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This past week, we had such a blast learning about all things glass!

Day 1 we did introductions. With six fresh faces, we played a little get-to-know-you game to learn each others names. After that, we talked about our schedule for the week. We did a brief history on different types of glass, watched a few interesting videos, and then took a field trip to St. Andrew’s Church across the street to take a peek at the stained windows- which we learned were made in the early 1900’s! How cool?! Once we got back to the classroom, we started working on our first project. We used very fine glass to design a candy dish! Day 2 we learned about aboriginal dot art. After the break, we sketched and created our own. On day 3, we received a little bit of history on mosaics. After that, we spent the remainder of the class designing, cutting, and creating our mosaics. On day 4 we made jewelry. We learned a little bit about the creation of jewelry and watched a few informative videos on it. On Friday, we copper etching, and blow torch jewelry making. After the break, we used grout to set our mosaics for us to take home.

Thank you so much, again, Debbie Jasek for coming this week and teaching our kiddos about all things glass!

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Until Next Time, Friends

Session II of Camp Innovation was an entirely different program than session I; not better, not worse, just different! I has been an adventure and we had a great time exploring our talents.

Day 1 we assessed ourselves and each other by asking: What are we good at?, What would we like to improve?, What are our goals for this week?. We also talked about career interests, and played a few icebreakers to learn everyone’s name and learn more about each other. We learned about structures through educational media. Then we divided up into teams of 2, had 20 minutes to design and build the strongest, most stable, tallest, and nicest looking structure. After our break, we learned more about how to properly build an efficient structure, and each student created their own structure! On Day 2, we learned about basic and acidic chemical reactions. We took 6 mystery chemicals, and 3 mystery liquids to learn about chemistry, all of which can be found in your home! Then we learned about each product (soda, water, vinegar, table salt, baking soda, sugar, powdered sugar, flour, and antacid) and their chemical formulas. After the break we began the design process of creating chemical reaction rockets. How neat is that?! Day 3 started out by completing our rockets and testing them based on launch height, distance, safety, design, durability, and teamwork. After our break, we watched a SUPER fun music video that consisted of one giant Rube Goldberg Machine that ended up with a paint cannon splashing the band (click link below to see our inspiration).  Mickie Byrd, our professional programmer, then introduced basic programming to the students so they could learn how to use technology in their Rube Goldberg assignment. On Day 4, for the first part of the day we learned about polar and non-polar molecules, how they interact with each other and in your bodies. .After the break we utilized our time to brainstorm, and begin creating ideas for our Rube Goldberg Machine. Day 5 we spent the entire day creating our Rube Goldberg Machine. What we did was we started at the hockey table and one thing triggered another which eventually led to us feeding the fish on the other side of the room! How cool and innovative? If that doesn’t remind you  of the movie Home Alone, I don’t know what will!

Music Video Link: Rube Goldberg Machine

A HUGE thanks to:

♦ Mickie Byrd for teaching classes two weeks in a row. You have been so wonderful to us, and we hope that you enjoyed the class as much as we did! ♦ The students for being easy going and fun to work with! ♦ All of the parents and family members for coming to support us on Friday’s showcase 🙂 ♦ and finally, to our awesome sponsors that help make great camps like this happen. 

To see all of our adventures from this week,

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Twitter handle @seadacademy

Until next time, Friends! 🙂

Ever wonder how a light bulb works? Or even how to build a robot? Well, our students learned BOTH of those things!

Monday we learned about the basics of electricity- wire names, battery charges, voltages, stored energy…all of that good stuff! We became a little distracted because we accidentally lit up an LED. We spent the rest of the class learning HOW we did that. It was entertaining to say the least 🙂 On Tuesday we started our journey with a question, how to create the greatest reaction by only using seven mystery ingredients?  Our goal was to create a pop cap rocket of our own design to launch it as high as possible into the sky.  After multiple concoctions, theories and trials we found the best solution, a mixture of Alka-Seltzer, baking soda, and vinegar.  We decorated our film canisters with stickers and glitter and pitted them against one another in this ultimate pop cap rocket showdown. Wednesday we worked on programming. We used littlebits and created functional fans, lights, a phone, and other neat things. The second half of the class we created a functional windmill as well as a flashing light using the information that was learned earlier in the week On Thursday we did a lot of chemistry. We learned about polar and non-polar molecules using coffee creamer and different types of paint. We also did potentiometer using the graphite of pencil lead. On our last day together we worked on a computer program and then used that information to create tangible electronics. We presented “Mary had a Little Lamb” on a circut board. How neat is that?!

Join us next week for part II of our Camp Innovation! Last day to register is Friday, July 10!

Thank you Mickie Byrd for teaching Session I AND Session II! You are a rockstar 🙂

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Until Next Time, Friends!

What an awesome week we had learning about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEAM) all while applying it to ART! Through multiple small activities the students were able to learn about different aspects of STEAM.

Day 1 we learned about crystals and how they are formed. Later that afternoon, we created our own! Once we completed our crystals, we created structures and sculptures using biodegradable packing peanuts. On day 2, we created mosaics using glass tiles, heat activated grout, glass cutters, and one large ceramic tile. While those were setting, we created pixel art where the students used a q-tip to create an art piece. Once that was completed, we learned about polar and non-polar molecules. We took half and half, food coloring, and dish soap to create a really neat tie-dye effect (See our instagram for a video).

Day 3 we learned geometry by building geodesic domes out of gumdrops and toothpicks. Because the weather was icky that day, we decided to learn about weather: tornadoes, hurricanes, thunderstorms- the students loved it! Despite the rainy weather, we decided to make solar cars out of soda cans. Day 4 we learned all about equilibrium. We took nine cups and filled every other cup with water, connected them with folded paper towels, and by the end of the day all of the cups had water.

Day 5 we created Tetrahedral Kites. Once those were completed, we took a mini-filed trip to test our kite building skills and boy, oh boy did we succeed!

A huge shout out to Debbie Jasek from Brazos Glasswork for coming to teach our eager students about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math! You rock 🙂

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Until Next Time, Friends!

What an awesome first week at the SEAD Academy!

During the time we had together, we learned about all sorts of space related things.

Day 1 was all about the introductions- we talked about our strengths and weakness as well as how to utilize them. The space station was introduced as well as mission control. All of this information was just the introduction. Little did the students know, they would become experts by the end of the week. Day 2 was all about learning mission control groups. We watched videos, PowerPoints, and learned all about what each section of Mission Control did. On day 3 we talked about the Space Station and wrote procedures on how to make a 3D box and draw Mickey Mouse through Skype video chat and voice call- we even ran into some technical difficulties which emulated real life issues the astronauts face. Don’t worry, we overcame those issues 😉 Day 4 we broke up in to the six different Mission Control groups and became masters at those. After a couple of hours of hard work, they let off some steam by becoming rocket launchers. During our break we took a field trip to an open grass area where they were able to launch some bottle rockets filled with water!! How cool is that? After our fun activity, the students went back to the classroom and presented what they learned which prepared them for day 5. On day 5, we were at the Grand Stafford Theater doing a real mission control simulation where the students were faced with power, guidance, life, computer, communication, and temperature challenges.

A huge shout out to-

• Carie Kostak for coming all the way from Clear Lake, TX to teach at camp this week!
• TSTAR Team for helping put this together
• KAGS and KBTX for coming to our simulation
• Insite Magazine
• Everyone else who helped organize and came out on Friday to encourage our students

You all rock!

The  SEAD Academy staff is very eager to see where next week’s adventure takes us!

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Until Next Time, Friends!

SEAD Academy to host TSTAR Space Camp Flight Control Simulation

June 9, 2015- For Immediate Release

Contact: Ruthie Strout, SEAD Academy Director

Phone: (903) 520-3084

Email: ruthiestrout@adventgx.com

SEAD Academy is excited to invite the public to the T STAR Space Camp Flight Control simulation, which will take place on Friday, June 12^th, at 11:00 AM at Grand Stafford Theater. Throughout this week, campers have learned the methodology and characteristics of being a flight control specialist. The importance of procedures, learning from failures and what it means to be a good team member are just some of the lessons taught while applying the procedures and techniques of flight control. Students have culminated their hard work into a simulation presentation open to all friends and family of the SEAD Academy.

T STAR Space Camp combines book knowledge with real-world skills by using one of the most inspirational contexts there is – space.  The exploration of outer space not only ignites the interest and imagination of kids everywhere, it also provides an arena for learning to become effective both technically and interpersonally.

 SEAD Academy is a community development initiative produced by AdventGX that aims to integrate Science, Engineering, Art and Design into camps and classes for kids grades K-12. SEAD Academy was founded in 2013 by the AdventGX.

T STAR Space Camp will present a flight control simulation on Friday, June 12^th, at 11:00 AM in Grand Stafford Theater which is located at 106 Main Street, Bryan, TX 77803.

SEAD Academy thanks both T STAR and Blinn College for their sponsorship of these programs.

Relevant Web Links:

– SEAD Academy – http://bit.ly/SEAD-Summer

– TSTAR – http://tstar.us

– AdventGX – http://adventgx.com/

Howdy All and Welcome to Our SEAD Academy Blog!

Throughout the summer and for the duration of our courses, we will be doing our best to keep you informed of our exciting classes.   Each week we will be updating our blog with new photos, fun activities and our unique adventures together.  But, to get us started, let us tell you a little about ourselves.

Ruthie Strout

Ruthie serves as the Director for SEAD Academy’s summer programs. With over 10 years of camp experience, Ruthie has had the pleasure of seeing camp programs from many different perspectives.

Lucy Jameson

Born and raised in Virginia, Lucy came to Texas A&M University to study her passion, Community Development.  After her graduation in December of 2015, she hopes to continue her work within communities to help strengthen and facilitate social capital.  Many of the summer courses offered hold a special affinity for Lucy, she has always loved the use of art and innovation to help foster the development creative problem-solving skills.

Pascale Issa

Pascale is super pumped to be a part of SEAD Academy this summer! She is a senior Recreation, Park and Tourism Sciences: Youth Development major from Houston, TX. What Pascale would like to do post graduation is work in program planning for a youth development organization. Eventually she would like to become a college and career advisor for high school students, helping them “figure out” what they want to do, what they’re good at, and provide them with resources.