Your thing...

Your thing….

One of my hopes/goals for each of you is to help you realize some freedom in school, and pursue a STEM related interest of choice – something that you will have fun with, and that you want to do simply because you are curious and because you think it will be fun to try. It can be big or small. It can be short-term or longer-term. It can be related to a hobby, or something brand new that you want to explore. This won’t have the pressure of a grade, or any specific deadline.

I hope you will do something, anything, just because you want to!

It is, quite simply, your thing!

There are LOTS of possibilities:

-          Research: mini-projects

-          Research: long-term projects

-          CABS resources (develop online teaching resources for various research options)

-          Work on resources for Australian elementary students (anything related to science or music)

-          Write songs/raps, poems, short stories, animated children’s stories (one example of a story for atomic structure is at http://docvphysics.blogspot.com/p/science.html); may partner with other schools to develop an online depository of STEM resources for elementary classes (Effingham (IL)-Pennsylvania-Australia-ETHS partnership)

-          Interpretive dance of some topic

-          Be pen-pal or Skype-pal with other students around the world (Doc V has many connections for this)

-          Engineering challenges – such as develop a tower garden for under $100 so low income families could use them; 3-D printed prosthetics; solar powered anything; cheap solutions for filtering water for 3^rd world communities

-          Help develop collaborative labs or projects that can be done with students from other schools, other countries

-          Trying to publish research results in journals

-          Build a web site or blog for a topic/issue of interest

-          Rube-Goldberg machines

-          Independent study courses

-          Photo Contest, or develop a site of science-related photos/videos

-          Bridge building

-          Develop ‘How to’ videos for certain problems or topics for other students

-          Video production that can be used in classes; another possibility is to provide video analyses and possibly write up lab procedures for future classes to use; think videos of “The Science of ______” for a favorite hobby or activity or phenomenon

-          Write a white paper on an issue of interest

-          Make your own TED-style talks

-          Learn a programming language

-          Robotics (there are all sorts of kits if you want to try something)

-          Write own programs for simulations, video game

-          Build more complex circuits/devices; take electronics not working and learn about them

-          Lobby your local politicians about science or education related issues

-          Community service – local clean-ups, peer mentoring, peer tutoring, volunteer at your old elementary or middle school  if they do science fairs or need demos

-          Possibilities for online tutoring/mentoring

-          Arrange to tour labs of interest at local univeraities

-          Take a tour of Argonne National Lab or Fermilab (both are only one hour from Evanston)

-          Interview professors/researchers/scientists or engineers in industry/doctors/technicians; could be on video to post and share with others

-          Ask if you can shadow a grad student or professional in STEM for a day

-          Write layperson explanations of technical STEM topics

-          Join Math Team, Science Olympiad, Chess Team

-          Do mathematical derivations of things not covered in classes. One example is at https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8nURwQwI2RaamQxT3ZrLWhtOUE/view

-          Build something of interest

-          Develop new science demos, labs, posters, teaching resources for future classes

-          Write letters to the editor of local papers, magazines, journals

-          Take virtual tours of the world’s great science museums and summarize, make recommendations for others
-          Math modeling
-          TEAMS (limited, invited)
-          WYSE (limited, invited)
-          Physics Bowl practice/prep

Or anything else not listed here you can think of and want to try!!!! Don’t limit yourself or your interests!!