2014 STEM Outreach


Here you’ll find a list of the documentation of all our STEM events for the 2014-2015 school year.

24 October — 25 October/1 November — 22 November — 28 February — 5 December — 13 February — 28 March — 18 April

Our outreach program is one of our highest priorities. Many of our members were first introduced to science through such events. STEM demonstrations sparked us at a young age and drove us to pursue careers in science and engineering. We hope to return the favor to Boston’s youth community. Moreover, we want to help grow our community’s passion for aerospace and rocketry. We believe there is a bright future in the aero/astro sector as more private companies seek to partner with government agencies. Not only do we want to be a part of this movement, but we want to help sustain it. This can only be accomplished by inspiring Boston’s next generation of scientists and engineers. These two motives are the heart and soul of our outreach program.

Our team has a full schedule of STEM outreach events. In planning most of these events, we work closely with Northeastern University’s Center for STEM Education. As indicated in the letter of support from Dr. Christos Zahopoulos, Executive Director of Northeastern’s STEM department, (Appendix II), we are assisting in various education events throughout the year. Dr. Zahopoulos and the STEM center organize several annual field trips for Boston Public School students to visit the Northeastern University campus. We will be facilitating one such field trip for high school students in late October. For a middle school field trip on November 22nd, we will be designing and hosting an activity focused on rockets and Newton’s third law of motion. We plan to implement an original variant of a rocket activity from the NASA Educator’s Guide.

On October 25 and November 1, team members will teach a class to high school students as part of Northeastern’s NEPTUN program. Students will use SOLIDWORKS 3D design software to virtually assemble the components of a car jack, a fan, a robot arm, and some other interesting machines. After creating these assemblies, students will use SOLIDWORKS to render photo-realistic images of the assemblies. The class may also make animations of some assemblies. For example, a student could take home a video of his/her virtual robot arm in action.

Another round of field trips is scheduled in early December for elementary and high school students. We will be hosting another activity as well as touring young students through our club’s laboratory. They will be able to handle our past rocket and weather balloon projects and see where we work. Our thorough involvement in STEM outreach will continue past the timeframe of the USLI competition. We are working with NU’s STEM center to plan a summer science camp for Boston middle school students.

In addition to Northeastern affiliated events, we have been in conversation with Boston area science teachers about conducting demonstrations and activities in local schools. We have a partnership with Curley K-8 School located in Jamaica Plain to present a STEM demonstration to 5th grade science classes. We will then engage them in an activity where they can put together an easy demonstration of their own. Currently our activity is planned to be a static electricity demonstration.

Our outreach program is something we hold in high regard, something we emphasize year-round. We revel in teaching young students about science and look forward to sharing our passion. After each event we attend, we will be posting photos in the outreach section of our new website: https://web.northeastern.edu/aiaa/