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Engineering for Students  August 11th, 2014

Scientists and teachers are trying to find ways to make engineering design easier for students to understand.  Some students have a difficult time understanding how engineering is different than science.  They also struggle making engineering design more than tinkering.  The Boston Museum of Science has developed a simple design process that makes engineering understandable to students.  It consists of five steps that help students know what to do at each stage of the cycle:  ask, imagine, plan, create, and improve.  We will discuss the design process at the teacher workshop and hope that it will engineering activities easier to manage and understand.


2014 High School Challenge Recap: Marine Protected Areas  March 14th, 2014

This February was the SMILE program’s 11th annual Ocean Sciences High School Challenge event.  This years event provided 120 students from 10 statewide SMILE clubs with a real world opportunity apply what they learned in their Clubs about the topic of Marine Resource Management.  More than 15 Oregon State University and community partners and 20 undergraduate mentors guided students as they learned about Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) and then used their knowledge to increase community awareness of MPA’s through the creation of interpretive signs, a newscast, and a final presentation.
As part of the challenge, students worked with OSU’s Student Media Services to create newscasts about Marine Protected Areas. Here are a few examples:

The students had only two hours to work with their teams and create their final products and what they were able to come up with was impressive!  We are happy to share some examples of student ingenuity!

 


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High School Challenge 2014 – Marine Protected Areas  December 12th, 2013

kelp and fish

This year’s High School Challenge event will be held on February 13 and 14, 2014 at OSU, and it will focus on the complex topic of Marine Protected Areas. Here are two introductory lessons that provide a general overview into what Marine Protected Areas are and how they work! Click the titles below to access the lesson plans.

Marine Protected Areas: An Introduction

Marine Protected Areas: Conservation Goals

A Classification System for Marine Protected Areas


Fish Population Activity  November 8th, 2013

This activity was provided by high school club leader Ken Dicky.  It adds to the sampling concepts taught in the halibut unit with a sample-to-population-inference activity.  It is a chance to do some basic math (statistics) and eat food at a club meeting!  Along with the activity worksheet you will find teacher notes with specifics on leading it during a club meeting.  Ken says: “It was fun, valuable, and took about 1 hour”.

Sample to Population Inference Activity

Teacher Notes

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