Current Status of BEAM Acknowledgements

NSF Engineering Research Center 11-537 for
Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)
Building Engineers and Mentors:
Planning for the Future
Elizabeth Roth-Johnson1*, Perry Roth-Johnson2, Kymberly Alvarez3, Jennifer Choi4,
Professor Richard Wirz2, Professor Greg Carman2
1Molecular
Biology Interdepartmental PhD Program, 2Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering,
3Institute of the Environment, 4Department of Psychology University of California, Los Angeles
*Contact: lizroth@ucla.edu
Current Status of BEAM
Building Engineers and Mentors (BEAM) brings
hands-on STEM activities to underserved K-12
schools. Currently, BEAM at UCLA serves
second- through eighth-grade students across
three Los Angeles schools. Based on a shared
interest in increasing the diversity of students who enter STEM fields, BEAM and TANMS have recently partnered
together in our STEM outreach efforts. This partnership has already led to the creation of a BEAM course for
credit and a fruitful collaboration with CSUN to create new lesson plan materials. Because TANMS will continue to
provide support and infrastructure to BEAM over the next ten years, we have been thinking about potential future
directions for BEAM. Here we present several ideas for expanding BEAM’s reach and educational efforts in
the near, medium, and long term. These future directions are designed to leverage the TANMS resources
available to us, and to take advantage of UCLA’s diverse community and educational environment.
New BEAM Chapters at Other Universities
STEM and the Humanities
BEAM was originally founded at UC Berkeley in 2008 and expanded to UCLA in 2010. A natural
next step is to expand BEAM to other TANMS universities in the United States.
2008
2010
BEAM holds weekly planning sessions at UCLA to practice running activities and to discuss teaching strategies (left). Mentors
then implement these activities at three different schools across Los Angeles (right). Thanks to TANMS and the Department of
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, we are able to offer BEAM for course credit and work with CSUN on new electricity and
magnetism themed lesson plans.
2014?
BEAM is a model for student-led outreach that can be applied to other universities nationwide.
The BEAM Box is a guide to starting new BEAM chapters, developed at UC
Berkeley in 2011 [1]. Along with the experience gained by starting BEAM at
UCLA, this guide can be leveraged to expand BEAM to other universities.
Using subjects like photography, music, and cooking to teach STEM concepts not only makes
new ideas more accessible to our young students, but also fosters an early appreciation for how
much science and engineering pervades our everyday lives.
Science and Food at UCLA uses food to teach science through
an undergraduate course, a public lecture series, and an online
blog (above; [8]). Role models like Alton Brown (right; [9]) make
science “cool” and help show that science and engineering can
be fun and accessible for everyone.
BruinLIGHTS is a community service based student
organization that brings arts education to K-12 schools
in Los Angeles [10].
BEAM will reach out to other student groups at UCLA to generate new humanities-themed
lesson plans and increase our volunteer base.
Online Learning Videos
BEAM can create engaging videos that demonstrate science and
engineering concepts. This online teaching component will:
o Reach a wide public audience beyond Los Angeles
o Promote science and engineering education at home
o Provide examples of a college STEM experience
Videos can be filmed in the TANMS
recording studio at UCLA and then
made freely available on YouTube [2].
Music Club, a cappella groups, and members
of the UCLA marching band could help teach
about the physics of sound [11].
The Photography Club at UCLA could teach
about topics like photography-related chemistry
and the nature of light and color [12-13].
The Animation Students Organization could
teach about math and computer programming
behind computer animation [14-15].
Pre-Assembled Activity Kits
Video lessons are a good opportunity for UCLA students who would like to participate in outreach
but cannot volunteer at BEAM’s afterschool programs. In these videos, we can explore activities
that are more complex than those covered in our lesson plans. BEAM can also partner with
UCLA engineering clubs to feature real design projects that pair well with our lesson plans.
BEAM is proud to make its lesson plans freely available
for teachers, parents, and students for use at home and
in the classroom. However, sourcing some materials
can be difficult, and many scientific materials are sold in
large bulk quantities that are not practical for personal
or single classroom use. By selling pre-assembled kits
for a small profit, BEAM can provide an affordable and
convenient resource to teachers and parents.
The University of St. Thomas Squishy Circuits Program
sells pre-assembled kits for the affordable price of $25
plus free shipping [16]. BEAM could create similar preassembled kits for each of our lesson plans.
Example Microbiology Kit
For our Microbiology Lesson [17-18] compare the price of 10 petri dishes and 10 sterile swabs
Online videos featuring the UCLA Rocket Project, advised
by Professor Richard Wirz, could complement existing
BEAM lesson plans like “Zipline Balloon Racers” or “Stomp
Rockets” (above; [3])
By working with the many engineering clubs at UCLA ([4-7]), BEAM could feature
real design projects in online videos. These projects would supplement BEAM
activities, teach students about the engineering design process, and show younger
students what they might do as engineering students in college.
BEAM
Amazon
$3.50 base price
$12.95 + $7.95 shipping + tax
Assembled in-house from Fisher 08-757-12,
Sigma-Aldrich L7533-6X500ML, and Fisher 14-959-91
Pre-made and sold by EZ BioResearch PD-100-LB
Implementation
References
Each of the ideas presented above will be implemented over the near (STEM and the Humanities), medium (New BEAM
Chapters at Other Universities, Online Learning Videos), and long term (Pre-Assembled Activity Kits). BEAM will need to
recruit new student leaders to become BEAM officers who will implement these ideas into real programs. With new officers
and the continued support of TANMS, these ideas can be feasibly put into practice. Furthermore, these ideas will expand
BEAM’s reach to a wider audience and establish it as a premier STEM outreach organization in the United States.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through the Cooperative Agreement Award EEC-1160504 for Solicitation NSF
11-537 (TANMS) managed by Dr. Deborah J. Jackson. BEAM thanks the UCLA Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Community
Activities Committee and the UCLA Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) Department for their generous financial support. BEAM
also thanks Prof. Adrienne Lavine (past MAE Dept.Chair) for helping BEAM thrive since its first year, as well Prof. Tsu-Chin Tsao (current
MAE Dept. Chair) for his current support. Finally, BEAM thanks all the officers, volunteers, Los Angeles teachers, and MAE Department staff
(especially Mr. Duy Dang) for their hard work; without them, none of BEAM’s efforts would be possible.
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Berkeley
Cornell University
California State University, Northridge
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich
Community
Activities
Committee
1. Almaguer AJ (2011) Building Engineers and Mentors: A Model for Student-Led Engineering Outreach.
Proceedings of the 2011 PSW American Society for Engineering Education Zone IV Conference.
2. YouTube: http://www.youtube.com
3. BEAM Stomp Rockets Lesson: http://beam.ucla.edu/docs/Stomp%20Rockets.pdf
4. AIAA Design Build Fly: http://www.aiaadbf.org/
5. UCLA Racing Baja SAE and Supermilage Vehicle: http://uclaracing.org/
6. UCLA Rocket Project: http://uclarocketproject.com/
7. UCLA Battlebots: http://asme.seas.ucla.edu/index.htm
8. Science and Food: http://www.scienceandfood.org
9. Alton Brown: http://thisfoodthing.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/alton-brown_l.jpg
10. Bruin LIGHTS: http://lights-at-ucla.weebly.com
11. Image Credit: http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/artwork/4/9/0/4/4/49044/UCLA_Spring_Sing_2007.jpg
12. Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Film_strip.jpg
13. Photography Club at UCLA: http://photoclubatucla.com/
14. Animation Students Organization: http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/aso/#/Home-01-00/
15. Image Credit: http://pixartimes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/WALL-E.jpg
16. Squishy Circuits Store: http://squishycircuitsstore.com/index.html
17. BEAM Microbiology Lesson: http://beam.ucla.edu/docs/Microbiology%201.pdf
18. Image Credit: http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5773459/il_fullxfull.178410421.jpg