Report from the STEM Symposium.

As we have informed you before, the Albuquerque Section participated in this year’s New Mexico Public Education Department STEM Symposium. Previous posts included a description of the workshop that some of our members prepared for the event and pictures from their meetings. Here, we are providing a report of the Symposium, and more pictures!!

Rebecca Kreitinger (student member, IEEE), Turtle Haste, and Hy Tran (senior member, IEEE) led a workshop on engineering practices for New Mexico teachers on Friday June 2, 2017, at the NM Public Education Department (NMPED) STEM Symposium. About 60 teachers participated in this session entitled “Breaking Chocolate: Engaging Science and Engineering Concepts”

Although the presenters have not yet received the formal feedback from the teachers who participated, verbal feedback from several attendees was positive, and several teachers commented that they intended to use many of the material and concepts presented on measurements, calibration, and the iterative nature of engineering practices.

A few photos from the session are included in this post from the event.

Hy Tran will be presenting both the concept behind the workshop and some lessons learned at the NCSLI (National Conference of Standards Laboratories) conference in August 2017 in Washington DC. The presenters desire to eventually turn this workshop, and STEM outreach collaborations between the professional engineering communities and the science teacher community, into a submission for a peer-reviewed publication.

The Albuquerque IEEE section is hosting all the electronic resources for the teachers at their website:

• First post inviting members to participate in the STEM Symposium
• Second post with workshop materials

Here are some pictures from the Symposium:

Teachers brainstorming how to break the chocolate (and of course, measure the breaking strength.)

One team is testing out how to measure the geometry of the test before unwrapping the chocolate and testing.

This group is ready to perform an experiment and collect data.

The Albuquerque Section would like to thank again Rebecca, Turtle, and Hy for their hard work and spirit of service. We will continue looking for opportunities to further the IEEE mission among our members and our community.

Thank you,

Gilberto (2017 Treasurer)