Wrapping up Seeds to STEM for the 2014-2015 School Year!

As the school year wraps up, the Seeds to STEM and Design team is in the final stage of their preparation for Citizen Schools. The team finished the final draft of their curriculum and moved onto the next stage of their engineering work: testing the instructions.

First, the team leaders set up the eight electronic kits the team will be bringing to Citizen Schools. Each electronic kit has all the parts and tools necessary to fabricate half the system. We plan on splitting the Citizen Schools kids into six groups. Each group will have one electronic kit, three Citizen Schools students, and one Seeds to STEM and Design team member. Two kits will serve as backup parts.

After assembling the kits, the team then split up and each team member worked with a kit to build a half system by him or herself. The team members made sure to follow the instructions exactly, in order to test whether or not they were clear and effective. Along the way, the team members noted any mistakes or unclear instructions they encountered and Karen and Kayla made the necessary edits.

Although the team is in a great place right now, we still feel we need more practice with our curriculum and training. We have consequently decided to begin working with Citizen Schools in March of 2015 instead of September of 2014. We want to ensure we provide the optimal experience for both the Citizen School students and our team.

On the last meeting, the team practiced setting up the entire system with Felege and Karen. They practiced wiring the scaled down models and using the power generator to put the whole working system together. Next, Felege went over the coding with the team to explain to them what each line means.

The last meeting was a great way to end the year, with chocolate cake and celebration. We are so excited to continue our progress in September!

-LL

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