Tech Ed 4 Kids Partners with Parents, Students, and Teachers to Measurably Propel Student Achievement in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math
Southern Kentucky gets a Science Festival!
Southern Kentucky is getting a science festival! The plan is for it to be a yearly event! This is an event for the community and the local university to come together and celebrate science.
It’s kicking off with a talk highlighting the centennial of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity (April 30 at WKU):
Dr. Jeffrey Bennett’s Relativity Tour kicks off the 2015 SKy Sci Fest with a free of charge public presentation: “Black Holes Don’t Suck! – An Intuitive Introduction to Einstein’s Relativity Theories and Why They Matter”
May 2nd at Circus Square in Bowling Green from 9 to 5 will be a day of science fun! Featuring food, music, art, entertainment and chances to explore & discover the world through science. Attend stage performances and booths hosted by community organizations, individuals, businesses, and vendors.
See more information or sign up to participate at: http://skyscifest.com
The multi-day festival will include everything from the science of beer to rocket science! Though it has been in the planning stages for months it is just now becoming reality and so they are collecting vendors, volunteers, demos and more!
Adventure Time Game Wizard (Review)
Normally I would say that Adventure Time has no real educational value, but Adventure Time Game Creator? Kids can draw their own game layout and then import it into their game… Though they aren’t coding a game per say, they are definitely more interactive than some games.
What is Creator?
Finn and Jake face an all-new villain: Doodle Wizard! Play for hours in Adventure Mode, or make your own adventures! You can DRAW YOUR OWN GAMES! Use the Doodle Wizard’s secret glyph language to design custom video games. You can draw your games on paper and scan them in, or make mathematical levels directly in the app! Instantly turn your level design into a playable game!
(Cartoon Network)
MIP Robot
For Christmas a MIP descended upon our house. For the price I was really hoping it would have some educational properties and maybe it does. So far I haven’t been able to justify the cost. The MIP is a robot that you can control with hand gestures or your phone.
We got the white one, but I’m linking the black here. The MIP has modes that can be chosen – everything from Roam to Dance (even a battle mode if you have two). So far my son has taken my phone and made ours wander around following his finger, he has figured out the hand gestures for the few times I took my phone back, and I have made it dance. A friend visiting figured out the battle mode and making it pretend to shoot at people with fake sounds (yes that caused lots of children to scream in our house).
It comes with a tray to carry small objects (stack mode). It does have a really cool ability to balance on it’s two wheels making it almost bipedal (biwheelal?)
BUT, for the price interest in our house was very short lived and I still need to find the educational value….
Math is Tough Barbie strikes again?
Yep I’m pretty upset over the Barbie that has raised a new uproar. Luckily girls are striking back with Feminist Hacker Barbie. I should mention that I’m not a strong feminist, being that I’m a WAHM that spends most of my time running kids from here to there and taking care of my kids to the exclusion of my career.
I was a computer programmer though for 20+ years and I have taught classes, both college level and to kids on programming and even game design. (The coding part!) I’ll be one of the first to say that the design part isn’t my strongest skill, but I LOVE coding. So when I see this it bothers me. My husband has pointed out that there aren’t many girls taking science classes. What’s interesting is that computer programming was originally for girls because of the typing. An article by Stanford pointed out that as late as the 1960s it was thought to be the ideal career choice for women. To quote
As computer scientist Dr. Grace Hopper told a reporter, programming was “just like planning a dinner. You have to plan ahead and schedule everything so that it’s ready when you need it…. Women are ‘naturals’ at computer programming.” James Adams, the director of education for the Association for Computing Machinery, agreed: “I don’t know of any other field, outside of teaching, where there’s as much opportunity for a woman.” – See more at: http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2011/researcher-reveals-how-%E2%80%9Ccomputer-geeks%E2%80%9D-replaced-%E2%80%9Ccomputergirls%E2%80%9D#sthash.5vGfOZag.dpuf
KY FLL Events!
The first events are appoaching!
| Event Sub-type | Event Name | Event Venue | Country | State/Province | City | Date(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Qualifying Event | WKU FLL Qualifier Tournament | Knicely Conference Center – WKU South Campus | US | KY | Bowling Green | 22-Nov-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Southeast Kentucky Regional Qualifier | East Perry Elementary School | US | KY | Hazard | 22-Nov-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Engineers of Tomorrow KY FLL State Regional Qualifier | Bullitt East High School | US | KY | Mount Washington | 06-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Northern Kentucky Regional FIRST® LEGO League Robotics Tournament and Jr. FIRST® LEGO League Engineering Expo | Northern Kentucky University | US | KY | Highland Heights | 06-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Owensboro Regional FLL Tournament | Advanced Technology Center on Owensboro Community and Technical College Main Campus | US | KY | Owensboro | 06-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | UK FIRST Lego League Regional Tournament | UK Student Center Ballroom | US | KY | Lexington | 06-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Glasgow FLL Regional Tournament | Glasgow Middle School | US | KY | Glasgow | 13-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | West Kentucky FLL Regional Qualifier | West Kentucky Community & Technical College- Emerging Technology Center | US | KY | Paducah | 13-Dec-2014 |
| Qualifying Event | Ashland FLL Regional Qualifier Tournament | Ashland Community & Technical College – Technology Drive Campus | US | KY | Grayson | 13-Dec-2014 |
| Championship Tournament | Kentucky State Championship Tournament | Northern Kentucky University | US | KY | Highland Heights | 07-Feb-2015 |
Girls in Science (CSC offerings)
I just noticed the program offerings from Carnegie Science Center making the rounds on social media:
I’ve heard lots of thoughts on this, from girls just aren’t interested in science to the leaders aren’t doing enough. I do know anecdotally that most of my friends are interested in science, went on to pursue degrees in science and would have jumped at the chance to take the boy classes. They also: barely wear makeup, sign their kids up for enrichment when they can and try to help other kids be more involved. So I have no answer as far as the general populace.
In a past life I headed up a robotics team. Our first team was 2 girls and 3 boys. Not equal, but it was an odd number. That being said my son was one of the boys so if you take him out of the equation the kids were equal as far as gender. Those kids are now 21 and they were 8 at the time, so it’s been a long time! They have each went on to college and are doing great. I know I didn’t make an effort to get girls at the time, everything just fell into place.
I have no solutions, but I do know something has to be done. As you look at the makeup of science classes in current colleges they are overwhelming male. How do you change a stereotype – especially when barbie is there to remind us that ‘Math is Tough’. Any suggestions?
Carnegie Science Center defends their decision – http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2014/10/07/Science-center-doesn-t-sparkle-in-girls-scouting-offerings-critics-say/stories/201410070092
About Me
I am a SAHM/WAHM of three boys ranging in age from 16 to 32. We are working on saving enough for college at the same time as dealing with school and our older independent kids. I author a few blogs, including http://teched4kids.com. I have in the past taught computer information technology classes for the local university and taught workshops for kid's in technology education besides being the Kentucky State FIRST LEGO League Championship Coordinator from 2005 to 2008. I now work as a computer consultant, run a handmade home business, and am available for workshops. Life here is always an adventure!
