Category Archives: Technology

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A year ago today everyone was talking about and viewing the eclipse

Observing science "live" is an important piece of learning, asking questions, being curious

A year ago today I was very fortunate to be part of a NASA sponsored team launching high altitude balloons in Idaho to record data about the total eclipse.

This is the shadow of the Moon from about 23,000 meters (75,000 feet) above Camas, Idaho

Meantime back in northern Nevada where I work, thousands of students and members of the general public were using the tens of thousands of eclipse glasses science educators had acquired and passed out to local schools. The eclipse in Nevada was not total, but it was still a site to see.

 

Total Eclipse 2017, Camas ID, USA, by Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe

The eclipse took the nation by storm and millions took to staring into the sky and learning about what was really happening. When we got back from our Idaho trip we processed the photos, video and data and made it available to anyone that wanted it. We also shared the experience with students and teachers when we did teacher trainings or classroom visits. Students and teachers would not only express awe at watching our video of the Moon’s shadow moving across the Earth’s surface, but eager hands would shoot up begging to share their own experiences watching the eclipse and the various ways they monitored it.

Providing access to experiences like eclipses, but also snow falling, or a thunderstorm or leaves changing color in fall and then allowing students to unpack them, express their awe and interest and even giving the time to research on their own are great ways to have students utilize technology to learn. Having students then publish their learning and photos and other media through blogs, photo sites, web pages and other places is where edtech is at its best. If your students are mainly doing everything Google and only publish in house or to your classroom walls you might want to consider publishing to the world to leverage the motivation to learn and polish what they publish in creative, expressive ways.

Learning is messy!

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Ocean Gyres and Plastic Pollution Solutions

Designing an NGSS aligned STEM inquiry for 5th grade

Plastic pollution in an ocean gyre. Some floats on the surface, but more floats beneath the surface.

I’m currently involved in designing a 5th grade inquiry experience aligned to NGSS – I’m actually part of a team of 3. I volunteered (or was volunteered, not sure) to design a Plastic Gyre that 5th grade students will then design a system to collect the plastic from. These gyres full of plastic debris actually exist in the ocean, and as I recently noted even in mountain lakes like Lake Tahoe.

 

NGSS Standards: 5-ESS3 Earth and Human Activity 5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.

Supports: 3-5-ETS1-1. Define a simple design problem reflecting a need or a want that includes specified criteria for success and constraints on materials, time, or cost.
3-5-ETS1-2. Generate and compare multiple possible solutions to a problem based on how well each is likely to meet the criteria and constraints of the problem.
3-5-ETS1-3. Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved.

Here’s a video that will explain why we decided this was a good problem to address:

I’ll share more about what we’re up to in future posts, but here is a photo of what I’m working on now:

 

 

It’s a 17 inch round tray you put under a flower pot so it doesn’t leak when you water your plant. It’s about the cheapest thing I could find since we have to have 6 of these set ups for each of about 20 classrooms. I’ve cut up plastic grocery bags (a common plastic found in the ocean), water bottles, rubber bands (which I found don’t float), nylon string, straws, shredded plastic file folder, glitter, and more looking for the right analog of trash.

Next I’m working on what materials to have available for students to use to design and build their collection systems (we’ll encourage them to bring in their own materials too). I plan to share more about this later when we have things planned out and firmed up more. Any ideas that might help us are always welcome!

Chris Jordan http://www.parley.tv/updates/2016/3/17/chris-jordan-midway-message-from-gyre

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learning is messy!

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RECON Pluto Occultation Campaign Looks At Pluto’s atmosphere

But could be another victim of west coast fires

UPDATE 8/15: Cloud cover and high winds made our participation impossible. However, some of the 50+ teams in the campaign were successful.

This Tuesday night we have our next “community science” campaign to observe objects in the Kuiper Belt. This time the atmosphere of Pluto is the focus as  it occults, or passes in front of a star (often referred to as an eclipse). About 54 teams of students, teachers, community members and others, stretched from the Mexican to the Canadian borders will train their 11 inch telescopes on the event and record video that can be analyzed later. Collecting data from different angles is key to the work RECON does.

The weather is supposed to be good here in Reno where my team is scheduled to participate, but the multiple fires all along the west coast have been producing choking smoke that could be a problem for many of us.

From the RECON website: “RECON is gearing up for an important science opportunity involving Pluto.  As shown below, the shadow path of Pluto passes over most of the United States as the dwarf planet occults star GA0680:34878053 on Tuesday evening, August 14 (August 15 around 05:30UTC).”

Hoping the skies aren’t too messy to participate!

Learning is messy!

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Our Annual High Altitude Balloon Project Is Coming Together

We'll launch your "High Hopes" for the world!

NOTE: If you’d like to be part of this project you and your students can send us their “High Hopes” for their school, community and the world and we will launch them up high to 100,000 feet where they will be released to slowly drift down to the ground and become one with the Earth. We’ll print your hopes on biodegradable paper designed to compost. Send your “High Hopes” here or you can tweet them to us by using the hashtag #hhpSTEM. 

We had planned on launching May 17, 2018, but somewhat unusual spring rains have made the high desert dirt roads we rely on a bit sloppy for recovery. Our current launch date is June 1, 2018, weather permitting.

This year Virginia City High School students are designing the engineering and science payloads that will reach altitudes of 80,000 to more than 100,000 feet.

Every “high hopes” launch includes payloads to carry and release the world’s high hopes that are printed out on biodegradable paper. Past designs have attempted to be mechanical in nature using a timer or altimeter to trigger a motor to spring a latch and release the “hopes.” However no group has successfully completed that kind of design, usually because of class time constraints, so they end up with a payload that relies on the chaos that ensues post balloon burst as the payloads plummet to the ground (before the parachute gets enough atmosphere to slow things down) to open flaps on the sides and release the “hopes” … which works well, but engineering motors, Arduinos, pulleys and all is intriguing, so we’ll see what happens.

Engineering payload motor driven latch release for world’s “high hopes.”

Another group is looking into gluing seeds to some of the high hopes in order to spread some flowers around the desert. They are researching what seeds they can distribute that way (don’t want to plant invasive species) and have contacted the local authorities about their idea. They are developing a water soluble glue that also might provide some nutrition for the seeds as well.

Mixing a trial batch of bio-degradable glue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A payload designed to see how sound is effected by the thin atmosphere at high altitudes is taking on a Star Wars theme. The plan is to play the theme music from Star Wars while a camera records the image, but more importantly the sound during flight through a speaker that is insulated from vibrating the payload, so the sound must travel via the air. Does the thin air effect the sound? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This should be an interesting payload to fly!

 

 

 

Yet another group wants to test a design to protect plants from the freezing, dry conditions they’ll encounter during the flight (actually very much like conditions on Mars). They’ve set up a group of plants to launch and a identical set to stay on the ground to compare with. They are trying several different ways to insulate the seedlings and seeds they will launch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students have also set up a social media campaign including Twitter and Instagram to ask for others to submit their high hopes. Please send us your high hopes and we will launch them high into the stratosphere!

Learning is messy!

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Breadware With Middle Schoolers

Arduinos, IoT, apps, modules, prototyping all rolled into one

IMG_1368Late last school year I met up with the folks at Breadware to determine if their Internet of Things (IoT) Development Kits could be a nice fit in local high schools. They were a local “start-up” company and they were willing to loan their kits to local teachers and students as a pilot program. After a short training with them I determined they might just fit well in middle schools as well (maybe even down to 4th or 5th grade).

The development kits are meant to speed up prototyping new IoT and other hardware products as well as keeping costs down.

A few weeks back Daniel deLaveaga, a co-founder of Breadware, showed up in Mike Imari’s classroom with 15 kits that include an Arduino board and 13 plug in sensors, buttons, lights and more. The thirty 7th and 8th graders followed along as Daniel walked them through building an app on their phone or pad device and then learning how to write the code and plug in the appropriate module(s) to turn on a light or make a buzzer sound based on temperature, movement, brightness, humidity and several other possibilities. The app designer even allows students to include their own logos.

Below Daniel walks students through programming modules on their Breadware Arduino boards.
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After the walkthrough, where the students successfully turned on an LED light after they flashed their programming onto their Arduino, students were told to try other possibilities – like using the temperature module to turn a light on when it reached a certain temperature and off once it cooled. (see video below)

 

 

 

 

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The students confirmed my thinking and they took easily to writing and editing code and began to design apps for their pad devices … but time was up and they’d have to save the app design for another day. The apps allow them to trigger the code remotely from their device to, for example, use the temperature module to check the temperature in their classroom anytime day or night from anywhere.

I’ve also arranged to try this out at one of the high schools I work with after the 1st of the year. Will be interesting to see what designs and coding the students come up with!

 

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App designing.

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Learning is messy!

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Bee-Bot Cadre 1st Meet-Up

Last spring I was able to purchase, thanks to some unspent funding from a grant, 3 Bee-Bot “Hives” – they are about $600 each – each “hive” includes 6 Bee-Bots, a charging plate and a yellow backpack for transporting them. With time short before the school year ran out I taught/facilitated a quick class with 6 teachers from 3 schools to gauge teacher and student interest and learning using robots in the primary grades.

The idea was to facilitate teachers in their use and then loan a hive to each school – the participating teachers shared the hives at their site. Teachers and their students loved them and didn’t want to give them up. We even came up with a “STEAM” activity that I shared here.

With that success I was able to get funding for an additional 6 “Hives” this fall. Last Wednesday we started a year long cadre of Kindergarten to 2nd grade teachers (I couldn’t get any Pre-K teachers to join). There are about 27 teachers in the cadre from 9 schools and a local children’s museum.

I included the teachers from last spring, and although I feared what they might do if I didn’t include them, the reality is they are all excellent consultants and have already added much to the class.

In preparation for class I charged 54 Bee-Bots (9 “hives”) so they’d be ready to go.

We learned how Bee-Bots work and saw a few short videos showing them in action. Next teachers were given some time to get “messy” with them. Lots of button pushing, discussion and laughter ensued.

Then I passed out large sheets of foam board and let them work in school groups to design straw mazes so they could experience firsthand what their students would be doing (but you can use blocks and lots of other materials you might already have in your classroom).

I also shared a Bee-Bot wiki resource we started last spring and will add to as the year goes on. I was able to include a yellow digital camera in each hive (the color match is awesome). The cameras are NOT part of what comes with a hive, but I wanted a way to collect and archive data and ideas and the cameras were available.  I’ll also set up a Flickr account for this class, like we had last spring. We’ll collect data on how long a program students write without prompting to see their progress during the year.

The teachers were sent out with their hives to get started and set-up how they want to manage and utilize the Bee-Bots in their classrooms – the teachers from the spring cadre shared some of their experiences which should help. We meet again next week. More later.

Learning is messy!

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High Hopes Launch 11/28/2017

High altitude ballooning, science and STEM

We finally managed to launch a balloon this fall. It’s been in the works for well over a month, maybe two. Weather and scheduling finally came together and we launched on Tuesday, November 28, 2017, from Virginia City High School‘s football field (in Nevada). Virginia City is best known for being home to Mark Twain, who lived, worked and wrote here in the 1860’s, the Comstock Lode gold and silver rush, as being one of the settings for the old Bonanza TV show and a rich history.

We launched about 8:30AM – it was hovering around the freezing mark and the sun was just high enough to start warming us a bit. Teacher Sarah Richardson had the honors to release the balloon after a quick countdown. Besides  3 of our GoPro cameras and various data loggers and communications gear, Sarah’s students had designed a payload to release the “high hopes” of the world we’d collected … including their own (over 700 high hopes were included in their payload) so they were intrigued to see how this whole launch thing works. The “outlooking camera” recorded this:

And the “downlooking camera” recorded this:

This launch was mostly about giving Sarah and her students some experience in how this works. The plan is now for them to design various payloads to carry out science and engineering investigations this spring … that will give them plenty of time to prepare. They designed the payload we launched by breaking into groups that each built a payload to release the high hopes which are printed out on small strips of paper. They then had trials that led to choosing the one we launched. They’ll use what they learned about payload construction and I will be visiting class to facilitate them through the process some, but most of that will fall to Sarah. Here is what the balloon burst looked like at 26,000 meters (85,000 feet) a bit less than 2 hours after launch:

In Quicktime you can play the video frame by frame which is awesome! You miss a lot in real time … besides the hunks of balloon that float by you can see high hopes fluttering through the air and one comes right at the camera and you can read it – “people everywhere” … because it is handwritten it must be one from Sarah’s class (the others were printed out) – I’m hoping we find out which student wrote it.

Folded “High Hope” with the words, “people everywhere” clearly visible – hope to find out what the rest said. About 85,000 feet, that’s Pyramid Lake in the middle of the screen shot.

I’ll be uploading some of the photos we took to Flickr when I get the chance and I’ll add a link to them.

UPDATE: Here is a link to a Flickr set of launch and recovery photos

Learning is messy!

 

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Da Vinci Mechanics Exhibit – Machines, Engineering, “Making” and More

Inspiration for "making" in your classroom

Da Vinci A few years ago (2015) my wife and I were in Christchurch, New Zealand, and we came upon this hands-on Da Vinci Mechanics Exhibit at the Canterbury Museum.  I’d meant to share a post about it when we returned and I was reminded of that when I came across the Flickr album I had set up just the other day.

NOTE: Click on any photo in this post to enlarge it. Then you and your students can read the descriptions and see the drawings in more detail.

From the museum web site: “He studied the workings of nature’s devices and sought to recreate these as practical machines: machines for moving water, for war, for excavating, for drilling and, perhaps most famously, for flight. Exhibition highlights include the tank, the spring powered car, the hang glider, the air screw (the precursor of the helicopter) and a robotic drummer.”

What intrigued me were not only the devices themselves, but Da Vinci’s drawings that accompanied them (careful drawings of plans easily turn a STEM activity into STEAM). The fact that this was a hands-on exhibit multiplied the engagement exponentially.Da Vinci

 

Da Vinci’s designs and devices are a great model for a class engineering/making STEAM experience. What devices and the drawings and explanations that go with them could your students design? Then share them online through Flickr or a blog or wiki or video-conference or … too many ideas to list. Many more photos here.

Da Vinci
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Da VinciI noted online that this is a traveling exhibit so maybe see if it is scheduled to be coming to a museum near you. And I bet students could find just a bit more about Da Vinci if they search even a bit. Please share other ideas and links to any “Da Vinci inspired” devices your students “make.”

Learning is messy!

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Photos, Video and DATA from the Eclipse Balloon Project

Total Eclipse 2017, Camas ID, USA, by Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe

I’ve been back for awhile from our Eclipse Balloon Project launches. We’re still processing data we recorded from cameras and data loggers from 3 HAB balloon launches outside of Twin Falls, Idaho, (really from Camas, Idaho), but wanted to share some of the incredible visuals. Click on any photo to see enlarged.

This is the shadow of the Moon from about 23,000 meters (75,000 feet)

Video of the shadow moving across the Earth’s surface :

More video – Click Here

More photos from Dr. LaCombe:

Total Eclipse 2017, Camas ID, USA, by Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe – Peekaboo

Total Eclipse 2017, Camas ID, USA, by Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe – Full Disk

Total Eclipse 2017, Camas ID, USA, by Dr. Jeffrey LaCombe – Prominences

 

 

 

 

 

The track of our flight. Starts at the top near Camas, Idaho.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The prediction was very accurate – this is actually 10 predictions on one screenshot – yellow dots are predicted burst and blue predicted landing spot:

ASTRA flight prediction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I did send up a small solar panel attached to a voltage data logger. We usually do this to record data on what happens to the voltage as the panel gets higher and much colder. But this is interesting for obvious reasons:

 

Note the voltage goes up as the altitude rises over time … then “something happens” that causes the voltage to drop to almost zero.

This balloon came down within sight of a temporary command center of sheriffs and other emergency personnel that had been set-up to help with the crowds and any issues that may have arisen. You’ll note that at the end of the data it seems to have gotten dark again. The sheriff investigated what had landed  nearby and picked up our payload and placed it in their command vehicle until we showed up. Once we had described it they briefly handcuffed Dr. Wang and I for endangering the public … then had a good laugh and took the handcuffs off.

Dr. Eric Wang and I handcuffed with our payloads in hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing too surprising about our temperature readings – at 28,000 meters (92,000 feet) it was about -42C :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have other data as well I might post later.

We successfully launched 3 balloons – one got to over 110,000 feet, but we also had 2 balloons pop on the ground during and just after inflation – one seemed defective, the other probably got stressed in the relatively high winds at the launch site and popped just as we were connecting payloads. Fortunately we had enough gas to fill 2 more balloons.

Learning is messy!!

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2017 Math & Science Institute – for teachers

In New Orleans ... and it's FREE!

Earlier this year I agreed to lead two grant funded STEM professional development courses for teachers sponsored by Metairie Park Country Day School, June 7th, 8th and 9th, 2017. The courses will be held at Tulane University in New Orleans as part of the 2017 Math & Science Institute. AND NOTE THIS – You just have to get there – tuition is FREE! (note the flyer to the right for more information). Note: private school teachers have to pay $149 per course.

Each course is about 6 hours long spread over the 3 days (2 hours per day, per course). Here’s a page with all the course descriptions.

I’ll be teaching 2 courses: “Powerful, Connected, Collaborative and Global STEM Learning” and “STEM: Hands-on, Minds-on, Creativity-on” –

From the online course description:

STEM: Hands-On, Minds-On, Creativity-On is a six-hour course designed to help teachers integrate powerful STEM learning with a focus on engaging, hands-on engineering lessons. Participants will not only experience the lessons firsthand, but also how to collect and analyze the rich data the lessons produce. Strong connections to science, language arts, technology, art, the Next Generation Science Standards and three dimensional learning will be included. Most lesson activities utilize easily obtained materials.

Powerful, Connected, Collaborative, Global, STEM Learning is a six-hour course designed to allow you to see how the power of STEM inquiry projects are leveraged when students are connected and collaborate globally.

There are several Common Core State Standards that require students to utilize technology to collaborate starting in elementary school. This course will provide hands-on engineering lessons and phenomena – coupled with free or cheap collaborative online tools that promote sharing and analyzing data, explanations, global awareness and much more. Participants and their students will learn to collaborate and share through powerful writing, oral language, photography, math, art and other media. Online safety and ethics will be featured.

Check out the 2017 Math & Science Institute home page to see all the courses being offered.

Hope to see you there!

Learning is messy!