In this lesson for ages 8 to 18, students work in teams to design and build a working robotic arm from a set of everyday items. Each arm should be able to pick up a Styrofoam cup.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Lesson Plans | 4 Comments »

Tags: Building robots, Class Activities, Lesson Plan, Robotics

This lesson for students in grades 5 through 12 explores how computerized barcoding has simplified distributing and pricing of products. Students learn about encoding and decoding, the barcoding system, and how a mathematical formula is embedded in barcoding to safeguard against errors. They use websites to identify product barcodes, test codes from everyday products, and work as an engineering team to come up with the next generation of information embedding systems.

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Filed under: Grades 6-8, Grades 9-12, Grades K-5, Lesson Plans | 6 Comments »

Tags: Computer Programming, Computer Science, Math Lesson Plans, Mathematics

The mission of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Teacher at Sea (TAS) program is to give teachers a clearer insight into our ocean planet, a greater understanding of maritime work and studies, and to increase their level of environmental literacy by fostering an interdisciplinary research experience.

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Tags: Competitions for Teachers, Scholarships and Fellowships, Summer Programs (Teachers)

InvenTeams is a Lemelson-MIT national initiative to foster inventiveness among high school students. Teams composed of students, teacher(s) and mentors identify a problem to address with an invention, and receive up to $10,000 ($2,000 can be a teacher stipend) to develop a prototype.

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Tags: Competitions for Students, Grant Opportunities

San Antonio high school students interested in exploring engineering careers are paid a stipend as they conduct research alongside faculty engineers. To learn more, visit the UTSA College of Engineering Web site. At the site, select the “2009 Summer Research Stipend (H.S. Students)” link in the Scholarships section. Or, contact Christi Fish at (210) 458-7584 […]

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Tags: Scholarships and Fellowships, Summer Camps & Programs (Students)

The VSGC Scholarship and Fellowship Program annually awards approximately $300,000 to students pursuing higher education at Virginia Space Grant universities (College of William and Mary, Hampton University, Old Dominion University, University of Virginia, and Virginia Tech) and Virginia Community Colleges. Click here for more information.

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Tags: Scholarships and Fellowships

The Cassini Scientist for a Day essay contest, sponsored by NASA, is open to all grade 5-12 students in the United States. Students work alone or in groups of up to four students. They write a 500-word essay about one of three possible imaging targets (Saturn’s moons: Dione; Prometheus & Saturn’s Rings; or Epimetheus and […]

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Tags: Competitions for Students

BEST (Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology) Robotics Inc. is a non-profit, volunteer-based organization whose mission is to inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, and technology through participation in a sports-like, science and engineering-based robotics competition. For more information about BEST, its National Conference, and its Teacher Training Pre-Conference Workshops, click here.

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Tags: Competitions for Students, Summer Programs (Teachers), Teacher Training

The Kids’ Science Challenge, backed by a National Science Foundation grant, is a nationwide competition designed to engage 3rd to 6th-graders in practicing science. Students submit experiments, questions or problems to scientists, who choose which ideas become reality. More information is available at http://www.kidsciencechallenge.com

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Tags: Competitions for Students