Upcycled Art

I cycled past these sculptures the other day and thought, 'what a great idea for a STEaM project" - upcycling a broken appliance into a piece of art. Back when I was teaching, the ancient copy machine in our building broke down for its last and final time. The administration had a nice new model ready to go in its place, but they were unhappy that it was going to cost $300 to transport our old dinosaur to the recycling center. I volunteered to let my students take it apart, thus giving my students a hands-on lesson in "how things work" and making the pieces small enough to fit into the trunk of my car eliminating the $300 transportation cost. That old copy machine yielded some excellent lenses, gears, and motors that we used in later science experiments, but they would have also made good components for a steampunk sculpture.

If you want to try this idea out with your own students, I would recommend asking your local parent organization to donate any broken appliances. Keep it small - can openers or radios as opposed to refrigerators or plasma TVs. Ask the students to draw diagrams as they disassemble their devices. Label individual components and discuss or research their functions. When students are ready to turn their components into a sculpture, take a teachable moment to talk about center of mass and what it's going to take to keep their sculptures from tipping over. Be sure to work in a well-ventilated area as adhesive fumes can be toxic. Be safe, but above all, have fun.

Is Google a 21st Century STEM Skill?

During a recent educator workshop, I challenged the participants to build a boat out of a single sheet of newspaper. The primary goal was to build a vessel that would float in a bucket of water, but would also hold the greatest number of pennies before sinking. I envisioned this as one of those 15-minute warm-up activities designed to start everyone thinking out of the box.

Imagine my surprise when I noticed several participants Googling newspaper boat designs. My quickie warm-up activity had become a time-intensive and highly competitive design challenge. I let the activity run its course, but when summing up I mentioned that it had been my intention for people to think on their own (not via Google) about building something out of a non-traditional material.

Suddenly I was hit with a backlash of comments about not allowing the participants to use their 21^st century skills. It turned into quite a lively debate between those who advocated using their brains and those who insisted upon using their phones. And, yes, I’ll say it – the people with the strongest opinions tended to be the Baby Boomers versus the Millennials.

I think allowing students to use their cellphones as an educational tool opens up a world of exciting possibilities; but like most things in life, there is a proper time and a place. We also need to teach students how to think for themselves in order to promote inspiration and creativity. Proactively exercising your brain leads to better mood, faster thinking, improved memory, quicker reaction time, and increased focus. After all, no matter how good the design, if you build a boat out of newspaper it will eventually become water-logged and sink.

SparkFun Inventors' Kit

If you're looking for some simple, but interesting, circuits to build with your Arduino, the SparkFun Inventors' Kit is an easy, cost-effective option. This kit includes everything you need to build 16 different circuits - and I mean everything, including an Arduino, a breadboard, and a wide assortment of electronic components (LEDs, switches, sensors, motors, etc - they even include a screwdriver). If you've already got many of these components, they make it super easy to order any missing pieces from their web-linked materials list. I especially like the black backer board that holds the Arduino and breadboard in close proximity so jumper wires stay securely in place. 

Another great thing that SparkFun does is publish all their tutorials for the 16 circuits online. At first I was tempted to skip around and try out only those activities that were new to me (after all, I can't tell you the number of times I've lit up an LED), but I stuck with doing the activities in order. Good thing. These tutorials are a great teaching tool, not just in electronics, but in Arduino programming. Each activity gets progressively more advanced building on previous concepts and introducing new ones. The tutorials also address real-world applications and suggest interesting variations to try out.

My only complaint with these tutorials was with the hook-up tables (which SparkFun actually stopped using after the third activity). The hook-up table in the first activity told me to put the LED in C2, but there is no C2 pin on an Arduino. It finally dawned on me that C2 was referring to the breadboard hole, not the Arduino pin. If you're like me, I usually just put my components into the first available breadboard hole and don't really worry about row and column referencing. I think a nice labeled diagram would be a much better substitute for this table. But to SparkFun's credit, they put a wealth of information into the comment sections of their sample sketches, so I've learned to skip straight to the comments when wiring up my circuits.

Becoming a STEM Consultant

I am a consultant – a STEM Education Specialist. I love my job, but I can't keep up with all the opportunities that come my way. Why am I saying this? Because there is a huge demand for STEM educators and you might be considering a career change.

So what exactly does a consultant do? Mostly I teach students and teachers how to use technology. STEM is the hot topic right now in education and administrators want to jump on the bandwagon with the latest and greatest gadgets. That's where I come in, because those gadgets aren't always as easy to understand as they look. Matter of fact, that's probably my greatest skill – making things look easy.

I am an engineer by training (civil and electrical) with extensive (but varied) experience in teaching (high school, middle school, industry, and college). I've never stayed in one place for very long, because I'm one of those people who always want to try something new. Some might call that a rolling stone; I prefer to think of it as visionary. I'm creative and passionate about hands-on activities that relate to the real world and think that anyone can be successful if you make learning fun as well as challenging. My favorite tools are robots and sensors with a little sprinkling of art thrown in. I firmly believe if you're good in art, you're good in math; and besides, everyone likes a little color in their life.

How did I get started in this business? When I find something I like, I'm very vocal about passing that information along to others. Businesses love to support people who do that, whether it be by representing the product at a conference, writing up a curriculum manual to go with the product, or teaching a workshop to show someone else how to use it. That is what I spend most of my time doing and I love it.

My job is not without a few frustrations, mostly in the accounting end of things. In order to get paid, I have to keep track of my hours, send out billing statements to my clients, and pay my own taxes and insurance (not the fun part of my job). I'm a very organized person, but unfortunately many of my clients are not. Instead of one boss, I have many, most of whom are borderline techno-phobes, but who are determined to get into STEM.

My advice if you want to become a STEM consultant – get out there and make a name for yourself (90% of my jobs come from referrals). Check out your local university, community center, or library, because many of them offer summer workshops for kids and adults. Offer to teach one that highlights your expertise. As long as people sign up, your fee is paid by the registrants' tuition. Make sure your idea is innovative, hands-on, and cost-conscious. A client probably won't be willing to buy a classroom set of drones for a newbie, but most organizations have access to a set of computers. Start off by suggesting an Hour of Code workshop using Scratch or Python or appInventor or any of the other free programs easily downloadable from the internet. And then invite the organization's marketing department to your workshop to take photos. It's a win-win for everyone – the organization gets some good publicity and you've gotten your first job as a consultant.