STEAM Newsletter: Fall 2020

STEAM NEWSLETTER FALL 2020-21

WELCOME TO THE FALL EDITION OF THE STEAM NEWSLETTER!

IN THIS ISSUE STEAM Welcome

We’ll be issuing this newsletter bi-annually to keep the Windward community updated on all of the exciting STEAM initiatives this year!

This is the place to find out about CREATE Studio projects and tool training events, robotics team news, visual and performing arts happenings, and various STEAM related classroom projects.

What Is STEAM? STEAM Scholars Who We Are Upcoming Events Robotics CREATE Studio Arts in the Virtual Sphere Science and Math

WHAT IS THE STEAM PROGRAM? Windward School’s STEAM Program strives to inspire joy at the idea of discovery, to create a culture that fosters innovation, and to prepare our students for effective involvement in an increasingly technological society. We engage our students with interdisciplinary courses that incorporate advanced technology-integrated projects, as well as encourage inquiry, integrity, collaboration, creativity, problem-solving, and critical reasoning. For more information, use this link.

STEAM SCHOLARS The Scholars program allows students with a particular interest in the STEAM disciplines to develop their STEAM core competencies through a series of mentored independent service projects. Students work on projects to address challenges in the community.

In addition, students document and reflect on their journey in the form of a digital portfolio. Detailed requirements of the program are given here.

WHO WE ARE

SIMON Director of the STEAM program and Science Teacher STEAM, FALL 2020-21

KATIE Associate Director of the STEAM program and 3D Design teacher

MAX CREATE Studio Resident Tinkerer 1

WINDWARD ROBOTICS THE OMNICATS, WINDWARD’S ROBOTICS TEAM

Last Spring, the Omnicats’ FRC Team 1452 competed in the South Los Angeles Regional.

It’s never a dull time with the Omnicats. This regional was no exception. In the weeks leading up to the regional, it was clear that this year would be a difficult one for their first contest. This year’s prototypes took a long time to bear fruit, and their integration into a fully functional machine was an event that culminated only a few days (okay hours) before the Regional’s first matches.

competition, the Omnicats were without a successful climb on the field and holding down a 3-4 win-loss record. The team had a decision to make. They huddled up. Competition Sunday morning would be the last shot to improve the Omnicats’ record and show other, more successful teams just what they were made of in the hopes of being selected for an alliance in quarterfinals. The odds were stacked against them. Match-ups

for Sunday reflected a grim chance of improving their record. We voted on three options: 1) fix the climber and proceed as we had, 2) remove the climber and be a lower scoring ‘run and gun’ support robot, or 3) design a completely new, untested mechanism late into the night back at Windward to try and operate the control panel portion of the field to set themselves apart from the competition. Windward students all

With very little testing time, the driving team had to learn on the fly just how to make the newly completed bot do the right things.

During the first few qualifying matches, it became clear that some of the original strategic decisions about playing the game needed to be challenged. The team spent time between rounds tuning everything in the practice field and tried gallantly to work out the remaining kinks in their untested climbing mechanism.

By the end of the first day of STEAM, FALL 2020-21

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voted for #3. Dead tired from days of 12 hours with the robot in a cramped high school gym, they opted to return to the Design Engineering Workshop in the basement of Windward to build something new. They stayed until well after the basketball game ended to make their new ‘wheel.’ Coach Tessa Weinstein and mentor Aaron Kramer joined them after hours for an intense prototyping session.

On the last day of the competition, the Omnicats had roughly 30 minutes to try and make the new device happen. It needed to be wired, installed and tested, but, as (bad) luck would have it, the Omnicats were set to be the first match of the day. They competed without the new device in the first round and installed it for the second round. It took the quick thinking and ingenuity of many students and the fabrication and engineering know-how of mentors Aaron Kramer and Murat Piker to realize a functional wheel by the second round. In the meantime, our drive team improved the performance of our bot in autonomous and in teleop every round. The robot was performing better and better despite losing the rounds. The new device worked in the 2nd round and worked even better in the 3rd. However, the alliance partners lost all three rounds of competition Sunday morning. The Omnicats record now stood at 3-7 and they were ranked 38th of 44. Chances of being selected for quarter finals were slim.

Slim doesn’t mean none, however. The Omnicats know this well. During the last round of the selection process, when the eight top teams picked their final alliance partners to proceed into quarterfinals, the sixth seed hesitated at the microphone.

Either they hadn’t done their research or perhaps their first and second choices had already been nabbed.

Either way, the Omnicats sensed opportunity. Lead Coach Simon STEAM, FALL 2020-21

bellowed out the desire to play and to be picked, and the team followed suit with raucous cheers and even an innovative dance move that illustrated to everyone that they could spin the control panel. It worked. The sixth seed captain announced that the Omnicats had been chosen to be on their alliance!

Quarterfinals were an entirely new drama. The team played against the third seed alliance and it was a mismatch. In the first round of a best of three, the Omnicats alliance lost mainly due to its inability to climb.

The team had to make up for this point deficit. The Omnicats drive team stepped up to the challenge. Despite the fact that the bumpers were held on by good thoughts and duct tape, they became a truly aggressive bot in that second round. Every time one of the elite shooters from the other teams set to score, driver Alex Solomon rammed them and fouled their trajectory. While opponents scored in the dozens of shots the first round, the Omnicats held them to single digits in the second round. The Omnicats’ alliance won the second match. Heady with this new strategy and pumped for a potential quarter finals victory they headed into the third round with confidence. After a successful autonomous, it was not to be. All of that aggressive play in the 2nd round had damaged the robot’s wireless communication. The robot was a brick in the third round and despite the efforts of alliance teammates the alliance lost by the slightest of margins in the round.

The regional ended with an awards ceremony where the Omnicats learned that they had been awarded the coveted Safety Award. This is the third year in a row the Omnicats have secured this award. It certainly says something positive about the procedures in place and the diligence of the team’s safety captain, Leyth Toubassy.

REMOTE LEARNING

As the COVID-19 lockdown prevented further in person robotics practices and activities, Windward adapted to a remote reality.

In the 8th grade robotics class, students were sent VEX based robotics kits. After building and programming these kits, students returned the completed robots to campus to compete in our first ever, virtual robotics competition. Design Engineering Workshop Fabricators Max and Tri piloted student robots while students in the ZOOM classroom called in to their personal phones.

In this way, student pilots piloted Max and Tri to drive the robots.

FALL ROBOTICS

This Fall, the Omnicats have reorganized into smaller teams of three students. Veteran teams will design, build and code robots to compete (remotely) in a Windward hosted VEX tournament with the game, change-up. The tournament will be streamed live on December 8 stay tuned for details.

New members to the team will be building VEX clawbots and competing in their own in-house tournament.

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CREATE STUDIO

INSTAGRAM @WWCREATESTUDIO

The CREATE Studio is a library of tools, materials, and resources for making. We value making as a critical element in developing innovative thinkers and in creating an environment of active curiosity and idea exploration. The space is open to all students and faculty and can provide tools and materials to assist with both school related projects and independent exploration. The space is open daily during Lunch and after school.

CREATE DURING VIRTUAL SCHOOL

The CREATE Studio is hosting open studio hours and workshops for students to participate in fun, making and design activities even while virtual! Max will be running a variety of projects including: 3D design and 3D printing, laser cutting, electronics, paper engineering, crafting, building and more! Students can request a CREATE To-Go kit containing tools and materials from the CREATE Studio so they can have their own mini-makerspace at home!

CREATE STUDIO STEWARD WORKSHOPS

Our Stewards will be hosting various hands-on workshops throughout the year. Keep an eye out for the following workshops coming soon, with many more to follow!

- Lasercut Spotify Bracelet - Create scannable bracelets that link to your favorite song or playlist on Spotify or Apple Music - Halloween Activities - Lifehacks with Apple’s iOS Shortcuts LINK TO CREATE AT HOME SLIDES

Click here!

STEAM, FALL 2020-21

ARTS IN THE

VIRTUAL SPHERE VISUAL ARTS

Exhibiting the work of AP students in the Visual and Media Arts: Last May, the AP Visual and Media Arts classes celebrated the work of the AP Seniors by putting together a virtual showcase. The work from these 20 seniors from the class of 2020 are still on display! Check out the website to see portfolios samples that range from drawing and painting, to sculpture and design.

The Media Arts & Film Lab The Media Arts & Film Lab is a program and studio for all things related to the media arts and digital storytelling. In addition to offering advanced courses in media arts, animation, and film, the MAFL is a place for creative ideation, student-faculty support, and a lab for creativity and development. Check out the MAFL newsletter for information on upcoming events and open studio hours.

PERFORMING ARTS

Artists in Conversation: This year, the Theater Area is hosting Artists in Conversation, a series of student discussions and community panels with guest artists on the topics of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Theater Arts. The series kicked off with the series Hamilton and Decolonizing Theater and the upcoming months will include workshops and discussions on creating inclusive narratives, imagining the next generation of theater, and learning from Broadway trailblazers. In the Spring, students will have the opportunity to collaborate with our Theater faculty to create personal performance pieces inspired by what they learned from the guest artists. The pieces will include musical theater selections, monologues, scenes, new works, and technical designs, and we plan to share these culminating explorations in the form of video compilations. Please contact Jordan Fox (jfox@ windwardschool) if you would like to get involved.

Upcoming Events November 9-13 - Playwriting: Creating an Inclusive Narrative December 7-9, 11 - The Next Generation of Theater January 11-15 - Broadway Trailblazers STEAM

Learning Series 2020-21: “Voices Across Disciplines” This year, the Humanities Learning Series is expanding to STEAM. The series seeks to supplement curriculum, increase representation, and provide a plurality of voices and perspectives with the aim to enhance rich, dynamic thinking and learning across disciplines. We will also be partnering with the Directors of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity to cultivate community engagement with contemporary issues of systemic racism.

Throughout the year, we will be inviting speakers from the STEAM fields to speak to the STEAM scholars or partner with teachers and interact with students in the virtual classroom. A portion of these events will also be open to parents and the wider community. Stay tuned for more information on these events!

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WINDWARD SCIENCE AND MATH SCIENCE ON CAMPUS

This last Spring in Bioengineering the students wanted to answer a question: is there meat in vegetarian foods from the grocery store? The students turned to a DNA amplification technique called PCR to find out.

Students designed and ordered DNA markers called primers for twelve different animal species. They then obtained tissue from all 12 kinds of animals, extracted DNA from the animal samples, and verified that their primers could indeed detect the presence of each animal’s DNA using PCR. They then tested 11 different vegetarian foods for traces of DNA from the twelve animals. The students designed a reliable experiment to answer their question. Using sensitive laboratory protocols, and employing replication and a double-blind analysis

Bioengineering 2020 Vegetarian Food Investigation

of their samples, they generated results that were internally consistent and robust. They found that at least four of the 11 food samples were contaminated with animal DNA: three of the foods (Tofurkey Plant-Based Chick’n, Lightlife Smart Ground Plant-Based Crumbles, Sweet Earth Veggie Burger) contained traces of cow, and another (Beyond Meat Beyond Sausage) contained traces of chicken. Students surmised that unintentional contamination with animal meat was the most likely explanation for the results.

DNA Present (Confirmed Positive Result) DNA Absent (Confirmed Negative Result) DNA in one of two tests (Unconfirmed Positive Result)

Animal Food

Cow

Pig

Human

House Fly

Mouse

Rat

Cockroach

Horse

Chicken

Turkey

Dog

Goat

Beyond Meat Beyond Burger Upton’s Naturals Bacon Seitan Tofurkey Plant-Based Chick’n Trader Joe’s Protein Patties Trader Joe’s High Protein Veggie Burger Beyond Meat Beyond Sausage The Meatless Farm Co Burgers Tofurkey Plant-Based Deli Slices Lightlife Smart Ground Plant-Based Crumbles Sweet Earth Veggie Burger Trader Joe’s Chickenless Crispy Tenders

Shown right are a data table detailing the results of student work and an image from the gel electrophoresis technique used to identify the DNA.

REMOTE SCIENCE

Most science classes sent home kits to kids in August and again this mid October. These kits have provided students with the opportunity to perform real, hands-on experiments as a part of their class experience.

Shown here are Dorothy’s AP Physics 2 students holding up their pocketLab sensor bundles and metal cylinders they used as a part of a home version of their gas law lab.

STEAM, FALL 2020-21

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REMOTE SCIENCE (CONT.)

MATH ON CAMPUS

Some science classes are adapting previous labs to new circumstances.

In Simon’s honors physics classes, students were asked to find a piece of fruit and an acceptable dropping location. Then, students used video physics software to analyze the descent of various dropped fruits to calculate the acceleration of gravity.

Ken Kash update As most 7th grade algebra students know, our veteran math teacher, Ken Asher, has employed a means of motivating his students known as ‘Ken Kash’. This last Spring, as COVID-19 threatened to derail this very in-person methodology, two Windward alumni stepped up to help Ken create a virtual equivalent.

Windward alums Jacob Ehrlich ‘16 and Atticus Lin ‘16, built “Kenmo” to help math teacher Ken transition his “Ken Kash” system to a digital format. This virtual platform allows students to transact Ken Kash for early arrival, tardy fees, or correct answers to bonus questions.

Math Contest News Mya, our Math Department Chair, will be administering the American Mathematics Contest 8 (aka the AMC 8 ) on November 10 to MS students and the AMC 10 & 12 for students in Geometry and higher in February.

Details will be announced during math classes and on PowerSchool Math Class pages. These prestigious tests showcase our students’ math talents and provide opportunities for merit based scholarships.

Spotlight In an effort to highlight the contributions to math and science made by women and particularly women of color, we present our Newsletter Spotlight: Maryam Mirzakhani (May 12, 1977 - July 14, 2017) Born in Tehran, Iran, she was the first female to compete on Iran’s International Math Olympiad team, winning gold medals in 1994 and 1995. She attended graduate school at Harvard University, then held positions at Princeton University, the Clay Mathematics Institute, and Stanford University. Her work was mostly theoretical, focusing on geometric and dynamic complexities of curved surfaces, that could eventually have implications on fields such as quantum field theory, material science, and cryptology. Maryam was the first and only woman to win the Fields Medal (one of the most prestigious prizes in mathematics) in 2014.

“The beauty of Mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers.”

To learn more, check out this article from Wired Magazine about her life and mathematical journey.

STEAM, FALL 2020-21

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