Boardman Spartans’ swim and dive team give back over winter break
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Boardman athletes use team bonding to help others
During winter break, members of the swim and dive team at Boardman High School worked on building strength, endurance, and a commitment to the community.
“This is the time of year when we can get some extra work in, so we do two practices a day--one in the weight room and one at the pool. Practices are early in the morning and swimmers are a bit tired, but they know this is our final push prior to our championship and tournament competitions,” said swim coach Carlo Cordon.
After practice, the Spartans’ swim and dive team worked on projects through a community service program at Boardman High School called Boardman Team Unity Building.
BTUB pairs seniors with underclassmen to work on service projects to help local organizations including the Salvation Army and Akron Children’s Hospital.
Members of the swim and dive team made blankets for patients at Akron Children’s Hospital and a toy and book drive.
“BTUB is a way to put the team “unity” into community,” said Cordon. “We are really proud of how hard our kids work-in and out of the water, and the leadership skills they gain last a lifetime.”
Valley STEM Academy announces STEM Innovation Day for middle schoolers
Valley STEM + ME2 Academy is sharing the word about their upcoming STEM Innovation Day.
It’s a hands-on event for students in middle school to learn more about science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The event is free of charge and includes lunch for all attendees. However, due to limited space and resources, interested participants are encouraged to sign up and it’s limited to the first 50 students.
The event starts at 10 a.m. Jan. 27 at at the Valley STEM Academy, located at 7300 N Palmyra in Canfield.
Students will get to explore the academy and “see why Valley STEM is the best.”
Register online for STEM Innovation Day or send an email to Jessica Cene at jessica.cene@mahoningctc.com or call her (330)729-400 ext 1214.
STEM teacher leads students in Hour of Code week at Sebring McKinley Junior/Senior High School
Brad Kirkland teaches science, technology, engineering and mathematics at Sebring McKinley Junior Senior High School in Sebring Local Schools.
Last month, he hosted Hour of Code, an event to make coding more accessible to learners of varying skill levels.
Students in Kirkland’s robotics, intro to engineering, carpentry 1, carpentry 2 and drones classes participated.
Through Hour of Code classes, they gained hands-on experience in using coding websites, such as CodeMonkey, CodeCombat and Trinket, applying commands to generate responses.
They dabble in STEM and make their own animation, games, designs, drawings and more.
The Educational Service Center of Eastern Ohio is leading the efforts locally by sharing access to coding tutorials, activities and providing coding certificates of completion to students.
Code.org started the Hour of Code movement globally by creating free access to beginner coding lessons online.
“We discussed the importance of coding, the different types of code and their various uses, including examples of using “if commands” to switch on and off real-world applications,” said Kirkland. “And then we practiced using these sites’ formats to implement different types of code logic.”
Kirkland began the lesson by sharing a personal story of how his father used coding to create the first wireless meat thermometer more than a decade ago. It was a way to help students overcome the initial intimidation of coding and spark some creative interest.
“He used an ESP 8266 WiFi chip that you can purchase on Amazon for less than $10, cut the wire of the meat thermometer that originally ran to a speaker in the thermometer’s circuit board, which is designed to sound off when the meat reaches a certain temperature, and then he re-routed it to the new microchip and programmed it with an if-then command, which signaled to his phone when the meat reached that temperature,” said Kirkland. “Once you understand how to create rules and apply simple commands using microchip boards, the world is your oyster.”
Sebring offers two courses at the middle school level that introduce code, which include App Creators and Robotics, during which students learn how to program applications to function on tablets and use code to make robots move.
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