The SMILE Program @ OSU

The spring newsletter is here! Inside, you’ll find a summary of our recent High School Challenge at OSU, updates from several SMILE clubs, information about the upcoming Summer Bridge program, and more. Click here to access the newsletter!

We need your help in making the newsletter more interactive and engaging! Newsletters are an excellent way for clubs to share what they are doing with other SMILE clubs, families, and OSU staff through stories and updates. We are looking to clubs to contribute short pieces about meeting activities with 1 to 2 pictures to be included in the newsletter. Writing a newsletter entry would be a great follow-up for students for a club meeting and a way for them to share what they learned.

If you have any activities, stories, or pictures that you would like to share to be featured in an upcoming newsletter, please send them to Abbe at abbe.lougee@oregonstate.edu.

With Easter around the corner we wanted to show you some natural ways to dye your eggs.  The SMILE Club at Forest Grove High School shared with us the experiment they completed during a club meeting.  They used things found in nature like grass, cranberries, and apple skins to create their colorful eggs.  Check out their work and have a Happy Easter!

Teachers, the Middle School Challenge is just around the corner!  Last term we learned some important lessons from our Mechanical Engineering Team that has hopefully helped your students construct a cable car.  We hope that you pass these lessons along to your students so that we can have a successful Middle School Challenge.  Here is a list of what you need to do before the challenge.

1) Make sure your students check out the videos we have been posting and do some research on cable car designs.

2) Make sure they have read and understand the requirements for the cable car.  Feel free to post any questions.

3) Have your students make at least one club cable car to share at the Middle School Challenge.  This car will need to be completed before the challenge as we will be doing a LEGO based industrial and manufacturing engineering challenge.

4) Come to the Middle School Challenge ready share and test your cable car! We look forward to seeing you at Eastern Oregon University on April 26th, or Portland Community College on May 3rd, or Southern Oregon University on May 10th.

Again if you have any questions please post them in the comments or contact us directly through email.