2020 Workshop Description
1. AI Girls
Ever wish you could duplicate yourself to do more things? Maybe create an AI of yourself? Come learn about how Artificial Intelligence is shaping our lives today and the tools that are being used to collect data to make those decisions. In this workshop, you’ll use online Teachable Machine tools to train and test an AI model.
2. Arduino? Your ‘Duino!
Ever wonder how lights “dance”? How they blink fast or slow? By using an LED and a microprocessor, you’ll learn and understand how lights are able to “dance” in this workshop. You’ll use an Arduino processor in a circuit to program an LED. This simple activity will teach you the basics of Arduino, electronics, and programming.
3. Campus GPS Tour
Ever wonder how a GPS manages to guide you from one place to another? Join us in this workshop to learn about GPS and geocaching and to take a tour of St Mary’s College of Maryland all at once! Provided a map and a GPS, you’ll help guide the group to specific coordinates along your tour. Take a walk with SMCM students for a chance to find out what the college experience is like and what opportunities are available to you at SMCM.
Note: Students are encouraged to wear comfortable shoes and appropriate clothing for the outside temperature.
4. Door Number Three
In this workshop, you’ll simulate the role of the game show contestant playing to win a prize solving the “Monty Hall Problem”. The workshop will explain which strategy gives the best chance of winning based on basic probability and then let you take a shot at solving it yourself. Winners will receive a prize at the end of the workshop!
5. Fighting Gravity
Rock climbing is fun, exciting, and just a little bit scary! Join in on the physics excitement with Fighting Gravity and learn how concepts like friction, center of gravity, and weight distribution can help you master the vertical wall safely! You’ll be shown proper equipment and techniques to climb the indoor rock wall.
Note: There are inherent bodily risks involved in climbing wall activities. Prior parent/guardian consent and a waiver are required during registration. Students are encouraged to wear long shorts/pants for this exercise.
6. Life on An Oyster Reef: Creepy Crawlers
This workshop will give you a hands-on experience with living organisms that live in oyster reefs right here in the Chesapeake Bay. Learn about how oyster reefs develop and why they are important to our environment. And learn to identify all the different critters that live in an oyster reef – besides just the oysters! If you’re interested in environmental science, and you don’t mind getting your hands a little dirty, this workshop is for you!
Note: Disclaimer about Allergies
7. Mini-Game Programming
Have you ever wanted to construct your own computer game? Using Scratch, a block-based visual programing language, you can program your own interactive stories, games, and animations! In Mini-Game Programming, you’ll learn about the underlying logic and algorithms in some of your favorite computer games and get a chance to make a basic game of your own.
Note: One beginner- and two advanced-level sessions will be offered this year. Please indicate desired session level during registration.
8. A Plant’s Life in Action
In A Plant’s Life in Action, you’ll learn about photosynthesis and how it’s vital for both plants and humans. This workshop features a “hands-on” experiment with live plants and will allow you to witness photosynthesis in action! Join us in this workshop to learn about the life of plants and their relationship to the rest of us on Earth!
9. Power-Up Paper Airplanes
Learn the fundamentals of aerodynamics and flight by creating a paper airplane that you can fly with a smartphone! In this workshop, you’ll be able to observe and apply these concepts as you construct and test your own paper airplane design. Then, you’ll be able to transform your paper airplane into a smartphone-controlled flying machine using a Powerup conversion kit.
10. Radiation: Fear vs Reality
You might be thinking Spider-Man, but sorry, no superhero-turning radioactive spiders here! In this workshop, you’ll learn about objects around you every day that are actually radioactive! You’ll work in a group to learn how to shield radiation and construct a cloud chamber to observe radiation with your own eyes. Guided by an expert in this scary subject, you’ll find out just how afraid – or not – you should be of radiation.
11. Rainbow in a Jar
Have you ever wanted to hold a rainbow in the palm of your hand? Well, now you can! In Rainbow in a Jar, you’ll explore the scientific concept of density and how density prevents different liquids from mixing. This workshop features “hands-on” experiments where you will hypothesize and evaluate how liquids cause some objects to sink, but others to float. This knowledge will then be used to create your own personal rainbow using only sugar and water that you will take home!
12. Think Like An Engineer
In this workshop, you’ll get to solve a problem just like an engineer! An experienced engineer will teach you just what engineers think about to get their jobs done. Groups will follow the engineering process to design a solution to a problem, build a prototype, and even test what another group designs. Join us for the chance to Think Like An Engineer.
13. Water Filtration Challenge
In Water Filtration Challenge, you’ll get to experience what scientists on Earth and astronauts in space do every day – the filtration of water. Groups will get to test their own filters against some filthy water to learn which materials work best to filter it clean!
