Task 1
With the help of your teacher and/or technical advisor, identify another scientist or
engineer who is familiar with the technical application your team selected. Explain who he/she is,
where he/she works and what he/she does for a living.
Anne Hall, Project Manager Lockheed Martin Corp
She is a project manager who designs and implements information Systems for Lockheed.
Her trade is systems engineer, and she has been an engineer for 10 years. She likes to build things
and make things happen.
Task 2
With the help of your teacher, send this person a detailed e-mail that describes the
problem you are working on and the technical application your team thinks would
solve the problem. Ask the person you contact to give you his or her opinion
about your solution. On your website, please include the e-mail your team sent
and the e-mail your team received from the person you contacted.
On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 10:17 AM, Judy Wall-Townsend <[email protected]>
wrote:
Dear Mrs. Hall,
Thank you so much for agreeing to help us with our school project. We are a group of third grade students at Heathrow Elementary in Lake Mary, FL, who are researching the problem of bear invasions into our
community. We actually have a recent video of a mama bear with two cubs by our playground. We could not use our playground or have P.E. outside that day.
We are contacting you because we need an engineer to agree to help us on our bear project. We have entered an Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF) competition that requires we find someone who is an engineer to
mentor us through emails. We already have a scientist from the University of Florida, who has agreed to and signed up to help us. We are researching how other communities have dealt with this kind of problem and how we can use
technologies to help solve this problem.
We will also make a website to show our research and proposed solutions. We appreciate you being one of
our mentor/technical advisors, especially with your guidance developing our website.
This was our project entry:
"Bear, Bear, Go Away"
Bears are becoming a nuisance and threat in our neighborhoods, local communities, and
elsewhere in the United States. Bears’ environments have been cut down and destroyed by humans
and the bears have become bolder in seeking food from our dumpsters, garbage cans, and pantries. There have also been bear attacks on humans.
This team will provide protection for both humans and the bears. Our multi-system approach would provide a Garage/shed-like metal containment device for garbage and dumpster protection, along with bear
motion-detection video surveillance, alerts, and an electric fence-type perimeter defense from bears.
Since we entered, we have discovered problems with both the electric fence and the motion detection
ideas, but we thought of other ways they may work. Now we are using the electric fence to prevent bears from getting into our garbage cans and dumpsters. Also, we wanted to include a waterproof camera with an x-ray attachment to scan the bears’ bones, but our first mentor Professor Hellgren from the University of Florida,
advised against this because of the radiation exposure danger from the x-rays. We also want to see if we can find a way to make the garbage containment products more affordable.
If you would like to know more about ISTF, you may visit the site at: http://istf.ucf.edu/
FYI: ISTF uses the term technical advisor for the experts who agree to mentor our project.
Also, since you have expressed an interest to mentor us, please register on the ISTF site and reply to a few emails
from us with your expert advice or opinions on our project through our teacher’s email:
[email protected]
It is quick and easy to register as a Technical Advisor/Mentor for our project, log-on to:
http://istf.ucf.edu
go to Newcomers link, review as interest and time allow
click on Technical
Advisors link, read
click on “My ISTF”
click on “Technical Advisors/New Account”
Complete registration
Can you think of a way to use technology to better educate people about this issue? We do not know much
about Twitter, Instagram, and other social media, but could these methods be helpful? Could you advise us the potential of using social media to better educate and alert the community?
Also, are there any particulars you could share about food and trash management technologies?
Finally, for now, these are the questions that we need to include your answers on the
website that we will make:
•who she is,
•where she works,
•what she
does for a living,
•how long she has been doing this kind of work, and why
she decided to become a scientist or engineer.
•Please tell us about working
with scientists. What is the difference between a scientist and an
engineer? Why is it important for them to work together?
Thanks so much, we hope to hear from you soon and appreciate your interest.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Wall-Townsend’s students: Alex, Avery, Elijah, E.J.,
Jaiden, Luke, Rahma, Rayyan, Thaddeus, and Mrs. Wall-T
Judy Wall-Townsend
Gifted Resource Teacher
Heathrow Elementary School
5715 Markham Woods Road
Lake Mary, FL 32746
407-320-6865
[email protected]
Here is Anne Hall's reply:
S Hall< [email protected]>
Mon 2/24/2014 9:02 PM
To: Judy Wall-Townsend;
Dear Mrs. Wall-Townsend: thank you for emailing me. You guys have some great ideas
already. Social media can be a good vehicle to send alerts and communicate with
a mass audience, I would suggest the following:
1. Utilize Facebook and twitter to send alerts to friend's groups or local residents. You can
create a Facebook and twitter account, make it public account so people can easily search and
follow the newest post or blog. For example, if I spot a bear, I will twitter it out and it will send out to all my
contacts and followers, then everybody would be aware there is a bear around.
2. Cell phone text messaging is another great way. Set up a text group for people who agree to accept
text messages when there is a bear alert.
3. Instagram is more of a video and photo sharing media, and can be integrated with Facebook and twitter.
For your questions, the answers are blow:
•who she is, I am Anne Hall, Alexander Hall's mom
•where she works, I work for Lockheed Martin Corp
•what she does for a living, I am a project manager
managing programs in Lockheed, but my trade is systems engineer, I design and implement Information Systems.
•how long she has been doing this kind of work, and why she decided to become a scientist or engineer.
I have been an engineer for 10 years. I like to build things and make things happen
•Please tell us about working with scientists. What is the difference between a scientist and an engineer? Why is it important for them to work together?
Scientists are more focused on research and an engineer is more focused on building staff or implement a solution. It is important for them to work together because scientists have the ideas and engineers make these ideas work.
Hope this helps,
Anne Hall
Task 3
Based on what you have learned, explain why your problem is important to society as a whole and how your solution might change people's lives or the environment in which they live?
If people keep feeding trash and pet food to bears, the bears will not be afraid of humans and become bolder around us. Our team has realized after talking to and researching the FWC, that “a fed bear is a dead bear” and that the most important thing is to educate people about bear avoidance techniques. We believe that our website and blog will help to spread bear safety education throughout not just our school, but also to Central Florida, and the world. We also thought that using social media to help spread the message could help, but we found out that Facebook rules require a user to be at least 13 years old, so we encourage those old enough to use social media to help educate the public about bears.
Also, if people keep destroying the bears’ habitats, the bears will have no choice but to continue to invade established neighborhoods. Below are some pictures of another example of humans destroying the bears’ habitats. You can see the woods in the background that used to be in this recently cleared area.
Our solutions of using a tracking device and making sure the bears don’t get into any trash cans or dumpsters will change people’s lives by helping to keep bears away from established neighborhoods. This project will help both
the people and the bears. The people won’t get attacked by the bear, and the bears won’t get too bold and have to be killed by people. People won’t have to worry as much about the bears invading their property because of this project.
The bears will go back to their environment and eat healthy foods. This project could change the nation, not just the state, not just the community. Bears will go back to their own habitat if this project is a success. It will be just another normal life. People could be in peace now that the bears will be less likely to invade their property. Thanks to the team of Bear, Bear, Go Away.
With the help of your teacher and/or technical advisor, identify another scientist or
engineer who is familiar with the technical application your team selected. Explain who he/she is,
where he/she works and what he/she does for a living.
Anne Hall, Project Manager Lockheed Martin Corp
She is a project manager who designs and implements information Systems for Lockheed.
Her trade is systems engineer, and she has been an engineer for 10 years. She likes to build things
and make things happen.
Task 2
With the help of your teacher, send this person a detailed e-mail that describes the
problem you are working on and the technical application your team thinks would
solve the problem. Ask the person you contact to give you his or her opinion
about your solution. On your website, please include the e-mail your team sent
and the e-mail your team received from the person you contacted.
On Mon, Feb 24, 2014 at 10:17 AM, Judy Wall-Townsend <[email protected]>
wrote:
Dear Mrs. Hall,
Thank you so much for agreeing to help us with our school project. We are a group of third grade students at Heathrow Elementary in Lake Mary, FL, who are researching the problem of bear invasions into our
community. We actually have a recent video of a mama bear with two cubs by our playground. We could not use our playground or have P.E. outside that day.
We are contacting you because we need an engineer to agree to help us on our bear project. We have entered an Internet Science and Technology Fair (ISTF) competition that requires we find someone who is an engineer to
mentor us through emails. We already have a scientist from the University of Florida, who has agreed to and signed up to help us. We are researching how other communities have dealt with this kind of problem and how we can use
technologies to help solve this problem.
We will also make a website to show our research and proposed solutions. We appreciate you being one of
our mentor/technical advisors, especially with your guidance developing our website.
This was our project entry:
"Bear, Bear, Go Away"
Bears are becoming a nuisance and threat in our neighborhoods, local communities, and
elsewhere in the United States. Bears’ environments have been cut down and destroyed by humans
and the bears have become bolder in seeking food from our dumpsters, garbage cans, and pantries. There have also been bear attacks on humans.
This team will provide protection for both humans and the bears. Our multi-system approach would provide a Garage/shed-like metal containment device for garbage and dumpster protection, along with bear
motion-detection video surveillance, alerts, and an electric fence-type perimeter defense from bears.
Since we entered, we have discovered problems with both the electric fence and the motion detection
ideas, but we thought of other ways they may work. Now we are using the electric fence to prevent bears from getting into our garbage cans and dumpsters. Also, we wanted to include a waterproof camera with an x-ray attachment to scan the bears’ bones, but our first mentor Professor Hellgren from the University of Florida,
advised against this because of the radiation exposure danger from the x-rays. We also want to see if we can find a way to make the garbage containment products more affordable.
If you would like to know more about ISTF, you may visit the site at: http://istf.ucf.edu/
FYI: ISTF uses the term technical advisor for the experts who agree to mentor our project.
Also, since you have expressed an interest to mentor us, please register on the ISTF site and reply to a few emails
from us with your expert advice or opinions on our project through our teacher’s email:
[email protected]
It is quick and easy to register as a Technical Advisor/Mentor for our project, log-on to:
http://istf.ucf.edu
go to Newcomers link, review as interest and time allow
click on Technical
Advisors link, read
click on “My ISTF”
click on “Technical Advisors/New Account”
Complete registration
Can you think of a way to use technology to better educate people about this issue? We do not know much
about Twitter, Instagram, and other social media, but could these methods be helpful? Could you advise us the potential of using social media to better educate and alert the community?
Also, are there any particulars you could share about food and trash management technologies?
Finally, for now, these are the questions that we need to include your answers on the
website that we will make:
•who she is,
•where she works,
•what she
does for a living,
•how long she has been doing this kind of work, and why
she decided to become a scientist or engineer.
•Please tell us about working
with scientists. What is the difference between a scientist and an
engineer? Why is it important for them to work together?
Thanks so much, we hope to hear from you soon and appreciate your interest.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Wall-Townsend’s students: Alex, Avery, Elijah, E.J.,
Jaiden, Luke, Rahma, Rayyan, Thaddeus, and Mrs. Wall-T
Judy Wall-Townsend
Gifted Resource Teacher
Heathrow Elementary School
5715 Markham Woods Road
Lake Mary, FL 32746
407-320-6865
[email protected]
Here is Anne Hall's reply:
S Hall< [email protected]>
Mon 2/24/2014 9:02 PM
To: Judy Wall-Townsend;
Dear Mrs. Wall-Townsend: thank you for emailing me. You guys have some great ideas
already. Social media can be a good vehicle to send alerts and communicate with
a mass audience, I would suggest the following:
1. Utilize Facebook and twitter to send alerts to friend's groups or local residents. You can
create a Facebook and twitter account, make it public account so people can easily search and
follow the newest post or blog. For example, if I spot a bear, I will twitter it out and it will send out to all my
contacts and followers, then everybody would be aware there is a bear around.
2. Cell phone text messaging is another great way. Set up a text group for people who agree to accept
text messages when there is a bear alert.
3. Instagram is more of a video and photo sharing media, and can be integrated with Facebook and twitter.
For your questions, the answers are blow:
•who she is, I am Anne Hall, Alexander Hall's mom
•where she works, I work for Lockheed Martin Corp
•what she does for a living, I am a project manager
managing programs in Lockheed, but my trade is systems engineer, I design and implement Information Systems.
•how long she has been doing this kind of work, and why she decided to become a scientist or engineer.
I have been an engineer for 10 years. I like to build things and make things happen
•Please tell us about working with scientists. What is the difference between a scientist and an engineer? Why is it important for them to work together?
Scientists are more focused on research and an engineer is more focused on building staff or implement a solution. It is important for them to work together because scientists have the ideas and engineers make these ideas work.
Hope this helps,
Anne Hall
Task 3
Based on what you have learned, explain why your problem is important to society as a whole and how your solution might change people's lives or the environment in which they live?
If people keep feeding trash and pet food to bears, the bears will not be afraid of humans and become bolder around us. Our team has realized after talking to and researching the FWC, that “a fed bear is a dead bear” and that the most important thing is to educate people about bear avoidance techniques. We believe that our website and blog will help to spread bear safety education throughout not just our school, but also to Central Florida, and the world. We also thought that using social media to help spread the message could help, but we found out that Facebook rules require a user to be at least 13 years old, so we encourage those old enough to use social media to help educate the public about bears.
Also, if people keep destroying the bears’ habitats, the bears will have no choice but to continue to invade established neighborhoods. Below are some pictures of another example of humans destroying the bears’ habitats. You can see the woods in the background that used to be in this recently cleared area.
Our solutions of using a tracking device and making sure the bears don’t get into any trash cans or dumpsters will change people’s lives by helping to keep bears away from established neighborhoods. This project will help both
the people and the bears. The people won’t get attacked by the bear, and the bears won’t get too bold and have to be killed by people. People won’t have to worry as much about the bears invading their property because of this project.
The bears will go back to their environment and eat healthy foods. This project could change the nation, not just the state, not just the community. Bears will go back to their own habitat if this project is a success. It will be just another normal life. People could be in peace now that the bears will be less likely to invade their property. Thanks to the team of Bear, Bear, Go Away.