STEM

Deadline to Nominate STEM Teacher of the Year is Feb 1st

January 28, 2020 By Dayton Most Metro

The Big Hoopla STEM Teacher Of The Year award recognizes the great contributions K-8 teachers make in STEM classrooms in the Dayton region. The program recognizes and honors K-8 teacher excellence. It identifies, from among the countless peers in the region, a group of teachers to serve as a visible representation of innovation, persistence, and commitment to STEM education in classrooms in the region. Additionally, selection of The Big Hoopla STEM Teacher Of The Year brings great recognition to the teacher’s school district or system.

The 2019 Hoopla STEM Teacher of the Year was Beth Allaire, a STEM teacher at Bishop Leibold Elementary School in Miami Township.

Why Apply: Recipients of the award receive the following:

A $1,000 grant from Chaminade Julienne Catholic High School and The Big Hoopla Local Organizing Committee to be used to improve STEM learning in the classroom
An official Big Hoopla STEM Teacher Of The Year plaque awarded at the Big Hoopla STEM Challenge
50 Upper Arena tickets for each of the First Four March Madness games, to be shared by the teacher with his/her students and families
4 Hoopla Central VIP Passes for one evening

How to Apply: Complete the nomination form below. Students, Parents, Colleagues, Administrators can nominate a teacher. Application deadline is February 1, 2020.

Teacher of the Year will be awarded March 15, 2020!

Call For Nominations: 2019 Wilson A. Charbonneaux Award

April 25, 2019 By Brian Petro

This award, named for Mr. Wilson Charbonneaux, a longtime member of the Engineers Club of Dayton where he reenergized the Club’s Barn Gang and served on many of the Club’s committees. During his career, he established three successful companies and was personally granted 17 patents. He directed a great deal of energy to make science and technology understandable and accessible to the general public.

It is given to individual(s)/organization(s) for their innovative approaches to increasing the public’s understanding of science and technology. The quality of their outreach will be assessed. A demonstrated commitment to advancing and defining the role of science and technology in all aspects of society must be shown. Volunteer/not for profit activities will have preference over Government/Industry funded activities.

Past winners have included Dayton aviation writers, Howard R. DuFour, Fred Fisk and Marlin Todd, Melba Hunt and Mary Ann Johnson, a founding member of Aviation Trail, Ralph Dull Homestead, Dr. and Mrs. James Stewart, Mr. Walter Hoy and Mr. Stephen Frey. Organizations that have been honored are The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, The Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Program in the Dayton Area, the Affiliate Societies of Dayton for TechFest, the Wright “B” Flyer organization, Team Ohio Rocket Club, Air Camp, Mound Science and Energy Museum Association and the Dayton Regional STEM Center’s Science Saturday.

The nomination should include the name(s) of the individual(s) or organization, statements addressing the above criteria, and contact information. The award will be presented at the Engineers Club’s Annual Meeting Dinner in June, 2019.

Nominations should be sent to the Engineers Club of Dayton, 110 E. Monument Ave., Dayton, Ohio 45402 by May 15, 2019

For more information or to submit a nomination via e-mail, please contact Ms. Darbie Kincaid at (937) 228-2148, [email protected] or the following link on the club website at http://www.engineersclub.org. Please include in the subject line of any e-mail “Charbonneaux Award”

The Engineers Club mission is to foster the advancement of business, education, engineering and science, and to promote the professional development of its members. The Engineers Club offers individual memberships, including special memberships for students and non-residents, as well as corporate and group memberships. More information is available at http://www.engineersclub.org/.

Engineers Club Teaches Merit Badges to Local Scouts

February 4, 2019 By Brian Petro

Talking about science in the English Room.

Once again the Engineers Club of Dayton has taught technical Merit Badges to 12 different troops from Montgomery, Greene and Clark Counties represented by 27 Scouts BSA members. Since 2012 we have taught such subjects as Astronomy, Aviation, Composite Materials, Digital Technology, Electronics, Electricity, Energy, Engineering, Environmental Science, Inventing, Nuclear Science, Space Exploration, and Sustainability along with Geology, Robotics, Radio, and Weather which have been taught in previous years. All in all, we have taught over 150 scouts and they have earned nearly 300 merit badges. We are proud of the fact that in previous years we have had scouts from Kentucky and West Virginia to earn Merit Badges here because they were not offered at their troop’s location.

Engineers Club Boy Scout Rocket Merit Badge

Working on the Space Exploration Badge with a view of Dayton.

While the Club typically teaches in the building at 110 East Monument Avenue, we have gone to various sites around the Dayton Area such as the local Rocket Club’s site on a farm in Greene County for a rocket launch required by Space Exploration Merit Badge, the National Museum of the Air Force for the Aviation Merit Badge. We typically teach over 6 weeks starting in late October and ending the weekend after Thanksgiving.

We have worked with the Miami Valley Council BSA, representing the Sunwatch and Wright Brothers districts, north and south of Dayton. The Council has notified the troops of our ability to teach the technical merit badges. Our Merit Badge leader is Dr. Charles Bleckmann who has had many meetings and conversations with the Council making sure we meet all the Scouts requirement for teaching the merit badges as well as having interactions with the scouts.

New Space Shuttle Exhibit Open Feb 26th at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force

February 24, 2014 By Dayton Most Metro Leave a Comment

National Museum of the U.S. Air Force visitors will be cleared for liftoff when the museum’s new Space Shuttle Exhibit opens to the public on Feb. 26.
The exhibit, which features NASA’s first Crew Compartment Trainer, allows visitors to experience the size and shape of an actual space shuttle orbiter by entering the payload bay and looking into the flight deck and mid-deck levels.

Following the arrival of the Crew Compartment trainer in summer 2012, work began on the design and construction of a full-scale representation of a NASA shuttle payload bay, engine, and tail sections, along with a 60-seat dedicated educational area or Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Learning Node, by Display Dynamics, Inc. of Clayton, Ohio.

These portions of the exhibit, along with visitor observation and access structures, have been completed and the Teal Ruby satellite has been placed inside the payload bay. In addition, space-related videos will be available for viewing in the STEM Learning Node (when it is not in use for other scheduled programs).

Future plans call for the museum to continue populating the exhibit with additional artifacts such as space suits and provide interpretive information about topics such as astronauts, space science, living in space, and the Air Force’s role in space. Eventually, the exhibit will be moved to a new Space Gallery in the museum’s fourth building as part of a multi-phase, long-term expansion plan to house the museum’s growing space collection, as well as the Presidential Aircraft Gallery, Research & Development Gallery and Global Reach Gallery.

According to Museum Director Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Jack Hudson, the exhibit is truly unique and will serve as an important educational tool.

“We are very pleased to open this one-of-a-kind Space Shuttle Exhibit and STEM Learning Node, and we thank Display Dynamics, Inc. for their hard work in helping us make these structures a reality,” Hudson said. “This exhibit will inspire us all to learn more about space and the role of our Air Force in space, and we hope that when you visit – whether that be in-person or online – it will inspire you, too, and become one of the vehicles that launches a new generation of Americans who are well-educated about space and STEM.”

Other components of the Space Shuttle Exhibit include two interactive space shuttle landing simulators, which were added last summer and allow visitors to test their skill at landing a space shuttle orbiter. Designed by Historic Space Systems of Danville, Ohio, the simulators are representative of a space shuttle commander’s and pilot’s stations, and feature a reproduction of the forward portion of the space shuttle flight deck with internal cockpit dimensions that replicate its actual size.

The National Museum of the United States Air Force, located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, is the service’s national institution for preserving and presenting the Air Force story from the beginning of military flight to today’s war on terrorism. It is free to the public and features more than 360 aerospace vehicles and missiles and thousands of artifacts amid more than 17 acres of indoor exhibit space. Each year more than one million visitors from around the world come to the museum. The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week. The museum is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Some museum exhibits have special hours. The 8th Air Force Control Tower andNissen Hut, located in the Air Park, are open from noon to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday from January through March (closed Monday through Thursday) and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily April through December.

The Presidential and R&D Galleries are open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday-Sunday. Click here for requirements on visiting those galleries, which are located on the controlled-access portion of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.For more information, visit www.nationalmuseum.af.mil.

Story by Rob Bardua
National Museum of the U.S. Air Force