The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

The Physics Circus at The University of Texas at Austin tries to attract kids to science using loud and entertaining demonstrations that might not be as accessible to the average school. Led by graduate students doing the latest in physics research, The Physics Circus is getting back into live shows again. Joseph Ziegel is one of the coordinators of the group, along with Jordan Zesch, and Joseph describes their mission of young scientists spreading more love of science. Related to this episode: • The Physics Circus at The University of Texas at Austin: https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~circus/ • Should a Person Touch 200,000 Volts? A Van de Graaff generator experiment! From the Jefferson lab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZuSZYVBng • How To Make Pickles Glow, from TKOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFefJyQhw0c • The Physics Circus YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSPOGbgbw7D4ogjV5_UpFxA Opening music by LogicMoon: https://freesound.org/people/LogicMoon/sounds/617295/ Closing music by JetSmith88: https://freesound.org/people/JetSmith88/sounds/206065/ Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Do scientific research articles sometimes sound like another language? To K-12 students, very often it's yes. Tanya Dimitrova tried to help solve this problem by founding the Scientific Journal for Kids, where her team of writers, designers, and teachers translates articles from scientific research journals into more kid-friendly language. Tanya talks about how her time as a science teacher in Central Texas influenced her to found this nonprofit, and then explains all the details that go into collaborating with scientists to make their work more accessible. Related to this episode: • Science Journal for Kids (SJFK): https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/ • SJFK article relating to osmosis and energy: https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/how-can-we-turn-ocean-water-into-renewable-energy/ • Tumble Podcast: https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/ • Past episode with Marshall Escamilla: https://k12engineering.net/episodes/59 • Sarah Galvani-Townsend: https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/lesson-ideas/meet-a-scientist-sarah-galvani-townsend/ • Past guest Xiaojing Gao: https://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/113 • SJFK YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceJournalforKids • r/explainlikeimfive: https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/ • CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ • Dr. Shannon Currie: https://www.shannoncurrie.org/ Opening music by LogicMoon: https://freesound.org/people/LogicMoon/sounds/617295/ Closing music by JetSmith88: https://freesound.org/people/JetSmith88/sounds/206065/ Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What is synthetic biology? Researcher and professor Dr. Xiaojing Gao introduces this cutting edge field. He explains how his lab at Stanford University engineers biomolecular circuits, which are meant to be programmable, reproducible, and friendlier to mammalian cells than non-biological molecules. Xiaojing hopes to create the building blocks of this technology, to one day better treat all sorts of medical conditions ranging from cancer to epilepsy. He also describes his path to his interdisciplinary career. Related to this episode: • Dr. Xiaojing Gao: https://cheme.stanford.edu/person/xiaojing-gao • Gao Lab at Stanford: https://gaolab.blog/ • CAR T Therapy for cancer: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/car-t-cell-therapy • Targeted Therapy for cancer: https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/targeted-therapies • biological logic gates: https://phys.org/news/2020-04-cells-protein-logic-gates.html • Brain & Behavior Foundation: https://www.bbrfoundation.org/ • Cell Reprogramming With CRISPR/Cas9 Based Transcriptional Regulation Systems: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00882/full • Physics Olympiad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Physics_Olympiad • Michael Elowitz: https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/people/michael-b-elowitz • Liqun Luo: https://profiles.stanford.edu/liqun-luo • Can we write biological “software updates” to cure disease?: https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/can-we-write-biological-software-updates-to-cure-disease/ • Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS) https://science.osti.gov/wdts Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Learning in robotics doesn't have to take weeks, if you can design, build, and test a robot in hours in a video game. Dan White, CEO of Filament Games, introduces RoboCo, their game meant to teach principles of robotics to players, from the mechanical design all the way to testing in the 3D world. Dan discusses cofounding Filament Games with partners Dan Norton and Alex Stone, what constitutes a good or bad learning game, plans for integrating RoboCo into educational curricula, and more. Related to this episode: • Filament Games: https://www.filamentgames.com/ • RoboCo: https://www.roboco.co/ • Meaningful Gaming in Education, PAX presentation from Ashley Brandin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk1pkwi7X8w • iCivics: https://www.icivics.org/ • Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/ • Besiege: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besiege_(video_game) • Space Engineers: https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/ • Minecraft Edu: https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/homepage • ‘RoboCo' Looks to Fuel Interest in STEM by Letting You Build Useful (and Crappy) Robots: https://www.roadtovr.com/roboco-looks-fuel-interest-stem-letting-build-useful-crappy-robots/ • FIRST Robotics: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc • Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/ • Civilization: https://civilization.com/ • Micro, by Michael Creighton and Richard Preston: https://www.michaelcrichton.com/micro/ Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Chicago educator and entrepreneur Scott Steward breaks down his teaching philosophy, rooted in getting to know his students. Steward founded Genius Lab in Chicago, where he teaches young people technology, business, and how to become an adult. He honed his curriculum from teaching in Chicago Public Schools classrooms for fifteen years in largely black and brown communities. First Steward traces his youth on the South Side of Chicago, when he did not prioritize academics at all, and then he explains the turning points that took him through the corporate world and eventually to teaching youth who grew up much like himself. Related to this episode: • Scott Steward: https://scottsteward.com/ • Genius Lab: https://www.geniuslabchicago.com/ • 666 new Texas laws go into effect Sept. 1: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/31/new-texas-laws-september-2021/ • Derrion Albert: The Death that Riled the Nation: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/derrion-albert-the-death-that-riled-the-nation/ • Million Man March: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March • Guillain-Barré syndrome: https://www.cdc.gov/campylobacter/guillain-barre.html • NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship): https://www.nfte.com/ • Gwendolyn Brooks College Prep: https://brookscollegeprep.org/ • SEL (social-emotional learning): https://www.nu.edu/resources/social-emotional-learning-sel-why-it-matters-for-educators/ • Chase the Lion, by Mark Batterson: https://www.markbatterson.com/books/chase-the-lion/ • 31 Ways to Improve Your Life, by Scott Steward: https://scottsteward.com/merch/stewisms • Scott Steward on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealprofessorstew • The 2019 Chicago teachers strike: https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/10/15/20915723/chicago-teacher-strike-2019-cps-ctu Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The Robotics Education and Competition (REC) Foundation has been running robotics programs for youth for years, including the widespread global competitions sponsored by VEX Robotics. Dan Mantz is the CEO of the REC Foundation, leading this nonprofit through the pandemic, after previously working in industrial engineering and robotics for over twenty years. He talks about the REC Foundation's mission, how they changed their competitions during COVID, and their newer programs in manufacturing education and workforce development. Related to this episode: • REC Foundation: https://www.roboticseducation.org/ • FANUC America: https://www.fanucamerica.com/ • Rack Solutions: https://www.racksolutions.com/ • VEX Robotics: https://www.vexrobotics.com/ • Northrup Grumman Foundation: https://www.northropgrumman.com/corporate-responsibility/corporate-citizenship/northrop-grummans-philanthropic-initiatives/ • RECFoundation YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/RECFoundation • Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute: https://arminstitute.org/ • p500 robot to paint cars https://www.robots.com/robots/fanuc-p-500 • Engineer's Guide to Improv & Art Games on Audible.com: https://www.audible.com/pd/B09BDMF9DD/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-270162&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_270162_rh_us Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Math is fundamental to engineering education and other disciplines. That's part of why Richard Rusczyk wants to teach kids harder math than they often see in school. As the CEO of Art of Problem Solving, he wants to challenge more young people mathematically, hopefully giving them an earlier chance to achieve math mastery. He talks about national math competition culture compared to sports culture, starting his online education company, and strategies to improve access to deeper math education in K-12. Related to this episode: • Art of Problem Solving (AoPS): http://artofproblemsolving.com/ • Mathcounts: https://www.mathcounts.org/ • National Society for Professional Engineers: https://www.nspe.org/ • US National Mathematical Talent Search: https://www.usamts.org/ • Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics (BEAMS): https://www.beammath.org/ • AoPS Academy: https://aopsacademy.org/ • Project Euler: https://projecteuler.net/ • Chordinates!: https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/ • @pioslabs on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pioslabs Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Kids can learn CAD for 3D printing, but teaching it doesn't have to be a hassle. David Seto and Michael Welch wrote a set of books to make teaching and learning the subject easier. They based it on their own experiences with 3D printing, learning it as beginners, coming from finance and mobile games industries, and then teaching CAD for 3D printing in after-school programs in Hong Kong and the USA. They talk about their book, The 3D Printing Cookbook, and share practical tips for making 3D printing work for young kids. Related to this episode: • The 3D Printing Cookbook, Tinkercad edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1736498282?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 • The 3D Printing Cookbook, Fusion 360 Edition: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1736498266?ref_=pe_3052080_397514860 • Preview the book(s): https://the-3d-printing-cookbook.netlify.app • Tinkercad: https://www.tinkercad.com/ • Fusion 360: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview • AutoDesk Education: https://www.autodesk.com/education/home • How to Choose the Right 3D Printing Service: https://manufactur3dmag.com/how-to-choose-the-right-3d-printing-service/ • CubeSats: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cubesats/overview Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Mechanical engineer Dr. Ada-Rhodes Short studies robot brains, having previously worked in industry and academia for commercial toy companies, NASA, Texas A&M, and more. She also advocates for diversity and inclusion in education and STEM for trans people, including her time founding the Sexual Identity Forum at Baylor University. Dr. Short talks about one of her latest projects finding trans women engineers who have made pivotal contributions to the world. Related to this episode: • Dr. Ada-Rhodes Short on Twitter: https://twitter.com/The_Ada_Rhodes • Sphero Robotics: https://sphero.com/ • SPRK+ robot: https://sphero.com/products/sphero-sprk-plus • BB8: https://sphero.com/pages/legacy-products • Baylor Student Activists Appeal to NCAA: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/08/07/gay-rights-activists-ask-ncaa-intervene-baylors-lgbtq-policies • Gamma Alpha Upsilon at Baylor University: https://twitter.com/baylor_gay • Susan Calvin from Isaac Asimov's Robot stories: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Calvin • Totally Trans podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/totally-trans-searching-for-the-trans-canon/id1543571717 • Lynn Conway: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Conway • VLSI, very large-scale integration: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Scale_Integration • Sophie Wilson: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Wilson • ARM computer processor architecture: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture • Danielle Bunton Berry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Bunten_Berry • M.U.L.E. video game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E. • Dr. Bryony Dupont: https://mime.oregonstate.edu/people/dupont • Angelica Ross: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelica_Ross • TransTech Social Enterprises: https://www.transtechsocial.org/ • Ashawna Hailey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashawna_Hailey Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The Silicon Valley Education Foundation (SVEF) is a nonprofit running several programs in K-12 STEM education, including its Computer Science Institute for middle and high school teachers. Rosemary Kamei is the Chief Development and Innovation Officer of SVEF, and she talks about why SVEF piloted its CS Institute a few years ago and how it has been going through the pandemic. She talks about how it aims to promote equity in CS education, across the digital divide and accounting for socioeconomics, race, and gender in the Silicon Valley community. Related to this episode: • SVEF: https://www.svefoundation.org/ • SVEF CS Institute: https://www.svefoundation.org/computer-science • California State Board of Education Content Standards for Computer Science Education: https://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/computerscicontentstds.asp • Elevate Math at SVEF: https://www.svefoundation.org/elevate-math • CS for CA: https://csforca.org/ • SVEF Digital Equity: https://www.svefoundation.org/digitalequity Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The pandemic has spurred teachers like Amanda Hough to teach CAD remotely, but how do you do that if students don't have the hardware to run resource-heavy CAD software? Amanda uses cloud-based CAD platform OnShape, and her students run it in a web browser, no installs needed. She talks about her experience switching over to OnShape this year, its place in education even when the pandemic is over, and how she got into STEM education in the first place as a career-changed from marine biology. Related to this episode: • Amanda Hough's email: ahough@mpspk12.org • Amanda Hough Twitter @amandahough6: https://twitter.com/amandahough6 • Mashpee Educator Named State STEM Teacher of the Year: https://www.capenews.net/mashpee/news/mashpee-educator-named-state-stem-teacher-of-the-year/article_919d8ed2-7fcd-5bb8-b717-ae7bcab92dc1.html • VEX Robotics competitions: https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-robotics-competition • Marine Biological Laboratory: https://www.mbl.edu/ • MTELs: https://www.mtel.nesinc.com/ • Sketchup: https://www.sketchup.com/ • PTC Creo Parametric: https://www.ptc.com/en/products/creo/parametric • OnShape: https://www.onshape.com/en/ • Autodesk Fusion360: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview • BOSEbuild Speaker Cube: https://www.bose.com/en_us/support/products/bose_speakers_support/bose_portable_speakers_support/bosebuild_speaker_cube.html • Autodesk TinkerCAD: https://www.tinkercad.com/ • Dassault Systemes Solidworks: https://www.solidworks.com/ • ClearTouch: https://www.getcleartouch.com/for-education/ • Screencastify: https://www.screencastify.com/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

STEM curriculum specialist Dr. Corey Hall shares tips and resources for teaching engineering effectively at the K-12 level in 2021, both during and beyond COVID. Corey recommends teaching strategies and products based on her 24 years of experience in education, as a school librarian, middle school teacher, professor, and online teacher. She discusses 3D printing, lending libraries, virtual cloud-based robotics software, out-of-school STEM programs such as in 4-H, and more. Related to this episode: • Dr. Corey Hall on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rchallway • Dr. Corey Hall on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/library_doc/ • STEM Education Works: https://stemeducationworks.com/ • Zork: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork • Sphero: https://sphero.com/ • Three Billy Goats Gruff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Billy_Goats_Gruff • AASL – American Association for School Librarians: http://www.ala.org/aasl/ • Microbit: https://microbit.org/ • What is a Bitmoji Classroom and How Can I Build One? https://www.techlearning.com/how-to/what-is-a-bitmoji-classroom-and-how-can-i-build-one • Google Jamboard: https://jamboard.google.com/ • Little Bits Fuse: https://fuse.littlebits.com/ • Snap Circuits: https://www.elenco.com/snap-circuits/ • Autodesk Tinkercad: https://www.tinkercad.com/ • Elecfreaks: https://www.elecfreaks.com/ • Teaching HTML/CSS Unplugged and Offline, with Sam Taylor: https://k12engineering.net/episodes/101 • Buildsmart Clubhouse: https://stemeducationworks.com/product/build-smart-clubhouse-curriculum/ • Flipgrid: https://info.flipgrid.com/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The education system can change top-down, or bottom-up. Author Suzanne DeMallie wrote “Can You Hear Me Now?” – a book about how parents and teachers might change our schools from the bottom-up. She draws on her own experiences in Baltimore County Public Schools as an elementary math teacher from 2011 to 2019, a parent of children in BCPS, and an advocate for sound enhancement technology in classrooms across the country. She also talks about how COVID has affected her opinions on testing, 1-to-1 device policies for elementary schools, and more. Related to this episode: • Suzanne DeMallie: https://suzannedemallie.com/ • Can You Hear Me Now?: https://suzannedemallie.com/book • Improving Classroom Acoustics (ICA): A Three-Year FM Sound Field Classroom Amplification Study: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED463640 • Common Core: http://www.corestandards.org/ • PARCC: https://osse.dc.gov/parcc • UT-Austin won't require SAT or ACT scores for 2022 applications due to COVID-19: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/25/ut-austin-texas-sat-act-application/ • STAAR: https://tea.texas.gov/student-assessment/testing/staar/staar-released-test-questions Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, have changed the world – and continue to do so. This energy-efficient electronics technology came from decades of design and discovery in engineering. Dr. Russell Dupuis is one of the engineers behind LEDs, and he recently was one of five winners of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering for his work in this technology. Dr. Dupuis explains his contribution to creating thin-film electronics necessary for LEDs, starting from his university days in Illinois, and he also discusses its implications for the future. He currently is a professor of electrical engineering at Georgia Tech. This is a joint episode with The K12 Engineering Education Podcast and Engineering Word Of The Day. Related to this episode: • Dr. Russell Dupuis: https://www.ece.gatech.edu/faculty-staff-directory/russell-dean-dupuis • Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering: https://qeprize.org/ • Dr. Nick Holanyak, Jr: https://ece.illinois.edu/about/directory/faculty/nholonya • Dr. M. George Craford: https://www.nae.edu/128635/Dr-M-George-Craford • Dr. Isamu Ishikawa: https://www.nae.edu/128633/Dr-Isamu-Akasaki • Dr. Shuji Nakamura: https://materials.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/shuji-nakamura • Texas Instruments: https://www.ti.com/ • Rockwell International: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockwell_International • Dr. Harold Manasevit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_M._Manasevit • MOCVD (metal-organic chemical vapor deposition): https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/metal-organic-chemical-vapor-deposition • SpaceX launches 60 more satellites for its Starlink service on the heels of opening up access: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/16/spacex-launches-60-more-satellites-for-its-starlink-service-on-the-heels-of-opening-up-access/ • The Martian: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/ • p-n junctions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%E2%80%93n_junction • epitaxy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaxy • UIUC Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering: https://ece.illinois.edu/ • Development and future of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes: UV-LED will replace the UV lamp: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0268-1242/29/8/084004/meta • PhoneSoap: https://www.phonesoap.com/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How do you learn web development without a computer, or without any electronic device? Sam Taylor wrote a book to help learners do just that. As a former middle school teacher and current tech worker, Sam wrote the newly released educational book titled The Coding Workbook, which intends to teach the basics of HTML and CSS, but with no computer required. Hear the discussion about this new book, accessibility to STEM education, what teaching middle school science is like, and more. Related to this episode: • The Coding Workbook: https://nostarch.com/CodingWorkbook • NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards): https://www.nextgenscience.org/ • Harvard CS50, Intro to Computer Science: https://online-learning.harvard.edu/course/cs50-introduction-computer-science • JavaScript for Kids: https://nostarch.com/javascriptforkids • Girls Who Code: https://girlswhocode.com/ • Sam Taylor on Twitter: https://twitter.com/samtaylor_css Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Mishaal Ashemimry is an aerospace engineer and pilot who, after working for major aerospace organizations, formed her own aerospace startup to design rockets for small, low-Earth orbit satellites. As a Saudi American, she got interested in the stars when she was young, looking up at the sky while visiting Saudi Arabia. She describes many parts of her path in this career, including love of math, starting a business, being recognized as the first female aerospace engineer in the Gulf Cooperation Council, and her role as an Arabic-speaking STEM education social media influencer. Related to this episode: • Mishaal Ashemimry's profile: https://www.mishaalashemimry.com/ • Encarta: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encarta • Zinc and hydrochloric acid reaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4XITC225uk • BattleBots TV series: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BattleBots • FIRST Robotics Competition: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc • NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/home/index.html • Raytheon Technologies: https://www.rtx.com/en • NERVA program on nuclear rockets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NERVA • MISHAAL Aerospace: https://www.mishaalaerospace.com/home • SBIR funding: https://www.sbir.gov/ • Article on Wired, SpaceX Engine Failure Claims Experimental Satellite: https://www.wired.com/2012/10/spacex-nasa-investigation/ • DOF (degree of freedom): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_freedom_(statistics) • Mishaal's YouTube channel on STEM, largely in Arabic: https://www.youtube.com/c/MishaalAshemimry Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Let's make equations musical. Instead of visualizing equations on a graph, let's listen to them on the piano, merging all our math and music knowledge. You can make two-dimensional x-y math equations audible – or sonify them – by translating the x-values to time and the y-values to the keys of a piano. If you can't play them on the piano yourself, we can use the free web app Chordinates! by Pios Labs to do it instead. Listen to the sound of coordinates, linear equations, polynomials, trigonometric functions, and random distributions of notes on the piano, and analyze their patterns. Then take the audio review quiz at the end, complete with extended creative and technical challenges. Got your own reactions to this episode? Would love to hear your thoughts. Related to this episode: • Chordinates! beta, a free web by Pios Labs: https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/ • Coordinate plane, from Desmos.com: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/q8mwzeylbk • HCI Beyond the GUI, book by Philip Kortum: https://www.amazon.com/HCI-Beyond-GUI-Nontraditional-Technologies/dp/0123740177/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241987101&sr=8-1 • Google nGram viewer, for analyzing the prevalence of the words “sonify” and “sonification”: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=sonify%2Csonification&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Csonify%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Csonification%3B%2Cc0 Music credits: All clips used are under Creative Commons 0 Licenses, including from the following artists. • Tyler Schanck, The Wandermiles: www.thewandermiles.com • Doctor Dreamchip: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbhlcItuC6pmhhemUjhPt1w • Moz5a: www.mankus.co.uk • Sondre Drakensson: https://soundcloud.com/drakensson93 • Eathan Markson: https://soundcloud.com/eathan-markson • Don Veca: https://soundcloud.com/dveca/sets/generative-jazz • Komit: https://freesound.org/people/Komit./ • Epon Audio: https://www.patreon.com/EponAudio?fan_landing=true • Nate Ziller: http://www.nateziller.com/ • Julian Evans: http://www.julianevans.info/ Equations referenced: • y = x, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?&x=x-scale-custom&xmin=0&xmax=51 • y = -2x, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?&x=x-scale-custom¶ms=-2,0&xmin=0&xmax=51 • Linear equation, minor scale: https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?&m=diatonic-cminor&x=x-scale-custom¶ms=1,-1&xmin=0&xmax=51 • Linear equation, chromatic scale: https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?&m=chromatic&x=x-scale-chromatic-origin&y=y-scale-chromatic-origin • y = x^2, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?f=quadratic-standard&x=x-scale-custom¶ms=1,0,0&xmin=0&xmax=51 • y = 16sin(x), free rhythm, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?f=trigonometric-sin&r=rhythm-even-y¶ms=16,1,0,0 • y = 5vtan((1/2)x), free rhythm, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?f=trigonometric-tan&r=rhythm-even-y¶ms=5,0.5,0,0 • Square wave, amplitude = 2, offset = 2, major 3rd harmony, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?f=sgn-cos&h=harmony-majorthird¶ms=2,1,2 • y = uniform random distribution, from -23 to 28, https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/index.html?f=statistical-rand-uniform¶ms=28,-23 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Army Futures Command (AFC) is partnering with Austin Community College (ACC) in Texas to create a new Software Factory, which will be a software development training program for Army soldiers. Planned to start in January, it will blend training of both soldiers and civilians in newer tech practices in agile development. Maj. Vito Errico from AFC will co-lead the Software Factory, and he joins the podcast to describe its goals. Garrett Groves, Vice President of Business and Industry Partnerships, also joins the podcast to explain how ACC is uniquely aligned to support such a program. They also explain what K-12 educators should know about these plans. Related to this episode: • Army Futures Command (AFC): https://www.army.mil/futures • Austin Community College (ACC): https://www.austincc.edu/ • Maj. Vito Errico: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vito-errico-633953a8/ • Garrett Groves: https://www.austincc.edu/offices/president/cabinet/vice-president-business-and-industry-partnerships • General Assembly, example coding bootcamp: https://generalassemb.ly/ • Agile software development: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development • MVP (minimum viable product): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product • Army Futures Command announces software factory in Austin: https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-texas-army-futures-command-software-factory/269-d84df6b7-1c67-4470-8133-3ad892895336 • Federal Registered Apprenticeship Programs: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/apprenticeship/federal-apprenticeships Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Schools have reopened in Fall 2020 amid the COVID19 pandemic, and educators are putting in overtime to make it work. Four educators speak about their experiences getting students learning again either online or in person: Superintendent Teddy Clevinger in Bell County, Texas; engineering entrepreneurship teacher Melanie Kong in Seattle, Washington; science and engineering teacher Amy Morriss in New Orleans, Louisiana; and engineering and architecture teacher Audrea Moyers in Austin, Texas. They describe their challenges and successes as educators so far this year. Related to this episode: • Music clips from Doctor Dreamchip: https://freesound.org/people/Doctor_Dreamchip/ • Sketchup for schools: https://www.sketchup.com/products/sketchup-for-schools • Slack for distance learning: https://slack.com/solutions/distance-learning • Microsoft Teams: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software • Google Jamboard: https://jamboard.google.com/ • Are The Risks Of Reopening Schools Exaggerated? https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated • New Dashboard Tracks Coronavirus Cases In Schools Across 47 States: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/23/915738935/new-dashboard-tracks-coronavirus-cases-in-schools-across-47-states Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games or The Calculator Gator. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How do you make an audio-based course to teach science topics to kids? Podcast creator, teacher, and musician Marshall Escamilla explains. Marshall is a co-creator of the highly rated Tumble Science Podcast for Kids. He drew on his podcasting experience and his years in the classroom to develop a “podcourse” for Himalaya Learning, focused on exploring the living things inside kids' homes. In this conversation, he talks about the goals of the audio course, tips on better remote learning, free music resources for digital creators, and the response to COVID19 in his current home of Barcelona, Spain. Related to this episode: • Tumble podcast: https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/ • Audio course on Himalaya Learning: https://www.himalaya.com/tumble • Science Storytelling, past podcast episode: http://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/59 • Rob Dunn, scientist: https://cals.ncsu.edu/applied-ecology/people/rob-dunn/ • iNaturalist project and app: https://www.inaturalist.org/ • NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards): https://www.nextgenscience.org/ • Pokemon Go game: https://www.pokemongo.com/ • Free Music Archive: https://freemusicarchive.org/ • PodingtonBear on FreeMusicArchive: https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Podington_Bear • Ableton Live, music production software: https://www.ableton.com/ • Apple Mainstage, musician production software: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mainstage-3/id634159523?mt=12 • PowerSchool, learning management system: https://www.powerschool.com/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games or The Calculator Gator. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Model railroading is uniquely primed for doing educational outreach today, says Stacey Walthers Naffah, President of Milwaukee-based Walthers. Walthers is a major model railroading company, distributing and manufacturing products for hobbyists around the world. Stacey discusses how the industry has a big opportunity to add to K-12 education, in history, science, technology, engineering, art, and math, whether it involves wifi-controlled trains or teaching kids to properly scale down 3D models. She shares that Walthers is looking for more ideas about how to partner with educators. Related to this episode: • Walthers: https://www.walthers.com/ • Profile of Stacey Walthers Naffah: https://onmilwaukee.com/market/articles/milwaukee-talks-stacey-walthers-naffah.html • Contact Walthers with ideas: ideas@walthers.com • Family business programs, Northwestern: https://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/executive-education/individual-programs/executive-programs/fambiz.aspx • NSTA blog post https://www.nsta.org/resources/building-steam-model-railroads • World's Greatest Hobby nonprofit organization: http://wgh.trains.com/ • Discovery World, Milwaukee: https://www.discoveryworld.org/ • Rail transport modelling scale standards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_transport_modelling_scale_standards • Walther's National Model Railroad Build-off contest: https://trains.walthers.com/hubfs/Walthers_How_To_Submit.mp4 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

These teachers know tech. Steve Dembo and Victoria Thompson teach in K-12 and are also educational technology consultants. Steve is a middle school teacher and founder of the edtech consulting and training company Teach42, based out of Chicago, and Victoria is a math teacher in Washington and consults on edtech products for different large corporations. They guested on the show to describe how they got into this career path and what the field may look like in the future. Rachel Fahrig moderated the conversation, which is the postponed live podcast panel originally planned for SXSW Edu 2020. Related to this episode: • Original SXSW Edu 2020 panel, before COVID-19: https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2020/events/PP102219 • Victoria Thompson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/victoriathetech • Steve Dembo on Twitter: https://twitter.com/teach42 • Teach42: http://www.teach42.com/ • Microsoft Educator Center: https://education.microsoft.com/en-us • ISTE, International Society for Technology in Education: https://www.iste.org/ • Discovery Education: https://www.discoveryeducation.com/ • Schoology: https://www.schoology.com/ • Microsoft Teams for Education: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/education/products/teams • Jennifer Jeffries on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jennthetutor • Adam Yankay on Twitter: https://twitter.com/itsamry • Zoom for Education: https://zoom.us/education • Pear Deck: https://www.peardeck.com/ • Oculus Go: https://www.oculus.com/go/ • Oculus Quest: https://www.oculus.com/quest/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The nonprofit Beyond Benign specializes in developing and disseminating educational resources in green chemistry – like how to create bioplastics, or thinking about a full product life cycle – and two guests from Beyond Benign joined the podcast to talk about it. Janie Butler is the K-12 Program Manager for the organization, and Eric Nash is a high school teacher while working as Lead Teacher for Beyond Benign. Originally scheduled to present at the SXSW Edu 2020 Conference in Austin, Texas, they discussed how chemistry and design can be integrated into the K-12 classroom, why this is important, and more. They also brainstorm ways to teach green chemistry even amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Related to this episode: • Beyond Benign: https://www.beyondbenign.org/ • Jane Butler: https://www.beyondbenign.org/people/butler-janie/ • Eric Nash: https://www.beyondbenign.org/leadteacher/nash-eric/ • SXSW Edu planned program: https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2020/events/PP100780 • Lemelson MIT: https://lemelson.mit.edu/ • JV InvenTeams: https://lemelson.mit.edu/jv-inventeams • Beyond Benign YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi8gIkJHo7mo0P0gLtfM6Dg Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Rachel describes how her small Texas school district can function in the middle of COVID-19. As a school district administrator, she has to organize many major actions in this crisis, ranging from meal distribution to bolstering cybersecurity as teachers transition to online learning. Her team still must wrestle with many new questions as they come back from Spring Break. Related to this episode: • Austinites making face masks: https://www.kut.org/post/austinites-make-face-masks-help-fill-need-hospitals-face-shortages • Remind: https://www.remind.com/ • Google Classrooms: https://classroom.google.com/u/3/h • Istation: https://www.istation.com/ • Prodigy: https://www.prodigygame.com/ • Education Galaxy: https://app.educationgalaxy.com/ • Google Voice: https://voice.google.com/ • FERPA: https://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html • Google Hangouts Meet: https://gsuite.google.com/products/meet/ •Mister Rogers on the Kennedy assassination: http://neighborhoodarchive.com/articles/20131122_violentimages/index.html •Mister Rogers after September 11: https://www.biography.com/news/mister-rogers-september-11-2001 • Preventing Zoom-bombing: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-prevent-zoom-bombing Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

As a biomedical engineer in orthobiologics, Neil Thompson still had to do a lot of public speaking. He was a self-professed awful public speaker, but then he worked hard to improve his skills. Now he wants to teach other STEM professionals the same public speaking strategies he learned, so they can get better like he did. Neil talks about best practices for public speaking, his father's influence on his education, and his children's book on the science of black hair. Related to this episode: • Neil Thompson: https://teachthegeek.com/our-teachers/ • Teach the Geek: https://teachthegeek.com/ • Toastmasters: https://www.toastmasters.org/ • What's orthobiologics: https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/en/treatment/helping-fractures-heal-orthobiologics • Ask Uncle Neil: http://askuncleneil.com/ • Teach The Geek on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW-8BcMcqnJLAYOhJtwy5wQ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The South-by-Southwest education conference for 2020 is cancelled, due to emergency declarations related to COVID-19. Pius and Rachel discuss what happens next, for educators in Texas and across the country. Related to this episode: • How Coronavirus Took Down SXSW: https://www.citylab.com/equity/2020/03/sxsw-cancellation-coronavirus-austin-music-film-festival/607669/ • How Do You Build a Career in EdTech?: https://schedule.sxswedu.com/2020/events/PP102219 • Past podcast episodes with Melanie Kong: http://www.k12engineering.net/guests/10 • State-by-state breakdown of 120 rural hospital closures: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/state-by-state-breakdown-of-120-rural-hospital-closures.html Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Casey Lamb and Roger Horton work with the nonprofit organization Schools That Can. Schools That Can aims to promote real-world learning in education, with particular experience fostering real-world learning for younger students. This takes many forms, including collaborating with industry, teaching design thinking, and embracing the maker movement. Casey and Roger joined the podcast to talk about their National Forum on real-world learning in the digital age, as well as how real-world learning is evolving today. Roger is the Director of Maker Programs with Schools That Can, as well as the lead practitioner on a National Science Foundation project for the organization. He started his career as a Navy engineer, led youth employment training programs in developing countries, and taught Global History and Engineering Design at EPIC North High School in Queens, an STC network school. Casey is Chief Operating Officer for Schools That Can, and she co-authored the Schools That Can Real-World Learning Rubric for educators, helped found the Transforming Learning Collaborative, alongside partners at Da Vinci Schools and Next Generation Learning Challenges. Related to this episode: • Schools That Can: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/ • National Forum in NYC: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/2020-stc-forum/ • Rubric for real-world learning: https://www.schoolsthatcan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/RWL_Rubric.pdf • MC2 STEM High School in Cleveland: https://www.mc2stemhighschool.org/ • American Society of Civil Engineers: https://www.asce.org/ • Next Generation Science Standards adoption across states: https://ngss.nsta.org/about.aspx • SOLE – Self-organized learning environment app for inquiry-based learning aligned to standards: https://startsole.org/ • Nepris app to connect experts to classrooms: https://www.nepris.com/home/v4 • CommunityShare, to connect teachers locally to industry: https://www.communityshare.us/ • Engineering is Elementary: https://www.eie.org/ • Penn Graduate School project-based learning certificate: https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/professional-learning/project-based-learning-certificate • CS4All in NYC: http://cs4all.nyc/ • John Dewey (1859-1952), educator: https://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/john.html Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Project manager and software engineer Rick Kennedy is running for US House Representative for District 17 in Texas, in the 2020 Democratic primary. After decades working in tech, and after Trump was elected, Rick decided to run for office to try to solve difficult social problems and help end political divisiveness in the country. He joins the podcast to talk about his vision for universal pre-K, the costs of higher ed, rural internet, online disinformation, and more. Related to this episode: • Rick Kennedy's campaign: https://rickkennedyforcongress.com/ • US House District 17: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas%27s_17th_congressional_district • Texas ranked 36th nationally in per-student education spending: https://www.texastribune.org/2018/05/15/texas-student-teacher-spending-average/ • Title 1 federal funding for schools: https://www2.ed.gov/programs/titleiparta/index.html • Accreditation of Marlin ISD in Texas: https://www.kxxv.com/news/local-news/tea-revokes-marlin-isd-accreditation-no-longer-recognized-as-public-school • The return on investment of early childhood education: https://www.impact.upenn.edu/our-analysis/opportunities-to-achieve-impact/early-childhood-toolkit/why-invest/what-is-the-return-on-investment/ • Effects of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/two-years-after-the-tax-cuts-and-jobs-act-who-are-the-winners-and-the-losers-2020-02-11 • Tips for protecting yourself from disinformation: https://www.snopes.com/news/2020/02/26/4-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-disinformation/ • HR1 We the People Act on gerrymandering and redistricting: https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1/text • Voting information for Texas: https://www.votetexas.gov/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How do you “develop your practice” as a teacher and administrator? Rachel and Pius discuss this question and share their thoughts on going deeper into their careers as educators, all after a dinner of Austin barbecue. Related to this episode: • Slab BBQ: http://realdopebbq.com/ • The cover art is a photo of the Slab BBQ wall, showing patches from the 10th Mountain Division: https://home.army.mil/drum/index.php/units-tenants/10th-mountain-division-li • Highway 290 named for 10th Mountain Division: https://www.aaroads.com/guides/us-290-west-bastrop-tx/ • Math Anxiety: http://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/53 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Hugo Fruehauf, one of the co-inventors of GPS, explains the nitty-gritty of what GPS is. He also details his critical engineering work on the GPS subsystem of the atomic clock. Hugo was one of four recipients of the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, along with Dr. Bradford Parkinson, Professor James Spilker, and Richard Schwartz. Related to this episode: • Hugo's website: http://hugofruehauf.com/ • Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering: https://qeprize.org/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Like much of the world, Australian educators are increasingly embracing STEM education for younger students. Chris Perkins is one such teacher at Keithcot Farm Primary School outside Adelaide, South Australia. He talks about a range of issues on his radar as a STEM teacher, including how he stays up-to-date, Australian inventions, how New South Wales is a leader in that country for education, and more. For a video of the robot arm that Chris mentioned, see it here: https://youtu.be/L9rG8cD3pxQ The cover art for this episode comes from Gilbert Toyne's 1925 Australian patent on the rotary clothesline: http://pericles.ipaustralia.gov.au/ols/auspat/ Related to this episode: • STEM Everyday: http://dailystem.com/stem-everyday-podcast/ • Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/books/twenty-one-elephants-and-still-standing-by-april-jones-prince/ • 44% of teachers leave after 5 years: http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/teacherbeat/2018/10/today_teaching_force_richard_ingersoll.html • Australian curriculum: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ • Year 7 to high school: https://www.education.sa.gov.au/sites-and-facilities/year-7-high-school • Beebots: https://www.terrapinlogo.com/beebot.html • Ozobots: https://ozobot.com/ • Lego Mindstorms EV3 robots: https://education.lego.com/en-us/shop/mindstorms-ev3 • Video of robot arm on website: https://youtu.be/L9rG8cD3pxQ • Rotary hills hoist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hills_Hoist • Australia's Top 10 Inventions: https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/01/australias-top-10-inventions-the-victa-lawn-mower/ • World Solar Car Challenge: https://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/ • Solar tiles article: https://theconversation.com/we-can-make-roof-tiles-with-built-in-solar-cells-now-the-challenge-is-to-make-them-cheaper-123775 • Wave energy: https://e360.yale.edu/features/why_wave_power_has_lagged_far_behind_as_energy_source • Texas A&M research on wave energy: https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2019/02/could-the-ocean-be-the-answer-to-a-clean-energy-supply.html • Food scientist and cook Ann Reardon debunking viral food videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26m8NmKPzUI • Verification and Validation, past episode: http://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/45 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What does a chemical engineer do? What makes a good one? What should young people know about the field? Chemical engineer Will Mullen helps us answer these questions and more. Will is a Process Engineer and Engineering Manager at a manufacturing plant for specialty chemicals in North Carolina. Before that he managed facilities and worked in chemical plants in Texas and Georgia, and he has been involved in youth leadership for many years. Related to this episode: • NC State Chemical Engineering: https://www.cbe.ncsu.edu/ • Skype a Scientist: https://www.skypeascientist.com/ • NC State Engineering Ambassadors: https://www.engr.ncsu.edu/academics/undergrad/engineering-ambassadors/ • Engineering Grand Challenges from National Academy of Engineers: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/ • Cradle-to-Grave Assessment (Life Cycle Assessment): https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/cradle-to-grave-assessment • Solar sails: https://www.planetary.org/explore/projects/lightsail-solar-sailing/what-is-solar-sailing.html • Educators, you can contact Will about chemical engineering: wfmullen14@yahoo.com • South by Southwest EDU: https://www.sxswedu.com/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What should you look for in your first engineering job? How do you bridge high school, college, internships, and then finally full-time work? Is college worth it for the tech industry? Engineer and developer Omar Leyva gives advice on all this and more, speaking as an Android developer and computer engineer at Tile, a consumer electronics company in San Mateo, California. He also describes how his very first experience programming was C++ in college, how being a son of immigrants affected his views on college, and why people and company culture are so important for evaluating a job. Related to this episode: • Tile and its app: https://www.thetileapp.com/en-us/ • Electrical Engineering department at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles): https://www.ee.ucla.edu/ • Cisco, networking technology company: https://www.cisco.com/ • Sandisk, computer technology company: https://www.sandisk.com/ • Netapp, data services company: https://www.netapp.com • IEEE (“I Triple E”), professional society for electrical engineering: https://www.ieee.org/ • Center for Excellence in Engineering Diversity at UCLA: https://www.ceed.ucla.edu/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What do young people think about STEM fields today? Michigan STEM educator Danielle Boyer talks about her perspective as a recent high school graduate who teaches robotics to many young K-12 students. She talks about her lower-cost robot platform Every Kid Gets a Robot, her coloring books for STEM representation, young people's college fears, and also her views on accessibility and diversity in engineering. Episode cover art photo courtesy of Danielle Boyer. Related to this episode: • Danielle Boyer at the STEAM Connection: https://www.steamconnection.org/ • Every Kid Gets a Robot: https://www.steamconnection.org/robotics • Fischer Unitech camps: https://www.fisherunitech.com/future-manufacturing-camp/ • ESP32 development board: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/getting-started-with-esp32/ • The STEAM Sisters on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steamsisters/ • Adafruit: https://www.adafruit.com/ • Rachel York, Community Manager at SolidWorks: https://forum.solidworks.com/people/1-3U2N7GF • MythBusters: https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/ • Coloring books from the STEAM Connection: https://www.steamconnection.org/books • American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES): https://www.aises.org/ • FIRST Robotics: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc • STEMedia: https://www.stemedia.org/ • Past episode “Digital Pop Culture for STEM” with Dr. Nehemiah Mabry of STEMedia: http://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/48 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Distributed systems rule much of new technology today, as software programs exist across multiple computers, servers, phones, and smart devices. How can students learn to program these systems? Start with a visual programming environment, says Dr. Akos Ledeczi from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Ledeczi is an electrical and computer engineer who researches distributed systems and how to teach computer science. His research group created the NetsBlox block-based programming platform, based on SNAP and similar to Scratch, but it also has capabilities built-in for distributed or parallel programming. Ledeczi discusses the NetsBlox platform, their curriculum for teaching high schoolers, and their Roboscape project to link NetsBlox with robotics and cybersecurity education. Episode cover art photo by Alex Knight from Pexels. Related to this episode: • Dr. Akos Ledezci: http://www.isis.vanderbilt.edu/akos • MATLAB software: https://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab.html • Scratch language: https://scratch.mit.edu/ • Snap language: https://snap.berkeley.edu/ • Netsblox: https://netsblox.org/ • Web APIs list from MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API • Roboscape: https://netsblox.org/cybersecurity • Parallax ActivityBot 360: https://www.parallax.com/product/32600 • Article on Anki going out of business, from The Robot Report: https://www.therobotreport.com/anki-addresses-shutdown-ongoing-support-for-robots/ • C2STEM curriculum – https://c2stem.org/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Cybersecurity needs more professionals working in the field, and guest Nicole Bushong from Houston shares why. She explains critical issues today in digital crime, cyberwarfare, hacking, public safety, and diversity of the tech workforce. She also explains key aspects of her own path toward this field, including navigating being a woman in the still male-majority field of cybersecurity, her work in a women's tech organization at The University of Houston, and getting educated while having dyslexia. Related to this episode: • Engie North America: http://www.engie-na.com/ • Women in Cybersecurity, University of Houston (WICSUH): https://www.wicsuh.org/ • HouSecCon, Houston Security Conference: http://houstonseccon.org/ • “We've Entered a New Age of Cyberwar”: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/trump-cyber-russia-power-hacking.html • Schlumberger: https://www.slb.com/ • Video on being a cyber threat intelligence analyst at Chevron: https://www.chevron.com/stories/i-am-a-cyber-threat-intelligence-analyst • Trailer for Zero Days documentary on Stuxnet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VgIayOpjEc • APTs, advanced persistent threats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_persistent_threat • DNC hacks 2016 elections: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2018/07/13/timeline-how-russian-agents-allegedly-hacked-the-dnc-and-clintons-campaign/?utm_term=.89d46f83cf28 • “Russia's Elete Hackers Ma Have New Phishing Tricks”: https://www.wired.com/story/russia-fancy-bear-hackers-phishing/ • Simulated phishing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_phishing • RSA Archer, 3rd party vendor management: https://www.rsa.com/en-us/products/integrated-risk-management • Hack The Box, penetration testing challenge: https://www.hackthebox.eu/ • “Women Represent 20 Percent of the Global Cybersecurity Workforce in 2019”: https://cybersecurityventures.com/women-in-cybersecurity/ • Dyslexia: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dyslexia/symptoms-causes/syc-20353552 • “Looking at Irlen syndrome through a different lens”: https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-health-1112-irlen-kids-reading-20141104-story.html Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

How can you teach universal design to kids and teens? Have them build accessible games and books, according to The Build a Better Book project, from The University of Colorado Boulder. Guests Dr. Stacey Forsythe and Dr. Kathryn Penzkover develop the Build a Better Book project at UC Boulder, which provides curriculum for schools and libraries to teach people to create books and games for the visually impaired. Along the way, they can learn about the design process, makerspace technology, the arts, empathy, and community engagement. Drs. Forsythe and Penzkover spoke on the podcast during South by Southwest (SXSW) 2019 in Austin, Texas. The cover art for this episode shows a picture book and a chessboard designed by participants in the Build a Better Book project, as shown during SXSW. Both were designed to preserve function and aesthetics even when the reader or player can't see. Related to this episode: • Build a Better Book project: http://buildabetterbook.org • Dr. Stacy Forsythe: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/stacey-forsyth • Dr. Kathryn Penzkover: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/kathryn-penzkover • CU Science Discovery: https://www.colorado.edu/sciencediscovery/ • Wikki stix: https://www.wikkistix.com/ • Universal design, as described from the North Carolina State University College of Design: https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/about_ud/udprinciples.htm • Twitter profile for Build a Better Book: https://twitter.com/buildbetterbook Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

In this age of growing internet technology and connected computers, cybersecurity engineers and computer scientists will be more critical. Software engineer Sam Houston joins the podcast to talk about how she got into the security field, led by interests in computers and a desire to protect those in need. Sam is also a former student of Rachel, and we talk about key memories in her K-12 and college education – shoutouts to Miss Avery and Dr. Burris. Related to this episode: • Target hack in 2013: https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/target-settles-2013-hacked-customer-data-breach-18-5-million-n764031 • Sam Houston State University: https://www.shsu.edu/ • Sam Houston digital forensics PhD: http://catalog.shsu.edu/graduate/college-departments/science-and-engineering-technology/computer-science/digital-and-cyber-forensic-science-phd/ • FBI Field Office in Houston: https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/houston • Virus threat that deletes itself: https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-finds-new-trojan-malware-that-deletes-itself/ • Physics of a trebuchet: http://www.stormthecastle.com/trebuchet/trebuchet-physics.htm • Building a trebuchet lesson plan: https://tryengineering.org/teacher/trebuchet-toss/ • Stamps saying “You shall not pass” from Gandalf, and similar products: http://www.geekystamps.com/store/c1/Featured_Products.html • Ada language: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_(programming_language) • Intuit internships: https://careers.intuit.com/job-category/21/university • Raytheon internships: https://jobs.raytheon.com/college-jobs • Grace Hopper Conference: https://ghc.anitab.org/ • Peopleware investigations from IBM: https://www.amazon.com/Peopleware-Productive-Projects-Teams-3rd/dp/0321934113 • Grace Hopper: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

If you missed the 2019 edition of the South by Southwest Education (SXSW Edu) conference in Austin, Texas, we rehash some highlights that you may have missed. We talk about empathy, accessibility, and a few new tech tools available to educators discovered at the conference. Related to this episode: • SXSW Edu: https://sxswedu.com • UT McCombs School of Business: https://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/ • Yes, And game, as described by Mary Elisabeth: https://medium.com/improv4/saying-yes-and-a-principle-for-improv-business-life-fd050bccf7e3 • Build a Better Book project at CU Boulder: https://www.colorado.edu/project/bbb/ • Empathic lead user analysis, as described in a study: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1604193 • Keynote of Patrick Awuah of Ashesi Univesrity at SXSW EDU 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DejcJynozg • Humble ISD PBL curriculum related to Hurricane Harvey: https://www.humbleisd.net/Page/108658 • MindCet, Israeli firm for voice technology in education: http://www.mindcet.org/en/ • Dyscalculia simulator from Understood.edu: https://www.understood.org/en/tools/through-your-childs-eyes • Google Slides automatic live captioning: https://support.google.com/docs/answer/9109474?hl=en • Video of Google live captioning from the Pios Labs Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BupUR7ElQPk/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet • Video of the VR Merge tool showing a model of the solar system: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bum3ekGF0MT/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet • Unity3D platform for authoring digital games and environments: https://unity.com/ • Cult of Pedagogy blog: https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/ • Jennifer Gonzalez keynote, “The Aerodynamics of Exceptional Schools”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s_NkSEWJZg Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Texans across the state and across the political divide agree: public school funding needs fixing. What that means exactly, however, is tricky. In Part 1, Texas State Representative Donna Howard explains the school finance conundrum and its evolution over the years, along with some potential solutions floating around the legislature. In Part 2, political consultant Kolby Monnig argues that citizens must influence education laws by communicating with their representatives, and she demystifies that process. Lastly, in Part 3, educators, school support personnel, and unions rally for K-12 education reforms across the board. Related to this episode: • Representative Donna Howard: https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=48 • Donna Howard's infographic on Texas school finance, on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texansforchange/photos/pcb.2262081777448971/2262081220782360/?type=3&theater • Liar's affidavit: https://www.dontmesswithtaxes.com/2006/10/new_liars_affid.html • Economic Stabilization Fund (ESF) “rainy day” fund: https://comptroller.texas.gov/economy/fiscal-notes/2016/september/rainy-day.php • Texas Standard article on a first public proposal for how to reform school finance, from March 8th, 2019: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/08/texas-senate-files-its-version-school-finance-reform-bill/ • Kolby Monnig (@blueoceantx), Blue Ocean Consulting: https://blueoceantx.com/ • Copper pennies: https://www.texastribune.org/2011/03/31/how-to-navigate-texas-school-finance-system/ • Who Represents Me? https://wrm.capitol.texas.gov/home • Texas Teacher Retirement System: https://www.trs.texas.gov/Pages/Homepage.aspx • Texas Tribune: https://www.texastribune.org/ • Rally for Texas education funding on March 11, 2019: https://www.statesman.com/news/20190311/hundreds-of-texas-teachers-rally-at-capitol-for-funding-against-merit-pay • Project Vida: https://www.pvida.net/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Problem-solving, technology, and public service all combine when you work as an engineer for the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). Dr. Michael Sterling, PhD, is a lead water resource engineer at the US Army Corps of Engineers, Southwestern Division, and he oversees missions related to water supply, flood prevention, hydroelectric power, and more issues affecting large swaths of the USA. Dr. Sterling also discusses how he came to USACE from the fields of chemical, civil, and environmental engineering, and how to help young people get on a similar path. Related to this episode: • US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): https://www.usace.army.mil/ • USACE Southwest Division (SWD): https://www.swd.usace.army.mil/ • Geographic Information Systems (GIS): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system • Intel International Science Fair (ISEF): https://student.societyforscience.org/intel-isef • ROTC = Reserve Officer Training Corps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reserve_Officers%27_Training_Corps • Society of American Military Engineers (SAME): https://www.same.org/ • American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE): https://www.asce.org/ • 2015 Black Engineer of the Year Awards Gala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yda663HthKw Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

The educational technology company Robolink is coming out with a new robotics platform for teaching kids the fundamentals of programming artificial intelligence (AI). Hansol Hong is the CEO and Founder of San Diego-based Robolink. Hansol discusses their latest AI education product Zümi, which won an award at the 2019 International Consumer Electronics Show for innovation. Hansol also talks about their Kickstarter campaigns, the ethics of AI in self-driving cars, drones, and more. Related to this episode: • Robolink: https://www.robolink.com/ • Kickstarter for Robolink's Zümi: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robolink/driving-into-the-world-of-ai-zumi • Rokit Smart Robot kit” https://www.robolink.com/rokit-smart/ • Arduino microcontroller: https://www.arduino.cc/ • CoDrone: https://robolink.myshopify.com/products/codrone • Erector Sets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set • UC San Diego: https://ucsd.edu/ • OLED screens: https://www.oled-info.com/oled-introduction • Herbie the Love Bug: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083428/ • Raspberry Pi computer: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ • TensorFlow Keras for training learning models: https://www.tensorflow.org/guide/keras • Three Laws of Robotics from Isaac Asimov: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Laws_of_Robotics • “The truth behind Facebook AI inventing a new language,” an article written by AI CTO Roman Kucera: https://towardsdatascience.com/the-truth-behind-facebook-ai-inventing-a-new-language-37c5d680e5a7 • OpenCV for machine vision: https://opencv.org/ • NGSS = Next Generation Science Standards: https://www.nextgenscience.org/ • Common Core Standards: http://www.corestandards.org/ • Udacity courses on AI: https://www.udacity.com/course/ai-artificial-intelligence-nanodegree--nd898 • MOOC = Massive open online course • CES convention: https://www.ces.tech/ • Best of Innovation Award at CES 2019: https://www.ces.tech/News/Press-Releases/CES-Press-Release.aspx?NodeID=df3a115a-ef2a-4aa5-bde1-333397b96973 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Educator Rachel and engineer Pius introduce Season 4 and brainstorm about what interests us in K-12 engineering education today. We talk about school finance reform, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and more. Related to this episode: • Lego programming: https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/learn-to-program • Article on Facebook security breach in 2018: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/technology/facebook-hack-data-breach.html • Article on the Stuxnet virus applied to an Iranian power plant: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/06/01/154162121/as-the-worm-turns-cybersecurity-expert-tracks-blowback-from-stuxnet • AP CS Principles: https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/ap-computer-science-principles/course • Texas Legislative Sessions: http://www.tcdd.texas.gov/public-policy/texas-legislature/ • Article on how school finance works right now in Texas and “Robin Hood” funding: https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/15/texas-school-funding-how-it-works/ • The Texas Permanent School Fund: https://tea.texas.gov/finance_and_grants/permanent_school_fund/ • SBOE = State Board of Education • Example food web in biology: https://cnx.org/contents/s8Hh0oOc@9.10:YevkaNFi@3/Energy-Flow-through-Ecosystems#fig-ch20_01_05 • TxDOT = Texas Department of Transportation: https://www.txdot.gov/ • Previous episode mentioning on improv for engineering: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep9.html • Inside the Actor's Studio: https://www.bravotv.com/inside-the-actors-studio • FERPA student privacy law: https://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/records/ferpa • PLC = Professional Learning Community • Engineering Word Of The Day podcast: http://engineeringwordoftheday.com/ • Mozilla Foundation: https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/ • Elon Musk warns about climate change in 2015: https://www.inc.com/huffington-post/elon-musk-sounds-off-on-climate-change.html Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Engineers Sadhan and Pius continue an ongoing series of discussions on the fundamentals of mechanical engineering. Today they talk about what they remember about statics, forces, acceleration, moments, relativity, stars, and more. Related to this episode: • Statics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statics • Dynamics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics_(mechanics) • Force: https://physics.info/newton-first/ • Newton's Third Law: https://physics.info/newton-third/ • Theory of Relativity: https://www.space.com/17661-theory-general-relativity.html • Moment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_(physics) • Golden Gate Bridge: http://www.goldengatebridge.org/ • Homeostasis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeostasis • Nuclear fusion: http://www.nuclearconnect.org/know-nuclear/science/nuclear-fusion • Supernovas: https://www.space.com/6638-supernova.html • Black holes: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics/focus-areas/black-holes Our opening music is called “Soar,” and our closing music is called “Polar,” both by artist Chris Pop, used with permission. You can find more music by Chris Pop on SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/chrispop99. Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What are the trends in educational kids' toys today? How can programming kits be improved? How does an education business start and succeed? Entrepreneur Joseph Greer in Chicago discusses these issues as he describes his STEM education startup, MakeXchange, and its “Invention Lab” Arduino kit. The kit was designed to be more user-friendly and more organized than other Arduino kits. This is the start of Joseph's goal to make the number one STEM education consumer product company. ***For a limited time this November, use the discount code K12ENGINEERING10 AT MakeXchange.com for a 10% discount. Related to this episode: • MakeXchange: https://www.makexchange.com/ • MakeXchange Inventor's Kit: https://www.makexchange.com/collections/the-goods/products/electronics-invention-lab • Toy Insider Holiday Gift Guide for Tweens: https://www.thetoyinsider.com/holiday_guide/tweens/ • Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ • Ohm's Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohm%27s_law • Accenture, consulting corporation: https://www.accenture.com/ • Marc Andreessen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Andreessen • Shawshank Redemption film spoilers: https://youtu.be/5y_O094dGDU • Lego Mindstorms robotics kits: https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms • MakeXchange Paper Airplane Launcher kit: https://www.makexchange.com/collections/the-goods/products/diy-paper-airplane-launcher-accessory • mHub Chicago, startup incubator: https://mhubchicago.com/ • Fat Brain Toys: https://www.fatbraintoys.com/ • My Science Shop: https://myscienceshop.com/ • MakeXchange YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC61eOn-djaK8ubdxzaRWfVA • Sparkiverse STEM education company: https://www.sparkiverselabs.com/ • Raspberry Pi computer: https://www.raspberrypi.org/ • Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago: https://polsky.uchicago.edu/ Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Architectural and civil engineers are using rich digital tools to simulate constructed buildings. Similar tools are also being used in digital video games and virtual reality games that might teach future engineers. Dr. Fadi Castronovo speaks about his efforts to advance engineering education using simulations and games like these. Fadi is an engineering professor at California State University, East Bay (or Cal State East Bay), an architectural engineer by training, and an educational game designer. He also talks about his students' game to teach sustainability practices, his favorite video games, and his background across the world. Related to this episode: • Dr. Fadi Castronovo: https://www.fadicastronovo.com/ • Download some of Fadi's educational games: https://www.fadicastronovo.com/research-groups/stem-educational-gaming-research-group • Cal State East Bay engineering: http://www.csueastbay.edu/engineering/ • Cooper-Union engineering: https://cooper.edu/engineering • Penn State University engineering: https://www.engr.psu.edu/ • Dr. John Messner: https://news.psu.edu/expert/john-messner • Dr. Messner's lab: https://www.pennstatecic.org/people.html • Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS): https://www.pennstatecic.org/vcs.html • SimCity, video game series: https://www.ea.com/games/simcity • Rollercoaster Tycoon, video game: http://www.rollercoastertycoon.com/ • Think aloud methods for usability testing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_aloud_protocol • Experiential learning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experiential_learning • Attack of the Recyclops game background: https://peer.asee.org/board-63-development-of-a-virtual-reality-educational-game-for-waste-management-attack-of-the-recyclops • Sketchup 3D modeling software: https://www.sketchup.com/ • Unity game development engine: https://unity3d.com/ • Oculus Rift virtual reality platform: https://www.oculus.com/rift/ • HTC Vive: https://www.vive.com/us/product/vive-virtual-reality-system/ • City of Austin composting program: https://austintexas.gov/austincomposts • City of Austin game development incentives: http://www.austintexas.gov/department/film-digital-media-production-incentives • Auti-Sim, Autism simulator game: http://www.gamesforchange.org/game/auti-sim/ • Civilization, video game: https://civilization.com/ • Magic Leap, company with augmented reality technology: https://www.magicleap.com/ • Dr. Steve Ayer, Arizona State University: https://ssebe.engineering.asu.edu/2018/08/steven-ayer/ Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Among the various STEM education organizations that have developed throughout the last several years, there is ChickTech. The local Austin chapter of the nonprofit began just a few years ago, and Dana DeFebbo, its Assistant Director, discusses how ChickTech Austin reaches out to high school girls who might not have had opportunities in tech. Dana talks about the challenges and rewards of running an all-volunteer program like this and her hopes for its future. Related to this episode: • Chicktech Austin: https://austin.chicktech.org/ • ChickTech: https://chicktech.org/ • OSCON, Open Source Convention: https://conferences.oreilly.com/oscon/oscon-or • Microbits: https://microbit.org/ • Girlstart: https://girlstart.org/ • Previous podcast with GirlStart: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep21.html • Android development curriculum App Inventor from MIT: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ • ACT-W Conferences: http://www.act-w.org/ • Lilypad Arduino: https://store.arduino.cc/usa/lilypad-arduino-main-board • Article on Apple's Global Volunteer Program: https://www.macrumors.com/2015/03/16/apple-launches-global-volunteer-program/ • Microsoft employee giving program: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies/employee-engagement Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What skills does a professional architect bring to high school education? Guest Kelly Foster explains, as he shares his experience as both a practicing architect and a STEM teacher. He discusses his methods in teaching creativity and problem-solving in multiple areas of design, including civil and architectural engineering, architecture, and graphic design. He also analyzes the design of the new Central Library, part of the Austin Public Library system. Guest co-host Rachel also joins the discussion. Related to this episode: • Austin Central Library: https://library.austintexas.gov/central-library • Science poster designed by Kelly Foster, “CAUTION! Science Teacher at Work”: http://www.k12engineering.net/downloads/caution-scienceteacher-kwfstudio.pdf • Project Lead The Way preK-12 STEM curriculum: https://www.pltw.org/ • Project Lead The Way curriculum in civil engineering and architecture: https://www.pltw.org/our-programs/pltw-engineering-curriculum#curriculum-4 • Land surveying on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveying • Hogwarts “Grand Staircase” from the Harry Potter Wiki: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Grand_Staircase • MC Escher's “Relativity” lithograph showing staircases: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_(M._C._Escher) • Giovanni Battista Piranesi's “Prisons” art: https://new.artsmia.org/exhibition/piranesi-prisons/ • The old Faulk Central Library of Austin: http://library.austintexas.gov/blog-entry/remembering-faulk-central-library-411004 • Brutalism in architecture, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brutalist_architecture • Lake Flato, San Antonio-based designers of the Austin Central Library: https://www.lakeflato.com/ • Article on the Technology Petting Zoo at the Austin Central Library: https://www.512tech.com/technology/austin-central-library-hands-gadget-time-drives-the-tech-petting-zoo/mBU2Ik9qSJM6D7ATXNhjKO/ • Weed eater locking mechanism video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpTyp0tXxBA • “A&M” is Texas A&M University. • Article on the housing bubble and crisis of 2008: https://www.businessinsider.com/impact-of-2008-crash-on-housing-2016-2 • The cover art for this episode pictures the underside of stairways in the Austin Central Library, photographed during the conversation. Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Engineer Ian Bernstein talks about his startup's newest consumer robot released by Misty Robotics: Misty II. Based on what he learned developing his previous educational robot Sphero, Ian and his team created Misty II to be widely customizable, programmable, and full of potential functionality. The robot may be on the pricier side, and Ian says that it's worth it. He also discusses why he thinks robotics can promote education and how he got interested in robotics when he was young. Related to this episode: • Misty II robot at Misty Robotics: https://www.mistyrobotics.com/ • Misty II offer for educators: https://www.mistyrobotics.com/educators-and-students/ • WALL-E: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/ • Baymax from “Big Hero 6”: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2245084/ • Sphero: https://www.sphero.com/ • Sphero SPRK: https://www.sphero.com/sprk-plus • Lego Mindstorms: https://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms • Misty Robotics community: http://community.mistyrobotics.com • Blockly: https://developers.google.com/blockly/ • Scratch: https://scratch.mit.edu/ • JavaScript: https://www.javascript.com/ • South by Southwest (SXSW): https://www.sxsw.com/ • Apple IIe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series • Arduino: https://www.arduino.cc/ • SLAM algorithms for mapping: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping • Logo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) • BASIC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC

Author Roxanna Elden discusses her new satirical novel Adequate Yearly Progress, which tells the story of the teachers' lives across one year in the fictional Texas high school of Brae Hill Valley. Roxanna's book draws on her own experience as a K-12 public school teacher and her conversations with other teachers around the country. Roxanna says that past portrayals of teachers in popular media can be very unrealistic, and her book is meant to challenge that. Related to this episode: • Roxanna Elden, author: https://roxannaelden.com/ • “Adequate Yearly Progress” on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Adequate-Yearly-Progress-Roxanna-Elden/dp/1732098700/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 • Adequate Yearly Progress as described by the Texas Education Agency: https://tea.texas.gov/ayp/ • “See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers” on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/See-Me-After-Class-Teachers/dp/1402297068 • “The Office” TV show, on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386676/ • Tom Wolf, author and journalist, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wolfe • Zadie Smith, author: http://www.zadiesmith.com/ • Alisa Valdez Rodriguez, author, on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alisa_Valdes • “Freedom Writers” film, on IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0463998/ • National Novel Writing Month: https://nanowrimo.org/ • Vote for our proposals for SXSW 2019! "Podcasting Meetup: Educator Give & Get" (https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/90770), and "Teachers in Tech: Talking With Career Changers" at SXSW EDU (https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91608) and SXSW (https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/91091) Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Former teacher and current tech worker Sophia talks about why she left the classroom, how people perceive teachers, how to bring STEM to four-year-olds, and the value of communication skills in software development. Related to this episode: • AISD (Austin Independent School District): https://www.austinisd.org/ • General Assembly Web Development courses: https://generalassemb.ly/coding/full-stack-web-development • Front-End, Back-End, and Full Stack web development, on Udacity: https://blog.udacity.com/2014/12/front-end-vs-back-end-vs-full-stack-web-developers.html • “Stand and Deliver” the movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/ • “Texas at top of list for cuts in K-12 education” article in the Texarkana Gazette: http://www.texarkanagazette.com/news/texas/story/2018/jul/20/texas-top-list-cuts-k-12-education/735282/ • Project Based Learning (PBL) at the Buck Institute: https://www.bie.org/about/what_pbl • South by Southwest (SXSW) EDU Conference: https://www.sxswedu.com/ • SEL (Social-emotional learning) at CASEL: https://casel.org/what-is-sel/ • Slido, digital question and answer tool: https://www.sli.do/ • Eligibility for Prekindergarten (pre-K) in Texas: https://tea.texas.gov/ece/eligibility.aspx • PD (professional development): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_development • Life cycle of a snail, at AnimalSake: https://animalsake.com/life-cycle-of-snail • “The Benefits and Pitfalls of Pair Programming in the Workplace” by Sam Harris on Medium: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/the-benefits-and-pitfalls-of-pair-programming-in-the-workplace-e68c3ed3c81f • Slack, common communication tool in tech industry: https://slack.com/ Our closing music is “Yes And” by Steve Combs, used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs, or send one-time contributions by buying us coffee: https://ko-fi.com/pioslabs. Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.