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SCIENCE • TECHNOLOGY • ENGINEERING • ART • MATHEMATICS JANUARY 2021
HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPANDS HORIZONS
What happens way up in the air in that weather balloon? By William Taylor People Newspapers
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how students video of high-altitude balloon missions and give them new perspectives on their world. “You can really see that the horizon is curved, so we squashed some rumors that the Earth was flat that every sixth-grader has heard,” teacher Susan Eve observed.
When kids realized their prediction was correct, they would go, ‘Yes!’ So it felt a little like watching a football game but in science. Susan Eve The Greenhill School students also learned about helium and how a balloon could float, but when their science lessons turned to potential experiments, learning took off beyond the stratosphere.
“The kids started asking questions like what would happen if,” Eve said. “What would happen to a pickle if we sent it up?” What about radish seeds? Markers? Batteries? Or a memory card loaded with photographic files? Thanks to a program available from the educational company StratoStar in Noblesville, Indiana, students in six classes taught by Eve and colleagues Sharon Charlebois and Tim Lohr could seek answers through real high-altitude experiments. Eve was looking for ways to keep science instruction both Susan Eve hands-on and equitable for her mix of in-person and virtual students when she discovered an offer from StratoStar – stratostar.com – to fly up experiments for the cost of shipping them to the company and back. The project hits on each of the STEAM categories:
SCIENCE – Coming up with questions and theories to test; TECHNOLOGY – Employed in launching the balloon and tracking it in real-time; ENGINEERING – Designing experiments with containers for the samples that would go up and control samples that wouldn’t; ART – Creating mission badges like those worn by astronauts; MATHEMATICS – So many numbers to monitor and predict as the balloon goes up and comes back down. The classes held a launch party on Nov. 11 – after rain de(COURTESY PHOTO) layed the launch by a day. Students checked back every 15 minutes to see where the balloon had gone and what had changed. It took nearly three hours to surpass 100,000 feet, where it popped and returned to the ground in 15 minutes. Along the way, temperatures ranged
from 60 degrees to minus 25, and humidity from 55 percent to below 1 percent. Students also made their best guesses about where it would be at specific points. “When kids realized their prediction was correct, they would go, ‘Yes!’ So it felt a little like watching a football game but in science,” Eve said. “This year highlights for me that the future of teaching science is really about teaching skills: how to think about what you are doing, how to plan and run an experiment.” As this issue of the newspaper went to press, students were still experimenting with the returned balloon payloads. They had a few wild guesses about what upper atmosphere radiation levels would do to what sprouts from those seeds. “I think they are going to be mutants,” one suggested. “I think they are going to have eight leaves and be purple,” another offered. What about Eve? “I suspect the radish seeds that went up in the flight will not sprout.”
A weather balloon carrying Greenhill School sixth-graders’ experiments took nearly three hours to exceed 100,000 feet and 15 minutes to return to the ground. (PHOTO: COURTESY STRATOSTAR)
peoplenewspapers.com | January 2021  B3
B4 January 2021 | STEAM
TO THE MOON AND BEYOND: EDUCATORS EYE
For better results, ask better questions
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f you’re a baby boomer, like me, your science education likely involved coming to terms with boldface words and not having any engineering, building, or prototyping experiences. Perhaps there were science fairs in the upper grades or schoolyard excursions gathering leaves, insects, and rocks RICHARD DUSCHL for lower grades. If your school district adopted the 1960/1970 inquiry models, you experienced ‘hand-on’ instruction, but not necessarily ‘minds-on’ learning. Labs and investigations were predetermined, questions and procedures preselected. Everyone followed the same ‘cookbook’ in an instructional model driven by this guiding question: ‘What do we want students to know and what do they need to do to know it?’ In the 1980s and 1990s, education researchers reframed the question: ‘What do we want students to do and what do they need to know to do it?’ A simple word exchange, but a compelling change to learning outcomes. Unpacking ‘doing’ reveals an array of knowledge building science practices
and problem-solving-based design and engineering practices. The new policies embraced testing capacity for ‘using knowledge:’ e.g., constructing, comparing, and evaluating explanations, models, and theories. Science and engineering (S&E) education needed to engage students in the struggles of making decisions and using evidence and ideas to explain, model, design, and engineer. For summer 2020, the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education, with generous support f rom the Hamon Foundation, adapted in-person on-campus learning to online learning. We used online breakout rooms – one counselor with three to five youths – to create Education Pods and, in turn, a community of practice. Our plan focused on exposing and developing S&E skills and practices; seventh and eighth graders built a solar oven, ninth and tenth a windmill, and 11th and 12th a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) urban public restroom facility. They first scrutinized how to acquire ideas and evidence and then used the evidence for designs. Think of using tools and technology for measurements, using evidence to build prototypes, arguments, designing investigations, and developing strategies for observing, examining properties of
materials, etc. Think of guided discussions among pod members sharing and wondering how to alter and improve the prototype and design. Social group/community practices foster learning how to communicate, create, collaborate, critique, and represent ideas and information via language, images, and graphical representations. The shift at all classroom levels, elementary, middle, and high schools, is to engage youths in the dynamics, and the accompanying struggles therein, of knowledge building and refining learning environments. These struggles are complex for learners but even more so for counselors and teachers who must manage the breadth of ideas and information students both encounter and generate. The quest for a COVID-19 vaccine has made apparent the community nature of the sciences and engineering disciplines. Reforms in education and cultural attitudes over the past three decades have begun to bear fruit. Scientists and engineers are learning how to learn. Educators, teachers, and parents are learning how to learn about learning. Richard Duschl, Ph.D., is the executive director and Texas Instruments Distinguished Professor for the Caruth Institute for Engineering Education at SMU’s Lyle School of Engineering.
If you lose someone’s diam you can go buy them another ring, but if you lose someone’ you really can’t go get them. Chris Miller
Highland Park Middle School principal Dr. Chris Miller did training about how to handle lunar samples and more. (COURTESY PHOTOS)
For a virtual learning camp offered by SMU, students designed solar ovens, windmills, and urban public restrooms. (PHOTOS: COURTESY CARUTH INSTITUTE FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION)
SHELTON PRIDE STEM + Full STEAM Ahead Fostering exploration, innovation, creation, collaboration Something for everyone:
ENGAGE ENRICH EMPOWER
• Robotics Team, Grade 6-8
• Engineering classes/club
• Coding, Grade 1 and above
• Problem-solving experiences
• Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality • Gaming and 3D animation • Robust summer and after-school offerings • Maker space, 3D design, modeling • Expansive fine arts offerings and printing • HTML and web design
• 12 science labs, 4 STEAM rooms
• High school film program
• Genius Bar-style IT center
Shelton School and Evaluation Center 17301 Preston Road, Dallas, TX 75252 SHELTON.ORG
SINCE 1976
peoplenewspapers.com | January 2021 B5
OPPORTUNITIES FOR LEARNING, DISCOVERY
mond rings, r diamond ’s moonrock,
HPMS principal gets his hands on lunar rocks By Rachel Snyder People Newspapers
Highland Park Middle School principal Chris Miller is planning for a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM) night that’s out of this world: He’s planning to have moonrock and meteorite samples from NASA to show. The March 8 STEAM night will likely include both rock and dust from various parts of the moon’s surface, as well as meteorite samples with information about their origins. “I’m guessing, when we have that in March, no one in the North Texas area will have those samples, so we’ll be probably one of the only games in town for that,” Miller said. “(The students) kind of don’t believe (the samples) are real at first, and then just (ask)
all kinds of questions... It’s a great opportunity for science teachers.” He said he hopes the STEAM night will be open to each classroom as well. “Every classroom will be looking through the lens whether it be creative writing looking at Texas history and Texas’ impact to the space program, or national history,” Miller said. “U.S. history classes will be looking at the space race between Russia and the U.S. “It’s going to be really neat that we kind of just hijack everybody’s curriculum for a couple of days,” said Miller, sounding like the former science teacher who participated in training with a NASA mentor at the Johnson Space Center on how to handle the samples. “For my last few summers of being a science teacher here, I worked with NASA on zero gravity, the LiftOff program,” he said.
Security training was vital, Miller said. “If you lose someone’s diamond rings, you can go buy them another diamond ring, but if you lose someone’s moon rock, you really can’t go get them.” He’s hoping more teachers can participate in the weeklong training at Johnson Space Center soon. The training at Johnson Space Center features everything from learning how to handle lunar and meteorite samples to working with engineers and networking with other math and science teachers from across the region. “I’ve had other teachers certified and also go to these different LiftOff trainings at NASA at my previous districts where I was a principal, and they just come back, and they’re supercharged,” Miller said. “They’re so fired up about teaching science.”
Pandemic provides a senior project at TCA Talk about homework taking a real-world turn. After the pandemic sent students home last spring, it also became an assignment for Texas Christian Academy engineering class seniors. In a typical year, their final projects at the Addison campus involve designing and building items to improve the lives of children facing illness or disability – perhaps a wheel-
chair lift or other tool to give to families with special needs children. But with learning shifted online during the spring 2020 shelter-at-home orders, the final project became virus focused. Engineering teacher Lisa Wong tasked her seniors with building prototypes for tools to help limit the spread of COVID-19 and to do so for less than $20 with items already in their homes. “By teaching her students how to use engineering in the real world, (Wong) hopes to show her students that they can use what they
learn in the classroom to make a difference,” campus spokeswoman Ashley Mungiguerra said. In 2015, Wong, a Lockheed Martin mechanical engineer turned director of technology at TCA, saw a need to get teens involved in engineering. She started the first engineering class at TCA and the upper and lower school STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) clubs she still manages. “Lisa is not focused on simply building the engineering pipeline,” Mungiguerra said. – Staff report
Texas Christian Academy seniors tasked with building inexpensive tools to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 came up with an array of projects, including a personal touchless door opener, a hand sanitizer holder for a car vent, a social distancing stick, a UV lightbox for disinfecting, and a battery-powered air purifier mask. (PHOTOS: COURTESY TCA)
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A P P L I C AT I O N D E A D L I N E J A N U A R Y 8
B6 January 2021 | STEAM
Innovation and Transformation
Dallas ISD aims to make an impact at campuses near and (just a little bit) far
where we have lost market share,” she said. One of the schools that made the cut? The Midtown STEAM Academy, which will be the district’s first pre-K through 12thgrade school and is co-designed in partnership with the North Dallas Chamber of Commerce and Texas A&M University-Commerce.
By Bethany Erickson People Newspapers
Dallas ISD’s magnet schools have long been popular with families, but in recent years, the district also has worked to create choices designed to attract parents and students in a very crowded field of options. Take, for instance, your neighborhood school, which just might be making some changes this year. Foster Elementary in Midway Hollow, Pershing Elementary in Preston Hollow, and 19 other schools received $50,000 Innovation Engine grants in November to pursue innovation to increase interest in the neighborhoods they serve. Foster Elementary will pursue a personalized learning curriculum, while Pershing is exploring a STEAM college and career exploration track. Nearby DeGolyer Elementary is also aiming for a STEAM track but in design thinking. Last year, the Dallas ISD Office of Transformation and Innovation began its Innovation Engine Grant Program. Its goal: helping neighborhood schools better position themselves as the first option for families weighing charter schools, private schools, and even public magnet schools.
We are planting seeds of innovation throughout Dallas ISD. Shakeatha Butler Pershing, Foster, and DeGolyer elementary schools celebrate receiving $50,000 grants from Dallas ISD’s Innovation Engine program. (PHOTO: COURTESY DALLAS ISD) “We are planting seeds of innovation throughout Dallas ISD,” said Shakeatha Butler, director of the Office of Transformation and Innovation. “Sometimes, it takes money to innovate. A school team might have the passion and might have the ideas, but they need the funds to make those ideas a reality.” The selected schools can use the funding in a variety of ways to support innovation on their campus.
But OTI is also working to increase its pool of what the district calls “choice” schools. A relatively new program allows communities to “pitch” campuses – and even lobby for what type of school. The process starts with an idea. Educational professionals and community groups form a plan and then begin exploratory meetings with the district’s Office of Transformation and Innovation. If they
decide to apply, they submit a letter of intent and then a final proposal. Last year, the district received 53 letters of intent in its Public School Choice 6.0 program and 26 proposal applications for review, district spokesperson Nina Lakhiani said. The hope is that the district will get a better idea of what the community wants and needs, she said. “We’re creating additional bestfit schools in quadrants of the city
“The keys to the success of the Midtown STEAM Academy application was the wealth of experience and community connections that TAMUC and NDCC brought to the project,” said chamber events and membership director Megan McQuery “I would encourage an organization that sees an educational need to apply,” she said. “The Innovation Schools and Choice programs are great tools to create learning opportunities for students that are their best fit.”
peoplenewspapers.com | January 2021 B7
What’s a Not-So-Little Healthy Competition Between Robots During a Pandemic? VEX World Championships still headed to Dallas but with added precautions, virtual options
access to robotics during the COVID-19 outbreak,” Mantz said. “The pandemic has magnified the critical need for robotics and STEM education. More so, it has revealed that now more than ever, that world needs critical thinkers, problem solvers, and innovators like our diverse community of one million students around the globe.”
By Maddie Spera
People Newspapers The robots are in full competition mode and on their way to Dallas for The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation’s VEX Robotics World Championship, presented by the Northrop Grumman Foundation in April. The annual championship comes to Dallas in 2021 through 2024, pitting the world’s top middle school, high school, and college robotics teams against each other in various challenges. More than 11,500 teams from 45 countries play in over 900 local, regional, national, and international tournaments to claim top honors, according to vexrobotics.com. While circumstances have changed dramatically since the championship first planned to come to Dallas, VEX Robotics has strategies in place to safely hold this competition for anyone who wants to be involved. “Health and safety is our number one concern,” said Dan Mantz, CEO of the REC Foundation. “We’ve worked diligently on finding a multitude of options for teams to participate this season. If teams are unable to participate in
THE CHALLENGES
The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation promotes STEM instruction through its competitions. (PHOTO: COURTESY REC)
typical in-person robotics competitions, we have other ways that they can compete this season.” These other ways include Remote Skills-Only Events, which allow event partners to host remote skills-only matches, and Live Remote Tournaments, where competition can occur remotely using a Live Remote
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Tournament interface. Mantz and the VEX Robotics program hope this event promotes and encourages STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning in the area. In addition to the championship, VEX Robotics has also made sure to foster STEM education with other innovative
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programs. Among these are online challenges, online learning resources and activities, and the VRAD (virtual aerial drones) program, the world’s first global multiplayer virtual aerial drone competition. “It is important to us to continue creating programs so that all students and teachers have
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Tell Us More Is your school competing for a chance to face off in the VEX Robotics World Championship? Send photos and information about your efforts to editor@ peoplenewspapers.com.
S H E P H E R D !
From our youngest students in Pre-K to our 8th grade graduates, our exceptional students pursue their educational journey through questioning, exploration, and curiosity.
SPARQ, Solving Problems Asking Real-world Questions, drives our students and teachers to take the essential time needed to push the boundaries in a creative environment.
Working together, studentteacher teams apply design thinking to overcome obstacles in and outside the classroom.
At Good Shepherd Episcopal School, STEAM/ STEM thinking is just one way we bring innovation to life in our SPARQ program.
L E A R N
Standard Matches: Two alliances of two teams each playing against each other Robot Skills Challenge: One robot playing alone against the clock Online Challenges: Unique contests using CAD, animation, essays, and more Visit vexrobotics.com/v5/ competition for more details.
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B8 January 2021 | STEAM
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