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Explore! Investigate! Invent!
How Science Inspires Engineering
From STEM to Stern:
Investigating the Connections Among Science, Engineering
and the Natural World
July 9 - 13, 2012
Buzzards Bay, MA
This summer, investigate the connections between science and engineering. Learn how the natural sciences and engineering practices are connected through research and technology. Explore examples of how science provides engineers with the foundations to create solutions to real world problems. Participate in and develop inquiry-based investigations to present the engineering design process to your students and how it relates to science inquiry. Explore the interconnections between the natural sciences - life, physical, chemical, earth, space and environmental - and how to use these interconnections in your curriculum to meet the Next Generation Science Standards and prepare your students for STEM careers.
Learn how to create model ROVs, windmills and other engineering design projects with your students
Discover the science behind engineering design concepts and technology used in green buildings
Explore marine mammal and sea turtle characteristics and adaptations that have led to impressive technologies we use every day
Partners:
Massachusetts Maritime Academy, The National Marine Life Center
Graduate Credit Available From: Cambridge College; Framingham State University
Click here for the 2012 High School brochure!
What better place to be inspired by the miraculous engineering feats of nature than in the lush Berkshire mountains? Explore how the natural world is an inspiration for scientists and a foundation for engineers to develop technology that impact our everyday lives. Examine how the information scientists gain from studying turtle shells is being used by engineers and architects to create vast public spaces that control ventilation, heat and light in a sustainable fashion. Learn about nature's ability to store and cleanse water and investigate the latest engineering practices for controlling and cleansing storm-water runoff. Using rocks, minerals and living coral reef, discover how cement is being made without mining or emitting greenhouse gases. Through hands-on investigations and modeling activitie s, you'll have the opportunity to create your own design challenge based on your observations and acquired knowledge. Then discover the creative side of science education with a local puppeteer and explore methods that can be easily adapted for your class to communicate and model scientific processes. Finally, have the opportunity to test out your engineering and scientific challenges with students in local summer school program as you inspire students to explore science, engineering and technology.
Partners:
   
Berkshire Museum; Housatonic Valley Association, Flying Cloud Institute, Marmalade Productions
Graduate Credit Available From: Cambridge College; Mass College of Liberal Arts (MCLA)
What examples of "engineering" in the natural world can be used as the basis for creating technologies that are used in human society? How has a world of changing climate and habitat, selection and adaptation aided living things to survive for millions of years? Have humans modeled these adaptations to aid in their own survival? Seek the answers to these questions as you work with fossils, live animals and a living coral reef to investigate how scientists and engineers are using what we learn from the form and function of animals in engineering applications. Investigate the science behind designing skyscrapers and creating products such as cement, glue, fibers, tools and other objects we use daily. Learn how corals inspire scientists to engineer coastal barriers for human protection. Explore how plants and animals meet challenges in their environments and how those responses can inspire building designers. Investigate how architects integrate passive solar design and new solar technologies to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative impacts of the sun's rays. Then, using your new-found knowledge, design your own invention and your own sustainable spaces. Join us and experience hands-on, minds-on activities that will expand your understanding and provide you with the science inquiry skills to ignite your students' interest and curiosity in exploring the world of science, technology and engineering.
Click here for the Boston Regional Flyer!
Partners:
   
Zoo New England, Learning by Design in Massachusetts, Harvard Museum of Natural History, New England Aquarium
Graduate Credit Available From: Cambridge College; Framingham State University
Discover how observation and understanding of natural systems, physical properties and living organisms can inspire engineering design and technology. Investigate how studying conditions and the survival of wildlife in extreme climates can serve as models for enabling humans to survive and work in these conditions. Explore the science of extreme weather and climate change and the engineering challenges of developing scientific equipment exposed to these conditions. Examine how evolution and adaptation ensure the survival of organisms in the natural world, and how these continually occurring processes can be applied to human society to develop innovative technologies. Compare tools, systems and structures in the natural and built world. Discuss how humans model the adaptation/evolutionary process through the cycle of science inspiring engineering design and how engineering design inspires more science. Explore the diverse form and function of plants. Study the adaptations that plants have evolved to disperse seeds and create your own plant-inspired products such as the familiar fastener, Velcro. Discover how observations of physical properties and principles found in nature are applied to product design to improve efficiency and structure of everyday products as you search for the answers. Experience hands-on, minds-on activities that will expand your understanding and reinvigorate your interest and curiosity in exploring the world of science, technology and engineering with your students.
Click here for the Central Regional Flyer!
Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Ecotarium, Mass Audubon Wachusett Meadow Wildlife Sanctuary, Catch the Science Bug
Graduate Credit Available From: Cambridge College; Framingham State University
Merrimack Region
Explore the intersection of scientific inquiry and engineering design as you investigate how science uncovers how the world around us works and engineering strives to use this science to respond to the challenges of human society. Examine how the beaver builds its dam and become a civil engineer as you design and build your own scale-model of an efficient and environmentally sensitive dam. Gather information and ideas for your design while visiting a modern hydroelectric power plant, an urban state forest and the historic Pawtucket Dam on the Merrimack River. Explore the fascinating fibers made by silk worms and spiders, the synthetic materials designed to replace them, and current research into materials inspired by these animals. Study the adaptations of winged animals and how they relate to the invention and ongoing development of machines that fly. Explore the relationship between structure and function by studying feathers, scales and fur. Plants have been collecting solar power for millions of years - examine leaf arrangement to learn how plants maximize their light exposure and see how this applies to creating efficient solar power for us. Create inquiry-based science and engineering investigations to excite and inspire your students to explore science, engineering and technology concepts.
Click here for the Merrimack Regional Flyer!
Partners:
   
Mass Audubon Endicott and Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuaries, American Textile History Museum, Tsongas Industrial History Center, MITS
Graduate Credit Available From: Cambridge College; Framingham State University
Nature has inspired engineering design for millennia. From airplane wings to high tech fabrics to Velcro, the technologies that make our lives easier and more efficient often have their roots in natural systems. Dive into marine mammal research, exploring how the anatomical and physiological characteristics of marine animals have inspired naval architecture and the design of underwater vehicles. How many examples of nature's superior design skills can you find among the surf and sand? Discover how processes used by mussels and other shellfish inspire the design of products you use in daily life, such as cement. Look to the sky at the avian world for more inspiration. From the structure and function of eggs to a peregrine falcon's unique adaptations to high speed flight, humans have looked to the avian world for models to solve flight and other technology designs. What have we learned about sustainability from the natural world? Explore how structures built by animals have influence human architecture and products, from the mound building skills of termites to the flow-control mechanisms of beavers. Learn how to make engineering come alive with hands-on, minds-on activities to inspire your students to connect science and technology, and perhaps become the next generation of engineers.
Click here for the Southeast Regional Flyer!
Partners:
   
How does the natural world inspire engineering design? We will engage in science inquiry investigations to examine ingenious designs in the natural world, then use our newly acquired knowledge to explore design dilemmas in the human world. Discover how animals, plants and natural systems influence much of our technology and engineering and inspire the design and development of products you use in daily life. Investigate how simple human-made tools are built to mimic the form and function of fish, birds, insects and other animals. Immerse yourself in the engineering methods and structures of nature's ultimate engineer, the beaver. Apply the engineering design process to the problems of rain runoff, soil erosion and non-point pollution. Tour the Amoskeag hydroelectric station and fish passage facility on the Merrimack River. Solve a water flow problem by studying how the river flows. Using models and other inquiry methods, explore, play, invent and have fun with us! Through our investigations you will develop a deeper understanding of the connections between science, engineering and technology.
Click here for the Southern New Hampshire Regional Flyer!
Partners:
  
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