Activity for Observation and Teamwork Communication

 Use these slides:

Fairfax County Youth Leadership Network's META LEADERSHIP Conference November 11-12

 

Leadership Fairfax and Fairfax County Government announce the Youth Leadership Network's META LEADERSHIP Conference      The future is out there, and the youth will lead it! Join us for the Youth Leadership Network Annual Conference – Leadership in the Metaverse – hosted at Virginia Tech Falls Church Campus. Featuring training sessions and experiences for ages 12 to 22 who are interested in improving their leadership skills, building stronger communities and creating a more equitable future. The event also includes a training path for mentors and teachers who work with youth to develop their leadership skills and plan for ways to support the growth of their charges. Collaborators have the opportunity to sponsor an experience, facilitate training sessions and engage in various ways to help support the development of the leaders of the future. Learn how you can collaborate and support this year's conference.   Check Out Meta Leadership

Another win for Chesterfield, Virginia - World's Largest Vertical Farm

Plenty to build 'world's largest indoor vertical farming campus' in Richmond area

Sep. 14th, 2022

Plenty Unlimited Inc., a Bay Area indoor agriculture company, said Wednesday it will build a $300 million vertical farming campus in Chesterfield County’s Meadowville Technology Park.

The office of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin billed the project as “the world’s largest indoor vertical farming campus.”

Plenty said it will complete its 120-acre Richmond Farm Campus in phases over the next six years, ultimately creating more than 300 full-time jobs. Its first farm on the site, a dedicated Driscoll’s berry farm to be completed by early 2024, will be the first to grow indoor, vertically farmed strawberries at scale, according to the governor’s announcement. Plenty also indicated it plans to grow leafy greens and tomatoes at its new campus.

Arama Kukutai, CEO of Plenty, said in a statement the “scale and sophistication” of the planned facility will make it possible “to economically grow a variety of produce with superior quality and flavor.”

In January, Plenty announced a $400 million Series E round led by One Madison Group and JS Capital Management, both of New York, as well as

Washington Post: College Major Regrets

 

washingtonpost.com

The most-regretted (and lowest-paying) college majors

By Andrew Van Dam|Sep. 2nd, 2022

Nearly 2 in 5 American college graduates have major regrets.

That is, they regret their major.

The regretters include a healthy population of liberal arts majors, who may be responding to pervasive social cues. When he delivered his 2011 State of the Union address in the shadow of the Great Recession, former president Barack Obama plugged math and science education and called on Americans to “out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the rest of the world.” Since then, the number of new graduates in the arts and humanities has plunged.

Meanwhile, nearly half of humanities and arts majors have studier’s remorse as of 2021. Engineering majors have the fewest regrets: Just 24 percent wish they’d chosen something different, according to a Federal Reserve survey.

As a rule, those who studied STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — are much more likely to believe they made the right choice, while those in social sciences or vocational courses second-guess themselves.  

There doesn’t seem to be much relationship between loans, gender, race or school selectivity and your regrets. Though, as you may have guessed, our analysis of Fed data shows that the higher your income is today, the less you regret the major you chose back in college.

READ MORE (including interactive graphs of majors and salaries)

Arlington Magazine recognition for Northern Virginia teens

 arlingtonmagazine.com

Arlington Magazine Extraordinary Teen Awards 2022

Jun. 30th, 2022

Potomac School graduate and Thinkabit Lab intern, inventor Benjamin Choi. Photo by Skip Brown.

When pandemic lab shutdowns scuttled his plans for a research project on aluminum fuel in the summer of 2020, Benjamin Choi pivoted to a new idea that he could work on from home, using a 3-D printer—a prosthetic arm for amputees that could be controlled by brain signals. He had seen a documentary about mind-controlled prosthetic limbs in third grade and was convinced he could design one that was not only less expensive, but also less invasive.

His prototype, recently featured in Smithsonian Magazine, costs $300 to produce and uses external sensors on the head (in lieu of surgical implants) to

Summer 2022 Camps - free

Shareable link to our Summer 2022 camp registration:  https://bit.ly/VT-Summer2022

(Full descriptions are provided in following pages.)   
All camps are free, and equipment is provided.

All camps are also:

•   9am to noon in-person 
•   hands-on, skills-based experiential learning  
•   allow for some extended participation in afternoons
•   located at our Virginia Tech campus next to West Falls Church Metro (Orange Line)

1. AAUW Wearable Tech (June 27-June 30)   -  suggested ages 12-18  (exceptions considered) 

     Co-sponsored by the Arlington Chapter of the AAUW, this camp was originally designed for girls,
and now welcomes all participants ages 12-18 (MS or HS).  Participants will build simple LED and servo motor circuits that are controlled by programming an Arduino microcontroller.  These skills will be applied to a creative wearable device that uses the same Arduino microcontroller and allows you to program and operate the device. Many other fabrication tools and skills will be introduced, including safety precautions.

2. Urban Agricultural and Environmental Technologies with IoT (August 1-4)  - suggested ages - 14-18 (exceptions considered) 

      Participants will identify real-world, urban agriculture and environmental challenges or problems, research and model potential solutions, and then test and redesign prototypes.  A variety of materials will be complemented with electronics monitoring, sensors and actuators addressing agricultural and environmental needs. Support for county fair or science and engineering fair brainstorming is available. 

Proceed to https://bit.ly/VT-Summer2022 to register.  

Questions? Email STEM@vt.edu or call 571-4828298 

Passing of George Willcox

 I'm passing on the very nice tributes written by Brenda Long and Darla Miller of Virginia ACTE. - Jim

Loss of a friend and colleague.

It is with a sad and heavy heart to inform you of the passing of George Willcox, retired State CTE Director, on Wednesday. George was a stalwart for CTE in Virginia and nationally.  He devoted 47 years to CTE with 41 of those with VDOE, Office of CTE.  George supported Virginia ACTE and the CTE division associations, quality CTE programs for students as well as expanded opportunities for students, and continued to strengthen the relationship with Virginia ACTE and VDOE.  He officially retired on February 1, 2022, and yesterday we lost a great advocate for CTE.  Rest In peace, Our Friend.  You ran a good race.

George provided leadership and support for Technology and Engineering Education for 47 years before his retirement on December 31, 2021. He joined the Department of Education as the advisor for the Technology Student Association in 1978 and served as a supervisor of the program of Technology and Engineering Education until his promotion in 2006. 

Most recently, he served as State Director of Career, Technical, and Adult Education. It is difficult to describe the range of impact he had on Technology and Engineering education, adding engineering courses in the mid 1990’s. He was active in TSA and the International Technology and Engineering Educator’s Association, serving as president in 2006. He was also active in the Virginia Association of Career and Technical Education. His was a giant in the field and will be sorely missed. He is survived by his daughter Angela Minor. Service information is not yet available. 

 A video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NBf7C_ba2dfX7mMQ-6FCA6t-UFy-lQ4g/view?usp=sharing