Community Outreach

Landing page for community outreach events.

Discover Engineering Family Day
Tom Noyes

Great opportunity for community outreach hours - Discover Engineering Family Day. I did this last year and it is a lot of fun. Kids aged 4-12 come and learn about engineering through hands on projects. We also show demos like a mini wind tunnel and hand out spacecraft and airplane pictures. This year it is on Saturday, Feb. 16 from 10am until 4:30pm at the National Building Museum in downtown DC. See:  http://www.nbm.org/families-kids/festivals/discover-engineering-family.html

If you want to sign up to volunteer, send a message to Dr. Wereley ([mailto:wereley@umd.edu wereley@umd.edu]) and Juergen Rauleder ([mailto:juergenr@umd.edu juergenr@umd.edu] ). You should also let the SI group know so they can track the hours. I plan to be there the full session 10am-4:30pm.

Hope you join me, I really had a fun time last year. The kids are eager to hear you tell them about aerodynamics and spaceflight. Be sure to wear your department polos, AIAA t-shirts, etc.!

Local Science Fair Judges Needed
Tom Noyes

Call for Judges: AIAA NCS Science Fairs

Each spring, volunteers from the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics National Capital Section (AIAA NCS) judge aerospace-related projects at local regional high school science fairs, awarding thousands of dollars of prizes annually - including a week at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center's Space Camp / Aviation Challenge (http://www.spacecamp.com). Over the past decade, NCS has expanded the number of science fairs to include the entire scope of the section's geographic domain - from the shores of the Chesapeake Bay to the border of West Virginia - and has gained appreciation in each of these regions.

This spring AIAA NCS members will again be judging all eight DC-area regional science fairs. Judging is conducted in teams of three; materials and guidance are provided. NCS is seeking judges for each of the following fairs:



Northern Virginia Regional Science and Engineering Fair - Saturday, March 2, Wakefield High School, Arlington, VA



Loudoun County Public Schools Regional Science and Engineering Fair - Thursday, March 14, Tuscarora High School, Leesburg, VA



Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair - Saturday, March 16, Robinson Secondary School, Fairfax, VA



Prince William-Manassas Regional Science Fair - Saturday, March 16, PWCS Kelly Leadership Center, Manassas, VA



Prince George's Area Science Fair - Saturday, March 9, Prince George's Community College, Largo, MD



Montgomery County Science Fair - Saturday, March 16, Food and Drug Administration White Oak Campus, Silver Spring, MD

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Charles County Science Fair - Saturday, March 9, Theodore Davis Middle School, Waldorf, MD

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">DC STEM Fair - Saturday, March 23, Wilson High School, Washington, DC

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Please consider spending a few hours of your time to help inspire the future generation of the nation's best and brightest scientists and engineers. Those interested or with questions should contact Kate Becker at [mailto:becker.kate.s@gmail.com becker.kate.s@gmail.com]  (or 316-288-6035).

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Note also that award sponsorships are still available. Please contact Michele McMurrer at [mailto:aiaancs1@aol.com aiaancs1@aol.com] if you are intrested in becoming a sponsor of the NCS Science Fair program.

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<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Kate Becker

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Real World Design Challenge Finals
Tom Noyes

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:inherit;line-height:19px;font-size:small;">The National Finals will take place in Washington, DC on April 19-22. Volunteers are needed on April 20. <span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">

<span style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;line-height:19px;">OVERVIEW

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">The Real World Design Challenge (RWDC) is an annual high school competition run by a public-private partnership with the goal of sustainably increasing the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. The partners are focused on working within the context of the American educational system to transform STEM education in the United States by providing professional science and engineering and learning resources to students and teachers.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">The RWDC began in 2008 through a partnership between industry, government, academia, and non-profit. The partners were committed to bringing a program to schools that brought professional engineering resources into the classroom, was free to participate in, and could scale to every school in the United States. The partners brought together $263 million in resources and began working with governors to build an infrastructure of states to scale across the United States. The first year, ten states participated. And we have added states every year.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Every teacher that participates in the RWDC gets $1 million in professional engineering software along with training, curriculum materials, and access to mentors. Teams of 3-7 high school students use these resources to solve an engineering challenge that is currently faced by industry.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">Students first compete in a state level Governor’s Cup. The team with the best design in each state gets an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC to compete in the national finals.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:HelveticaNeue,Arial,LiberationSans,FreeSans,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51);line-height:19px;">The Challenges have all been focused on the aerospace industry so far, but as the RWDC grows, we will add other content areas as well. We are constantly looking for new partner organizations, states, and school teams to participate.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">See website: http://www.realworlddesignchallenge.org/

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">Lisa Bacon needs judges as well as college students to interact with the high school kids while their projects are scored. Lisa's contact info:

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">Lisa W. Bacon

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">[mailto:LisaB@aiaa.org LisaB@aiaa.org]

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">AIAA

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">1801 Alexander Bell Drive, #500

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">Reston,VA 20191

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">Phone: 703-264-7527

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:1.5em;font-family:inherit;">Fax: 703-264-7551

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:inherit;">www.aiaa.org

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2nd Grade Space Lesson at Montgomery Knolls Elementary
Doug Astler

Chris Flood's girlfriend (Kayla Mayberry) is currently student teaching a second grade class at Montgomery Knolls Elementary school. She has told us that if we would like to come in and give an hour demonstration to her second graders on a few topics related to space (planets, phases of the moon, etc.) we are more than welcome. We need to plan a day to go before spring break and work that out with Kayla.

I've thought of a few experiments that I think would work out well for second graders, if you have any comments or suggestions feel free to add them.
 * 1) Using a tennis ball and a flashlight, we can show the kids how the phases of the moon work.  Have one kid (representing the sun) hold a flashlight and shine it at another student (the Earth) holding a tennis ball (the moon).  Have the student representing the Earth rotate the tennis ball around themselves to see how different parts of the ball are lit up as the moon goes around them.
 * 2) We can also show the phases of the moon using oreos!  Once all the students have participated in the tennis ball/flashlight experiment we can give them oreos and have them draw out the phases in the icing.
 * 3) To demonstrate the Big Bang and how the Universe is expanding (possibly too advanced for second graders) we can draw galaxies on a balloon.  When you blow up the balloon, the galaxies grow farther and farther apart, demonstrating the expansion of space.
 * 4) We can make moon craters by placing flour in a pan and then in a cardboard box.  Dropping marbles into the flour should make craters similar to those found on the moon.