STEM Education Today (November 2017)

November 2017

STEM of Ballet

Exploring STEM

Teacher Feature

The School Of What’s Appening in our Meet the Power Team: Alberta Ballet: Dance. World with Stacy Benson Brian Simmons and Academia. Research.

Natalie Cox and Carrie Mah

Science • Technology • Engineering • Math

Making A

Maker Space?

• Artificial Intelligence

• Wearable Technology

• App Development

• Art Integration

• Coding

• Virtual Reality

• Robotics

• Maker

We can help!

Curriculum and Teacher Training Call STEM Learning Lab for more information: info@stemlearninglab.com 1-800-970-9181

OUR TEAM Editor-In-Chief

6 8 16 26 30 32 38 40

Dr. Gina Cherkowski

Publisher

Krista Malden

Exploring STEM

Financial Director

Tracy Beairsto

Creative Director

What’s Appening with Stacey Benson and Carrie Mah Math Game All Girls STEAM Team

Editor Extraordinaire IT Director

Engineering Brightness

STEM of Ballet

Markus Salvador

Stacey Benson

Dance-Academia-Research

Research with Sarah J Kenny

Academia with The School of Alberta Ballet

Anna Cherkowski

Science at Home

Morgan Ostrander

Prabina Bhandari

Walking Water Kitchen Science - Bringing the Physics of Ballet Home

Wendy Hutchins Carrie Mah

Back cover photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash

Young Innovator

Copyright Š 2017 STEM Learning Lab Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Meet Ethan Fogarty

Teacher Feature

To receive a free online monthly edition of STEM Education Today, please contact: stemedutoday@stemlearninglab.com

Meet the Power Team Brian Simmons and Natalie Cox

Healthy Food

Lin Farnholz

Thank you to our contributors:

Community Feature

Kenzie Webber

Healthy Educational Snacks

STEM Around the World

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For information or use of content in this publication, please contact stemedutoday@stemlearninglab.com.

About STEM Education Today

STEM Education Today is a free resource that provides a platform where everyone can become a part of an ever-growing network of global innovation and change!

A Note From Our Editor-In-Chief, Dr. Gina Cherkowski How did STEM Education Today come to life?

As a Social Justice STEM Educator and Innovator, I am on a mission to ensure all students have access to high quality STEM learning experiences so they are aptly prepared for our technology-driven, dynamic world. Parents, teachers, and community members are seeking ideas, resources, and inspiration so that they too can join this empowering movement. STEM Education Today is helping to expand academic focus on STEM, STEAM, and Making. We invite everyone to learn, share, and create.

Exploring STEM

Twenty-five years ago, computers were a rare commodity. Today, we live in a technology-rich world where mobile devices are an every-day staple in many people’s lives.

As we unpack the world of mobile devices, it is easy to become bombarded by the plethora of mobile Apps available at our finger tips. Each of these Apps have been carefully and creatively designed to solve a problem in our daily lives. From entertainment, to transportation, to saving our lives, Apps impact the way we live and interact with our world.

In this article, we explore how students transition from being mere consumers of technology to becoming creators of technology as they design and create their own Apps in a ninth-grade business class at West Island College. This App Development course was carefully designed and facilitated by STEM Learning Lab’s Stacey Benson and Carrie Mah with the ambitious goals of increasing students’ capacity in the areas of Design Thinking, coding, and computational thinking thus creating tenacious learners who are technologically literate citizens equipped to 4

become the innovators and global problem-solvers of tomorrow.

what’s appening!

Stacey:

Carrie:

Have you taken a moment to simply scroll through your collection of smartphone apps? What are the nature of your apps: entertainment, news, games, organizational tools, etc? Our collections are personal and they can tell a story of who we are as individuals. My Duolingo app reveals that I am trying to brush up on my Spanish language skills. My GasBuddy app hints at my desire to find the cheapest gas prices in the city. My Kayak app suggests that I relish opportunities for travel and my Yahoo Fantasy Football app indicates a passion for sports and family competition. What about you, Carrie?

The apps I’ve used have supplemented the tasks I do on the computer like publishing and consuming information on social media and blog platforms. It also records essential information when I’m on the go like Calendar, Reminders, and Notes. They have also helped me maintain relationships with loved ones using communications tools like Phone, iMessage, and WhatsApp. Apps also keep me occupied and entertained in my downtime, such as Netflix and games like Mario Run. (continued in next page)

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Exploring STEM

(continued from page 5...)

At the end of the day, mobile applications help with my day-to-day activities. Instead of simply being a consumer, it’s useful to understand how these applications were created so we can troubleshoot issues or help family members use them. It’s even better when we can create applications to solve local or global issues.

Stacey: I totally agree! Apps serve as powerful platforms for social enterprise.

Individuals have the ability to change their local and/or global community by leveraging technology especially in conjunction with mobile devices. Apps can be used to address “wicked problems” and we had the opportunity to see this work in action when we collaborated on a 2-week app development unit for 9th grade business students.

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Carrie: We were tasked with creating an experience that introduced students to app development platforms (MIT App Inventor and Thunkable) based in coding. Ultimately, students created an app that addressed a specific need. These platforms utilize a visual drop-and-drag programming language and provide opportunities to explore foundational coding concepts including variables, lists, conditional statements, and looping elements.

Stacey: I loved your idea, Carrie, to demonstrate these concepts by having the students create a few introductory apps including a Magic 8 Ball, a simple 4-function calculator, and a Whac-A-Mole game. The students were provided self-paced tutorials allowing them to develop apps and manipulate the code through extension tasks. While it was challenging to cover all of the functional options of the app platforms, supplementary video tutorials and resources provided an opportunity to explore components students had an interest in employing for their self-designed app.

Carrie: App development is best paired with an introduction to design thinking methodologies. Typically, apps are created to serve the needs of a client. Design thinking is a cyclical progression that provides a structure for individuals to create a solution catered to a customers’ needs. Students developed their apps during the second week using design thinking and we spent a class during the first week to model the process. Stacey, I enjoyed seeing how you introduced the students to design thinking through an activity centered on their favourite foods. Students gained empathy for their peers as they conducted interviews and practiced rapid prototyping using aluminum foil. The foil models exemplified the students’ creativity.

Stacey: A significant portion of the design thinking process entails iteration, prototyping, and testing. Students realized that a continual retesting of their designs was important from a functional perspective. Both coding platforms include a feature where users scan a QR code with their Android tablets or smartphones to test their apps at different stages. It was awesome to see the students recreate their design following peer feedback.

Carrie: We saw many students really engrossed with the platforms and they developed some practical apps by the end of week two. They were activity engaged in problem-solving the design and coding aspects of their app.

Stacey: It was incredible to observe the students in action and we were impressed with their products! One student actually created an app for her own swim business by developing an online registration form for summer lessons!

Carrie: Implementing meaningful coding exercises into the curriculum provides opportunities for students to extend beyond just creativity and enter the realm of innovation!

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Community Feature

“It takes a village ...�

- African proverb

Engineering Brightness was founded on the belief that students can help to solve the world’s biggest problems.

Engineering Brightness is a teacher created concept that harnesses the potential of youth to impact authentic global problems. Today, 1.3 billion people worldwide suffer from light poverty. Engineering Brightness was created after Tracey Winey and her students had partnered with orphanages in Uganda and in the Philippines to provide biomass stoves. At the same time, John Howe and Ian Fogarty had brainstormed ways to combat light poverty. Tracey, John, and Ian joined forces and Engineering Brightness was born in 2014. Multi-aged students worldwide work with industry leaders and community members to design a safe, hand held, 3D printed, sustainable lantern. Mechanical and

electrical engineering skills are learned, applied, and refined using the design thinking model. Global collaboration is established through various means: Skype, in-country visits, guest speakers, email, and hand-written letters. Currently, Engineering Brightness is in nine different countries. Over one hundred lanterns have been made and distributed with feedback shared and recorded to foster greater learning.

All participants involved in Engineering Brightness have learned how to become engineers, philanthropists, and how to have a positive local and global impact. Engineering Brightness is merging engineering with empathy and action to solve real world problems.

http://philanthropic-engineering.org/ 8

Math Game: Achi Provided by Anna Cherkowski Achi is a simple and fun math board game that you can download, print, and play at home! This game helps students develop skills including multi-step problem solving, spatial reasoning, pattern recognition, number sense, and more!

Achi is a game played by the Asante people of Ghana that is similiar to tic-tac-toe. However, where tic-tac-toe ends when all the pieces have been placed, Achi continues as players move their pieces to adjacent spaces until a 3-in-a-row is formed. Download the free printable board game from MIND Research Institute!

Number of players: 2

Recommended ages: 6+

Time to play: Less than 5 minutes (but you’ll want to play several games) Math connections: Achi is structured to naturally lead to questions that can be resolved through logic and deduction.

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Exploring STEM

Million Women Mentors Overview

The Need to Move the Needle The Need to Move the Needle © Million omen Mentors, an Initiative of jobs In the past 10 years , STEMconnector® gWrowth in STEM Contact

In the past 10 years , growth in STEM jtobs has been three times greater han non-­‐STEM obs. times greater than has been tJhree MWM@STEMconnector.org

non-­‐STEM Jobs.

80% of the fastest growing occupations in tCANADA he U.S. depend ouf pon astery gorowing f mathematics the m fastest occupations ia n nd the U.S. 80%

knowledge skills. scientific depend upon mastery oaf nd mathematics and scientific knowledge and skills.

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© Million Women Mentors millionwomen@stemlearninglab.com

2

© Million Women Mentors

2

OUR GOALS Increase the percentage of high school girls planning to pursue STEM careers Increase the percentage of young women pursuing undergraduate degrees in STEM fields Increase the percentage of women staying and advancing in STEM careers

© Million WFor omen more Mentors information

on Million Women

Mentors and how you can be involved email millionwomen@stemlearninglab.com

Self Directed Learning Member of the CCSDL Canadian Coalition of Self-Directed Learning

Our Students:

• Take Ownership

in the historic Currie Barracks

• Initiate Learning

• Develop Character

• Engage in Community

• Children benefit from flexible schedules, blended programs and a full time 10:1 ratio in a multi-aged setting from pre-school to Grade 12.

• Students enjoy project-based learning where the classroom expands into the world through field trips, volunteerism and internships.

• Students’ academic programs are built around their innate curiosity, interests, abilities and needs, focusing on exploration, opportunity and relationships.

• Students develop personal organization and purposeful learning skills.

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Exploring STEM

ALL-GIRLS

STEAM TEAM

by Krista Malden I recently had the honour to hang out with Heloise Lorimer School’s ALL GIRLS STEAM TEAM. The girls took time out of their lunch to show me various challenges they have worked on with each other and within the school! These challenges included learning math with robots, creating challenges with recyclable material, and mixing fashion with technology.

The girls have all become leaders in their school. Not only do the girls meet to put the challenges together, problem solve and learn, they also get the school involved with their monthly challenges and take the time to teach the rest of the school about STEAM. The girls are learning how to be innovative problem solvers, creators, and mentors!

I like that

we get to

teach

other grades about

art, engineering, and science. – Ayla Huhn

The

STEAM Team is

really fun.

I love being able to teach!

- Adrienne Carroll

I like that we get to

create art that

is

meaningful

and

creates change.

- Ryan Bileski 12

STEAM TEAM presenting at the Shift Lab Conference at TELUS SPARK. They had the opportunity to talk The

about why they were in the STEAM TEAM using

#LikeAGirl and talked about the importance of STEAM education. They did a fantastic job! the slogan

- Heloise Lorimer School team submission

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Exploring STEM

Halloween Contest Winners!!!!

First place: Lori Bolinger Age 8 (Grade 4) & Derek Leong - 8 years old My costume is Serial Killer (or “Cereal Killer”). I found a cereal box in our recycling. I cut the top and the bottom out of the box. I put a recycled-paper knife into the box, so it stuck out. I put two light yellow paper straps on the front and back near the sides to help hold the costume on the stuffed animal. I glued on some Raisin Bran cereal near the paper knife to make It look like there was Raisin Bran in the box pouring out, in order to make it look like a real knife. I bought fairy lights from Michaels, and I got the green light from the Dollar Store. I put the sign on that says "serial killer”, then I put the lights on to light up the sign. I put the small lights on first, then I put the big green light on. I put the end of the fairy light string, which turns the lights on and off, inside the box.

I made a Halloween costume for a dog stuffy. It was made using paper. I made a hat, cape, jet pack, and stuff for the feet. I got a mini light from my dad.

I put it under the hat and turned off the houselights to watch the lantern glow on a Halloween night.

It's called.... "Puffer the Puffin ...puffing into space" (complete with technology - a circuit powered fan blowing it into space).

Second place: team submission!

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Make : Change Make : Change Make : Change Empowering classrooms to make the change they wish to see in the world.

Empowering classrooms to make the change they wish to see in the world.

Empowering classrooms to make the change they wish to see in the world.

Tell us how your classroom can use Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to improve your global community by November 24th, 2017.

Win Tell a complete makerspace kit can for your school, which includes a full class and us how your classroom use Science, Technology, Engineering, set ofMath HP Windows devices,your Arduino boards, one HP and more!

(STEM) to10improve global community bySprout, November 24th, 2017.

Win a complete makerspace kit for your school, which includes a full class Tell us how your can 10 usedevices, Science, Technology, Engineering, and and more! set ofclassroom HP Windows Arduino boards, one HP Sprout, Math (STEM) to improve your global community by November 24th, 2017.

Enter at microsoft.ca/MakeChange

Win a complete makerspace kit for your school, which includes a full class set of HP Windows 10 devices, Arduino boards, one HP Sprout, and more!

Enter at microsoft.ca/MakeChange

Enter at microsoft.ca/MakeChange

STEM of Ballet

Sarah J. Kenny, PhD

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Assistant Professor, Dance Science

Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre | Faculty of Kinesiology (SIPRC)

Division of Dance | School of Creative and Performing Arts | Faculty of Art (SCPA)

Registered Provider | Healthy Dance Certificates | Safe in Dance International (SiDI)

Board Member | Co-Chair Dance Screening Committee | Healthy Dancer Canada (HDC)

THE STEM

Ballet OF

Research

By Krista Malden

University of Calgary Sarah graduated in 2001 and entered her career as an Independent Artist, performing and collaborating throughout Alberta. “As an independent artist, I performed with various contemporary and vertical dance companies including Springboard Dance Productions (Calgary), Groundworks Integrated Arts Collective (Calgary), Lulu Productions (Calgary), and Mile Zero Dance Company (Edmonton). I also choreographed and performed for the annual Alberta Dance Explosions (now called Alberta Dance Festival),� said Kenny

Kenny later moved to London, England to pursue graduate studies; being one of the first graduates from the new MSc program in dance science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance of London, England. Kenny then began lecturing and researching in the Department of Dance Science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. In 2009, Kenny relocated to Houston where she worked with the Houston Ballet Academy and Hope Stone Dance Company as a Dance Fitness Consultant. Kenny brought her family home to Calgary to start her PhD in Kinesiology with a focus on injury prevention at the University of Calgary in 2012.

(continued in next page)

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STEM of Ballet (continued from page 17...)

She now leads the first combined dance and kinesiology degree program in Canada in her new position as Assistant Professor for the faculties of kinesiology and arts.

For her PhD research in dance injury prevention, she worked with the School of Alberta Ballet in addition to UCalgary’s undergraduate dance majors. After her research project was complete, she was approached by Alberta Ballet to do further studies into injury prevention for dancers.

Why did you get involved with research into dance and injury prevention?

My interest in the field of dance science first started when I was a dancer, studying on the undergraduate dance degree program at UCalgary. Guest artist, Amelia Itcush, came to the university to teach a class called Miztvah Technique. This somatic practice has a similar approach to Alexander Technique, focusing on head, neck, and back alignment, repatterning of habitual movement to encourage more efficiency… and my dancing improved so much. Movement felt more free. It felt easy. I performed really well in class and at auditions.

When I learned of dance science as an area of study, I knew that I wanted to investigate why I had experienced such positive change, such improved performance, by taking this class alongside my regular technique classes.

During my Masters of Science in Dance Science (London, England), I was exposed to the many possibilities of focus within this area, which included exercise physiology, performance psychology, biomechanics, and epidemiology (injury prevention).

I gravitated to epidemiology for my doctoral studies, in part due to my experiences developing a pre-season screening program and being a part of the Dancer Health Team while lecturing/researching at Trinity Laban Conservatoire for Music and Dance in London, England. It was also because of who is on Faculty in Kinesiology at UCalgary. As my PhD research proposal began to evolve with pre-season screening and injury tracking, it became clear that epidemiology was going to be my focus, and that Dr. Carolyn Emery (an expert in the field of youth sport injury) was an ideal fit

to supervise my work.

How did you get involved with working with the School of Alberta Ballet (SAB)?

When my research proposal started to come together for my PhD project, I reached out to my good friend and colleague, who at the time was the onsite Physiotherapist at SAB. Through her connections, I met with one of the ballet teachers, who was very proactive in dancer health. At our first meeting, I remember starting the conversation by explaining that I was a trained dancer, had worked professionally, and was now pursuing academia. It was very important to me that she knew I understood what it means to be a dancer in full-time training and that I was approaching this research study from a place of experience, respect, and understanding. I then went on to explain my thoughts for the research study that could involve the dancers at SAB and asked if they would be interested to allow their students to participate. This meeting led to another with the Artistic Director, which led to a presentation to all Artistic and Academic staff, organically growing support from all ‘stakeholders,’ before rolling out the study to students and parents.

What do you hope to accomplish with your research into dance injury prevention?

With a focus on injury prevention, my doctoral research investigated the influence of different definitions of injury (ex: time loss, medical attention, all injury complaints) on reported epidemiological findings (i.e., prevalence, incidence, and severity) and identifying potential risk factors for injury in pre-professional ballet and contemporary dancers. To this end, my primary research interests and objectives include reducing the prevalence and incidence of dance-related injury, thus optimizing dancer performance and mitigating the long-term consequences of musculoskeletal injury in the dance population. Through scientific inquiry, my work strives for a paradigm shift – away from the ‘fear and avoidance’ culture of dance injury and towards preventing and/ or delaying the onset of musculoskeletal injury through evidencebased prevention strategies.

(continued in next page)

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STEM of Ballet (continued from page 18...)

How long will the research project go on with Alberta Ballet?

Why is injury prevention research important?

It is my hope that our community partnership between UCalgary and Alberta Ballet is long lasting. The current study (pre-season assessments, followed by injury tracking through the training season) is now in its third year and we are working to develop evidencebased, relevant intervention programs that, when implemented, will be evaluated to understand how successful they were in reducing the prevalence of injury among these dancers. Assessing change in the pattern of injury across time and working to reduce the overall injury burden is of most importance to us.

Dance ranks in the top three sports (22%) for adolescent participation and among the top six sports (4%) for adolescent sport and recreational injuries. While participation in physical activities like dance has shown consistent positive associations with health-related quality of life, there exists an increased risk of injury and thus reduced future participation.

Therefore, research aimed at preventing injuries in high-risk physically active populations such as dancers is warranted in order to ensure long-term dance participation and associated health benefits. The burden of injury in the pre-professional dance population is important not only because it may inhibit artistic development, or potentially cause young dancers to drop out altogether, but also because of the long-term consequences that may have a huge impact on their healthrelated quality of life. (continued on page 23)

What were your first research findings in relation to injury prevention in dance?

From our systematic review of litature, we learned that due to a lack of high quality studies, consensus regarding risk factors for musculoskeletal injury in pre-professional dancers remains difficult.

We concluded that there is a need for injury definition consensus and high quality prospective studies examining the multifactorial relationship between risk factors and injury in pre-professional dance.

From our original research, we learned that the prevalence, incidence, and severity of injuries impacting pre-professional dancers varies depending on how we define and record injury. Injuries resulting in time away from dance and medical attention underestimate the burden of injury, while the prevalence of musculoskeletal complaints amongst pre-professional ballet and contemporary dancers is very high. Self-reported one-year injury history is a significant risk factor for dance-related musculoskeletal complaints, and age, psychological coping skills, ankle range of motion, and dynamic balance may influence the injury risk profile of this population.

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WORLD CLASS TRAINING SCHOOL OF ALBERTA BALLET

Offering non-competitive programs for dancers ages three to adult, and accredited academics and artistic training for student’s preparing for a professional dance career.

For more information on our school or for class schedules visit WWW.SCHOOLOFALBERTABALLET.COM SAB-PROF-OPEN-DIV_STEM-Ad-8.25x5.25_FINAL.indd 1

2017-10-27 11:00 AM

Teacher PD & Corporate Training STEM Learning Lab offers a variety of programs for teacher professional development and corporate training: Teacher PD Coding, Robotics, STEM, STEAM (STEM + Arts), Math, Maker, Design Thinking, and more!

Corporate Training Team Building through Making, Design Thinking, Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Email Kendle Beth (kendle@stemlearninglab.com) to book your professional learning experience!

We also offer STEM & Maker kits for the classroom!

Email info@stemlearninglab.com to learn more.

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STEM of Ballet

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(continued from page 20...)

THE STEM

Ballet OF

Research • Academic

By Krista Malden

The School of Alberta Ballet is an innovative school with a mixture of Academics and Ballet. It is a formal Ballet training centre with facilities that include classrooms, studios, physiotherapy, and a residence that provides a home away from home for out-of-province students. The school works with each student to reach their goals and to prepare the students for what comes after high school. The school ensures that students are aware of all career opportunities in the dance industry. This is a very large array of opportunities including dance, directing or producing shows, research, choreographing, and teaching.

I had the chance to visit the School of Alberta Ballet to learn more about the school, ballet, and the research they are currently doing on injury prevention in dance.

When I first went into the School, I had to ask the famous question: Sport or Art? According to Artistic Principal Ashley McNeil, Ballet is an art form.

Although Ballet is very physical and the dancers must be in top shape, practice and be very disciplined, Ballet is a form of expression through dance which makes it an art form.

The School of Alberta Ballet’s unique ideology includes a very strong combination of beliefs regarding training and academics. When asked if Technology has helped enhance or change the way the program runs, the room was silent. Then McNeil said “we did have a debate about using MP3 players over CD’s”. We all laughed.

The school has the latest in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) enhancements for the academic side and is committed to offering courses which reflect the passions of the students in their core curriculum. The Dance training Centre has stayed with the old fashion form of training for Ballet. (continued in next page)

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STEM of Ballet (continued from page 23...)

A Closer look at the school itself

The School believes that learning should be: • Personalized based on the abilities and interests of each individual student • Flexible to accommodate the unique learning needs of students • Relevant with cross-curricular connections to the dancer’s lives • Rooted in collaboration among teachers and students • Supported by best practices in teaching • Balanced between core curriculum and complementary classes • Designed to allow students to responsibly engage their learning

Junior Dancers start their structured and disciplined day with dance and finish the day off with academics. Conversely, the Senior Dancers start their day with academics followed by an afternoon of dance. They all start school promptly at 8am and finish at 5pm.

After speaking with the Academic Principal and Artistic Principal, I realized this is a school invested in passion, drive, and success.

Not only do the dancers love going to school, they love to dance and can’t wait to see where their education takes them!

Admission to the School of Alberta Ballet’s Professional Division is solely talent-based with successful candidates being chosen through their Summer Intensive, via the annual International Audition Tour. For more information check out their website at schoolofalbertballet.com

“I have never heard a student complain about coming to school, the workload, or their training,” said Academic Principle Mr. Fred Reynolds 24

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2017 6:00pm / Cocktails & Silent Auction 7:30pm / Performances Bella Concert Hall - Mount Royal University $50 Per Ticket - Click here for EventBrite Tickets Contact Shannon Knutson at 403.767.2553 for more information THANK YOU TO OUR RETURNING SPONSORS

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The Science Behind it:

Science at Home

Walking Water

Provided by Prabina Bhandari; Director of Curriculum at STEM Learning Lab Water travels up the paper towel due to the Capillary Action. Capillary action is the ability of liquid to flow upward against gravity. In nature, water travels from plant roots to the leaves with the same action.

When two Primary Colours are mixed together, a new Secondary Colour is made.

Primary and secondary colours together make a rainbow of the walking water.

Goal

Set up an experiment to learn: About primary and secondary colours How to make secondary colours from primary colours How water moves against gravity due to capillary action

Materials

7 clear plastic cups 6 sheets of paper towel Liquid food colour (red, yellow and blue) Dry erase marker White board Water

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Learning Plan (example for a 45-minute class) 1. Set seven clear plastic cups in a row. Label them 1 to 7.

2. Squirt a few drops of red colour in cups #1 and #7, yellow colour in cup #3, and blue colour in cup # 5.

3. Pour water in cups number 1, 3, 5 and 7, and fill them until the coloured water reaches the top.

4. Take six paper towels and fold each towel two times lengthwise.

5. Take one folded paper towel and place one end of it in cup #1 so it touches the bottom of the cup. Now, gently put the other end of the same paper towel in cup #2 (which is empty) so that it touches the bottom of cup#2.

6. Then, take another folded paper towel and put one end in cup#2 and the other end in cup #3. Make sure both ends of the paper towel touch the bottom of the cups.

7. Continue with rest of the paper towels until the last paper towel is placed in cup #6 and #7. Leave it like this for 1 to 2 hours.

What Will Happen: The water will travel all the way up and down the paper towels and will start dripping in the empty cups.

The red and yellow water dripped into the empty cup (#2) will make the colour orange. The yellow and blue water will make the colour green in the empty cup (#4). Also, the blue and red colour dripped in the empty cup (#6) will make the colour purple. The water level will be dropped in the red, yellow and blue cups and will rise in the empty cups as water will continue to travel from more full cups to less filled cups. Water will continue walking until the cups will be filled equally.

For more information on STEM Learning Labs Before and After Care program please contact beforeandafter@stemlearninglab.com

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Exploring STEM

Bridging the

GAP Empowering CREATING INNOVATIVE Thinking THINKERS Innovative Equipping the next generation with the skills, tools, and mindsets they need to be the creative innovators and problem solvers of tomorrow

We believe in giving

ALL KIDS

the skills of tomorrow, today.

Join the movement!

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Ask us how: stemedutoday@stemlearninglab.com

Bring the STEM of

ballet Home

By Kitchen Science Wendy Hutchins and team

A Professor of Physics at the University of Illinois in UrbanaChampaign, who has worked on high energy physics, has provided us some with awesome clues on his website. He provides so much of the physics and math of dance positions and moves, but better, he has pictures!

The image above shows unequal balance. The balance point is the big up arrow. Note how more of the female dancer is to the left of that line as her male partner has more mass. While I’m not suggesting that your children try this in the kitchen, you can have them try such complicated balance structures using blocks, cans, and other things of unequal weights – until the whole thing comes down. Have them compare their structures of equal blocks balanced to ones with unequal weighted blocks.

Another fun dance/physics thing to explore at home is spins. In this image, the ballerina is spinning, but a bit slower than if she bent the extended leg back. With her leg bent, she spins faster.

This has the big name of “conservation of angular momentum”.

Besides the dancer, you see a figure skaters do this as well. From arms wide, they can go very fast doing a scratch spin. To explore it at home, you need a stool or chair that swivels and some full cans of food can serve as weights to make it more exciting. Start on the stool with your feet and arms out and have someone give you a spin. Then pull your arms and feet in and see how fast you go. One thing you learn is that the faster you go, the more you lose your balance! There are lots of videos on the internet about the conservation of angular motion.

“Thus, one of the things the dancer and figure skater just know…how to keep their weight balanced over their axis of balance and their axis of spin. And to do it with grace and beauty.” - Kitchen Science

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Young Innovator

Meet Ethan Fogarty

18 year old STEM Innovator from Moncton, NB.

“Engineering Brightness” is an amazing organization, where I work internationally to solve the global crisis of light poverty. Engineering Brightness designs and 3D prints lights for those who live where clean light is needed. The Canadian team works internationally with schools of all levels in Colorado and the U.K. to collaborate in designing lights and circuits to send to countries such as Nepal, Uganda, and the Dominican Republic. This has led me to present at Princeton University at the ISEC IEEE 2016 conference, as well as at ISTE 2016 in Denver, both requiring me to expand my skill set to include technical writing, graphic design, and public speaking.

My STEM thinking, along with my interest in biology and medicine, led me to thinking about how to lower Malaria rates in the Lake Tanganyika area of Africa. This area uses their malaria nets for fishing instead of as barriers against mosquitos. We came up with an idea using Aquaponics, where the population could use their own fish to grow vegetables and fruit, as well as using the fish as protein, and providing the chance to properly use the malaria nets they are provided with by other organizations. Because the eradication of Malaria is a United Nations Sustainable Goal, this led to my friend and I writing an article for the United Nations about this project and its relevance to my high school education.

“To me STEM is an international approach to changing the world that goes beyond the borders of language, continent, and culture.

My work with STEM extends beyond a science class and uses language, humanities, social studies, law, graphic arts and public speaking and STEM to address local and global issues.”

- Ethan Fogarty 30

Most recently, STEM thinking has led me to create a business called “The Bee Team”, a business using unused infrastructure to increase the local and global bee population with our own automated beehive design. As the bee population decreases, we become closer and closer to having one third of our food source vanishing. Our solution was to design a bee hive that elevates the temperature of the hive for short periods of time to kill mites, but not long enough to be harmful for the bees. We located unused spaces such as the roof tops at the local Air Traffic Control center to host a bee hive and we petitioned the town council to remove neonicotinoids from their town parks.

This was a science project that became so much more and will continue beyond my high school days. Now that I am in university, I am remaining involved, but to a lesser extent, and have passed the torch to a younger group of students to uphold the views of the business and to keep working towards to goal of saving the bees.

My future lies in the STEM field and I am so excited to see where the future takes me.

Who got me involved in the STEM World?

I would have to say my biggest influence to get involved in STEM would be my dad Ian Fogarty. He showed me from a young age the importance of STEM and how cool it can be. My dad is a high school teacher who has always believed in the bridging of subjects.

He is a total science nerd and I grew up being exposed to science all around me and how STEM can be used to change the world. For more information on Ian Fogarty, see the September issue of STEM Education Today.

What would you say your biggest accomplishment is as a STEM innovator?

I would have to say my biggest accomplishment would be The Bee Team. I say this because it is my own creation. It is my own business that I built from the ground up, not without help of course, but has been backed and admired by all sorts of other innovators, corporations, businesses, and even my home town. It is not a super successful story yet, but it is a work in progress that started as an idea I had one day while watching television. I think that is something special.

Secondly, I would say that change is good. I have been involved in many STEM related experiences and enterprises. After a while, I got bored of some of them and that is okay. Half the fun, arguably all the fun, is the passion and the spark of inspiration. This has taken me down many incredible paths: from trying to solve the clean light endemic in the Dominican Republic, to trying to solve hunger in the Greater Toronto Area, to using a new way of thinking to try and help drop Malaria rates in a very specific area of Sub Saharan Africa, to, most recently, trying to help stope the mass dying of bees. As I would get bored of one project, I would store the learning and use that experience as a foundation for the next interesting thing.

I have had an amazing time working towards all these, but would never have been able to do any of them if I was afraid to get bored.

What would you tell other young innovators?

I have two pieces of advice.

Firstly, I would say “never be afraid to be bored”. Let me explain such an odd statement.

Inspiration has a chance to come to the surface if we are not distracted by some of the activities we use to cure boredom. Boredom allows innovation to transpire and it is what allowed me to create “The Bee Team”. One day I was watching television and was bored out of my mind, when Cheerio’s latest commercial about saving the bees came on. I was bored, so I began to think about this problem and it stuck with me. Now, I have made a business out of my moment of being bored.

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Teacher Feature

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A Powerful Team…

Brian Simmons and Natalie Cox Education Specialists At Eric Harvie School Natalie Cox: B. Ed. - University of Saskatchewan - Specializing in Early Childhood Education and Physical Education 13 years of teaching experience (grades 1-3, most recently at Eric Harvie School, West Springs School and the Langevin Science School in Calgary)

Brian Simmons: B.A. and B.Ed. from Vancouver Island University M.Ed. from University of Saskatchewan Teaching for 12 years and has worked in almost every setting you can imagine possible across all school divisions.

Let’s Meet the Teachers!

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

Brian Simmons: After struggling to find my way and be successful in areas that I was good at, but couldn’t make progress because of grades in certain subjects, I realized that it wasn’t my ability to learn, but how I learned that was causing problems (I simply could NOT get a high enough mark in Math…). This moment caused a shift in my path in life and I became determined to help all learners through their school journey so they could be successful in whatever they wished and not held back by a certain learning style.

Natalie Cox: I decided to become a teacher because I had a terrible experience when I was in grade 2 with a teacher who embarrassed me, frightened me, and took away any confidence that I had in myself. It took me years to undo the damage that she did. I promised that I would try my hardest to do the exact opposite as a teacher by empowering students and providing them with the skills and tools they need to become confident investigators and life long inquirers. (continued in next page)

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Education Teacher Feature Today

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(continued from page 33...)

What makes your teaching team so strong?

We are both very open people that try to offer a “Yes, and…” perspective to our task design and we easily laugh at ourselves and each other. While some people would tell you that we share one mind, we really don’t. We constantly question and challenge each other's ideas and suggestions to make sure we are best meeting the learning needs of our students. You can argue that we share some of the same perspectives on learning, such a playbased learning and mathematizing everything, but our very different teaching backgrounds virtually guarantee we are going to see things differently which helps to make a very strong team.

How do you incorporate STEM/ STEAM into your teaching?

Our students are given both structured and unstructured opportunities to work with STEAM concepts and materials. Everyday our class has a block of time called “Exploration,” which is an open time for creating in either our classroom or in the Studio, (which is our school makerspace).

This is a time for working with their hands while learning new skills and the safe use of the various tools we have in the room. Throughout the rest of the day, we try to have a least one large project on the go that involves a STEAM pedagogy. For example, right now we have started an in-depth study of local playgrounds with the goal of making a digital guide outlining our findings and then using this knowledge in new ways to create an Adventure Playground for other schools to use.

How do you keep kids in the classroom excited?

We really believe in connecting our students’ learning to their immediate lives and interests.

This helps to makes their learning come alive

and gives them a far deeper understanding of their local environment and community.

STEAM builds naturally into this perspective as their interests are (almost) always connected to something they observated as new or different in their community and we then seek to understand what has happened from different perspectives, using direct experiences, and experimentation in order to figure things out.

What is your favourite aspect of teaching? And about teaching as a team?

We both love getting out into the community, challenging our students’ thinking, and getting our hands dirty. We believe wholeheartedly that children need rich experiences and opportunities to make connections to real life issues. We often have moments during our day where a student will say something or draw a connection from an experience that excites us both. It’s these moments that really validate the work that we do and the impact it has on our students.

Planning a large scale STEAM project really needs to be a collaborative effort and requires teachers who enjoy taking risks, trust each other, and are motivated to grow as educators. Teaching as a team provides us with these opportunities and allows us to work with students more flexibly.

Our planning sessions are often spontaneous conversations that sometimes spiral out of control and need to be brought back down to Earth by one of us. Funnily enough, this often happens in front of the class. They can really get out of control as we bounce ideas and possibilities around, inspired by a comment or question from our class, as we seek to find the next right step for our students’ learning within the project.

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Knowing May Be More Than Half The Battle!

Digital security breaches are a fact of life nowadays. It’s time to come to terms with that and figure out a way to operate our businesses in such a way to LIMIT our exposure as it’s most likely not something that can be altogether eliminated.

I am not trying to have a “gloom and doom” attitude or come at you with a sales pitch telling you that we can prevent attacks from happening to you and your business altogether, as that is most likely not the case.

What I am trying to get across is that pretending these breaches don’t happen or won’t happen to us needs to stop. The REAL issue that we have isn’t that attacks are happening, since they are all but inevitable, it’s that we only find out after the fact.

There are many causes to delays in public notification about security breaches and data being compromised, but what are we supposed to do about something when we find out about it ourselves weeks/months down the road?

Vulnerability exists in the digital world at all times and when we realize there are threats only after the fact and someone else is suffering immense loss or exposure of

1-833-GAM-TECH Tyler Wood

Business Development

critical info, what good does that do the rest of us? How do we protect something that may have already been compromised?

There are methods of prevention that can be utilized to minimize risk and maximize security all without adding multiple layers of complexity to simple tasks and slowing down your day to day operation.

While there may be no 100% effective solution, the trick is to know about vulnerabilities as soon as possible and work to eliminate them before they cost you data, time, and most importantly, money.

Being proactive instead of reactive is a concept that can be hard to adjust to. How do we fix an issue that doesn’t exist yet? The key is to stay current on security, not running antiquated soft/hardware, using enterprise grade products/ programs and staying up to date on best practices when it comes to security (i.e. password changes on a regular basis, password complexities, etc.).

Grades 7 to 12

Advanced Placement Fine Arts Leadership International Studies Business, Engineering, Health Sciences and Liberal Arts Institutes French Immersion & French and Spanish as a Second Language

Be Bold.

Be Brave.

Be Ready.

OWN YOUR FUTURE West Island College Calgary

@WICYYC

westislandcollege.ab.ca 403.444.0023 7410 Blackfoot Trail S.E. admissions@mywic.ca

West Island College Calgary ÂŽ

Healthy Food

Making Snacks Fun, Healthy, and Educational!

Kerri-Ann LeBlanc, mother of two, former teacher, and health and wellness enthusiast provides healthy snack recipes that were created by Kira Westwick who is an Australian Master Chef finalist. She is the creator of the Juicy Body Transformations Health and Wellness Program from the Juicy Body Transformation cook book called Wholesome Kids Cookbook.

"The ground work of all happiness is good health."- L. Hunt I love this quote because it's simple and true. When you eat good, you feel good and when you feel good you treat others better. In sum, when we take care of ourselves we better serve ourselves and the people we love. –Kerrie-Ann

Grazing Trays A great tool for helping your children to learn to love whole foods! There is a rainbow of fruits and veggies, fats, and proteins. Have your child help you with choosing and sorting foods. You can talk about the benefits of good nutrition while they learn a key math concept for primary children. You can sort by colours, textures, fruits, veggies, etc.

Ingredients: Apple chips, carrots, cucumbers, Pink Himalayan salted popcorn, kiwi, cucumbers, almonds, snap peas, pumpkin turmeric coconut chips, and raspberries.

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Apple Sandwiches Use an apple corer to core the apple. Slice in to thin sections. Then fill with desired toppings.

In the image adjacept I used sunflower seed butter, blueberries, coconut chips, and pumpkin seeds as well as peanut butter, raisins, banana, and unsweetened coconut. Youngsters can have fun building their snacks and learning how to add on layers and learn basic counting concepts.

Pinwheels Mountain Wraps Bread wraps or nori are a great substitute for bread.

Here I used peanut butter and banana, and hummus, carrots, and spinach. Lay the wrap out flat, spread your ingredients evenly, and roll from one end to the other.

Cut the wrap into halves, quarters, or any other fraction you like! Involving your children is a great opportunity to teach them about whole foods and squeeze a mini lesson on fractions and equal parts.

Orange Jelly Boats This is a simple, healthy alternative to popsicles.

Slice 4 oranges in half and scoop out the insides.

You could save these for a shake later!

Simmer a cup of water with 1 tbsp of gelatine for 1 minute.

Add 2 cups of orange juice and a splash of natural sweetener like maple syrup to the mixture.

Pour the mixture in halves and pop them in the fridge and let them set overnight. I put mine in the freezer for an hour to make them more like a popsicle.

Once they have set involve your little one in a quick lesson on fractions. Show them how you can divide the orange into 2 equal parts (1/2). Then cut each 1/2 into 3 equal parts (1/3).

Lastly, show them 1 whole orange consists of 6 equal parts.

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STEM initiatives are spreading around the world!

SASKATCHEWAN

STEM Learning Lab (SLL) calls Calgary, AB home and currently offers a wide range of youth programs, professionALBERTA al development opportunities, BRITISH COLUMBIA WASHINGTON and standalone STEM events throughout the city. SLL regularly CALIFORNIA travels throughout North America and UTAH internationally to provide programs and to partner with other organizations that are ARIZONA creating a global conversation about STEM.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND NEW YORK WASHINGTON, DC

TEXAS

Dr. Gina Cherkowski Speaking at the Million Women Mentors Summit Awards held in Washington on October 23, 2017

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Current/past partnerships/programs Upcoming partnerships/programs

Banff, Alberta • Nov 4, 2017 STEM Learning Lab was hired to be apart of the Early Childhood Education Conference with the Alberta Teachers Association

UNITED KINGDOM

MALAYSIA

GHANA NIGERIA

SOUTH AFRICA

Edtech Summit in Toronto • Nov 6, 2017

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Imagine students exploring worlds; Exploring STEM finding passion and purpose; inspiring each other; reaching beyond Imagine teachers energized, equipped, empowered; working together; learning along with their students; sharing what if‌ and wow‌!

Competencies for learning and leading

Imagine parents participating with confidence; enriching and being enriched by what the family is learning Imagine leaders inspiring possibilities and sharing insights; modelling, supporting and scaling

Creativity & innovation

New ideas and bold possibilities

Critical thinking

Fresh insights and durable solutions

Collaboration

Partnerships that work

Communication

Making sense and expanding perspectives

Character

Reaching higher and growing stronger

Culture & ethical citizenship Sharing what we value

Computer & digital technologies Transforming how we learn and lead

Imagine a new generation...

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Explore the 7Cs at C21canada.org

An exceptional educator for children age 3 – grade 6 Our adaptive model of educational supports different learning styles to ensure that every student is capable of achieving their personal best.

We offer: Low Student to Teacher ratio

Dedicated specialists in Phys. Ed, French, Drama, Music & Art

Coding across the curriculum in partnership with STEM Learning Lab

Innovation and Entrepreneurialism: developing the skills for creative problem solving integrated within the curriculum, including a 1:1 iPad program in Grades 4- 6

FIND OUT MORE AT RIVERVALLEYSCHOOL.CA

Thank you,

Shell Canada, for being a Stem education today sponsor!

stemlearninglab.com • Stemedutoday@stemlearninglab.com • Twitter @STEMedutoday