A ) Brain Games!
Join Marina Philip, a former chemist and now educator at Explora Science Center and Children's Museum to investigate a mysterious and puzzling box. Next, step into the shoes of an educator and learn how puzzles and similar activities are used to make science engaging and fun. Take a behind-the-scenes look into how science museums turn learning into play!
B ) Roller Coasters, Engineering, and Fun with Physics
Be a Civil Engineer for a day and design your own roller coaster for marbles! And have fun with physics, learning about potential energy, kinetic energy, friction and gravity. You will build your own marble accelerator ramp to transform potential energy into kinetic energy. Then, design a roller coaster with a loop, managing your marble’s energy to get to the end.
C ) The Secret Code of Computer and Robots
Students will have the opportunity to learn about all about binary encoding/decoding, binary logic of circuits, visual coding, and textual coding. Their new skills will then be applied to control robots!
D ) Microbes: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In this workshop the students will learn about microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and viruses) with an emphasis on their small size and unique characteristics. After discussing the variety of ways microbes help and hinder us in our daily lives, the students will use microscopy to identify an unknown bacterial sample. The students will then use an antimicrobial solution to kill bacteria and assess its effectiveness.
E ) Building Self-Propelling Bots
This engaging activity combines the topics of potential and kinetic energy, electronic circuits, and robotics to build a mini self-propelling robot. Students will build a mini robot by attaching a battery to a motorized propeller sitting on top of a toothbrush head. We will then discuss how the concepts learned with the mini robot can be used to build real world objects, like motor boats.
F ) What starts wildfires?
Have you ever wondered how fire investigators figure out what starts a wildfire? After all, it is usually something small and black, in the middle of a lot of black stuff. Participants will learn the basics of wildland fire behavior, indicators of fire direction to track and find the origin, and learn about different causes of wildfires. To put their new skills to the test, students will analyze a scenario and evidence left in the "origin" of a fire.
G ) Get Excited for Electrons! Flame Tests and Emission Spectra of Atoms
Students will use sterno flames to test the ions produced by excited electrons in an atom. Then they will use diffraction glasses to view the spectral lines of the excited electrons present in gas molecules.
H ) Is climate change melting sea ice?!
This workshop demonstrates how ocean warming, as a result of climate change, leads to melting sea ice. The students will take part in a hands-on demonstration to quantify the impact of ocean warming on sea level rise.
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Dr. Olivia Jackson received her B.S. and M.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. In 2015, she became the first African-American to receive her Ph.D. from the Materials Science program at The University of Alabama in Huntsville. In 2015, she joined Sandia National Labs.
She is an advocate for children, education, STEM, and inclusion. In 2018, she established the Dr. Olivia D. Underwood Scholarship to help increase the number of women of color in the STEM field. During the summer, she serves as a volunteer instructor for the “Hands-On, Minds-On Technology” summer program for middle and high school students, where she teaches a class called “What is Materials Science?”. In 2019, she co-authored a paper with Blythe Clark titled “Mitigating Implicit Bias for Leaders”. Dr. Jackson is an active member of the Minerals Metals and Materials Society (TMS), a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., an alumna of the Gates Millennium Scholars program, and has published several technical journal articles in her field. Recently, she was selected to serve as a member of the Board of Directors for New Mexico Voices for Children. She was awarded the 2019 Black Engineer of the Year – Science Spectrum Trailblazer Award. This award is given to “men and women actively creating new paths for others in science, research, technology, and development.” In March 2019, she was also awarded the 2019 Dr. Frank Crossley Diversity Award. This award “recognizes an individual who has personally overcome personal, professional, educational, cultural, or institutional adversity to pursue a career in minerals, metals, and/or materials. She was also selected to be a part of the 2019 40 under Forty Class by Albuquerque Business First.
