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AeroAstro Outreach Program & Wind Tunnel Demonstration

AeroAstro Outreach Program & Wind Tunnel Demonstration. Chelsea He, Sameera Ponda , Sunny Wicks Women’s Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WGA 3 ) June 26, 2012. Overview. Motivation and Goals IAP Course: Hands-on Aerospace Outreach in Action Wind Tunnel Demonstration.

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AeroAstro Outreach Program & Wind Tunnel Demonstration

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  1. AeroAstro Outreach Program & Wind Tunnel Demonstration Chelsea He, SameeraPonda, Sunny Wicks Women’s Graduate Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (WGA3) June 26, 2012

  2. Overview • Motivation and Goals • IAP Course: Hands-on Aerospace • Outreach in Action • Wind Tunnel Demonstration

  3. Outreach Initiative Overview Objectives • Educate K-12 students about the breadth of AeroAstro topics • Encourage girls to enterSTEM fields Why us? • Tap into the energy of graduate students • Use resources already available around the department

  4. Motivation & Goals • Members of the AeroAstro community participate in a variety of outreach activities • One-time talks • Educational videos • Day-long workshops • Multi-week courses • Materials are currently dispersed throughout the department • Little or no coordination among users • Content development is labor intensive To facilitate coordination, we are collecting both physical and electronic content to create a repository of existing outreach materials. • Minimize duplicated effort • Lower the barrier of participation • Facilitate development of new content

  5. Approach Outreach Objectives • Collect available materials • General information about Engineering, AeroAstro • Photos and videos • Lesson plans • Demos and materials • Create new content • Outreach “kits” • IAP course • Share with the community • Web repository • Outreach opportunities

  6. Presentations About AeroAstro, Engineering

  7. AeroAstro Photos

  8. Lesson Plans, Demos, Videos… Quadrotor Demo “Astronaut School for Middle Schoolers” by Hemant Chaurasia Water Bottle Rocket Activity MIT Engineering K-12 Videos http://techtv.mit.edu/genres/19-engineering/ videos/14880-a-turn-of-the-earth Spacesuit

  9. Hands-On AerospaceJanuary 17-20, 2012 Mission: Introduce students to topics in AeroAstro through practical, hands-on activities. Recruitment • IAP course offerings website • Advertised to freshmen interested in AeroAstro Expected Outcomes • Assembly of demo • Group presentation • Mini-lecture describing demo and basic concepts • Outreach “kit”

  10. Students Project Teams • Robotics: Lego Mindstorms • Aerodynamics: Portable Wind Tunnel L-R:Mycal Tucker ’15, Ben Novak ’15 Not pictured: AristodimosKomninos G L-R: Dominique Hoskins ’15, Matt Vernacchia ’15, Ellen Liverpool ’15 Photo Credit: Bill Litant

  11. Schedule of Activities

  12. Robotics Demo • Objective: Illustrate robotics concepts via hands-on demos • Line-Tracking Demo • Exploration and Search Missions (Course 16.00) • Materials: 2 Lego Mindstorm NXT kits ($300 each) • Sensors (range, light, sound, touch) • Actuators (motors, LEDs) • Graphical programming (LabView) Robotic System Sensors Processing Decision Actions Lego Mindstorm NXT Kit World Hands-On Aerospace: Line-Tracking Demo Generic Robotics Block Diagram

  13. Wind Tunnel Demo • Objective: Illustrate basic aerodynamics concepts such as lift, drag, stall using a low speed flow visualization wind tunnel • “Little Smokey” wind tunnel http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/WindTunnel/build.html • Materials (< $100) • Plywood • 2” x 4” wood • Polycarbonate sheet • Computer cooling fan • PVC pipes • Straws • Dry ice

  14. Summary • Understanding of basic aerodynamics concepts • Basic building skills • Teamwork and camaraderie • Interaction with faculty, staff, and graduate students • Learning by doing • Sense of ownership • Low cost, high impact • Community involvement

  15. Outreach in Action • National Engineers Week @ MIT Museum • 8th Grade Career Day @ Blake Middle School, Medfield, MA • 3rd Grade Class @ Baldwin School, Cambridge, MA

  16. Department-Wide Outreach Efforts

  17. Extracurricular/Outreach

  18. Acknowledgments wga3-exec@mit.edu http://web.mit.edu/wga3/www

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