Amazon

$12.95 + $7.95 shipping + tax

Pre-made and sold by EZ BioResearch PD-100-LB

BEAM

$3.50 base price

Assembled in-house from Fisher 08-757-12,

Sigma-Aldrich L7533-6X500ML, and Fisher 14-959-91

Building Engineers and Mentors:

Planning for the Future

NSF Engineering Research Center 11-537 for

Translational Applications of Nanoscale Multiferroic Systems (TANMS)

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

Current Status of BEAM

*Contact: lizroth@ucla.edu

Acknowledgements

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

University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Berkeley

Cornell University

California State University, Northridge

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich

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.

Implementation

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.

Online Learning Videos

STEM and the Humanities New BEAM Chapters at Other Universities

Pre-Assembled Activity Kits

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.

BEAM will reach out to other student groups at UCLA to generate new humanities-themed

lesson plans and increase our volunteer base.

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.

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.

BruinLIGHTS is a community service based student

organization that brings arts education to K-12 schools

in Los Angeles [10].

Example Microbiology Kit

For our Microbiology Lesson [17-18] compare the price of 10 petri dishes and 10 sterile swabs

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.

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

BEAM can create engaging videos that demonstrate science and

engineering concepts. This online teaching component will:

BEAM is a model for student-led outreach that can be applied to other universities nationwide.

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.

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.

Music Club, a cappella groups, and members

of the UCLA marching band could help teach

about the physics of sound [11].

The Animation Students Organization could

teach about math and computer programming

behind computer animation [14-15].

The Photography Club at UCLA could teach

about topics like photography-related chemistry

and the nature of light and color [12-13]. Videos can be filmed in the TANMS

recording studio at UCLA and then

made freely available on YouTube [2].

2008 2010 2014?

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.

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])

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 pre-

assembled kits for each of our lesson plans.

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.

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.

References

Community

Activities

Committee