JES Enrichment Corner

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

S.T.E.M. Gathering S.T.E.A.M. at JES

This year JES is expanding S.T.E.(A.)M. (the combination of science, technology, engineering, [art in some cases] and mathematics) opportunities for all students through the enrichment program. We will be sharing more about the exciting and engaging opportunities in the weeks to come, but for now consider attending the MAKERS FAIRE on October 4th and 5th at Shelburne Farms. It is free for students ages 10 and under and it is a great place to experience and learn more about S.T.E.A.M. education and what it means to use S.T.E.A.M. skills to be a Maker! See you there-
http://www.champlainmakerfaire.com/

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Scientist in Residence Wrap-up

We had a super spring finish to our Scientist in Residence program thanks to the dynamic West/Dewaard husband and wife duo. Chris West is a building science engineer who studies, designs and cures houses of their heat loss problems. He explained to students the difference between being an engineer and a scientist. Chris explained that a scientist identifies the problems and engineers create the systems to fix them. One of the key concepts Chris talked about was the way heat moves between objects (see photo right). He stressed that heat always moves to cold. Following his awesome and informative presentation on properties of heat he demonstrated a high tech heat imaging device used to find heat loss in an object. Below is an image of Mr. Botzojorns face, notice the dark areas where he is loosing heat. Students were excited and engaged learning from Chris- Thanks again Chris!

Mr. Botzojorns loosing heat!

Anita DeWaard, our Scientist in Residence parent coordinator, finished out the year by following up her husband Chris. Anita is a physicist and she works for a science publishing company. She spoke with students about how information becomes fact and how important publishing a good scientific report is. Anita showed students how solving a problem in science is a lot like how the problem in a story is resolved. She shared with students some science journals. They were very interesting to look through. She also showed student scientists how they could be active researchers on-line. Students helped classify galaxies and identify whale calls through on-line citizen research sites.

Thanks again to all those that made this fantastic program a big success- especially Anita. We will continue our program next year and hope to have even more super scientists in residence!