Dr. Kessner
STEM+ Program Updates 2021
Engineering
We are excited to announce that Marlborough will be participating in the national competition, Project Invent, this year! Project Invent is a year-long program in which teams of students collaborate with a community partner and design a product that will help their community partner in some way. Each team will go through the entire engineering design process, all the way from needfinding to actually building their final design. During the initial stages, teams will interview and collaborate with their community partner to identify a need on which to focus. They will then spend the rest of the year brainstorming, prototyping, testing and revising their design. The only requirement from the program is that the design is a physical product with a technological component. The rest is up to the students! In April, students will travel to San Diego to present their product to a panel of industry professionals. The winner of the event will be invited to a national showcase in San Jose in May. More information about Project Invent can be found on their website, along with examples of previous projects.
Robotics
The FIRST Tech Challenge season officially kicked off on September 18th with the reveal of the new game “Freight Frenzy.” Our four teams are diving into their design process by analyzing the game, building prototypes, and testing their creations. The teams are also looking forward to competing in-person at the first Meet on November 13th, hosted at Marlborough in the CEI.
SPARC Equipment Update
The SPARC workshop underwent an equipment upgrade over the summer to enhance students’ ability to fabricate custom parts. In addition to a new 3D printer and laser cutter, the space now also boasts a brand new Shopbot Desktop CNC machine. The Shopbot will enable students to precisely cut and engrave a variety of materials including polycarbonate and aluminum. Other upgrades include the installation of a fume hood and fume extractors so a wider variety of materials can be safely cut and printed indoors.
Computer Science
We are bringing more web development into the curriculum, with Honors Computer Science students exploring web-based visual novels (example). Later this school year they will be leading a collaboration with History students on research projects presented as visual novels.
Other students in Honors Computer Science Projects are looking forward to the All-School Dance Concert this semester. They are currently working with student (and teacher) choreographers to create video projections for the concert [2019 concert]. We are also looking forward to continuing our collaboration with our Social Justice and Community Partnerships program this year.
We have fully embraced Open Educational Resources in the Computer Science curriculum. We use open textbooks and other open educational resources in all of our coding classes. We are also exploring methods for sharing our own educational resources, both with our students and beyond our walls. [APCS] [CSProjects] [PCHA] [MultiV]