Food Tech: Got computer skills, and want to use them to solve real world food issues? Here's a free event this weekend in MD to go to...

Full details at... 

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/montgomery-county-food-data-jam-part-of-the-national-day-of-civic-hacking-tickets-11494435165

Discover a side of the DC region you never knew at the Food Data Jam!

What is a Food Data Jam? It’s a hackathon that will generate solutions to local food and farm challenges. Developers, students and non-profits will work together for 24 hours on three specific tasks. The team with the best solution gets $1,000! Second place gets $500! This event, organized as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking, will be held in Poolesville, the heart of the Agricultural Reserve in Montgomery County. Located just 30 minutes from the White House, the Agricultural Reserve provides 93,000 acres of specially zoned farm and open space, is home to 560 farms, employs 10,000 residents and generates $245M annually.

As a participant in this event you’ll work on a team addressing one of three challenges related to food and agriculture:

• Food Recovery: The County estimates that 19% of our local waste stream is food waste, which includes 28,769 tons from restaurants, 14,014 tons from supermarkets, and 5,301 tons from schools.  Participants in this challenge will build solutions that link supply (those with excess perishable food) to demand (shelters, food pantries, etc.).
• Farming and Agriculture:  You will be given access to a wealth of data from the Montgomery County Agriculture Services division and USDA. Your ideas will help our small and mid-sized farmers meet the growing demand for locally grown products, and will increase customers’ access to healthful food.
• School Food and Nutrition: Using real and sample data from the Montgomery County Public Schools Food and Nutrition Services Division, explore what applications can help educate parents and students about options for healthy eating and increase access and options to healthy food for students.

What does it mean to participate? As a participant of the Food Data Jam you’ll join or form a team to work on the challenge of your choice. You’ll brainstorm a solution and then build it! What you build can be as elaborate or advanced as your skills allow. You can build a functioning prototype or just mock-up a concept. You’ll have about 24 hours to do it with plenty of stimulating talks and breaks along the way with subject matter experts. On the second day your team will present your ideas and solutions to a panel of judges.

Who can participate? Everyone is welcome, whether you are a food system expert, an experienced developer, or a student. We are especially looking for participants with solid technical skills. We will be asking you to build something, so be ready for a marathon!

Never been out to Poolesville? Don’t have a car? No problem! Get on the bus! Poolesville is a short ride from DC and we’ve made special arrangements to bus folks from Bethesda to the Food Data Jam. For our technical particpants we'll even stop along the way to give you a tour of a working farm. Our general and student participants should join us for lunch at Poolesville High School at Noon!

How much does this cost? What else do I need to know? It’s free! Registered participants will get free meals courtesy of our sponsors. Just bring your laptop and get ready to roll up your sleeves. You’ll be able to stay in Poolesville High School overnight as your team works through the night. Do you have to stay overnight? No, but you're free to if you like!

To register for this free event:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/montgomery-county-food-data-jam-part-of-the-national-day-of-civic-hacking-tickets-11494435165

Watershed Ed, Trees and MWEEs: How to Use i-Tree Design in Schools?

Here's how to link tree study in schools to education about watersheds, using the online i-Tree Design tool to calculate ecosystem services of trees.  i-Tree is a suite of online tools developed by the USDA Department of Forestry, Davey Trees, Casey Trees and many other public and private partners.

This project-based learning using trees for watershed ed and civic engagement is spot on for Middle School students and fits with the state-mandated Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) for all students.

Watershed Ed, Trees and MWEEs (Meaningful Watershed Educational Experiences) Using i-Tree Design from MaryVanDyke

Click here for an i-Tree Design factsheet http://www.itreetools.org/resources/content/iTree_Design_Fact_Sheet.pdf

There are Four Easy Steps for using i-Tree Design http://www.itreetools.org/design.php:

1.  Where are you?  Type in your street address

2.  Draw the outline of building of interest (house, school etc

- Add approx. building date

3. Add in your tree’s data:

 - Species

 - Circumference or diameter

 - Health condition

 - Exposure to sunlight

Place your tree on the map

Repeat with other trees

4. Estimate your current and future tree benefits - the ecosystem services over 1-99 years.
  

It's that simple.

Try it today....at http://www.itreetools.org/design.php

Resources
My Tree and Forestry Resources for using i-Tree Design in Schools including worksheets for 6-8 grade in Spanish and English are at http://goo.gl/GuX5f

Using GIS in High School: Arlington Washington-Lee HS Student and Teacher Attend White House Education Event

 

Washington-Lee senior Catherine Dempsey and teacher Ryan Miller attended the ConnectED Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) initiative at the White House yesterday. Dempsey and Miller were invited to attend by the Geographic Information System (GIS) company Esri and chosen by the White House to participate in the event where it was announced Esri will provide support to help strengthen STEM education through the ConnectED Initiative.

The event was held in concert with the Annual White House Science Fair.“The relationship that our Washington-Lee GIS class students have with Esri is a perfect example of a great school partnership. Esri has been very supportive of me as an instructional leader and of the learning endeavors of all of our students over the last several years,” said Miller. “This relationship has been exceptionally beneficial to our school. All partnerships are mutually beneficial, so my students and I were proud to support Esri today, knowing that technology and GIS education will continue to be a growing focus in our classrooms in the years ahead.”Esri, a corporate partner of Washington-Lee, responded to President Obama's call to the private sector to help out education. Esri's support will allow any school in the country to get a free ArcGIS Online Organization subscription account. ConnectED is a government education program developed to prepare K-12 students throughout the U.S. for digital learning opportunities and future employment.

Washington-Lee’s GIS class has been a part of an Esri pilot program and helped to demonstrate that the company's online software is useful and beneficial in the classroom setting.


ArcGIS Online Organization is at http://www.esri.com/software/arcgis/arcgisonline

The White House ConnectED Initiative is at  http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/connected

Reposted from Arlington Public Schools APS School Talk 5/28/2014

Do Something Cool! Plant a Soybean....Read and do STEM experiments

Here's a fun project for K-5 to learn about soybeans - one of our US staple crops.

First of all:
Buy Coolbean the Soybean book by Shawn Conley and read to your class.

 

I learned a lot about soybean production and products from the Coolbean book - and talking to agronomists, crop and soil scientists at the US Science and Engineering Festival last week.

What products do we get from soy? And where do soybeans grow?

I bought some soybeans at the grocery store, fresh green edamame.  The packet said they were from Indonesia.  The edamame beans tasted good and crunchy in my salad.  But I wondered why we imported them when we grow soybeans in Virginia and Maryland too? What are the reasons for the global soybean trade?



Do some soybean experiments
How about doing some cool soybean experiments?
Find ideas online at http://coolbeanthesoybean.org/

Here's a few experiments you could do with your students, 3-5 grade and some soybeans.

Test the strength of your seedlings
See Seed Lifting Power

Sample pods
Then when you harvest your beans, do a random sampling.  How many beans are usually in a pod?

Make soynut butter
Buy some soynuts (dried beans) - and blend to make soynut butter.
Do another experiment - taste it.  Do you like it?

Experiment Extensions:
See other experiments on the Coolbean website pages: http://coolbeanthesoybean.org/

Talk about staple crops - and design your own
 - read Weslandia by Paul Fleischman and design your own staple crops (see Junior Master Gardeners Literature in the Garden curriculum)

And look out for kudzu bugs on your beans!
If you find any - please report any sightings to your local Cooperative Extension office.
Click for details




Grow soybeans
I planted 8 soybean seeds outside today in a container.

I will watch the seedlings grow.
Maybe I will get some beans to make edamame salads later on in the summer?
I am also going to plant some soybeans indoors as that can be done anytime of year.