Week 8 Articles

1) STEM program being pioneered by Grass Lake elementary students

Original Link: http://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fptop.only.wip.la%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.mlive.com%2Fnews%2Fjackson%2Findex.ssf
%2F2016%2F01%2Fgeorge_long_elementary_pioneer.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNECbVGPGOg0Kh1J887j0bM
17FW7pw
Google Group Link:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ie-673-total-quality-management---spring-2016/JhIZ54WoQ0k

Tamer Marshood:
This is great! My experiences in STEM programs as a child, the nothing like what they're doing,
are memorable till this day. This is absolutely necessary and I'm a bit surprised that it hasn't yet
been adopted in all schools throughout the country. But I guess with budget cuts, and other
financial restrictions combined with the emphasis on standardized testing has led schools down
another path.
I recalled Bill Gates saying a few years back how important coding is and will be to the future.
And with the technology we have today, there's no reason why all children can learn coding from
a very young age. Certainly, this is the direction education is heading in.
I do, however, hope that, in addition to science and engineering programs, schools also at some
point return a focus to arts programs. I would even say, & I would love to hear what you all think
about this, that arts and music programs are just as important as science and math programs.
Thoughts?
Sean Redmond:
Tamer I agree with everything that you said 100%. It is amazing to see these types of programs being
built into elementary schools. Going into my electrical engineering degree in college I was required to do
a great deal of programming and coding. This was one of the hardest parts of the degree for me as I had
no background in this subject. We all take courses in high school that are like calculus and physics but I
was never required to and never had the option to take a computer programming class. If we want to see
the next generation make great technological advances we need to start them off at a young age and get
them programming when they are in middle school and early high school. I felt as though by the time I hit
college my mind was too closed for such substantially different material.
One thing that will help this generation is the awesome tools that have made learning programming even
simpler. We have items such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino that make learning programming easy and
simpler than it had ever been in the past. As a kid I loved to tinker with gadgets and if these had been
available when I was 13 or 14 years old I think that I would have bought one and learned more about
coding at a younger age. I hope that these STEM programs and these cheap technology teacher tools
remain available so that most educational systems can afford them and keep programs moving forward
creating the next generation of engineers and scientist!

Me (Blace Jacobus):
This will go a long way to helping the next generation's technology. I have heard that is much easier to
learn a second language as a kid. That is because at that age your mind is like a sponge, taking in all the
information it can. As we get older and older it requires more and more effort to retain and understand
new things. I would say understanding computer code is very similar to a new language. The way a
computer processes and accomplishes tasks is very far different from the way humans think so to
understand and control this is very powerful.
Just look at how computers have changed the world for our generation. This very online class would be
impossible without computers. The difference for the future generation will be that they all understand the
inner working behind the programs that are used day to day instead of just knowing how to use them. I
think this would be similar to knowing how to derive physics equations instead of just knowing how to use
them. This extra layer of understanding will allow them push the limits of technology as we know it to new
heights

DAries Kimberly:
First, I will comment on the arts and music program comment. I believe that this is very important as well
for any student and they should have the option of participating and learning something new in the
classroom as well as taking to a new level if they wish, and making it an extra curricular activity.
I think incorporating STEM at such a young age helps engage and promote kids to continue these
focuses later on in life. The trend and latest push is if kids are introduced to STEM, especially girls, at a
young age and have all of these resources at their disposal, more will continue on to college and earn a
degree in a STEM field. Having advanced equipment and experiments is a great thing to have in school
systems. Even for students who are not interested in STEM fields, this can help give a cutting edge in
education with these hands on experiments and lessons. Clearly from this article, this elementary school
is one of handful and the only one in Michigan, to implement the Ardusat platform. It will be interesting to
see the influence of the program and in ten years time, how many students from this school will earn their
degree in a STEM field.
I remember in my elementary school we had a similar program once a week. The class was called
"Enrichment" and it was a class revolved mini science experiments. I did not learn coding nor were my
experiments as integral as the ones described. I would've enjoyed more intense experiments, but I always
knew I wanted to major and pursue a STEM degree, so thankfully I don't think I missed out on my calling
because I didn't have a platform like this readily available.

2) NASA names asteroid for New Orleans student scientist

Original Link:

http://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fptop.only.wip.la%3A443%2Fhttp%2Fwww.nola.com%2Feducation%2Findex.ssf
%2F2016%2F01%2Fnasa_asteroid_lusher_student.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGKY2j38ddhbhbfB8hmY0_kfqhNw
Google Group Link:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ie-673-total-quality-management--spring-2016/eTgqvpXUyDo

Tamer Marshood:
The first thing that jumped out at me about this article where the funny comments at the bottom
of the page. One commenter asked, why was the asteroid named after this particular student
when she tied for second place with several others? What about the first place winner?
Surprisingly, the article does not address this.
More so on the content of the article itself, it is very impressive. I'm sure there are students at
our university, perhaps including myself, who are not capable of achieving what this young high
school student achieved. As impressive as it is, however, I'm very interested to know what the
first place student did for their project. How can they top that?
Either way, it's very cool when are the names an asteroid for you. And it's also pretty cool that
the student is enrolled in a charter school. Charter schools have not had the best reputation of
the past few years, so I'm sure they're all over this.
Blace Jacobus (Me):
As Tamer points she was part of several others that won a prize so it is strange that she was the only one
that had an asteroid named after her. I am sure that NASA has some good justification as to why she was
the only one that was recognized.
Im am amazed that after years of oil spill disasters these unseen toxins are just being discovered now
and by a high school student no less! I hope that Keiana gets a chance to look at her asteroid someday. A
24 inch telescope is not a simple armature telescope but Im sure a local observatory would be happy to
host her for the asteroid observing

3) ExoMars Prepares For Launch

Original Link:
http://www.manufacturing.net/videos/2016/03/exomars-prepares-launch?
et_cid=5153939&et_rid=576098541&type=headline&et_cid=5153939&et_rid=576098541&linkid=http%3a
%2f%2fwww.manufacturing.net%2fvideos%2f2016%2f03%2fexomars-prepares-launch%3fet_cid
%3d5153939%26et_rid%3d%%subscriberid%%%26type%3dheadline
Google Group Link:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ie-673-total-quality-management--spring-2016/y3M2PRhvcrA
Blace Jacobus (Me):
When I first started watching this video my first thought was WOW imagine the team work. I could not
imagine how many different engineering backgrounds this task would require to complete this project.
This goes to show why teamwork is necessary in the working world. There is no way one individual could
complete such a project.
I have always been so impressed by how astrophysicists are able to take such a limited amount of data
and make accurate assumptions from them. For this ExoMars project they are will be able to take a
detection of partials in the Martian atmosphere and plan to determine the history of Mars as well as if
there is life. To me that seems crazy! I am always blow away when they show pictures from the Hubble
telescope of some far away solar system that to me looks like two little blips of light but they can
determine how many planets are in the galaxy by the reduction if light from the systems star! They said it
would be equivalent to the light reduction from a fly crossing in front of a car headlight
Tamer Marshood:
This is so cool. I hope they find Life on Mars, or at least an indication of life from the past.
I'm in agreement with my colleague above. The level of teamwork and cooperation it takes to complete a
project like this is astonishing. I wonder how many FEL phases there were. And what kind of software
they must have used. Do these giant space companies use things like Microsoft Project or do they have
their own software that they make themselves? If I ever meet an astrophysicist, I'm going to ask him or
her.
The ability to make such Dynamic discoveries on what appears to be small amounts of information is also
just so cool! It just shows how far Humanity has come in understanding science and the physical world
around us.
As exciting as this all is, there's also another side to this debate. Just to be clear, I am all for it. However,
there are those that question whether or not the expense and cost of such projects is Justified. There are
hungry people on the planet. There are those with very little. And too few resources are used to help
these people. Why, then, can we justify spending so much to send things into space that will never
return? I have learned previously that the advances made due to the Space Program have led to
advancements in health and Technology. But I think the ultimate rebuttal to this perspective is to have a
look at how much is spent on warfare and Military. Compare that to the amount of money spent on the
space programs and it's doubtful any debate of the cost of the space programs would continue.