inspired by the 2013 floods in Colorado to design a ... the Stanford University Online High School's middle school progr
NEWS
Science Fair Participants
White House Science Fair Emphasizes Importance of STEM Education “I have a confession to make,” U.S. president Barack Obama told the audience of young inventors and their mentors at a 27 May White House Science Fair ceremony in the East Room of the White House. “When I was growing up, my science fair projects were not as successful as the ones here.” Recalling that during one of his experiments, “a bunch of mice escaped in my grandmother’s apartment,” Obama joked, “These experiments did not take me straight to the White House.” However, experiments by dozens of student winners of various science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) competitions did take them to the White House for a celebration honoring young scientists in grades K–12 and promoting science education. Obama noted that the Super Bowl football champion Seattle Seahawks were honored at the White House earlier in May. The science fair is more important, however, he said. “As a society, we have to celebrate outstanding work by young people in science at least as much as we do Super Bowl winners.”
Focus on Encouraging Girls and Women
Members of Girl Scout Troop 2612 of Tulsa, Okla., next to their science fair project. The LEGO model, including the gray drawbridge operated by computer, is in the foreground. Front row, left to right: Natalie Hurley, Miriam Schaffer, Lucy Claire Sharp, Claire Winton. Back row: Avery Dodson, Suzanne Dodson (coach).
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
Randy Showstack
Randy Showstack
This year’s science fair included a focus on encouraging girls and women in STEM
fields. Noting that fewer than 3 in 10 workers in science and engineering are women, Obama said, “That means we’ve got half the field—or half our team we’re not even putting on the field. We’ve got to change those numbers. These are the fields of the future.” The White House also announced at the science fair several governmental and private initiatives, including a $35 million Department of Education Teacher Quality Partnership grant competition that includes a focus on STEM teacher preparation in support of an administration goal to train 100,000 STEM teachers. Other announcements included an expansion of the STEM AmeriCorps initiative to provide 18,000 low- income students with STEM learning opportunities this summer; the launching of STEM mentoring efforts in seven U.S. cities led by US2020, a group founded by Cisco, Raytheon, and other corporations; a collaboration between NASA and the Khan Academy, a nonprofit based in Mountain View, Calif., that includes interactive lessons about engineering challenges related to launching and landing on Mars and other space exploration efforts; and a pledge by Esri, based in Redlands, Calif., to provide free access to ArcGIS online organization accounts to every K–12 school in the United States.
The White House Science Fair participants included members of Girl Scout Troop 2612 of Tulsa, Okla., ages 6–8, who were inspired by the 2013 floods in Colorado to design a flood-proof bridge made of Lego pieces and to develop three simple computer programs that prompt the bridge to retract during floods. “We thought of this idea because in Estes Park, Colo., there were a lot of bridges that got washed away, and ambulances and fire trucks couldn’t get to the other side to help other people,” said Avery Dodson, age 6. Added Natalie Hurley, age 8, “I got to show [President Obama] our trophies that we’ve won, and he said it was really cool how we won all this stuff, even though we’re just 8 years old, for just doing awesome stuff like that.” Another science fair participant, Peyton Robertson, age 12, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., invented a lightweight “sandbag” of polymer and salt to prevent saltwater damage from floods. Robertson, who is enrolled in the Stanford University Online High School’s middle school program, told Eos that STEM subjects need to be taught in a way such that kids can understand the importance in relation to their own experiences, such as why baseball pitches curve or why microwaves work. Robertson also confirmed to Eos the essence of an anecdote that Obama had related about him at the science fair. Obama said, “When Hurricane Wilma hit nearly nine years ago, Peyton took cover in the closet and played Monopoly with his mom, and later said, ‘It’s a lot easier to win when your parents are distracted by a Category 3 storm.’” Obama said that after the hurricane, Robertson started thinking about ways that people prepare for floods.
Peyton Robertson, age 12, inventor of a lightweight “sandbag” of polymer and salt.
Also at the science fair was Olivia Van Amsterdam, age 16, who worked with Katelyn Sweeney, age 17, from Natick High School, Mass., to build a 120-pound remotely operated search-and-rescue robot. Van Amsterdam told Eos that the robot can assist dive teams by carrying out preliminary search patterns for possible casualties in dangerous ice-covered waters.
Science fair guest Bobak Ferdowsi, who served as flight engineer for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory and is widely known as “the Mohawk guy” for his distinctive haircut, wondered whether the robot idea could have another potential application. Ferdowsi, currently mission engineer on the Europa Clipper concept mission under study by NASA, told Eos, “Having robots that maybe could drive a little bit to find a place on [the Jovian moon] Europa to drop a submersible would be a really cool feature.” Ferdowsi added that the science fair and its focus on girls was a great experience. “It’s been wonderful and rewarding for me to be able to come here and be excited and energized by the work that these guys are doing and go back to my work and be like, ‘alright, 15-year-olds are doing crazy things; I should be doing crazy things too.’”
Randy Showstack
Impressions of the Science Fair
Olivia Van Amsterdam, member of a team that built a search-and-rescue robot. National Science Teachers Association president Bill Badders, another science fair guest, told Eos, “Having the children being honored in this way, especially the elementary children, is just a tremendous opportunity, something that should drive their interest in science going forward.” Badders noted
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
that the science fair is part of the bigger picture of STEM education, adding, “What has to happen is a better effort, especially at our elementary schools, to improve science as a key subject for our kids.” —Randy Showstack, Staff Writer
