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Curriculum:
The
STEM Academy curriculum will be developed to increase the
concentration of science and mathematics education and engage
students in engineering and science research. The program may be best understood by looking at the
curriculum on a yearly basis:
- In Year
1,
the introduction of physics in the ninth grade exposes students to
core scientific concepts and focuses coursework on students’
discovery. A research class will lay the groundwork for how
engineering and science is performed in areas such as agriculture,
medicine, environment, and energy.
- During Years
2 & 3,
students will take a semester of technology followed by a dovetailed
course in engineering. These courses will give students the tools and
knowledge necessary to engage in engineering and science methods.
- During the sophomore summer, students begin the apprentice mentorship in research at UMaine. As students enter the junior year,
this initial research experience dovetails with additional exposure
to crosscutting curricula in math, technology, engineering, physical
science and ongoing (weekly) research.
- The apprentice mentorship will continue
the summer after the junior year and will culminate in a capstone
project in Year
4.
STEM Courses:
Introduction
to Research (9th Grade)
The
purpose of this class is to engage students in the ideas behind
science and engineering practices as outlined in Table 1. and begin
to familiarize them with the initial processes behind doing research.
The course aims to build a foundation for students allowing them to
examine original identified research opportunities in the natural
science and engineering programs that hone students' investigative
skills and prepare them for academic competitions. Through this
course students will gain experience in laboratory-based research,
project planning, experimentation, problem solving, design, modeling,
fabrication, testing, evaluation, documentation, and presentation
related to engineering and science. Essentially this course is the
precursor to the apprenticed research courses I,II,III, and IV.
Throughout the course the instructor will expose the students to
possible research projects and introduce them to research groups at
UMaine. The class will meet daily for 40 minutes.
Technology
and Engineering I (10th Grade)
The objective of
this course is to teach students the basic technology tools for
discovering engineering and science applications. MATLAB Software
will be used to provide a programming tool to not only learn the
basic principles of modern languages but also to discover a vast
number of applications in engineering and sciences without much
computer programming skill. This experience will be augmented with
MySQL database to teach students the principles of data storage and
retrievals. Both MATLAB and MySQL are being used in many academic
environments and corporations.
In the first
semester of this course, students will learn computer programming via
MATLAB. They will learn how to use an interactive environment for
data storage, retrieval, manipulation, calculation, analysis, and
visualization. Students will learn basics concepts of structured
programming, such as subroutines, block structures, if-then-else
selections, and for loops. These structures are similar to those used
in C, Java and Perl and student would be easily capable of learning
other languages in future. Student will also learn how to use MySQL
for data storage and retrieval.
In the second
semester students will learn how to use hundreds of functions
developed in MATLAB for data mining, data analysis, and graphical
visualizations. For example, GenABEL (www.genabel.org) provides more
than hundred functions for studying the human genome, BiodiversityR
provides utilities for analysis of biodiversity and ecology systems,
Emu provides tools for creating, manipulating, and analyzing speech
patterns. Students can use the freely available existing functions or
develop their own functions in their apprentice research topics.
Technology
and Engineering II (11th Grade)
The objective of
this course is to introduce students to the engineering practice
through modern applications. The course will include several modules
introducing core engineering disciplines such as chemical, civil,
electrical, computer, and mechanical engineering. Each module will be
taught in an application oriented environment. In the computer
engineering module, students will learn to develop simple iPhone and
iPad applications. While it will be challenging for a high-school
student to comprehensively learn the objective-C programming language
(a simplified C++ like computer language), development of simple
applications is feasible in the friendly integrated development
environment, which offers a style of “what you see is what you get”
application interface design. Mechanical and electrical engineering
modules will use robotics applications using Lego Mindstorm or VEX
robotics. These are robotic kits that can be programmed in an
interactive environment such as LabView. After learning MATLAB
programming, students would be easily capable of using the LabView
programming tool. The civil engineering module will use floating
platforms for off-shore wind energy development. The chemical
engineering module will deal with advanced biofuels with focus on
renewable, cellulosic, drop-in fuels (such as gasoline, diesel, and
jet fuel). Students will work with characterization of forest
biomass, conversion of carbohydrates into hydrocarbons, and
fractional distillation of hydrocarbons. These
modules will be developed by the UM professor in collaboration with
the school teachers who will be teaching the modules.
Research Experiences:
Apprentice
Research I (Summer following 10th Grade)
During apprentice
research (AR) I students will spend a total of 6 weeks at UM. During
the first 3 weeks the students will spend roughly 2 days with each
science and engineering research group. They will meet with the
research group leader who will describe the ongoing research in terms
that are understandable to the student. Further, the group leader
will emphasize the ultimate implication of the research in the
advancement of science and engineering. The student will then meet
with each member of the research group in order to see the role that
the group member plays in each area. The group member could range
from an undergraduate student to a post-doctoral student. After
visiting each research group the student will list in priority order
the research areas of greatest interest to them. The student would
then be assigned to a particular research group. During the last 3
weeks the student will interact with the group and choose a
particular research topic.
Apprentice
Research II & III (11th Grade Academic Year and Ensuing Summer)
AR II will occur
during the junior year and involve about 3-6 hours per week. The
student initially will begin a literature search relating to the
research project so that the student is able to ascertain the state
of art relative to the research project. The student will then begin
preliminary research under guidance of a research mentor . The actual
preliminary research will occur at the high school or UM. At the end
of AR II the student would have completed the background associated
with the research and would be able to start an in-depth study which
would occur in AR III during the summer between the junior and senior
years. The students will focus on the research project to achieve
definite results. ARII and ARIII can have substantial overlap
depending on the project, student, and a host of other factors
including equipment failure, illness, and availability of resources.
Based on their progress, students are encouraged to submit papers to
junior science competitions such as the New England Junior Science
Symposium and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize during the second
semester of the junior year.
Apprenticed
Research (IV): Senior Capstone Project (12th Grade Academic Year)
In AR IV which is in
the senior year, the student will be required to complete their
research, write a scientific paper detailing the results of the
investigation, and present the results to a committee consisting of
the high school students, teachers and UM faculty/graduate student
mentor. This should include background information on the topic to be
studied, the design and conduct of the investigation including a
discussion of procedures and apparatus, experimental results,
analysis of the results including discussion of experimental errors
and uncertainties, conclusions drawn from the results, and questions
for further study. With the advice of student’s mentor, results
from the student research project may be submitted for journal
publication and/or conference presentation. In addition students are
encouraged to submit their papers to a national high school
competition such as the Stockholm Junior Water Prize, Intel Science
Talent Search, Siemens Competition, National Junior Science and
Humanities Symposium, and other related competitions. |
