World-Shaker

ucresearch:

Watch the full video: Blossoming into Science with actress Mayim Bialik

A fantastic video for girls interested in STEM (4:14 runtime)

"Mackenzie Wilson, age 9, has a score to settle with her older brothers. They didn’t think she could build her own video game, so she went ahead and launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise $829 to make a role playing game (RPG). After just one day, Mackenzie has already raised $11,471 from 650 backers."

—

A 9-Year-Old’s Kickstarter Project

Internet, I love you.

"The Wright Brothers did not have any theory of flight,” says Schank. “They simply tinkered with stuff until their plane flew. That is called engineering. Trying stuff to see what works.” So why don’t the nation’s high schools teach engineering? “Because engineering wasn’t a subject at Harvard in 1892."

— Is Every Single Subject Taught in High School a Mistake?

thinkbrit:

shapefutures:

alexob:

AmoeBAND became a 2012 IDEA Award Finalist by innovating every possible aspect of the plaster (band aid).

The design revisions were:  

- Strategic cut-outs shape to fit fingers in such a way that it is easy to bend them and not disrupt the bandage.

- An intelligent dressing material allows you to regularly check wounds from the outside, without upsetting the healing process.“According to research, the when an infection of a wound is detected, the pH value is between 6.5 and 8.5. AmoeBAND’s indicator cross turns purple, alerting the user needs to change it immediately.”

- Since the bandage material used exudes a leather-like feel, availability in different skin-tones helps it blend in, without overly highlighting the injury.

- The packaging has been redesigned to a matchbox style and includes Braille instructions.

Hat tip to designers Tay Pek-Khai, Hsu Hao-Ming, Tsai Cheng-Yu, Chen Kuei-Yuan, Chen Yi-Ting, Lai Jen-Hao, Ho Chia-Ying, Chen Ying-shan, Weng Yu-Ching and Chung Kuo-Ting

Part of STEM is the innovation behind the fields — asking students to build a better mouse-trap, encouraging the kinds of thought processes that can do everything from keeping juice fresh in a package without a refrigerator to sending people to the moon.

This is just such a perfect example of the everyday of this concept.  It’s a “Whoah…why didn’t I think of that?”  It’s a “Wow, HOW did they think of that?” Maybe for some of your students it will be a “Hey — I could totally do that!”

At any rate, it’s if nothing else a reminder that STEM isn’t just awesome, it’s awesomely practical and awesomely everywhere.

SO COOL.

Sharing the STEM love!

Learning Science by Doing Science

(by TEDxTalks)

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Amazing art show entries from an engineering student.

(seems to be from University of Alberta, from what I can gather…via Reddit)

"If we want more young people to choose a profession in one of the group of crucial fields known as STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — we ought to start cultivating these interests and skills early. But the way to do so may not be the kind of highly structured and directed instruction that we usually associate with these subjects. Instead, some educators have begun taking seriously an activity often dismissed as a waste of time: tinkering. Tinkering is the polar opposite of the test-driven, results-oriented approach of No Child Left Behind: it involves a loose process of trying things out, seeing what happens, reflecting and evaluating, and trying again. As Sylvia Martinez, a learning expert who spoke about the value of tinkering at a meeting of the National Council of Women in Information Technology earlier this year, puts it: “Tinkering is the way that real science happens, in all its messy glory."

— How Tinkering Makes You Smarter

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I WANT IT.

Lego (or LEGO if you’re adamant about trademarks) has just dipped another toe into electronic gaming with their clever “Life Of George” iOS title. The game uses 144 pieces and a piece of cardboard covered in a dotted pattern. The game is simple: George shows you a picture from his travels and asks you to recreate it using Legos. You have to dig around in your box of pieces to recreate the image and then take a picture of it on the Playmat. Using a brick recognition system from Eye-Cue, the game awards you points for speed and accuracy.

(via Lego Tries Augmented Reality With “Life Of George” Game | TechCrunch)

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Given the freedom to be creative, students will come up with some ingenious workarounds.

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How Do We Get More Students Interested in Math, Science & Tech Careers? [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Creativity Crisis: Why American Schools Need Design →

Education is under attack in the U.S., but cutting teacher benefits won’t correct the ongoing downward trend in our schools. According to President Obama, American 15-year-olds rank 21st in science and 25th in math compared to their peers around the world. STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) may be fundamentally flawed. STEM proponents should start focusing on creativity, originality, and design thinking. Here’s why.

A must read.

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For engineering majors.