Following are the stories of a number of science projects recently funded by the Science House Foundation. You’ll learn more about the project, how the money was used, and perhaps even get a few ideas for how you can promote science yourself. Some of the project descriptions include photos and documentation to help schools generate similar results.
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George Washington Middle School will be participating for their first time in the Solar Car Competition hosted at Argonne National Labs. With a grant for solar panels from Science House, the school is able to give all interested students the chance to participate. See the students design documents and cars they built with the panels here.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Physics, Engineering |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | Illanois |
Science House Foundation is providing funding for robotics equipment for two schools, one an inner city school in Michigan US, the other in a rural region of Ontario Canada, to run a collaborative, international robotics program. The two participating schools will share ideas and tips via a blog and videos, and participate in friendly competition.
The course, designed by Greg Scheffler at Woodhaven High School with input from Ryan Johnston at partner school FE Madill SS, will cover a wide range of topics including Design, Mechanical Elements, Electrical Principles, Electrical Circuits, Autonomous Robots, and Basic Artificial Intelligence, and uses the Boe-Bot Robotics Kit as the primary educational tool.
If you are a teacher located outside the US and Canada, interested in running the course at your school, please email info@sciencehouse.com.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Robotics |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Michigan, Ontario |
A few years ago in Beaver County, PA, a coal power plant shot out clouds of black soot, which rained from the sky over Ambridge Junior High School and many neighboring schools and houses in a 1 1/2 mile radius. A recent report on air quality in schools also revealed some frightening results about the levels of pollutants in the air where schools are located. To find out more, Ambridge Junior High School decided to do some independent air quality investigations as part of their environmental science classes. With equipment from Science House Foundation they'll be measuring the levels of particulates, ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and other air quality indicators in their surrounds. The students will be sharing their findings at the end of their investigation.
Does your school wish to investigate the air quality in your area? Science House Foundation is making the air testing kit available on loan to all schools across the US. Email info@sciencehouse.com with your name and school and we'll send the kit to you when it's next available.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Environment |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Pennsylvania |
The Imagine School Elementary Science Club meets once a week to perform science experiments and learn through creative science projects. With the help of funding from Science House Foundation, they'll be running exciting science experiments every week, including some from our Video Science series.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | General |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | Florida |
Science House Foundation helped out the Quatama LEGObots team by providing them with a LEGO robotics kit and participation fees for the FIRST Lego League Robotics Competition. Since receiving the robot the students have been hard at work and have performed demonstrations at the city council and been featured in the local newspaper.
Science House Foundation also helped to purchase some LEGO robotics kits for Aue Elementary School, Texas and Hollymead Elementary School, Virginia to get their FIRST robotics programs off the ground.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Robotics |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | Several Locations |
Science House is funding materials and equipment to enable high school physics students to construct a functional scanning tunneling microscope, in partnership with a local University and a local Community College. The students will be optimizing a working prototype, constructed with parts costing $300 - $500, which they will use in classroom research.
One of the goals of this project is to develop plans for a functioning and affordable STM, which the students will be sharing on the Science House website, in addition to video footage showing the STM being built. Keep an eye out as we'll be posting these materials over the next few months!
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | Physics |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Nebraska |
Funding for 10 scholarships for underrepresented preteen Utah girls to attend the "Attend Westminster, Explore Science, Use Math" a.k.a. AWE+SUM camp at Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah in July 2010. The camp is a residential camp for girls entering 8th grade that focuses on hands-on workshops and activities in science, math, computer programming, aviation, and finance.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | General |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | Utah |
Science House is helping fund an after school science program in Pokuase Ghana, based on ether successful Science Club for Girls program in Boston. Funding is going towards materials for the club and teacher trainings and meetings, to ensure that teachers have the opportunity to exchange information on best practice. The club is being set up in collaboration with a local University in Ghana. Science Club for Girls reports from a recent trip to Ghana
"The ideas of hands-on explorations and using guided questions as a learning tool were new, but welcome. Thanks to the support of Science House, about eighty 4th grade girls in four different schools are attending clubs this year. We hope that this venture will not only benefit the girls who come, but will change how these dozen teachers teach science in their own classrooms, multiplying the impact."
See their blog for more information on the project.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | General |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | Pokuase, Ghana |
What better way to teach biology than through enlivening discussions and experiments in biotechnology! Science House funding helped to purchase two biotechnology kits for PCR and gel electrophoresis, for a class of Biology 10th graders.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Biology |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Oklahoma |
Playing with robotics helps introduce kids to concepts in math, engineering, electronics and physics in a fun and rewarding way. Science House donated robotics kits to an elementary school class in Louisiana to help them learn about electronics, force, motion, and energy.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Robotics |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | Louisiana |
Science House donated math games, puzzles and geometric models to a 7th grade class in New York City. These materials will enable the students to learn about math in a visual, manipulative way. In addition, they will provide a challenge for advanced students who are ahead of the class.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
Forty five minutes on the computer each week may be enough time to type up an essay or do some basic research, but it's hardly enough to explore the many academic resources available online or to become proficient in computer skills. Science House stepped in and donated two laptop computers to a class of enthusiastic, young students in Brooklyn. With these new laptops, the students will be able to do a lot more computer activities, and develop skills and knowledge that will help them in all their school subjects.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
Science House donated electrostatic experiment kits to a high school class in Texas. The school offers advanced academic programs in the sciences, but cannot afford lab equipment to perform challenging experiments. These kits will help the students to develop their understanding of electricity and prepare them for further study in college.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Physics |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Texas |
Science House donated a set of 30 calculators to an elementary school class in San Jose, California, where budget cuts across the district have reduced funding for educational supplies. Having calculators will help the students explore different possibilities to solving mathematical problems and enable them to build a mathematical and technological foundation in learning.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | San Jose |
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Many schools with limited funding find it difficult to afford experimental materials for science classes. To help out, Science House donated some chemistry materials to a school in Chicago. These materials will help students learn chemistry by seeing things pop, fizzle and foam!
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Chemistry |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | Chicago |
Science House donated a desktop computer and LCD monitor to a science class in North Carolina. This equipment will allow the class to make use of educational software that the school owns but does not have enough computers to give students access to. The students will also be able to use some of the great free educational resources online, such as the physics game, Phun, which teaches about the forces that interact in our world.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | North Carolina |
Geometry is often a hit with kids, but the vocabulary can be daunting, especially for ESL students. Vertex, edge, face, rectangular pyramid, cone, cylinder, quadrilateral, polygon - these are just some of the words that students must master in order to understand plane shapes and 3-dimensional shapes. With fun, hands-on geometry games from Science House, the students will be able to practice old concepts and vocabulary while adding new ones with greater ease.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | Florida |
The Maths Centre provides teacher training and student resources for math, science, technology and entrepreneurship education throughout schools in South Africa. In schools where the Maths Centre has active programs, students' understanding of math and science concepts has noticeably increased. The programs also help students to find opportunities in math, engineering and entrepreneurship-based careers and to realize the importance of these skills for their future.
Science House funding is helping to support the Maths Centre's mathematics literacy programs in elementary schools throughout the country.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | Elementary |
| LOCATION: | South Africa |
Science House is sponsoring cash prizes for the Suffolk Community College "Math Online Competition" to encourage greater participation and a competitive spirit. The competition is open to all students in the college and the rules are simple - the students receive one problem each week of the semester and must submit their answer before the next week's problem is released. Science House funding is going towards the fall 2009 and spring 2010 competitions.
| TYPE: | Competition |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | College |
| LOCATION: | New York Area |
The BioBus is a biophysics lab on wheels that provides immersive, hands-on lab courses in biology to school students throughout New York City.
Science House recently donated 3 new digital displays that allow dozens of people to see the microscopical world at the same time, in addition to hard drives and other devices that allow us to more effectively communicate science aboard the BioBus
The BioBus is currently looking into technology to upload real-time microscope images to the web, sharing the wonder of biology with more kids.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Biology |
| AGE: | K-12 |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
Science Club for Girls aims to increase the self-confidence and science literacy of girls, especially those from under-represented backgrounds. Science House provided funding to help support the club's after-school science meets, where girls come along to learn science and do educational experiments with the guidance of mentors. Enrollment in the programs is free to all girls, to encourage maximum participation. Funding also went towards a "reverse science fair", where scientists from local universities brought along experiments, which kids got to judge!
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | Boston |
Science House is funding scholarships for six students from Latin America to participate in a Worldwide Online Math Program run by the Art of Problem Solving, an organization that provides educational materials and courses for gifted students who seek a greater challenge in mathematics.
The math program is a 7 month course that prepares students for the International Mathematics Olympiads. It offers practice in challenging math problems beyond the scope of what students would ever see in school, and teaches student skills to be able to find solutions to these problems. The students also receive instruction and feedback from experienced mentors, who have a deep and extensive understanding of math, and have the opportunity to collaborate with some of the top high school math students in the world.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | South America |
Green thumb and expert arborist Bridgette Suzanne Smith together with her team of enthusiastic junior volunteers at the Greenburgh Nature Center in Scarsdale, New York, planted a total of 200 seedlings at their Earth Day celebration on April 19. The seedlings donated by Science House will one day grow to around 60 feet tall. Their life expectancy is 130 years.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | Horticulture |
| AGE: | K-12 |
| LOCATION: | New York area |
Many high schools in South Africa face an acute shortage of lab equipment - the lack of even a single laboratory is not uncommon. When students have never seen a chemical reaction, a physics investigation or experimented with biology, its very difficult for them to comprehend what science is all about.
Since 1998, the Mobile Science Laboratory has traveling around the country to help address this problem - by giving students a chance to perform "live", hands-on science, often for the first time in their lives. The lab is fully equipped with everything needed to run experiments, including water tanks, a gas cylinder, chemicals, biological samples and heaps of equipment. Science House recently provided funding towards new equipment, to help provide an even better educational experience for the 7,000 students who get to experience the mobile lab every year.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | South Africa |
Science House was one of the sponsors of the 41st International Chemistry Olympiads, hosted this year by the University of Cambridge. The competition, which ran from July 18 - 27, brought together teams of high school students from several dozen countries around the world for the ultimate chemistry challenge. Check out the results of the competition here. Congratulations to everyone who won medals and a special mention to the Taiwanese team for picking up four golds, the only team where every member won the highest award.
| TYPE: | Competition |
| SUBJECT: | Chemistry |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | Worldwide participation |
Girls' Angle, a Cambridge-based math club for girls, has begun production on a "Women in Mathematics" video series. These 5-10 minute videos feature working female mathematicians explaining elementary mathematical facts that excited them when they were young. New videos appear bimonthly at www.girlsangle.org.
| TYPE: | Education & Training |
| SUBJECT: | Math |
| AGE: | Middle School |
| LOCATION: | Boston |
Science House donated microscopes and biological kits to be used by 60 underprivileged students with learning difficulties in grades 2-5. Now, with a microscope each, the students will be able to work independently and focus on the fascinating world beneath the microscope.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | Biology |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
Science House donated 100 notebooks to an underprivileged high school science class. The students are using these notebooks to learn to think like scientists - recording scientific questions, proposing hypotheses, designing and implementing experiments and analyzing results.
| TYPE: | Equipment |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | High School |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
Science House donated a set of "Spectrum Science" textbooks to a class of inquisitive grade 5 students in New York City. Through these books, the students are making connections between science in their curriculum, in the world around them and in their own lives. Hear from the students what they've learned.
| TYPE: | Books |
| SUBJECT: | All Sciences |
| AGE: | Elementary School |
| LOCATION: | New York City |
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