Month: April 2016

Posted on

Leal Science Night

Event Title: Leal Science Night

Location: Leal Elementary, Urbana, IL

Date: April 29th, 2016

Members of ENVISION set up 5 tables at the Leal Elementary Science Night, where our theme was “Explore Engineering”. A description of each of our tables is included below:

  1. Electrical Engineering – Egg carton battery activity, where the students assembled a battery from copper wire, nails, vinegar, an LED, and an egg carton.
  2. Environmental Engineering – Wind turbine kits, borrowed from Professor Rutherford from the University of Illinois.
  3. Mechanical Engineering – CD Hovercrafts, assembled from a CD, a balloon, and a bottle cap. The students were introduced to the concept of friction.
  4. Structural Engineering – Gumdrop domes, in which the students constructed small structures from gumdrops and toothpicks. The students learned how triangles are stronger than squares.
  5. Controls & Dynamics – We had three activities at this table: a robotic inverted pendulum, a wood and bottle demo (to demonstrate stability), and a segway!

20160429_200904 20160429_190711 20160429_190502 20160429_184801

Posted on

BTW Family Engineering Fair

Event Title: BTW Family Engineering Fair

Location: Booker T. Washington Elementary, Champaign, IL

Date: April 23rd, 2016

The Family Engineering Fair at Booker T. Washington (BTW) was a success! Over 400 students came to the event and participated in the variety of activities we helped set up. Thank you to all the volunteers from ENVISION and Pi Tau Sigma for all of the their help!

The students and their families cycled through various hands on activities located throughout the park behind BTW. We partnered with the faculty and PTA at BTW, the Douglass Branch of the Champaign Library, Champaign Park District, ASME, and Pi Tau Sigma.

There were various smaller activities located in the park behind BTW Elementary:

  • Gumdrop domes

Fam.Engr.Fair_1586

  • Egg carton vinegar battery
  • Stomp rockets
  • Slime
  • Fog ring cannon
  • Oobleck kiddy pool

Fam.Engr.Fair.Jeremy_0079

  • Mini ball run

Fam.Engr.Fair.Jeremy_0065

  • Wind turbine kits
  • Elephant toothpaste

Fam.Engr.Fair_1473

 

We also had 2 longer activities that students needed tickets for to participate:

  • 3D printing

20160423_140114 20160423_140129

  • Kaleidoscope Construction

Fam.Engr.Fair_1748

To encourage students to participate in as many activities as possible, we created passports that the students would take around the fair with them. After completing an activity, the students would receive stamps. At the end of the fair, the students received prizes (such as gift cards to Jimmy Johns) depending on the number of stamps they had on the passports.

Fam.Engr.Fair_1639

Read two great articles from I-STEM about the BTW Family Engineering Fair and our two co-founders here and here!

We hope to make this event even larger next year and open it up to the community!