Issue #2 - May 2013

Above: MSiC Educator Jim Lehman observes a 3D printer in action.

MSiC - Whats Behind the Sign?

Not surprisingly, many people, whom I have met in my close to one year here as the Director of the MathScience Innovation Center, delight in their memories of coming here as a student. These adults, like myself, fondly recall the eye-opening courses, internships, programs with community partners and eld trips around Central Virginia. As I talk with educators in schools, as well as parents during our Saturday and Summer programs, it is as if the MathScience Innovation Center (MSiC) is a rite of passage for their children, as for them, as well. The rst physical glimpse that the MSiC exists is the sign off of the highway on Interstate 64. While approximately 170,000 students and 5,000 educators engage in programs at the MSiC annually, there may be some people who dont quite know who we are or what we do. The MSiC is a valuable asset in Central Virginia in the research, development and implementation of cutting edge student and educator STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) programs. This is a place of excitement and inquiry. It is a place Dr. Hollee Freeman where all staff are engaged in STEM conversations and are constantly looking for new advances in these areas and more importantly, we work diligently to bring these concepts and ideas to the minds of students, teachers and parents so that they can engage in further exploration.
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Whats Behind the Sign - continued from page 1

The MSiC is a special place where you can nd staff

High School Students Take on Technology!

Team Edison2 roared onto the MSiC campus on February 15, 2013, demonstrating their Very Light Car, winner of the $5 million X-Prize international competition. Brad Jaeger, race car driver and mechanical engineer, was the keynote speaker for our high school Lets Innovate!/GRCTM Student Conference. Students and their teachers explored changes in oceanic biodiversity, augmented reality, math perspectives in art, forensics, innovations in earthquake prediction techniques, and mathematical applications to tracking disease in workshops presented by a host of scientists and mathematicians from Virginia Commonwealth University, the College of William & Mary, and the MSiC. When asked what they thought of the day, one student explained, I liked how we all explored different aspects of math and science as it could be applied to everyday lives and jobs. Another student added, It was fun, educational and helped me really see behind the scenes of modern mathematics and science.

Top Left: X Prize Prototype Top Right & Bottom: Next Generation Very Light Car

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MSiC - Whats behind the sign? Continued from page 1

The MSiC is a special place where you can nd staff huddled around a large kite talking about wind, force and velocity - a place where educators get excited about a new craysh and snake additions to our room-size aquaria. This is a place where we celebrate with doughnuts and clapping with our rst printing of a nut and bolt on our new 3D printer. We get excited because we know that these experiences will quickly translate into our work with students and educators. In fact, we are in the process of developing a new course, entitled Prototyping Natures Design, which will focus on biomechanical engineering (prosthetics) and biomimicry (copying what happens in nature). This new Summer Regional Governors School course will have students examining normal human biomechanics including musculoskeletal interactions and forces. Then they will begin a prosthetic design process, requiring their

engagement in additive manufacturing (3D printing) techniques. This is one small example of how the MSiC continues to be on the cutting edge, making innovative concepts technology accessible to all students and educators.

Nut and Bolt created with our 3D printer.

We invite you to visit our website, sign up for courses and share in our excitement to lead and be a partner with educational, business and community-based organizations to implement 21st century programs that will help develop the skills, enthusiasm and commitment K-12 students need to prepare them for rapid scientic and technological advances.

Engineering Conference Highlights

MSiC offered a second installment of an engineering conference for Above:MSiC Staff: Barbara Atkins, Sam Albert, & Mike Phillips school counselors in April. In conjunction with NASA Langley and the American Council of Engineering Companies, 41 middle and high school counselors met with current engineering students, college professors, and professional engineers representing different engineering elds. The Engineering Fields II: A School Counselors Guide provided counselors with strategies and tips for encouraging students to consider a career in one of the various engineering specialties. During small group discussions, school counselors focused their questions on what qualities/skills are needed in engineering elds and why the panelists chose to become an engineer. In addition to the small group discussions, counselors were challenged with their own engineering task to complete. Through this task, counselors were able to utilize some of the different skills needed by engineers, beyond an afnity for and interest in mathematics and science, increasing their potential to identify those skill and dispositions in their students. Congressman Bobby Scott joined the counselors at this event and gave a keynote address which was enthusiastically received by the counselors, as well as MSiC staff. As a member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Congressman Scott talked about this nations need to have a workforce that is well educated in science, technology, education, and mathematics elds. His remarks and our work as a partner with school counselors helped to underscore the seriousness of this need. The MSiC looks forward to continuing a partnership with NASA Langley and the American Council of Engineering Companies in future engineering programs. The overwhelming praise from participants highlights the need for future school counselor programs. Stay tuned - the MSiC is partnering with VCU Medical for a Fall program focusing on the STEM-H careers.
Above: Congressman Bobby Scott visits the Spider Room with MSiC Educator Rachel Martin.

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In the following article, MSiC educator Teresa Leahy describes a virtual lesson that she created with colleagues as a homage to Dr. Seuss. Hats Off for Dr. Seuss skillfully combines important mathematical concepts for students with the sophisticated language of the story The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. Hats Off for Dr. Seuss joins more than 20 virtual lessons here at the MathScience Innovation Center, which are available to teachers on a rst-come, rst-served basis. It looks like any other school, But we suspect its not. I think were learning lots of things Not taught at other schools. Our teachers are remarkable, They make up their own rules. Although these words describe the Diffendoofer School from the Dr. Seuss book Hooray for Diffendoofer Day, nished by Jack Prelutsky and Lane Smith, they also remind me of our work here at the MathScience Innovation Center. When I explain the MSiC to elementary students, I often start by telling them, We are a school, but we are different than your school. While we teach the same content objectives as their classroom teachers, we try to take learning a step further by developing innovative ways for students and teachers to expand their learning and apply their knowledge. Sometimes this involves integrating cutting-edge technology into lessons. Our virtual lessons are a prime example of how we use technology to bring students and teachers in our regional consortium together to synchronously learn content and share ideas via videoconferencing. When involved in a virtual lesson, MSiC educators are able to present information and interact with students and their teachers using computer software enabling synchronous communication through microphones, online chat programs, webcams, and whiteboard tools. This year we debuted a new virtual lesson for third graders entitled Hats Off for Dr. Seuss. You may ask, What does the literature of Dr. Seuss have to do with math or science? In fact, many of Dr. Seusss works have great hooks on which to hang a lesson on math concepts or a scientic investigation. Some of you may be familiar with Dr. Seusss book Bartholomew and the Ooblek and may even have heard of teachers integrating this story with a lesson on the properties of matter. However, you may not know that Dr. Seuss wrote another book about Bartholomew called The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins. In this story, Bartholomew must remove his hat in the presence of the King. But, every time he takes off a hat, another hat appears on his head. Of course, this makes the King angry.

Left: MSiC Educators Teresa Leahy and Right: Kristina Anthony

The story tells of many ways that he tries to keep these hats from appearing on Bartholomews head. This story creates a problem for the King, and it also creates a context in which students can solve a variety of mathematical problems as the number of hats in the story increases. As a former third grade teacher and as the mother of a current third-grader, I know that word problems can be a stumbling block for many students. So, when the opportunity presented itself to write a new virtual lesson for third graders, I jumped at the chance. An integrated mathematics lesson using The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins seemed like a great way to get students excited about problem solving. Knowing many schools celebrate Dr. Seusss birthday on March 2nd as part of the Read Across America Day, I saw it as a perfect opportunity to create a lesson that could become a part of that celebration. Hats off for Dr. Seuss centers around having students solve word problems involving the four basic operations: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, as well as algebraic concepts in order to help them better understand how tables and patterns can help us solve problems. The lesson opens by introducing the students to function tables and how they can be used to help us understand what is happening to Bartholomews hat in the story.
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Hats Off for Dr. Seuss - continued

The function table displays the number of times Bartholomew has taken off his hat and the number of hats. The students are reminded of the action in the story using a video of myself removing one hat at a time. In the video, a hat magically appears on my head every time I remove one. Once again I am wowed at how technology - this time the art of videography - can make a story come to life. Using this video as an introduction to the lesson, students were able to identify the relationship between the number of times Bartholomew has removed his hat and the number of hats altogether and extend the pattern on the table. Students were then asked to Bartholomews Hat apply their knowledge and use a function table to solve a multiplication word problem. Students continued to apply their understanding of the four operations by identifying which operation to use when solving a word problem. I found out when piloting this lesson in the classroom that students needed some additional instruction on the four operations. Therefore, animations were created that would model these basic operations for students on the whiteboard screen. With these ideas fresh in their minds, students were asked to identify which operation would best solve each of a series of word problems based on Bartholomews adventures and then demonstrate strategies for solving them. Our third activity (and the favorite of both the students and me) was a combination problem. Near the end of the story, Bartholomews hats begin to change becoming more elaborate with jewels and feathers on them. Students were presented with this problem:

MSiC Educator Teresa Leahy interacts with students across the Internet.

Each new hat could have one feather and one jewel. The feather could be yellow or green or orange. The jewel could be red or blue or purple. How many different hats could there be?

In order to solve this problem, each pair of students received a bag of paper manipulatives: yellow, green and orange feathers and red, blue and purple jewel shapes. After I modeled the combinations with the red jewel on the whiteboard screen, students were asked to identify the other combinations that could be made with

the purple and blue jewels and organize them in a table. Students had great fun doing this! Finally, students were challenged with a brainteaser: If every student had 500 hats like Bartholomew did at the end of the story, how many hats would there be in the entire class? Students were surprisingly quick at solving this challenging multiplication problem. Through the webcam MSiC educators were able to see students acting out the problem, discussing strategies and presenting their answers, which they then displayed for all to see. Dressed as Thing 1 and Thing 2, MSiC educators taught this lesson to more than 800 students in 41 classes from seven school districts over
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the course of three days. We were excited to see how many schools were inspired to join us for our Dr. Seuss celebration and hope to grow in future years. Through this integration of literature and math, we hope that students have a new awareness that opportunities to apply their problem solving skills are all around them, and through the use of technology we can share the enjoyment and satisfaction of solving challenging problems with others.

Below: MSiC Educator Rhonda Hawley places a hissing cockroach onto the Arqball Spin turning platform.

Spinning Spiders in 3D!

On March 2, 2013, middle school students at our Lets Innovate! Student Conference got up close and personal with tarantulas, beetles, and hissing cockroaches as they participated in a 3D virtual imagery workshop with Dr. Michael Holroyd of Arqball Spin and Rhonda Hawley, our very own Spider Woman. Using a little spider/insect know-how from the session, digital cameras, tripods, and turntables, students created interactive displays of these amazing creatures on their iPads. At the end of the conference, one student remarked, I especially enjoyed the Spinning Spiders class, because I got to see and look at real live creatures.

Right: Dr. Michael Holroyd

Above: Students were quick to learn the Arqball software.

Upcoming Events at the MSiC

June 4, 2013
Spring 2013 Calculus Conference

June 18 & 19, 2013

Building for the Future Conference Grades 3-5

June 20 & 21, 2013

Inquiring Minds Conference Grades 6-12

July 1-11, 2013

Summer Regional Governors School

July 15-19, July 22-26, & July 29-Aug 2, 2013

Camp Innovation Grades 4-9

NEW THIS YEAR! EXTENDED DAY CLASSES

Extended day classes are being offered by Champion Chess and Edible Education. Each day runs from 4:15 pm to 5:30 pm, has a separate fee, and limited enrollment. See our website to learn more and sign up.

MathScience Innovation Center - 2401 Hartman Street, Richmond, VA. 23223 - 804.343.6525 - www.msinnovation.info 6