At the SMILE Teacher’s Workshop we showcased a plethora of great lessons plans, one of which was presented by Danica Hendrickson from Facing The Future. She was gracious enough to share with us a PowerPoint for high school students that focuses on how we use energy everyday and where that energy comes from. Danica also recommended checking out these websites in conjunction with her lesson plan to see how much waste and energy recycling saves us. These are great bioenergy ideas to share with your students.
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop, Biofuels, Climate Change, Sustainability
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At this year’s teacher workshop we introduced two new teams of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering students. These seniors at Oregon State University have created several new amazing lesson plans for middle school teachers. We hope these lesson plans make their way into your classroom and help with the Middle School Challenge!
- During the Teacher’s Workshop, teachers were taught the mechanics behind a push and pull manufacturing system. Both systems can be seen in our everyday lives. It is a great short activity that only requires paper and pencils. We encourage you to check out this activity!
- Instructions are also an important factor in the manufacturing process. In this lesson plan students will decode different instructions and explore their clarity.
Our Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering team was thrilled to showcase these lessons at the Teacher Workshop and are excited to share more lessons on this blog. Check back soon to see additional engineering lesson plans.
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop, Industrial Engineering
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Jon Roschke, a KidWind Pacific NW WindSenator from Oregon Renewables, shared a great presentation and his expertise on Wind Energy. Using prebuilt turbine towers, teachers explored the science of wind turbine blade design. Take a look at the presentation that Jon included in his workshop!
A great resource that Jon recommends is the KidWind Project website: http://learn.kidwind.org/teach
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop, Harnessing Energy, Sustainability
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Renee Greer, a Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar in the Department of Biomedical Sciences, worked closely with the SMILE program to develop lessons that would share her expertise in cellular biology at an elementary school level. There are 7 lessons in total and they can be taught as a unit or individually.
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop, Cell Biology
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During our 2014 Winter SMILE Teacher’s Workshop, Matt Nyman, a Professor in the College of Education at Oregon State University, shared his expertise during a session on Schoolyard Geology. Take a look at the great resources that were shared!
Professor Nyman also recommends the website “Exploring the World of Science”: http://www.classzone.com/books/earth_science/terc//navigation/home.cfm
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop
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Alicia Lyman-Holt, a staff member at the Hinsdale Wave Research Lab, led a session at the 2014 “Step up your STEM” Teacher’s Workshop and shared her expertise on Tsunamis, Civil Engineering, and the Engineering Design Cycle. Take a look at the materials that Alicia shared!
Tags: 2014 Winter Teacher's Workshop, Tsunamis
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As our team member Alex had said last week research is an important part of the engineering process. We wanted to help you out with this process. Cable cars can be seen in a variety of shapes and sizes but also in plenty of places around the world. We wanted to show you an example of some of the varieties of cable cars to help inspire you.
- San Francisco is one of the few places in the United States to still have a cable car with an underground wire. The cable car museum shows you the many components that are used to make this possible.
- New York has a long history of various types of cable cars. Their Transit Museum website breaks down the differences between their various types of transportation. Keep track of the differences because there will be important for your design.
- Most of these cars are fixed onto the cable and the cables move. However, there are cars that move on a fixed cable. The differences can be confusing but look out for them in this video of a cable can on the West Cost Trail in Canada.
Hopefully these websites allowed you to answer some important questions. After looking at our research and doing some on your own you should be able to understand the difference between the different cable cars, how people go from concept to reality while making a cable car, and how various cable cars work. We encourage you to expand on this research and try to figure out what your customer may be as a cable car company. Earlier this week Erik talked about design being not only important to customers but to the function of your cable car. What design factors might make your car most efficient? Happy researching!
Tags: 2013-2014 Mechanical Engineering, 2014 Middle School Challenge, Video
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Last year (2013-14) at our Middle School Challenge we had our students make a Rube Goldberg project. A Rube Goldberg machine is one where coordinated parts work together to accomplish a task (such as wiping your mouth) without human intervention during any part except the start. Our team from last year made their machine take a picture with a camera. Their weekly videos are posted here on the blog. By watching these videos you should be able to apply them to your cable car. We encourage you to check it out!
Tags: 2012-2013 Mechanical Engineering, 2014 Middle School Challenge, Rube Goldberg, Video
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