The Toyota Dream Car Art Contest invites children 15 and under from around the world to share ideas about the future of mobility by drawing their dream cars.
Participants can win great prizes and have the opportunity to visit Japan for an award ceremony. In addition, young designers are given tours at a Toyota factory and can experience various aspects of Japanese culture.
The entry period runs from October 2015 until the end of March 2016. Click HERE for entry information. Watch a video about the contest.
How will your dream car make the world a better place?
Registration is now open for eCYBERMISSION, a free, web-based science, technology, engineering, and math competition for students in 6th through 9th grade sponsored by the U.S. Army and administered by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA). The decade-old competition is aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and seeks to foster student innovation, creativity, and interest in pursuing STEM majors and careers.
Registration closes December 17, 2015, with submissions due February 29, 2016.
Past winning projects have included an electricity-free device to prevent basement flooding even during power outages, a simple way to purify water using a common plant in the developing world, and concussion-reducing sports helmets.
eCYBERMISSION offers several resources to support students and teachers throughout the competition. Guided by an adult Team Advisor, students form teams of three to four and identify a problem in their community they are interested in studying. Volunteer “CyberGuides” interact with participants through various outlets, such as online discussion forums, team chat rooms, and interactive webinars. Other resources include Mission Folder tips, supplemental worksheets, interactive webinars, CyberGuide chats, and an active social media network.
Students on winning teams can receive up to $9,000 in U.S. EE Savings Bonds. Regional first place winning teams also receive an expenses-paid trip to the week-long National Judging and Educational Event in the Washington, D.C., ares, where they will present their projects and compete for the national title in each grade. More than 88,000 students have participated in the eCYBERMISSION competition since its inception in 2002, with over $10 million awarded in U.S. EE Savings Bonds.
Who are top all-star “hitters” in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math? Spinning off the concept of baseball trading cards, DuPont celebrated the 25th anniversary of its student essay writing contest by creating a series of STEM collectible trading cards. The bench now include 25 women scientists and engineers who have made an impact through STEM research and education.
All entries must be submitted by January 31, 2016. Click HERE for details, watch the 30th anniversary video highlighting the 2015 winners, or see the DuPont Challenge Facebook page.
In this activity, students 8 to 18 learn how design differences can affect the success of a final product by working in pairs to evaluate, design, and build a better candy bag. They must predict the volume and strength of their designs, test and redesign the bag based on its ability to hold weight, discuss findings, and share results.
Grade level: 3-12
Time: Two class periods
Learning objectives:
After doing this activity, students should understand:
the engineering design process
teamwork in the design process
making and testing predictions
product design challenges
Learning Standards
National Science Education Standards
CONTENT STANDARD A: Science as Inquiry
As a result of activities, all students should develop:
Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Understanding about scientific inquiry
CONTENT STANDARD B: Physical Science
As a result of the activities, all students should develop an understanding of
Properties of objects and materials (elementary grades)
Properties and changes of properties in matter (middle grades)
Next Generation Science Standards
Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost. [Grades 3 – 5]
Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem. [Grades 3-5]
Define the criteria and constraints of a design problem with sufficient precision to ensure a successful solution, taking into account relevant scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the natural environment that may limit possible solutions. [Grades 6 – 8]
National Standards for Technological Literacy – Design
Standard 8: Students will develop an understanding of the attributes of design.
Standard 9: Students will develop an understanding of engineering design.
Standard 10: Students will develop an understanding of the role of troubleshooting, research and development, invention and innovation, and experimentation in problem solving.
Common Core State Mathematics Standards – Data and Measurement
Solve problems involving measurement and estimation. [Grade 3]
Understand concepts of volume; recognize volume as additive. [Grade 5]
Weigh the possible outcomes of a decision by assigning probabilities to payoff values and finding expected values. [High School]
Engineering Connection
Over the years a variety of designs for candy bags have been created. They are built of a variety of materials (paper, plastic, cardboard) and are designed in a variety of shapes. A woman inventor from York, Maine, named Margaret Knight (1838-1914) is credited with inventing a process for automatically folding and gluing paper to form the square or rectangular bottom of a paper bag. She received a patent for her idea – which someone tried to steal! – and eventually started the Eastern Paper Bag Company in Hartford, Conn. The model of her bag-making machine (photo) is on display at the Smithsonian Institution’s American History Museum. For more information on the history of paper bags, visit the Museum of Modern Art’s Counterspace: Design & The Modern Kitchen blog.
Materials
Sketch paper and pencil
8” x 12” pieces of thin, plastic material (such as a plastic painters drop cloth or plastic sheeting cut into pieces)
Masking tape
Twine
Rulers
Scissors
Scale, such as spring scale
Measuring cups
Bags of candy, blocks, or other objects to be used as weights
Items to check for volume, such as rice or candy
Student Worksheet
Procedure
1. Divide students into pairs and provide the Student Reference Sheet (page 5 of PDF) to each. (Note: This sheet can be provided as a reading homework assignment for the prior evening.)
2. Discuss the manufacture of various types of bags, and provide several examples of bag designs to share. Ask students to compare the bag designs and guess which might hold the most volume and the most weight.
3. Provide each student with the Student Worksheets (pages 7-9 of PDF) and review the project with the teams.
Teams will:
•design a candy bag
•create a model of their bag design
•predict the bag’s volume and weight capacity
•test the bag for volume and weight capacity
•force the bag to fail with too much weight
•redesign their bag with a goal of holding more weight
•build a model of the improved design
•test the second model
•complete the student worksheet
•present their finding to the class and compare/contrast results
The Design Challenge
You and your partner are employees of the Sweet-Tooth Candy store. Recently your boss has learned that customers would like to have a candy bag that is attractive and more functional than the one they currently use when they shop in the store. Your boss has asked you to design and build a new and improved candy bag that is sturdy, functional,and attractive. She is interested in a candy bag that is able to hold maximum weight and that is attractive, but she has not specified minimum dimensions or the amount of weight the bag must hold.
You have learned that the design and construction method as well as materials used will determine the strength of a bag. You will want to test the strength of your candy bag and will redesign and retest as needed. Measurements may be taken to determine how to improve the strength of your candy bag and to estimate the volume or weight the bag will hold.
The Task
1.As a team, discuss and agree upon a design for your candy bag
2.Draw a sketch of your design in the attached Student Worksheet
3.Build a prototype candy bag based on your design
4.Calculate the approximate volume of the bag
5.Predict how much weight the bag might hold
6.Test the strength of your candy bag by holding the bag by the handles and placing
weight in the bag
7.Discuss and agree upon a redesigned candy bag
8.Draw a sketch of your new design in the attached Student Worksheet
9.Rebuild your prototype bag based on your agreed upon redesign
10.Test the strength of your improved candy bag design
11.Present your groups’ findings to the class
Activity Scaling
Write an essay (or paragraph) explaining how a cardboard milk carton has been designed to be strong enough to hold its liquid contents. (Bring in samples for students to examine and deconstruct.)
Additional Reading and Resources
Margaret Knight: Girl Inventor, by Marlene Targ Brill (Millbrook Press, ISBN: 0761317562)
Packaging Prototypes: Design Fundamentals, by Edward Denison and Richard Cawthray (Rotovision, ISBN: 2880463890)
50 Trade Secrets of Great Design: Packaging, by Stafford Cliff (Rockport Publishers,ISBN: 1564968723)
Paper Bag Facts. Renewable Bag Council’s site includes facts about recycling.
Design a Bag Competition. Annual contest sponsored by Fashion Access trade fair is open to students worldwide and includes prizes of up to $1,000. Deadline for the 2016 competition is January 11,2016
SEAP provides an opportunity for high school students to participate in an 8-week research project during the summer at one of 25 Department of Navy labs during the summer. New interns receive stipends of $3,300, returning interns receive $3,800 for the summer.
The goals of SEAP are to encourage participating students to pursue science and engineering careers, to further their education via mentoring by laboratory personnel and their participation in research, and to make them aware of the Navy’s research and technology efforts, which can lead to employment within the Department.
In 2015, SEAP provided competitive research internships to over 265 high school students.
Transcripts, references, and application must be received no later than 5:30 p.m. EST October 23, 2015.
NREIP has similar goals as SEAP. Each year, the program provides an opportunity for 400 undergraduate and 75 graduate students to spend 10 weeks conducting research at some 29 Department of Navy laboratories during the summer.
In The Martian, a science-fiction film based on the best-selling book by first-time author Andy Weir, a resourceful, tech-savvy astronaut (played by Matt Damon) is left for dead on the Red Planet and must figure out how to re-establish communications with NASA, then survive until a rescue mission can be mounted.
The U.S. space agency is among the movie’s biggest boosters, inviting Weir, Damon, and director Ridley Scott to tour the Jet Propulsion Lab and participate in a panel discussion. (JPL photo, right)
And why not? Some of the far-out technology already exists or is being developed by NASA for a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, according to this Space.com article. Check out these nine current NASA technologies spotlighted in The Martian – from habitats like these depicted in the film and real life, to water recapturing systems, explorer vehicles, and space gardens.
Meanwhile NASA is exploring the use of 3-D printing to build habitats on Mars and accelerate production of a rocket engine for a manned mission to Mars by the 2030s. Forbes magazine quotes Marshall Space Flight Center propulsion engineer Elizabeth Robertson as saying “the megathrust engine, and similar 3-D-printed metal projects, can now be completed significantly more cheaply and quickly,” than traditional manufacturing techniques.
Filed under: Special Features | Comments Off on NASA’s Real-Life Martian Sfx
In The Martian, a resourceful astronaut named Mark Watney is marooned on Mars. He figures out a way to stretch his limited supplies, contact NASA, and survive disaster until a rescue mission can be mounted.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, people are watching every… scary… move.
Why just watch the movie when you can participate? Microsoft and 20th Century Fox have partnered to create a Hacking Mars design challenge. From September 15 to October 15, teams (members must be over 18 years of age) can compete to devise solutions to help the stranded astronaut. In addition, fans can track his progress with a new interactive map from Bing, while teachers and students will be able to download space-related curriculum through Bing in the Classroom.
Contest participants can connect via Skype with Microsoft tech experts, watch exclusive content from the film, and view custom-made videos from Fox containing interviews with Andy Weir about the challenges Watney faces on Mars. In addition to the $25,000 grand prize, the winning team will travel to Microsoft to experience the company’s HoloLens technology, which enables high-definition holograms to come to life in the real world. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory uses the technology to provide virtual aid to astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The Allen Distinguished Educators award program recognizes and rewards teachers who “break the mold” of traditional schooling to provide students with opportunities to become thinkers, makers, and creators through computer science, engineering, and entrepreneurship.
Sponsored by Vulcan Capital, the investment firm billionaire Paul Allen founded with his sister in 1986, the award seeks to increase the number of students who have the kinds of learning opportunities that awardees have created for their own students. The hope is to “accelerate and shape the unprecedented transformation of schooling that is currently underway in this first quarter of the 21st century.”
The seven members of the inaugural Allen Distinguished Educators class of 2014 received $25,000. They hailed from California and Washington, and nearly half were K-12 teachers of engineering. Israel Hernandez, for instance, is transforming STEM learning through hands-on engineering design at the low-income high school in Los Angeles where he attended and now teaches.
Students in grades 1-8 learn about the challenges of space nutrition and designing food packaging for astronauts by observing, measuring, comparing, and contrasting the ripening of fruits and vegetables when exposed to air and the effect of chemical treatments to inhibit ripening.
Time: 90 minutes (60 minutes to let food ‘ripen,’ and 30 minutes to observe, measure, and discuss).
Grade level: 1-8
Learning objectives
After doing this activity, students should be able to:
Compare and contrast the rate of ripening of fruits and vegetables
Measure surface area
Draw conclusions from data
Standards
National Science Education Standards
Science as Inquiry: Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry
Life Science:Matter, energy, and organization in living systems•
Science in Personal and Social Perspectives:Personal health
Measure surface area
Common Core State Standards for Mathematics
Measurement
Measure lengths indirectly and by iterating length units. [Grade 1]
CCSS.Math.Content.1.MD.A.1 Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object.
CCSS.Math.Content.1.MD.A.2 Express the length of an object as a whole number of length units, by laying multiple copies of a shorter object (the length unit) end to end; understand that the length measurement of an object is the number of same-size length units that span it with no gaps or overlaps.
Measure and estimate lengths in standard units. [Grade 2]
CCSS.Math.Content.2.MD.A.1 Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes.
CCSS.Math.Content.2.MD.A.2 Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.
Represent and Interpret Data [Grades K-8]
[Photo: NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren opens a recent delivery of fresh fruit aboard the International Space Station, August 27, 2015]
Engineering and Science Connection
Food for the Space Shuttle is packaged and stowed in food lockers at Johnson Space Center in Houston,Texas, approximately a month before each launch and is kept refrigerated until shipped to the launch site. About 3 weeks before launch, the food lockers are sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. There, they are refrigerated until they are installed in the Shuttle 2 to 3 days prior to launch.
Besides the meal and supplemental pantry food lockers, a fresh food locker is packed at Kennedy and installed on the Shuttle 18 to 24 hours before launch. The fresh food locker contains tortillas, fresh bread, breakfast rolls, fresh fruits such as apples, bananas, and oranges, and fresh vegetables such as carrots and celery sticks. During space flight, fresh fruits and vegetables have a short shelf life because of the absence of a refrigerator and must be consumed within the first 7 days of flight.
Carrots and celery sticks are the most perishable items in the fresh food locker and must be consumed within the first 2 days of flight.
The International Space Station has refrigerators on board, and refrigerated foods for the Station will include fresh and fresh-treated fruits and vegetables. Certain types of fruits and vegetables can have an extended shelf life of up to 60 days.When certain fruits or vegetables are sliced open and exposed to air, the exposed cut surface turns brown in color.
There are a number of processing techniques that can be employed to fresh-treat fruit and vegetables: irradiation, a wax coating, an ethylene inhibitor (ethylene is a plant hormone that causes ripening), controlled atmosphere packaging, modified atmosphere packaging, and the use of a chemical inhibitive.
This activity focuses on one of these processes the use of a chemical inhibitive as a way of packaging sliced fruits and vegetables as a single-serving, non-waste food item. Slicing eliminates the weight and waste of a core and peelings. Some foods are easily browned, such as bananas, apples, pears, and peaches. You can protect fresh fruit from browning by keeping it from being exposed to air. Another way is by treating the food with vitamin C.
Materials
Distilled water
Fruits such as apples and bananas
Vegetables such as carrots and celery sticks
Vitamin C tablets
Small deep plastic bowls
Knife
Large spoons
Paper plates
Ruler, graph paper or other measuring device
Procedure
Pour water into two small deep bowls. Dissolve a vitamin C tablet into one, and leave the second as plain water. Label the first one “Vitamin C” and the second “Plain Water.”
Cut a piece of fruit into six equal wedges.
Place two wedges into each of the prepared liquids. Be careful that each wedge is completely immersed in the liquid for about 10 minutes.
Remove each wedge with a spoon, and place on separately labeled paper plates.
Place the last two wedges on a paper plate labeled Untreated.
Arrange the piece so that all of the cut surfaces are exposed to air.
Repeat steps 2 through 6 with each fruit and vegetable being tested.
Let all three plates sit for an hour, and observe for any browning.
Using a variety of tools (ruler, square centimeter graph paper, foil, etc.) to measure the brown, exposed area of the fruits and vegetables.
Discussion
Which fruit and which vegetable turned browner than the others?
Which fruit and which vegetable did not turn as brown as the others?
Can you think of another chemical inhibitive that could be used to preserve fruits and vegetables?
What would be the best way to pack fruits and vegetables for space flight?
Extensions
Does the amount of vitamin C in the water affect the rate that fruit and vegetables will turn brown? Test this hypothesis by using one-half tablet, one tablet, and two tablets of vitamin C in the water.
Will temperature affect the rate of browning on fruits and vegetables? Try the experiment again, but this time place them in the refrigerator and in a warm dark place for the same amount of time.
Lemon juice is a common ingredient listed in recipes for fruit pies. Repeat the experiment again to determine whether lemon juice has an effect on browning.
Use a vacuum pump to keep fresh fruit from being exposed to air (vacuum sealing). Observe the rate of browning.
Slicing, coring, and peeling are techniques for providing single servings and eliminating waste. Determine the amount of weight and volume reduced by slicing, coring, and peeling apples and oranges.
Assessment
Have students will present their findings to the class. Classroom graphs and charts may be used to illustrate information learned.
Astronauts Snack on Space Grown Lettuce for First Time. NASA feature on astronauts savoring ‘Outredgeous” red-leafed romaine lettuce they harvested in August 2015 from the International Space Station’s Veggie garden.
