The Hour of Code is Coming

Open-heart surgery

Our hospital partners provide many opportunities for students to witness procedures, but can usually accommodate only 15 students at a time. Here's a video for sharing with everyone.

Drawing circles

Inherit the Wind - Georgetown University

Short notice, there's a student production of Inherit the Wind, the Lawrence and Lee play inspired by the Scopes trial of 1925, at Georgetown University.

Performances are taking place at October 16-18, 2:00 p.m., October 19, and 8:00 p.m. October 22-25, at Stage III of Poulton Hall.  1421 37th St. NW in Washington DC. 

Tickets are $12 for the general public, $8 for students. For further
information, visit:
http://georgetownvoice.com/2014/10/16/mask-bauble-calls-inherit-the-wind-to-the-stand-delivers-expert-testimony/

http://performingarts.georgetown.edu/

New Report: STEM Education Supporting Food & Agriculture

A new report released today identifies a growing gap between the supply of new graduates trained in agriculture-related STEM fields and the demand for young professionals in related roles by global food and agriculture employers. 

The report recommends that the food and agriculture industries work closely with educational institutions on closing the employment gap necessary to sustainably feed an expected global population of nine billion people by 2050. The report, released today at the World Food Prize 2014 Borlaug Dialogue, includes a detailed analysis of university enrollment and workforce trends in six agriculture fields: agricultural business and management, agriculture mechanization and engineering, animal sciences, plant and soil science, food science and technology and other life sciences. 

2015-2016 VCCS STEM Scholarships

Community College STEM Bridge Scholarship Opportunity  2015 – 2016

As part of the STEM Takes Flight at Virginia’s Community Colleges initiative, Virginia Space Grant Consortium (VSGC) is offering a competitive scholarship opportunity for community college students majoring in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) disciplines at any campus in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). These $5,000 scholarships are competitive awards based on academic merit.

The Community College STEM Bridge Scholar (CCBS) award will provide students with $2,000 in their freshman year (spring semester 2015) and then an additional $3,000 in their sophomore year as long as the student maintains at least a 2.7 GPA and meets other requirements of the award. This scholarship is based on academic merit and potential for a successful career in a STEM field. CCBS will help bridge students to next steps in higher education or employment through coaching and mentoring by VSGC staff, four-year college faculty, and by upper classmen. A series of virtual meetings and attendance at the Consortium’s annual Student Research Conference in April are also award requirements.

The VSGC strongly supports students engaged in scientific and technical career pathways who are seeking associates’ degrees as well as those preparing to transfer to four-year institutions of higher learning while developing the essential skills for a competitive global workforce.

Underrepresented minorities, females, and students with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Google Sheets - Smart Autofill

Smart Autofill - Harnessing the predictive power of Machine Learning in Google Sheets

Much of Google’s work on language, speech, translation, and visual processing relies on machine learning, where we construct and apply learning algorithms that make use of labeled data in order to make predictions for new data. What if you could leverage machine learning algorithms to learn patterns in your spreadsheet data, automatically build a model, and infer unknown values?

You can now use machine learning to make predictions in Google Sheets with the newly launched Smart Autofill Add-on (http://goo.gl/dghCQs). Smart Autofill uses Google's cloud-based machine learning service Prediction API (http://goo.gl/WmHyAa), which trains several linear as well as non-linear classification and regression models to predict the missing values of a partially filled column in your spreadsheet by using the data of other related columns.

For more information and a tutorial, head over to the Google Research Blog.

Smart Autofill - Harnessing the Predictive Power of Machine Learning in Google Sheets

googleresearch.blogspot.com

SumBlox - Math Building Blocks

Is anyone else troubled by the size of the 4 ?

MaKey MaKey

Buy Direct: http://shop.makeymakey.com/products/makey-makey-kit
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/MaKey-The-Original-Invention-Everyone/dp/B008SFLEPE

Digital Badging

Click here or on the image below for more information:

Biology Teacher Halloween Activity

Here' s Photoshop trick in which students merge three photos (front plus each side), print it, insert it in the jar with a pickle color, and have a permanent place on a shelf in your classroom or elsewhere.

Make it a reward for anyone who competes in the science fair.
Details: www.instructables.com/id/head-in-a-jar-prank/

Let the student pick the jar size and pay for it:  www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000DDVN7/



STEM extensions:

• Estimate the volume of their head;
• Chemistry of pickling;
• History of food preservation;
• History of preserving human remains.

Free Autodesk Software for Teachers and Students

Autodesk® Education Community: Free Software for Students and Teachers

Teachers and students can download free educational software for personal/noncommercial use at students.autodesk.com. More than 60 Autodesk titles are available at no charge, including Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk® Revit®, Autodesk® AutoCAD®, Autodesk® 3DsMax®, Autodesk® Maya®, and more.  Software downloads include:  A 3-year license  No watermark on 2014 & 2015 software  Gallery showcase  Software learning materials  Visit students.autodesk.com to learn more.

I know the Girl Scouts are making an effort to promote STEM, but apparently that's not happening everywhere. - Jim



Here is the U.K. version:

New STEM scholarships, research experiences, internships and courses

from Mary Sandy of the Virginia Space Grant Consortium:

Please help us spread the word to community college students and faculty on this exciting opportunity!  The attached flier provides background and a link to the initiative’s website.

Virginia’s community college students pursuing studies in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) fields statewide have access to new scholarships, research experiences, internships and courses thanks to a two-year NASA grant to the Virginia Space Grant Consortium.  The new program, STEM Takes Flight at Virginia’s Community Colleges, provides $5,000 mentored scholarships, paid industry internships, paid NASA research experiences and new courses to foster STEM awareness and workplace skills.  Community college faculty in STEM fields will have access to professional development at NASA.  The program’s overarching goal is to foster community college retention in STEM academic tracks through graduation with an associate degree or transfer to a four-year institution. 

The STEM Takes Flight website at www.vsgc.odu.edu/stemtakesflightprovides detailed information and applications for program components.     Application deadlines are as early as November 17.