Recently, we experienced a power outage during the middle of our school day. I took the opportunity to let my students experience the hands on energy harvesting demonstration lesson plan that I created over the summer at NC State’s ASSIST Center. Energy harvesting is drawing power from another source of energy such as solar, kinetic movement, or body heat among… Read more »
April KingComments Off on Nature and Politics – Oh My!!
The current cohort of Kenan Fellows wrapped up the month of July with a professional development retreat in Raleigh. It was great to see friends and learn all about their summer adventures. We spent much of our time studying nature and applying such scientific principles to our respective disciplines. For example, one area we studied were the trees and wildlife… Read more »
April KingComments Off on ASSIST Research Symposium at NC State University
Well, it is hard to believe but our time at the ASSIST Center has concluded. We wrapped up our summer internship by sharing our experiences and project posters at a Research Symposium at NC State University. Guests included students, researchers, other Kenan Fellows and staff, teachers, administrators, family, and friends – including a couple of the canine variety. Each presenter… Read more »
April KingComments Off on NC State Electrical & Computer Engineering and EPA Human Studies Tours
I have been playing video games for as long as I can remember. Thus, I was very excited when I learned we were visiting an engineering department at NC State that applied the same 3-D technology used to make such video game characters as football and baseball players to real world nanotechnology problem solving. Topics included on our demonstration tour… Read more »
April KingComments Off on NASA to Visit Panther Creek High School in Cary, NC
Yes, that is correct. NASA is coming to Panther Creek High School this fall – and their first stop will not be a science classroom. Instead, they will be going to straight to my CTE business and marketing classroom. Why is that you ask? How? One of my main goals of participating in the Kenan Fellows Program has been to… Read more »
CLICK HERE for a link to an article on the Kenan Fellows website sharing some of my experiences thus far in the program. http://kenanfellows.org/kenan-fellows-voices-daniel-mccoy/
April KingComments Off on Soldering, Circuits, & Coding
We finished up last week solidifying our ideas for team lesson plans before taking a break to celebrate the 4th of July Holiday. We were fortunate to learn from Dr. Ben Calhoun at the ASSIST Center’s University of Virginia location virtually via video conference regarding sensor nodes. Then we were able to get hands on in ASSIST’s soldering lab by… Read more »
Yesterday, my Nanotechnology team members and I returned to NC State’s ASSIST Center after our week long retreat in the mountains. We spent the morning learning about Mind Mapping. Contrary to my initial thought, Mind Mapping has nothing to do with activities similar to the one conducted by Duke University on my son as he participated in a brain study… Read more »
April KingComments Off on Professional Development – Kenan Style!
Preface: I believe that professional development (PD) should be relevant, applicable, realistic, managed in a timely and efficient manner but most importantly PD needs to be beneficial for student learning. Unfortunately, I have experienced “PD shock” in the past (however, not at my current school of course) in which at least one if not all elements were not in place and… Read more »
April KingComments Off on Porticos and Device Solutions
A big thank you to Porticos and Device Solutions both located in Morrisville, NC for hosting the cohort of teachers from the ASSIST Center on Friday, June 19. The businesses team up together occasionally on various projects. Porticos focuses on providing mechanical engineering solutions where as Device Solutions handles the hardware and software side of their projects. Mr. Greg Patterson… Read more »
