Students Learn to “Think Like a Scientist” in STEM Camp South Monterey County

South Monterey County students will explore science on projects such as windmills, robots, and hovercrafts at the second annual Monterey County Office of Education STEM Camp, a week-long summer learning program that will be held Monday, June 13 through Friday, June 17, 2016 at San Ardo Elementary School, 62428 Center Street, San Ardo.

During the camp, students in grades 3-8 who are looking to strengthen and expand their scientific knowledge and have fun will get hands-on experience in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math
(STEM), using a variety of science and engineering concepts introduced through hands-on experiments.

To register a student from Bradley, King City, San Ardo, San Antonio, or San Lucas (for free), click here.

STEM camp is funded through a donation by Chevron, in partnership with the Monterey County Office of Education, and school districts in South Monterey County. Chevron’s donation is part of its initiative to invest in education in areas where the company has operations.

Highway 68 ROV Club Wins Again at MATE Underwater Robotics Competition

The Highway 68 ROV Club "Sea Sweepers" finished first overall for the fourth consecutive year in the MATE Monterey Bay Regional Underwater Robotics Competition in Aptos. The team now advances to compete in the International ROV Championship at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Tex., in June.

This year's competition simulates the use of underwater ROVs (remotely operated vehicles) in the Gulf of Mexico and on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Teams are required to complete several underwater mission tasks, submit a 25-page technical report, and make a technical sales presentation to working marine science and engineering professionals who serve as competition judges. The “Sea Sweepers” had the highest scores in two of the three competition elements.

The “Sea Sweepers” team includes Salinas High School students J.P. O’Dell, Tyler Allen, Michael Georgiarou, Jack Hyland, Hanna Hitchcock, Chase Oleson, and Brian Ishii, independent student Montana Sprague, and John Yeager from York School. Working in Yeager's garage beginning in the fall, the group designed and built a very sophisticated ROV that could be transported to Jupiter for exploration of Europa’s oceans.

The Highway 68 ROV Club is independent and privately funded, so they welcome contributions and local business sponsorships. For more information, click here or contact the team’s coach and mentor, Kurt Yeager at kurt@seasweepersrov.com .

Go Sweepers! Good luck fundraising and traveling to Houston!

Free science professional development for K-12 educators at Hartnell College

Hartnell College will be hosting a NASA STEM Day professional development day for local K-12 educators on Saturday, April 16. 

Educators will participate in hands-on workshops to learn space-travel related STEM activities to bring back to their classrooms. Hartnell has partnered with the Monterey County Office of Education and UCSC MESA to get bring this opportunity to as many educators as possible. There will be a number of world-class speakers during our opening.

"This collaboration with NASA Ames has allowed us to provide this invaluable opportunity to our local K-12 teachers. Teachers do such an important job with our K-12 students, we always appreciate opportunities to support them," said in a statement Shannon Bliss, dean of academic affairs for math, science and engineering.

Deadline to register for this free event is April 13, 2016. To register click here.

The workshops will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, at Steinbeck Hall on the main campus, 411 Central Ave., Salinas For questions, contact Director of K-12 STEM Programs, Maggie Melone, at mmelone@hartnell.edu or call (831) 7556970.

Saturday will be a girl empowerment day

More than 300 girls will take part in the sixth annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference and Career Fair for young women starting at 8 a.m. Saturday at Hartnell College.

In this event coordinated by the Lyceum Monterey, girls in grades 5-10 interested in math, technology, science, and engineering will participate in hands-on workshops that will give them an opportunity to interact with professionals and work closely with their peers. They'll have a chance to learn about careers in oceanography, dentistry, and more.What a great opportunity to learn about the wonderful world of science!

And just as these girls meet at Hartnell, another 100 students will gather at Asilomar for the fifth annual summit of the Girl's Health in Girl's Hands initiative. The summit promotes girl empowerment, healthy body image, relationships, and emotional well-being through interactive girl-led activities.

Girl leaders coordinate workshops and physical activities, discuss GHGH action led research, and rally participants to get involved in shaping their futures and creating an agenda for change. Another great opportunity for girls to become empowered!

In this day and age of education changes, emphasis is growing in making sure students are aware of careers in STEM fields. Also, experts want to make sure emotional health is address to shape  resilient children. These events explore both. Maybe next year they'll be combined! ;)

The Sea Sweepers team of the Highway 68 ROV Club is gearing up for an international competition in Canada after being named “All Around Champion” in the annual Marine Advanced Technology Competition held on May 9 in Aptos.

The team, comprised for JP O’Dell, Tyler Allen, Michael Georgariou and Kyle Nishimoto from Salinas High School; John Yeager and Kaden Agha from York School; and Douglas Jackson from Palma High School; was formed in 2010, and three of the members have been part of it since then.

Since the club was established by Kurt Yeager it has achieved first place overall in all three classes the regional MarineAdvanced Technology Education (MATE) ROVcompetition offers.

The international contest takes place June 25-27 in Newfoundland. Go Sweepers!

MCOE hosts the 2015 STEM Expo

Over 50 Monterey County science teachers took part in the 2015 STEM Expo organized by the Monterey County Office of Education last weekend. The expo gave teachers an opportunity to meet and network with local scientific groups, research organizations and non profits to learn what’s available for their students as they pursue scientific knowledge.

Some of the organizations that participated were the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, Save the Whales, Rocket Mavericks and more. Hopefully, teachers got many ideas for jazzing up their classes and get more students interested in science!

The most amazing Kapil Sinha wins the science fair. Again.

For the third year in a row, Kapil Sinha, a junior at Salinas High School, earned top honors at the Monterey County Science and Engineering Fair, which was held this past weekend at CSUMB.

Sinha won with his Plant Biology project: "Characterization and Utility of Resistance Sources against Resistance-Breaking Rhizomania in Sugar Beet."

Second place went to Rohan Bhushan of Monterey High School, for his Environmental Science project: "Gravitactic Effects of Copper Pollution on Glucose Metabolism in Euglena gracilis."

Third place went to Chaitra Subbarao also of Salinas High School, for her Biochemistry/Molecular Biology project: "Molecular Detection of Spinach Downy Mildew before Symptom Appearance."

The three winners will advance to the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair, to be held in Pittsburgh, Penn., in May.

About 330 projects with nearly 500 student scientists from public and private schools across the county took part in this year's event.

Twenty-two  top projects will advance to participate in the California State Science Fair, May 18 and 19 in Los Angeles. They are, in alphabetical order:

• Isabella Allen, All Saints’ Day School
• Finn Barry, York School
• Nick Batterman, York School
• Rohan Bhushan, Monterey High School
• John Chapman Caddell, Stevenson School
• Grace Davis, All Saints’ Day School
• Fletcher Gaucher, International School of Monterey
• Caitlyn Giannini, All Saints’ Day School
• Kyle Groves, Salinas High School
• Gabriella Gutierrez, San Carlos School
• Jack Hayes, Carmel Middle School
• Edhel Marie Joseph, Salinas High School
• Magnus Lauer, International School of Monterey
• Molly Mancina, All Saints’ Day School
• Riley Mann, International School of Monterey
• Trinity Mobley, International School of Monterey
• Danya Novak, International School of Monterey
• Tyler Onciano, International School of Monterey
• Cherrie Mae Paghasian, International School of Monterey
• Nahomy Pinedo, Salinas High School
• Madeleine Powley, Salinas High School
• Maya Pruthi, All Saints’ Day School
• Rohan Sethi, International School of Monterey
• Kapil Sinha, Salinas High School
• Chaitra Subbarao, Salinas High School
• Eve Wharton, International School of Monterey
• Kyle Worcester-Moore, York School

Kapil, who's grown like a mile since I interviewed him eons ago, also took top honors at the 2014 Science Fair, and teamed with his sister, Aradhana, to win top project in 2013. Aradhana was top finisher in 2012.

Kapil Sinha, second from right, has won the science fair three times.

Amber Hess from Stevenson School was the only other student to have the top project two years, in 2004 and 2005, according to project coordinator Ginny Brown. She said she doesn't know if  any other student has garnered top honors more than three times.

Cyberpatriot season is over

And the future computer programers did great!

Hartnell College faculty and students mentored approx 65 high school students in the national cybersecurity competition program, CyberPatriot, reports computer science instructor Joe Welch. The teams spent hours learning about networking, operating systems, and computer security, in preparation for three competition sessions held in November and December.

Mentored teams and mentors are listed here:

William Starling mentored the King City High School team, Wendy Fernandez the Gonzales High School team, Jennifer Westerbeck the Alisal High team, CPO Israel Gonzalez, USN was in charge of the Everett Alvarez High NJROTC team, and finally, Liz Koenig was in charge of the Notre Dame High School team.

Welch said staff, faculty and teaching assistants from Hartnell College worked tirelessly in mentoring high school students towards studies and careers in computer science fields. A big shout out to all of them!

Not to be outdone, three of the Seaside High School teams qualified for the silver tier, and one team qualified for the gold tier, reports teacher Tessa Brown. She'll find out how the teams placed going into the regional round of the competition this week. "All of the students continue to have a great time learning cyber security," she said. "It is amazing to see how their skills have improved over the past few months. They are already talking about how competitive they will be next year."

It's fun to see these kids get into computer science. I can't wait to see how far they go next year.

Hartnell students take top honors at science conference

Two Hartnell students were recognized for outstanding research presentations during SACNAS conference, the largest STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) diversity event in the country.

There were 918 undergraduate student presentations total with 99 awards given in eight multidisciplinary categories.

The 2014 SACNAS Undergraduate Student Poster Presentation Awardees from Hartnell were:

* In Biochemistry/Biophysics - Jazel Hernandez, “Quantifying Butanol Production of a Genetically Engineered Halophile”

* In Engineering – Jhanic Ramos, “PV Cleaner Robot”

Both students participated in the Hartnell College STEM Internship Program. Jhanic Ramos was part of the group of students working with a team from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Baskin School of Engineering. This was a joint effort between UCSC and Hartnell as part of the National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Education program.

Jazel Hernandez was part of the team of students from UCSC, Baskin School of Engineering, iGEM (International Genetically Engineered Machine) team. Jazel’s team also participated in the iGEM Giant Jamboree in Boston, Mass., where they earned a bronze medal. The Giant Jamboree competition celebrates university students as they showcase their achievements in Synthetic Biology.

Jhanic Ramos is in the process of applying to transfer to UC Berkeley and UC Davis and wants to specialize in neurosurgery.

Jazel Hernandez plan is to attend UC Santa Cruz in the fall and go on to medical school to specialize in pediatric oncology.

Way to go, ladies!

Girls get heavy dosis of science at Expanding Your Horizons

More than 300 girls, parents and teachers attended the fifth annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference and career fair on Nov. 22 at Hartnell College.

The girls attended two hands-on workshops that gave them opportunities to interact with professionals and work closely with their peers. The workshops included the study of marine invertebrates, underwater robotics, water density and oceanography, and more. During the workshops the girls completed a number of stimulating activities such as extracting DNA from multiple sources with common household items. They built, hypothesized, and tested underwater robots. Some got to use the latest technologies from the Monterey Bay Aquarium to peek into the largest, most mysterious habitat on earth.

Then they had a chance to hear about possible careers in science from 16 organizations including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey Peninsula College’s Engineering and Nursing Programs, and Hartnell’s NASA SEEMA.

Overall, judging from the photos, the girls seemed to have a great time. Good job, Lyceum of Monterey, for putting it on.

Salinas girls take to the sky

The "Young Eagles Flight," sponsored by the non-profit EAA Aviation Foundation, took about 30 girls from the Hartell SEMAA program on a tour of our Salinas skies last weekend. It's a new partnership between the aviation group and the Science Engineering Mathematics and Aerospace Academy to provide its participating students with a free airplane ride and teach them about aviation science.

Only girls already participating in the SEMAA program could attend. Only girls because much is being done to encourage ladies to pursue careers in sciences, and only those already attending SEMAA because you had to limit participation somehow.

It looks like they had a lot of fun. This should serve to encourage more girls to, at the very least, take science classes during the summer!

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has released a blue print for California schools to improve education in the science. Titled INNOVATE: A Blueprint for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics in California Public Education, the blue print outlines seven major steps:

1. Public Awareness: Increase public awareness about the importance of STEM education to ensure support for these fields of study.

2. Resources: Increase support for STEM learning from government, business, charities, and communities through partnerships.

3. Access: Make high-quality STEM experiences and programs accessible to all students in and out of school, before and after school, and to underrepresented youth and girls.

4. Framework: Establish guidance for STEM teaching and learning in all grades that line up with the Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards.

5. Professional Learning: Adopt policies and standards to train teachers in STEM education.

6. Assessment and Accountability: Consider STEM in the state’s testing and accountability systems.

7. Availability of STEM Materials: Ensure that STEM programs can identify and access excellent learning resources.

STEM jobs are expected to grow 21.4 percent over the next five years, versus a 10.4 percent growth in jobs overall, and business leaders say they do not have enough skilled workers to fill these jobs. Even students who work outside the STEM fields will have to deal with complex issues that require strong science competence. They will also be consumers of increasingly sophisticated technologies.

Torlakson wants educators to attend the Second Annual California STEM Symposium on September 21–23, 2014, in San Diego as part of continuing efforts to enhance STEM education in California. This gathering will showcase STEM programs, curriculum, strategies, resources, Common Core, and Next Generation Science Standards. More than 200 presenters will share their best practices with attendees. Registration is now open. Presenters and vendors are invited to apply to showcase their STEM programs, projects, and products. To sign up, visit the Californians Dedicated to Education Web page.

Stevenson's John Chapman Caddell takes 1st place at international science fair

Big news to come out of the International Science and Engineering fair in Los Angeles. 

Caddell, a sophomore at Stevenson School, took top honors in the Physics and Astronomy category at the competition last week in Los Angeles.

He was one of three Monterey County students to take part on the event. Kapil Sinha, a sophomore at Salinas High School, Jennifer McDonnal, a senior at York School, also competed with more than 1,700 young scientists selected from 435 affiliate fairs in more than 70 countries, regions and territories. More than 500 finalists received awards and prizes for their innovative research, including 17 "Best of Category" winners, who each received a $5,000 prize.

The Intel Foundation, which sponsors the event, also awarded a $1,000 grant to each winner's school and to the affiliated fair they represent. Additionally, the Intel Foundation presented a select number of students with experiential awards, including an 11-day trip to China to attend the country's largest national science competition, speak with researchers at Intel's lab in Shanghai, and visit the Panda Research Base in Chengdu.

Caddell was also awarded "Best of Category" in Physics and Astronomy. In addition to earning $8,000 in prizes, he'll also travel to China. Stevenson School and the Monterey County Science & Engineering Fair will receive $1,000 grants as well.

Chapman's project, The Leidenpump: A Non-Mechanical Means of Fluid Delivery also earned him two additional special awards: $500 from the Patent and Trademark Office Society and a 4-year renewable scholarship, New American University Provost's Scholarship, at Arizona State University.

Sinha, a sophomore at Salinas High School was awarded $500 from the American Society for Horticultural Science for his project: Molecular Characterization of Wild Beet in the Imperial Valley's Commercial Sugar Beet Fields.

Caddell, Sinha and McDonnal earned the opportunity to compete at ISEF by taking top honors at the Monterey County Science & Engineering Fair held at CSUMB in March.

Gonzales families celebrate STEM successes

Gonzales Unified School District and Hartnell College’s NASA/SEMAA (Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Aerospace Academy) program will be hosting a potluck Family Café event on Saturday, March 22, 2014 at La Gloria Cafeteria at 220 Elko Street, Gonzales.

The event is designed to celebrate and share the successes of student’s participation in the Saturday STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

The program will be from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Families of the attendees are invited to come and see a special presentation about the program, hear a very exciting special guest speaker, and participate in a science mission activity.

Over 250 students, K-12, have been attending the program and have completed many missions that focus on relevant science concepts and how they apply to space.

This sounds like an good family event, so if you're in Gonzales, you should check it out. 

Antartica researcher Stacy Kim visits Stevenson's STEM program

Researcher and Remotely operated underwater vehicle developer Stacy Kim paid a visit to Stevenson’s Grade 6 STEM class to talk about her adventures in Antarctica's McMurdo Sound, ROVs, and her current research.

Stevenson’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) program developed a highly technical ROV project that culminated with the Grade 6 students building, wiring, and piloting their own underwater "robots" in the Pirate Pool on the Pebble Beach Campus in February.

Kim lead a presentation and shared her experience with the students to aid, guide, and inspire them as they complete their projects.

Kim is a benthic ecologist and long-time Antarctica diver who studies seafloor creatures and marine life communities in waters below freezing. Her team developed and worked with SCINI (Submersible Capable of Under Ice Navigation and Imaging) that can go to depths below those accessible to divers.

Kim is currently research faculty at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories. She has been featured on the BBC’s Frozen Planet, National Geographic, and the Today Show.

UC Santa Cruz gets $1.45 million to train STEM teachers

The University of California Santa Cruz has received a $1.45 million grant from the National Science Foundation for a teacher training initiative aimed at preparing future math and science teachers. The grant will be used to enhance the existing Noyce Scholarship program at UCSC, which supports students who are committed to teach math and science in local high-need school districts.

It's a known problem: there are not enough STEM teachers, partially because the salaries are low, and partially because the teaching profession has gotten such a beating lately, who wants to go into teaching chemistry in high school when you could have more prestige and money working in the private sector?

So maybe this grant will help.

As announced by the office of Congressman Sam Farr, the grant supports partnerships between UCSC, seven community colleges, and four high-need school districts to enhance recruitment and retention of new teachers in key areas of district shortages, according to Gretchen Andreasen, director of UCSC's California Teach Program (Cal Teach) and principal investigator on the grant.

The NSF grant will also support transfer students to UCSC from community colleges in the region, providing up to ten transfer students with three years of funding to attain a degree and teaching credential.

Although the grant primarily goes towards scholarships for UCSC undergraduates, it will also help fund a new UCSC program in Silicon Valley that will train and award teaching credentials to Silicon Valley tech-professionals wanting to change careers and become teachers. In addition, the NSF grant will help expand the Cal Teach internship program, which gives UCSC and community college students the chance to gain intensive K-12 teaching experience.

Budding scientists present their findings at Hartnell Summer STEM Symposium

Come see what 111 Hartnell students have been up to this summer. Every years for the last seven, Hartnell students who get internships at nearby research facilities present their findings at an all-day symposium, and that day is tomorrow!

Hartnell College students are matched with university scientists and Ag industry experts to conduct research in prestigious laboratories throughout the Central Coast. This symposium is a special opportunity for students to formally present their results and celebrate their participation.

From 1 to 3 p.m. on Aug. 24, students will talk about their work. Those who don't get to speak will present their posters at separate sessions throughout the day. The event concludes at 6 p.m. at Hartnell College main campus.

The event is free and open to the public. Come and congratulate these young scientists!

Monterey's Justine Ophanon returns home as a science teaching fellow

Justine Ophanon, a 2007 graduate of Monterey High, was recently named as a member of the Knowles Science Teaching Foundation's 2013 cohort of Teaching Fellows.

The Knowles Science Teaching Foundation is dedicated to improving science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in the United States. Designed specifically to develop beginning teachers into teacher leaders, the five-year Teaching Fellowships offer support and guidance as fellows embark on the credentialing process and their teaching careers.

After graduating from Monterey High, Justine earned a bachelor’s degree in aquatic biology and a master's degree in education, both from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Justine remembers days spent at the Monterey Bay Aquarium as inspiration for her chosen career. In the fall, she will begin teaching Earth Science at Seaside High School. For more information about Justine or the fellowship, click here.

Welcome back, Justine! 

Six Monterey County Students Take Honors at California State Science Fair

Rohan Bushan and Paul Kunz, 7th graders at the International School of Monterey; Ailis Dooner, a sophomore at Carmel High School; siblings Aradhana and Kapil Sinha, a senior and freshman at Salinas High School respectively; and Montana Sprague, an 8th grader at York School; shone with their projects at the 62nd annual California State Science Fair last week in Los Angeles. Over 1000 participants from 413 schools throughout California competed for top honors.

Bushan and Kunz took third place in the junior division, general microbiology, for their project “Nitrate: A Threat to Plankton.” Their lab research was conducted at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) and they examined how nitrate in water sources affect aquatic microorganisms such as plankton.

 Dooner received honorable mention in the senior division, pharmacology/toxicology for her project “Targeting Lung Mutagenesis.” Ailis used laboratory equipment under supervision at University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

The Super Sinha Siblings took third place in the senior division, plant biology for their project “Evaluating Peronospora Presence in Salinas Valley & Analyzing DNA Similarity in Downy Mildew Pathogens Affecting Spinach." They discovered downy mildew is infecting Salinas Valley spinach and spreading by contaminated seed. They developed a way to identify the lethal pathogen, and proposed more effective seed screening methods to prevent further spread of Peronospora.

Sprague took second place in the junior division, zoology, for her project, “Can Fish Get Jet-Lagged?” She investigated the effects of circadian rhythm disruptions on the training and memory of common goldfish.

These students earned the opportunity to participate in the California State Science Fair by finishing first in their division and category at the Monterey County Science & Engineering Fair, sponsored by the Monterey County Office of Education, CSUMB, the Naval Postgraduate School, and many community partners, March 8-10, 2013. A total of 23 projects from Monterey County participated at the State Science Fair.

Dooner, and the Super Sinha Siblings will represent Monterey County at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona, May 12-17.

STEM education is highlighted at Pebble Beach Golf tournament

The golf tournament at Pebble Beach has also been turned into an opportunity to talk about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education.

For starters, watch broadcast of the tournament today and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. and you'll see two 60-second promotions featuring Hartnell College work on STEM Education.

In the last couple of years, Hartnell has been making a name for itself for its emphasis on STEM education, and it looks like the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, which puts on the golf tournament, was impressed enough to make a promo out of it.

Also,students can benefit from the STEM Zone at the Pebble Beach tournament. On Thursday, students from Stevenson School (photo below) navigated the exhibits at the STEM Zone, and found hands-on experiences in golf ball physics, swing analysis with technology, golf course "agro dynamics", professional videotaping with green screen and newsroom performances with teleprompt, and more.

Stevenson began a STEM program in Grades 5 and 6 this year.

I wonder if students from other schools attended the STEM Zone. Shoot me an email and let me know.