Get S.E.T. Biographies for Fall 2014

Demonstration Team Accomplishments:

The Demonstration team has successfully designed and built their Stirling engine project. The only thing that needs to be done with the engine is some fine tuning involving the crank shaft and pressure diaphragm. The next semester team members will finish fine tuning it and then apply a flywheel. They will also be in charge of selecting their preferred method to convert the mechanical energy of the Stirling engine to the extension that they decide to add. The Demonstration team has also found the files and parts from a previous team’s bottle rocket experiment.

Elementary School Sub Team Accomplishments

This semester the Elementary Sub Team planned on having completed at least 2 of the 6 total proposed projects. The initial projects were teaching students earth layers, magnetism, symmetry, states of matter, and patterns. All of the projects proposed are expanded through 3 different grade levels ranging from second to fourth graders, which can be taught within an hour of a teacher's agenda. In addition, we planned on incorporating a hands-on activity for students to be engaged and help them visualize and have fun learning about science. Within our agenda for each project, we proposed to introduce the lesson to the students by giving them general introductory information and transition into the activity, and at the end, a debriefing exercise utilizing a worksheet.

We partnered with Charles Wright Elementary School and the proposed plan was to be revised. The revisions proposed by the elementary school were to modify our project for a group of third through fifth grader students at an after school program that would last as long as four different visits. We had chosen to incorporate the earth layers project because it adhered to the California State Standards and we noticed that each grade level learns geology. Due to this, we broke up the project into four distinct sections, which were the introduction of the Earth’s layers, the formation of rocks, a sand bottle activity, and lastly, a debriefing activity that tested their knowledge.

After visiting the elementary school four times, we concluded that our project was a success and complete. Even though there were minor revisions to the project and ongoing improvement, the project was completed after understanding the students’ prior knowledge. In addition, with the students’ knowledge about earth layers, the lesson/project showed a great outcome in teaching students about earth and rocks.

Future plans for next team would be to always incorporate a fun activity for students to learn and be engaged. Some advice would be to understand students’ prior knowledge and test yourself to simplify the lesson as much as possible due to the different levels of knowledge from each grade level. Also, students enjoy learning from those who are also excited about the material, so it’s great to put enthusiasm to your presentations.

After visiting the elementary school four times, we concluded that our project was a success and complete. Even though there were minor revisions to the project and ongoing improvement, the project was completed after understanding the students’ prior knowledge. In addition, with the students’ knowledge about earth layers, the lesson/project showed a great outcome in teaching students about earth and rocks.

Future plans for next team would be to always incorporate a fun activity for students to learn and be engaged. Some advice would be to understand students’ prior knowledge and test yourself to simplify the lesson as much as possible due to the different levels of knowledge from each grade level. Also, students enjoy learning from those who are also excited about the material, so it’s great to put enthusiasm to your presentations.

High School sub team

The high school sub-team planned on designing and demonstrating a project which would give high school students an interactive experience that helps them learn and apply the material they would be covering during the semester. The project our sub-team decided on was to study projectile motion and kinematic equations in a new way using toy race cars and race tracks.

	Jemellee Urbino – Team Leader
	Cory Mercer – Deputy Leader
	David Powell – Demonstration Sub Team Leader
	Nathaniel Berhane – High School Sub Team Leader
	Javier Jacinto – Middle School Sub Team Leader
	Kevin Macayan – Elementary Sub Team Leader
	Saniya Jesupaul – Recorder
	Jorge Luna – Inventory/Financial Officer
	Tian En Yu - Web Designer
	Christopher Taylor - IPO
	Tiffany Tang - Student Advisory Council
	John Villa - Team Member
	Kyle Weatherford- Team Member
	Jeffrey Johnson- Team Member