs.

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The award will work by a complex nomination process wherein each of Canada’s 1,300 high schools selects a single Schulich nominee. Of those, 25 universities will peg 75 students (60 Canadian, 15 Israeli) for the award.

I’ve been desultorily searching for the Schulich Leader Scholarship website and finally found it today. From the home page,

Canadian business leader and philanthropist Seymour Schulich has created a $100 million scholarship initiative to secure the future economic competitiveness of Canada and Israel. The scholarships are designed to ensure that future Canadian and Israeli leaders are among the next pioneers of global scientific research and innovation.

Graduating students planning to study STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) at designated universities are eligible to become a Schulich Leader. The four-year Schulich Leader Scholarship is valued at $60,000. Twenty Canadian and five Israeli recipients will be chosen in 2012 to study STEM subjects in their respective countries.

You will find more about which Canadian and Israeli universities have been designated as participants in this programme and other relevant details on the Schulich Leader Scholarship website.

Nano, the Memphis Zoo, and connecting with kids

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Who would have thought that the US Dept. of Agriculture would be awarding the Memphis Zoo $500,000.00 for a project to connect rural schools online for a NanoZoo? Kudos to Dr. Helen Beady, Director of Education, and the staff at the Memphis Zoo for a truly imaginative approach to science education.  From the March 9, 2011 news release,

Dr. Helen Beady, Memphis Zoo Director of Education, applied for this grant [Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program] to help fund the Education Department’s ventures in nanotechnology through a program called “NanoZoo Connects.” This program will initially reach 14 schools in rural Tennessee through distance learning technology.

The Memphis Zoo’s “Discovery Center” will be renovated to become a state-of-the-art studio in which Zoo educators will be able to communicate through a video-bridge with some 7000 students in rural classrooms.

“This is just the beginning,” said Dr. Beady. “This grant will give us the ability to begin a program that will be improved and expanded for years to come. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for distance learning through this new technology.”

It was a story about a lotus leaf at a conference presentation that fired Helen Beady’s imagination three years ago. Scientists working at the nanoscale talk a lot about biomimcry. The lotus leaf is an excellent example of a material that is naturally water-resistant and finding out how the leaf achieves its water-resistant state and using that knowledge to create new textiles is an example of biomimicry.

The notion of biomimicry that helped Dr. Beady to tie together her interest in nanotechnology with exciting children’s interest in the zoo and the animals and integrating STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education objectives in a single programme,  NanoZoo.  That project designed for students from kindergarten to high school was launched in August 2010. From the news release,

The concept of nanotechnology as it is taught through “NanoZoo” explores the ways animals and plants can help science improve the way we live and work. For example, students are taught how the Lotus leaf has inspired the development of fabrics that can remain under water for days and not get wet, and how the stick-ability of a Gecko’s foot has motivated the production of tape that allows a robot to walk vertically up a wall.

This new project which is being funded through the Dept. of Agriculture is the NanoZoo Connects distance education project.  From the news release,

“NanoZoo and distance learning bring the Memphis Zoo on the cutting edge of technology,” said Zoo President and CEO, Chuck Brady. “What we learn in the early stages of these initiatives will revolutionize the way we are able to help educate students in Tennessee and, one day, across the globe.

The $500,000. will purchase equipment necessary to make the distance education experience successful. (If you’ve ever struggled with connections and bug-ridden software while trying to pursuing any kind of distance education programme, you can appreciate how important good equipment and software are.) From the news release,

The Memphis Zoo’s “Discovery Center” will be renovated to become a state-of-the-art studio in which Zoo educators will be able to communicate through a video-bridge with some 7000 students in rural classrooms.

What’s striking in this project is the multidisciplinary approach from inception to execution with all of it grounded in the zoo’s basic mission statement: “The Memphis Zoo preserves wildlife through education, conservation and research.” I’ll restate this to say, it’s about discovering and healing the relationship between people, animals, and nature. So by that token, teaching and discussing biomimicry and nanotechnology are not such a far reach as some may believe.

Here’s one last item to illustrate the point. I asked Tiffany Langston, a member of the Memphis Zoo’s marketing and communications department, for something either she or the children have found particularly interesting in the NanoZoo.  Tiffany informed me that the Memphis Zoo is one of only four in the US that have pandas and the only food they will eat is bamboo (40 lbs. per day!). Students at the NanoZoo find out that the fibre within the bamboo stalks features a hexagonal structure at the nanoscale which makes the fibre (at the nanoscale) stronger than steel. Today, scientists are trying to mimic those structures to create strong materials that are produced in a more environmentally friendly fashion than steel.

Meanwhile, Dr. Beady has more projects up her sleeve (from the news release),

The Zoo’s Education Department has recently received a $25,000 environmental grant from the City of Memphis Office of Youth Services and Community Affairs to develop a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) field program that focuses on the emerging science nanotechnology. This program will help inner city students draw connections between technology, plants, animals and those things that exist in the “big” world through our “NanoZoo.”

The NanoZoo initiative was celebrated at the Memphis Zoo’s Nano Days event on March 28, 2011 (from the news release),

On March 28, 2011 from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. the Memphis Zoo invites you to join us for NanoDays and our One Bazillion Nano Meter Walk (leisurely 1 mile stroll). This event will include hands-on demonstrations which explore how scientists mimic traits of plants and animals to inspire innovations in technology and engineering.

The event attracted US Senator Steve Cohen who had this to say in a recent news release to the Memphis Business Journal (http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2011/03/28/memphis-zoo-gets-500000-nano-grant.html),

The initiative, NanoZoo Connects!, will help demonstrate how scientists use nanotechnology to mimic particular traits of animals and plants to solve engineering and technological problems, according to a release issued by U.S. Sen. Steve Cohen’s office.

“If we are going to successfully compete in a rapidly changing 21st century global economy, our children must have the necessary tools to get ahead,” Cohen said. “The NanoZoo Connects! program will help us accomplish such a goal.”

Dr. Helen Beady told me that she drew on her experience as a former business owner, where she was in the position of trying to hire people who didn’t have the necessary skills or education, to develop the NanoZoo programme. Multidisciplinary in nature. Dr. Beady has hired an engineer and a PhD. in biochemistry to assist with further developing the NanoZoo.

All of this may or may not lead to ‘successful competition in the 21st century global economy’ but it certainly will lead to children learning more about animals and nature and how we might all better co-exist on this planet.