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STEM

Hike the DC STEM Trek!

September 6, 2021 by NCAC STEM

The Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Trek is a hike around the Mall area of downtown Washington DC highlighting some of the STEM that was involved in the creation of Washington D.C., and showcasing the government agencies and private organizations involved in STEM that are located in Washington DC.

The Trek includes 24 stops; each has a question for you to answer (a cub scout level question, a Scout BSA level question and an on-site question).

For a glimpse of the questions: At stop #7, the Eisenhower National Presidential Memorial, we want to know how tall the Eisenhower figure in the left-most sculpture is? At stop #16,  the Octagon House, we want to know how many angles are formed by the main house outline?

There is an ‘abbreviated’ trek highlighted in the guide for those who prefer that. The shorter hike begins at the Smithsonian Metro station and ends at the Boy Scout Memorial, with a route of 4.75 miles. The longer trek is a 10.57-mile hike and routes through 24 stops from the Smithsonian Metro station to the USDA.

To see the STEM Trek Guide, visit www.ncacbsa.org/stem and expand the section titled ‘DC STEM Trek’. We hope to see you earn your patch!

 

The origin story of the Trek:
The STEM Trek concept originated from the NCAC STEM Committee, chaired by Dr. Arden Dougan, in 2019. STEM Committee member and Colonial District Supernova Mentor Mr. Tony Springer originally identified over a dozen Trek stops and presented this in a working session at University of Scouting 2020.

Girl Troop 1853 with the Albert Einstein Statue during one of their STEM Trek hikes!

From that original idea, Girls Troop 1853 of Springfield, Virginia adapted, enhanced and completed the development of the Trek! Special thanks to Reagan and Cordelia, who were the Senior Patrol Leaders during this development. Inputs were provided by Sarah, Kyra, Sadie, Paige, Sydney, Tessa, Evelynn, Lauren, Moksha, Sumi, Rowan, Aubrie, Reagan, and Cordelia. Input was also provided by Scouters Mrs. Foster, the Scoutmaster, and Mrs. Embry, Mrs. Kelley and Mr. Schulke.

Finally, we would be remiss if we did not recognize Mr. Donlin, a truly unsung hero of the DC STEM Trek. Mr. Donlin took the initiative to rally GTroop 1853 to adopt the development of the Trek during covid. He dedicated countless hours mentoring the group in this endeavor and that does not even include the several miles of hiking/exploring to pilot the Trek! Over several months, Mr. Donlin led the group to complete the design, stops and questions for the DC STEM Trek that you see today.

We hope you enjoy the Trek, and learn about our Nation’s Capital and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics!

Filed Under: Adventure Tagged With: Hike, HOST, STEM

STEM Lab 314 in Powhatan

September 5, 2021 by NCAC STEM

Powhatan District welcomes a brand new STEM Scouts Lab this fall! This is the District’s first STEM Scouts Lab, and following in similar vein as several other NCAC Labs, the group picked a unit number with some mathematical significance: 314.

Lab 314 is led by wonderful leaders of Pack 159 who took the initiative to start this standalone STEM program. The first meeting was Lab Safety & Orientation, as is required for every STEM Scout year. Then, last week, the Lab met to begin its’ first activity module of the year – all about Wildlife Sciences.

The STEM Scouts received their individual activity kits, but they met in a classroom all wearing masks for the Lab meeting.

This first module is titled “Into the Wild” and is described as: Warm blood, cold blood, bones or no bones, these Scouts will go into the wild to discover the variety of animals that inhabit our planet. Scouts will first explore the biomes of this world and then determine which animal calls each biome home. From there, they will get their “gloves dirty” to experience the food chain in person by dissecting an owl pellet and investigate various bird adaptations. Scouts will get to see how long an alligator actually is, discover which amphibian is clear, and end by building an aquatic marine biome ecosystem, also known as a coral reef!

Up next, they’ll be exploring aerodynamics with a module called “A Flying Fluid”!

 

Filed Under: Scouting Programs Tagged With: STEM, STEM Scouts

Scout Day at Nationals Park

September 2, 2021 by Michael Hanson

On August 15th, over 750 Scouts, Scouters, and family members joined the Washington Nationals for Scout Day. Besides the home team red, the stands were dotted with BSA tan, Cub Scout blue, Venturing green, and for the first time STEM Scout white. The STEM Scouts took center stage and field in their lab coats to conduct the flag ceremony and show thousands of fans a video about the BSA’s newest program. Other Packs and Troops used the occasion to conduct summer celebrations, recruitment activities, and even a Wood Badge beading ceremony.

Powhatan STEM Chair Michael Hanson received his Wood Badge beading in the stands at Nat’s Park during Scout Day.

 

Lab Managers Marcus Martin (9941) and Burt Wagner (991) are recognized for their successful Lab year during COVID and growing the Program Council-wide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interest in STEM Scouts is growing in the National Capital Area Council with additional labs starting this fall. Please visit www.stemscouts.org or contact Trisha, NCAC Director of STEM and Exploring, at stem@ncacbsa.org to learn more about starting a lab in your area.

STEM Scouts Honor Guard made up of Marco Martin (9941, front left), Lizzie Hanson (9941, front right), Chris Hanson (9941, back left), and Andrew Wagner (991, back right).

Watch the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxWvbcXpBzs

STEM Scout Honor Guard setting up on the field at National’s Park

 

Filed Under: Scouting Programs Tagged With: STEM, STEM Scouts

Explorer Post 1010 Wins Top STEM Competitions!

August 26, 2021 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Submitted by: Bob Ekman

Explorer Post 1010 is engaged in four national engineering programs – The American Rocketry Challenge, FIRST Tech Challenge Robotics, Botball Educational Robotics, and the UAS4STEM Drone Competition. In 2021, we worked through the pandemic and did very well in all four programs. Our robotics teams scored among the top teams, but our rocketry and drone teams were at the at the top nationally. The tenacity of the teams through many long months of the pandemic has proved to be their strength. Add to that the dedication of several adult leaders in providing the logistics so the teams could meet and succeed in their challenge.

Bob Ekman is the over-all advisor for Post 1010. Tom May, aided by his wife Beth May, are the mentors for the drone team. Vince Camobreco is a mentor for the rocketry team. Neal Perkins is a mentor for the FIRST robotics team. Bob is also the mentor for the Botball team.

Post 1010 has been active since 1997, with hundreds of teen passing through the program. We currently have about 34 registered members. They do well every year, but this year has been extraordinary.

The American Rocketry Challenge

Explorer Post 1010 registered three teams in the 2020 The American Rocketry Challenge (TARC). The main web site is https://rocketcontest.org/. The challenge is to fly to a specific altitude and then descend to the ground in a specific total flight time. We also had to carry a large raw egg and not receive any cracks. We started with experiments focused on the challenge in the fall of 2019. We recruited several new members for 2020 and designed and built our competition rockets. We started testing our rockets during the winter of 2020.

Then the pandemic hit and we suspended the program until September 2020. We used the same 2020 challenge for 2021, but dropped one of our teams because we lost several seniors. By May 17, 2021, both teams completed three qualification flights with scores low enough to be invited to the national fly-off in June. The finals are for the top 100 teams from the 615 registered teams across the US.

Our teams traveled to the Great Meadow field in The Plains, VA, on June 13. They both successfully completed two flights. The first one to 775 feet and descent time between 39 and 42 seconds. The second one to 825 feet and descent time between 41 and 44 seconds. Our first team had two flights that were almost perfect, getting a score of 3 and 5 for a combined score of 8. The second team had good altitude scores, but descended a little too fast. At an on-line ceremony on June 28, the first team was ranked 2nd place nationally and awarded $17,000. They lost to a team in Oregon that scored 7.7. Our second team was ranked 42nd.

UAS4STEM Drone Competition

Explorer Post 1010 registered a teams in the 2020 UAS4STEM drone competition. While we started preparing for the spring and summer competition, the pandemic caused us to delay until 2021. In the challenge, the team must fly their drone both autonomously and remote controlled. They needed to find several targets which are out of site from the team, and then drop water balloons filled with paint on the target.

In April, our team made an on-line presentation which was rated highly and gave them an invitation to the national competition. The national competition was held in conjunction with the AirVenture Fly-In festival at Oshkosh WI in August 2021. Our team competed with a dozen other teams from across the nation. They gave another impressive presentation and successfully performed their flight operations, hitting the targets several times. At the festival in August, they were awarded first place nationally and $2,500.

Filed Under: Adventure, Scouting Programs Tagged With: STEM

8/28 Scout Invention Showcase & Facebook Live with TIME Kid of the Year, a STEM Scout Inventor!

August 24, 2021 by NCAC STEM

Join us on Saturday, August 28th at 5 pm EST for another STEM Speaker Series with the TIME Kid of the Year and STEM Scout Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali was honored for her work using STEM skills to address issues like bullying, opioid addiction and contaminated drinking water. You can catch this special edition of the STEM Speaker Series on the NCAC STEM Facebook page!

Photo from Time: from: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2020/12/09/first-ever-time-kid-of-the-year-is-a-stem-scout-from-colorado/

Want to join the conversation?

If your Scout would like to submit a question for the chance to see it answered live, you can submit it via this form.

Have you invented something? Want to share in the Inventing Showcase?

Send us a photo or video clip and we will include it in the August 28th Scouts’ Inventing Showcase!

Share in this Google Drive or email to 082stem@gmail.com

Be sure to include: your name, city, state, grade, and a brief statement of what problem your invention aims to solve.

This is an especially excellent opportunity for Scouts BSA youth working on their Inventing Merit Badge. Or if you’ve already created an invention, please share with us as we want to feature it!

 

 

What is STEM Scouts?

STEM Scouts is a BSA program for girls and boys in grades 3-8 to explore science, technology, engineering and math. STEM Scouts meet in groups called Labs and explore hands-on experiments through 20 activities designed by educators at National each year. You can read more about this here.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Scouting At Home Tagged With: inventing, Merit Badges, STEM

Laptops for the Needy

June 21, 2021 by Matthew S

My name is Matthew, and I’m from Troop 17. I’ve been in Scouting since 3rd grade, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. I’m currently a Life Scout, and I’ve decided to start my Eagle Scout Project.

My Eagle Scout Project is called Laptops for the Needy. It’s about refurbishing old laptops so those in need can use them. I wanted to do this project because I noticed that a lot of good jobs require some form of computer work, and a lot of jobs require applicants to fill out online forms to apply. I want to give everyone a good, even chance at securing those jobs, and if someone can’t afford a computer, they’re already at a disadvantage. Plus, these computers can be used for educational purposes, as well as entertainment.

We will be taking any old laptops we get, cleaning off any data, reloading Windows, adding an antivirus, and placing them in laptop bags with instructions in English and Spanish. All laptops will come with an AC adaptor and a mouse.

Currently, I am looking for corporations that may need to dispose of or recycle older equipment that could possibly be used. Laptops with or without hard drives would be perfect.

I appreciate any support that you can offer. If you have anything that could help our efforts, please contact me at laptops4needyEP@gmail.com (which goes to an adult for YPT purposes). Thank you!

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Eagle Project, STEM

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