Smart Mirrors at North Moore High School

Earlier this semester, an excited student at North Moore named Thomas came to me with an idea.  He wanted to take equipment that was not being used in the district and re-purpose it somewhere on campus.  With students in grades 6-12 issued a Chromebook, the computer lab equipment has not been utilized for a few years at North Moore.  Thomas shared an article with me about uses for LCD monitors which led to the discovery of a blog entry that documented step-by-step instructions for creating a decorative mirror with a heads-up display (HUD).  The Smart Mirrors use double-sided acrylic mirrors placed over LCD monitors to display information programmed into Raspberry Pi computers. 

After discussing with Thomas, we reached out to another North Moore student, Josue, for help further developing the idea.  We assessed our material needs and found out we were going to need some things we did not have at our disposal.  Looking for a way to fund this idea, I talked with North Moore Media Specialist, Johnna Davis and we found a Bright Ideas Grant Opportunity through Randolph Electric Membership Corporation.  After discussing with Josue and Thomas, we decided that this was the way to go.  The grant proposal was written almost entirely by the students and was submitted before the September 22 deadline. 

This endeavor will impact lots of students at North Moore.  The Smart Mirrors themselves will be constructed and programmed by Thomas and Josue.  The wooden framed case for the Smart Mirrors will be built by Career Technical Education students at North Moore.  These student-designed and student-assembled Smart Mirrors will be on display throughout he North Moore campus as decor but also serve a dual purpose of providing a place for information that high school students need to know.  Besides, it is rare people walk by a mirror and don't at least glance to check how they are looking.  If we can capitalize on that quick glance in the mirror with a short announcement/important information blast, students will be more informed. 

We are waiting patiently to hear back if we received the $2000.00 we requested for materials. 

Tyler Callahan
Digital Integration Facilitator
Moore County Schools
@STEM_TC

Soaring to New Heights!

From the military, to farming, movie sets, and even the Super Bowl halftime performance, drones are on the rise, and the sky’s the limit for teaching STEM skills with these unmanned aerial vehicles.  This year, thanks to Randolph Electric’s Bright Ideas Grant, students from Westmoore Elementary and Highfalls Elementary have had the opportunity to program, fly, and most importantly, learn, with Parrot “Airborne” drones.

Up and Away in Math!

Ratios and Proportions took on new meaning for sixth graders at Westmoore Elementary.  Working in small groups, students worked through four different stations, measuring the distance from point A to point B at each stop.  After finding the distance, students flew their drones from point A to point B, and used a stopwatch to find the time that their drone made it to point B.  Using their distance and time calculations, students were able to determine the speed of their drone.  Now when students think about ratio and proportions, and the formula for finding speed, they can reflect on this hands-on learning experience!

Flight School

Students from Mrs. Pfiefer’s 4th-grade class at Highfalls met once a week for a month to participate in “Flight School”.  In Flight School, these students learned about current and future uses for drones, discussed drone safety, learned how to code using the Tynker curriculum, and then finally they were able to program and fly their drones!

Carson Phillips showing students how to program the drone to fly.

Carson Phillips, a fourth grader in Mrs. Pfiefer’s class, demonstrated his drone programming skills at the 2017 MCS Elementary Digital Learning Showcase and at Highfalls Elementary’s Family STEM Night.  He describes his experience with flying drones, “At first, I thought the drones were going to be hard to program, but after working with the Tynker app and the website, it wasn’t so hard.   I really like the cool tricks you can do with the drones, like programming it to flip forward or backward.  At the Showcase, I was able to teach other students how to program the drones using the app, that was really cool and really easy!  And at the Family STEM Night, I was able to write the code to fly my drone through a basketball goal!”

So what does this fourth grader hope to do next with drones?  Carson explains, “I think it would be cool if there could be a drone competition like we have the robotics competition.  We could have courses set up like we do for the EV3 robots and we could program our drones to fly around the courses!”

Carson just might be onto something with his idea for a drone competition!  This summer, students participating in MCS STEM Camp will be using their engineering skills to build drone obstacle courses to fly their drones through!

As you can see, flying drones impacts student engagement, communication, collaboration, and other important classroom components. Students are engaged, motivated, and inspired to learn in ways that no other technology will allow.

To see more pictures and videos of drones in action, follow me on Twitter @carrierobledo

-Carrie