STEM – Northeast HamXposition™

New England Sci-Tech Hosts Lexington Boy Scout Troop

December 17, 2023 by admin

From ema.arrl.org:

Seventeen boys and girls from the Lexington BSA scouts participated in a three-hour program at New England Sci-Tech in Natick [MA] toward their radio merit badge, electronics merit badge, and amateur radio license.

For two groups over two weekends, Jon Lyna, George Lyna, Rusty Moore, K1FVK, and Bob Phinney, K5TEC, led radio and electronics activities. Scout leader John Aldridge created the curriculum which he and Bob plan to make a regular program for scout activities at New England Sci-Tech.

New England Sci-Tech Students Participate in Cubes in Space Experiments

December 9, 2023 by admin

“New England Sci-Tech students participate in the Cubes in Space program run by iEDU inc. where they create and present experiments that, if selected, launch into near-space on a NASA sounding rocket or zero pressure scientific balloon. This year, the students taking part in Cubes in Space proposed an experiment to test the viability of launching spray-dried blood into space for rehydration in a zero-gravity environment to treat traumatic injury in space.”

Since porcine blood most closely matches human blood, team is researching if APC’s products could treat traumatic injury in space. [Full story]

NEST "blood in space" poster at 2023 HamXposition — New England Sci-Tech poster on display at the 2023 Northeast HamXposition. Photo courtesy K5TEC

RadioCraft a Big Hit at “Geek is Glam” Girl Scout Event

October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 by Phil Temples

Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, shared on the New England Sci-Tech mailing list:

Mike Radz writes:

Dear Colleagues:

I have attached seven pictures from the “Geek is Glam” Girl Scout event held at WPI this past Saturday. My IQP team staffed a booth and offered the girls two STEM/HAM related activities: Morse code and Minecraft.

The former activity utilized Morse code kits from NEST as well as some circuitry built by the students that enabled the Girl Scouts to see the letters associated with the dots and dashes they tapped show up on a computer screen (this shown in the pics).

The later activity utilized a new “mod” that has been created for Minecraft that enables a player to build a HAM radio communication network within the game. It is in beta testing mode right now, but the WPI kids contacted the creator and arranged to get a copy to showcase at the event.

Finally, the kids created a QR code that took each Girl Scout to a survey instrument at which they could specify which activity they preferred. I have not yet seen the survey results, but the WPI kids will develop a “curriculum” based on the most popular activity and test to see whether or not it statistically influences youngsters to re-evaluate their views on STEM in a positive way.

Cheers.

Mike Radz

[The Minecraft radio mod “RadioCraft” made its official debut at the 2023 Northeast HamXposition. -K9HI]