Current and Upcoming Events
Oakwood Friends School faculty and students participate in SENSE IT (Student Enabled Network of Sensors for the Environment using Innovative Technology) at the Beacon Institute
Two students from Oakwood Friends School’s class of 2011 joined their science teachers and a select group of 18 students from the Hudson Valley at the Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries in Beacon, NY to participate in the SENSE IT program.
Oakwood Friends School’s Biology, AP Biology and Ecology teacher, Bill Doolittle, Physics and Robotics teacher, Chad Cianfrani, and Oakwood Friends students are participants in the SENSE IT program at Beacon Institute of Rivers and Estuaries in Beacon, NY. SENSE IT brings real world environmental sensor networks into the high school classroom. Participating SENSE IT students are challenged to design, build, deploy and interpret data from their own environmental sensors. The program aims to foster science, technology, pre-engineering and mathematics (STEM) career awareness among students. The program is designed to focus on STEM skills (science, technology, engineering and math) and applied education to help prepare students for careers in traditional and new emerging science careers. The first week of the two week program consisted of teachers building water quality sensors, writing computer programs and calibrating sensors for accuracy. The second week brought 18 students from the area, including Stephanie Wilkinson and Clara Wilkinson, both seniors at Oakwood Friends School, to join the faculty and continue the work and research.
Clara Wilkinson said of her experience: “For four days, Stephanie and I participated in the SENSE IT program at Denning’s Point…We learned to solder circuit boards, program our sensors, and gained more knowledge about water quality and how it affects the area in the Hudson Valley that we live in. Neither one of us had had much experience with any of this before, but by the end of the program, we were considerably better at doing all of these things. I really enjoyed the time I spent at Denning’s Point. The people in charge were very helpful, as well as the teachers from other schools. We met many kids our age who shared many of the same interests. And, as usual, Chad and Bill were incredible, helping us to sort out what we needed to know in the short time we had to do everything.”
Bill Doolittle and Chad Cianfrani, along with 39 other high school teachers from New York State participated in the intensive professional development program at the Institute in the summer 2010. That program developed the interdisciplinary curriculum modules to implement SENSE IT in their classes at Oakwood Friends School.
To see Oakwood Friends School students in action, go to http://vimeo.com/8321599 . Chad Cianfrani comments in the video and he plans to use the new material in his curriculum right away.