What is the STEM Mobile Application?

The Wheelock College Aspire Institute is launching on an exciting new initiative to promote family-child engagement in math and science learning.  As Wheelock College's social and education innovation center, the Aspire Institute is currently developing a web/smart phone application that provides accessible, engaging, and daily information in the area of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) to parents of third, fourth, and fifth graders. This application will place STEM learning at the fingertips of families and students!

Project Update:

We are gearing up to launch the STEM Mobile-Accessible App this Monday, April 1st at the Sarah Greenwood School in Dorchester, MA. We are collaborating with web application developer, Jamie Folsom, to build and administer the app. Because this is a pilot application, you cannot sign up to receive the activities. However, we will be featuring each daily activity on our Twitter and Facebook pages for you to follow along. 

Examples of Activities Featured in the App:

 1. United States Population Reaches Milestone - Shortly after 2:29 p.m. on August 14, 2012, the U.S. population clock reached a milestone that is very meaningful to mathematical statisticians: it showed there are 314,159,265 residents, or pi (3.14159265) times 100 million. Pi is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. Can you guess what the population of your city/town is? Massachusetts? The United States? Internet address: http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html.

2. Water Consumption - How much water should you drink each day? Take a guess. Do you think it's the same for everyone? Some experts says to calculate how much water you should drink each day, you would divide your weight by 2 and that would be the number of ounces you need. For example, if you weigh 150 lbs. you would need approx. 75 ounces of water. Have you and your child calculate for the whole family.

3. Pi represents the relationship between a circle's diameter (its width) and its circumference (the distance around the circle).   Find different sized circles in your house and measure each of their diameters and their circumferences.  Then divide each circle's circumference by its diameter.  What do you notice about your answers?

4. In which setting do you think an ounce of water would evaporate more quickly--in an air conditioned room, or outdoors in the shade on a summer day? Try it out! Put an ounce of water in two small containers (they should be identical containers) and place them in the two locations. Plan to check back on the containers a few times over the next several hours. Is there any change?

If you want to learn more about this pilot project, please contact Barbara Joseph at bjoseph@wheelock.edu or 617-879-2194.

Connection. Innovation. Optimism