I've been busy these last few weeks with teaching at Garner, visits to grant sites, preparing for IMSEP Day at the Capitol and finishing two projects that Jeanne asked me to do (one with STEM career video tapes and the other with EIE manual inventory). We had a long science team meeting, and Grant Wood AEA is having a very hard time with budget cuts causing people to get pink slipped. I have no idea exactly what is going on because no one talks to me about it, but there is tension.
Jim and I went to Hiawatha and enjoyed the program there. One teacher was sick, but the one that was there was just amazing. She was doing an EIE kit called "It's a Long Way Down; Designing Parachutes". She had nearly 30 students and she had complete control in addition to humor (which is a great combination). They were quite impressive.
We also went to Clear Creek Amana. That STEM club was working on Lego Robots, and a couple of young ladies also wanted to show me their lego city project. They then showed me how they could build with Lego's on the computer. I showed them how to download 'Google Sketch-up', which they hadn't seen, and I think it may take them to a higher level of architecture, which is their aim. Jim and I were impressed with the amazing students in this club, as well as the teacher. There was also a student engineering major volunteering his time to this club. It was great.
