 |
 |
|
Program Overview |
| The U.S. Naval Academy’s STEM education efforts involve a different approach to recruiting and retaining technologists. We engage elementary, middle, and high-school students and teachers in a wide variety of science and engineering activities (such as camps, minicamps, competitions, site visits, short courses, and internships) to initiate interest and enthusiasm for future STEM participation in academic and career choices, using the outstanding USNA resources as a backdrop for these activities. Our unique style is defined by a project-based curriculum derived from our ABET and Middle States-accredited engineering and science programs, focusing on current topics of faculty research and using a pyramid structure with practicing technologists, educators, and mentors at the top. |
Site Coordinator:
Angela Leimkuhler Moran, PhD
Professor, Mechanical Engineering
amoran@usna.edu | | |
|
Community Snapshot |
The Anne Arundel County Public Schools (AACPS) is the fifth-largest school system in Maryland and among the 50 largest systems in the country. AACPS has almost 5,600 teachers and more than 74,000 students. It comprises 78 elementary schools, 19 middle schools, 12 high schools, two charter schools, two applied-technology centers, three special-education centers, one alternative high school, one middle-school learning center, one early-education center, and one outdoor-education center regional program. AACPS includes 10 National Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence.
USNA STEM programs are open to the local community and to groups from across the nation. Our summer camps have been attended by students from 48 different states and Guam. We also work with AACPS via the USNA Advanced Study Program, engineering and science days, and the Sea Perch Underwater Program, among others. |
|
Outreach Activities |
New engineering courses have been established for the USNA ADVANCED program with Anne Arundel County schools. The latest are “Build Your Own,” “Underwater Search with SeaPerch” and “Simple Machines/Complex Robots” to target STEM audiences in middle school. Established courses are updated regularly and include engaging topics in oceanography, physics, math, chemistry, astronomy, and more. http://www.aacps.org/gifted/adjunct.aspGirls Exploring Technology Through Innovative Topics -- This program was developed by female engineering faculty at USNA to encourage young women to consider engineering as a career. The program includes short courses, school visits, mentoring, and summer camp. The 2009 camp theme was “Megatronic Marvels – Machines with Attitude,” with girls building robots and remote operated vehicles, and learning about automation and manufacturing. The 2008 camp was “Energy Quest Annapolis,” focusing on alternative energy solutions as well as traditional energy sources. Girls built electric motors, operated nuclear power plants, drove grease powered go-carts, monitored wave power buoys, and lots more. USNA Technology Camp for Girls BrochureHigh schools are invited to send small groups of students to visit USNA for overnight or a long weekend. The students get a full tour of the technical majors and spend time engaged in interactive engineering activities (experiments in the wind tunnel, learning to use the electron microscope to look at nanoparticles, programming robots, etc) and often get a ride on the Oceanography YP to do some experiments as well.
This program is held in May and December in collaboration with Office of Naval Research, Society of Naval Architects & Marine Engineers, and Anne Arundel County schools STEM programs. As part of after-school clubs, students build Sea Perch ROVs to launch in the USNA Hdyro Lab tow tanks. Students, parents, and teachers rotate through hands-on activities in Rickover labs and onboard the Oceanography YPs to augment the science and technology lessons learned during the kit-building process.
Science and engineering faculty members and the admissions office host this success-oriented, project-based curriculum. STEM Camp 2009 was called “CSI Annapolis,” using forensics as the common theme. The camp hosted 100 kids (from diverse backgrounds and different parts of the country) each week for two weeks. They participated in a wide range of activities such as optimizing hull design after investigating why the Titanic sunk, building burglar alarms and other circuits after a visit to the biometrics lab, and teaming to build wooden bridges after learning about trusses and structural failures. STEM Camp 2010 Brochure
http://www.usna.edu/Admissions/events.html
USNA provides science and engineering internships, tours of technical areas, field trips for local schools to see science and engineering projects, teacher programs such as the Maury Project, tutoring by midshipmen, school visits to provide demos and displays, science-fair judging, and career-day visits.
|
|
Photos |
View images
from our most recent event held. (Click thumbnails to view)
|
BACK TO TOP
|
|