RAFT Presents Award at San Mateo County STEM Fair

On March 29th, the SMCOE STEM fair was held at the Hiller Aviation Museum. Every year, RAFT is allowed to pick a special winner who has demonstrated an exceptional skills in science. The RAFT special award winner this year is Maya Ellis, a fifth grader from Central Middle School in San Carlos!

Maya's physics project, "Shaped for Speed," tested the effect of shape on the performance of boat hulls. She made simple aluminum foil hulls, which she floated in a tub of water. She added a drop of soap to the back of each boat, which propelled it across the tub. Maya is very familiar with the surfactant properties of soap. She tested four designs and discovered two were particularly good. Maya created a fifth design to extend her tests. She also tested both hot and cold water. All in all, Maya is an inquisitive young scientist!

Maya's award was created by one of RAFT's champions, Greg Brown, and was made using recycled materials:

•Surplus aluminum sheet

•Surplus plywood

•Articulated arm to hold old-style phone on dash

•Space Shuttle clay molds

•Plastic pipettes

•Wire

•Wire nuts

•Wire spools

•Used pencil cup

•Recycled trophy parts

•Bottle cap

The tilted triangle at the top is the same shape as one of Maya’s most successful aluminum boat designs.

Congratulations Maya!

Comments

Science fairs: Nurturing the 21st century thinker

3D Tessellation model A bespectacled 6th grader enthusiastically explains ‘efficiency of 3D space tessellations’ with myriad equations and handmade tessellation patterns to address the needs of the packaging, storing, shipping and construction industry. Another middle school student, was inspired by his little brother’s telescope and built a simple vacuum chamber using a PVC pipe with a microphone and a speaker on both ends to find out how sound travels on Mars! This 8th grader from Granada Islamic School used an oscilloscope his mother found at an auction to measure the sounds. “I poke around and find junk to build my projects. It’s fun.” Science projects today have become fun for many students as they use more hands on activities to experiment and understand concepts. These two middle school students were among 996 participants at the recent Synopsys Silicon Valley Science and Technology Championship , where RAFT was one of the special judges. Moenes Iskarous, President, S...

One Person’s Junk is a Teacher’s Treasure

By Elisha Burns, RAFT Fellow This is the time of the year when I think of all the things that I am thankful for having in my life. Materials found at RAFT With all of the extra expenses that come with a teaching career I am happy to learn of any ways to lessen my expenses. One of the cost cutting resources that I love having access to as a teacher is RAFT. With the dawn of Common Core and the push for project-based learning comes the need for organizations like RAFT. As a teacher at a STEAM academy I am expected to bring my lessons to life, however my school only provides me with a small budget for materials. Teachers need to create dynamic hands on lessons and RAFT offers the resources necessary to teach. Every time I come to RAFT I leave with a cart full of items and ideas. I might find a stack of obsolete product boxes that become the foundation for my student’s historical diorama. Walking around I might see a display showing an innovative way to use corporat...

How does math relate to real life?

By Jeanne Lazzarini, Math Master Educator/R&D Specialist, RAFT How does math relate to real life? One way is to take a look at the shape of a cloud, a mountain, a coastline, or a tree! You might be surprised to find that many patterns in nature, called fractals, including growth patterns, have very peculiar mathematical properties --- even though these natural shapes are not perfect spheres, circles, cones, triangles, or even straight lines! 3D Fractals For Inspiration So, what is a fractal? Benoit Mandelbrot (November 20, 1924 – October 14, 2010) is commonly called the father of fractals. He created the term “fractal” to describe curves, surfaces and objects that have some very peculiar properties. A fractal is a geometric shape which is both self-similar and has fractional dimension. Daydreaming fractals Ok, so what does that mean? Well, “self-similar” means that when you magnify an object, each of...

RAFT Hands-On Education

Search This Blog