As a part of the Mobile World Congress Americas trade show I visited last week, was a mini show called YoMo Los Angeles, geared towards bringing classroom learning to life by allowing kids experiment with mobile through STEAM activities.
YOMO LA was offered downstairs from the Mobile World Congress Americas show for three days and visited by over 6,000 school children from across Los Angeles. Admission was free for kids and educational professionals and kids were able to take home a number of their hands-on projects.
Organizations from across the STEAM community were present to showcase their technology, brands, skills, and ideas.
I attended YOMO on Friday with my 12-year-old son. I was a little concerned that YOMO may be geared more towards elementary schools, but found it had a great balance for both elementary and middle schools.
We arrived early so we could beat the incoming swarm of school groups. My son and I took a metro train from the suburbs to downtown, avoiding traffic and adding to his learning for the day. He learned about time schedules, reading maps, buying tickets, and seeing the different view a train affords, etc.
Here’s a summary of some of the many STEAM things we did that day.
YOMO STEAM Conference
“Handmade” Ice Cream
The first thing we did was learn how to make ice cream using half-and-half, vanilla extract, and sugar in a ziplock bag. After the ingredients were mixed, they were placed in a larger Ziplock bag which contained ice and rock salt.
The exhibit was done by a local charter high school, which focuses on teaching kids on how to teach. The group of around 12 high school students showed YOMO participants how to shake the ice cream mixture until it became edible ice cream.
They explained how the rock salt causes the ice to become even colder, which aids in the ice cream setting faster.
When we asked them about salt being used with snow (with the assumption that it was supposed to melt the snow), one of the high school students responded that salt is used for traction, not to melt the snow. What do you think?
Want to try this at home? Here’s a recipe!
Fly an Airplane
A company called STEMPilot showcased their flight simulator at YOMO to give kids the thrill of flying over London while teaching them principles like Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry, Physics Geography, Topography, and more.
STEMPilot gives students meaningful STEM learning by using flight simulation for hands-on and visual learning in applying math, science, and engineering with aviation.
STEMPilot created a Simulator software/hardware and aviation curriculum for STEAM labs, CTE programs, JROTC, After School programs and classrooms to conduct their own missions.
It was fascinating to see how a STEMPilot instructor explained how flying from point A to B while flying to a higher elevation, equated to geometry.
Urban Gardens
A school in Los Angeles called the STAR Prep Academy, had a number of STEAM exhibits showcasing 3D printing, Virtual Reality, robotics, and more. My son’s school is starting a school-wide compost soon as well as a garden, so he found their urban garden display particularly interesting.
They explained what composting is, how worms are valuable in the compost, and how the juice from compost is great for nutrients in watering plants.
STAR Prep Academy explained how urban dwellers are using Tower Gardens like this and other aeroponic towers to grow produce when there is a lack of land available for a typical garden.
Water Awareness
At the Wildwoods Foundation booth, students were asked to figure out the water footprint of common household items and arrange them from the least amount of water needed to the most.
Thinking that a tree grows over a large number of years, many kids put paper towards the higher end of the water footprint spectrum, but it turns out paper is the least water offender of the group. Kids were surprised at how a pair of jeans could use so much water.
Water is needed to grow the cotton for jeans and jeans material is washed a number of times to achieve the right color and special effects. This video shows the process of jean washing.
Want to help your kids understand more about the water they use? Visit the Water. Use It Wisely website.
The Wildwoods Foundation offers free science, social studies, visual arts, hands-on activities, and more to K-12 schools within LA.
Clean Water Mobile Exhibit
The Wyland Foundation set up their Clean Water Mobile Learning Center on the YOMO showroom floor to invite kids into their mobile space to learn about conserving and valuing our precious water resources.
Through interactive activities, students learn how water pollution and other stresses affect the health of creatures living in bodies of waters.
This was a fun interactive demonstration where tiny plastic beads were placed all around this little bayside town. When the button was pushed to simulate rainfall, all of the plastic beads, which represented trash, leaky motor oil, fertilizers, discarded cigarettes, and flushed pharmaceuticals, flowed into the bay, polluting the waters for marine life.
This demo focused on watershed. What is watershed? It is a land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt to creeks, streams, and rivers, and eventually to outflow points such as reservoirs, bays, and the ocean. Kids can see first hand how our habits affect the environment.
In the corner of the picture you can see a bunch of yellow balls in the bay, this is where most of the “trash” collected to after being dumped into the bay along with the polluted watershed, representing all of our water sources.
Robotics
SoLA (South L.A.) Robotics was on hand to teach kids about controlling robots to perform specific duties.
Here kids needed to control VEX Robotics robots to place the blocks in bins, racing against the clock.
They also had kids trying to shoot hoops using Dash robots with launcher attachments. Built-up skill and dexterity are learned through the process.
The robot controls did not always work in anticipated ways, showing kids the learning curve needed to control robots reliably.
Next Generation Satellite Tracking Radar Support Structure Challenge
The US Government’s Space and Missile Systems Center put on a special STEAM challenge workshop with a hands-on activity to challenge kids to come up with a creative solution to support a satellite radar tracking system that is structurally sound.
Kids formed in teams of five and were given a bucket full of “building materials” as well as a Request for Proposal letter, detailing out the specs for the needed tracking system support structure.
Teams were given two constraints. First, they only had a half hour and second, each item they used had a cost, they needed to ensure the materials they used would put them under budget.
As materials were being used, the team accountant was ensuring they were billing for their materials accordingly.
As their time continued, the Army commander informed them that their budget had been slashed by 20% and there was now a requirement that their structure be at least 48 inches tall.
Teams scrambled to incorporate the new requirements. After 30 minutes, teams were evaluated. None had achieved the desired height.
Ten more minutes were given. At the end of 10 minutes, they were evaluated again. One team succeeded in building the tower, which successfully could hold a baseball without falling over. Unfortunately, they went over budget.
It was a great “Odyssey of the Mind” spontaneous type of exercise. At first, the requirements proposal made kids eyes glaze over, but they knew they had to perform so they worked together as a team.
This exercise was another great example of using real-world scenarios to stimulate kids’ minds and understand processes and even careers better.
Other exhibits included an interesting virtual tour of the Colorado River Aqueduct, which can be seen in this virtual tour video. You can use your mouse to change the perspective of the video and see things in a 360 view as the video progresses.
One organization, Woodcraft Rangers, gave students the opportunity to create cell photo animations using the free Stop Motion Studio app, some paper Mario Bros. cartoon figures that stand up, and a bunch of blocks.
Kids could take an action video of Mario doing something by framing Mario, taking a picture, then frame him in the next position (say the next step on a set of block wood stairs), etc.
Continuing in this process, in the app and then pressing play, kids can see their video once they press play.
Woodcraft Rangers had a lot of good examples of how animators use stop-motion to create their own at home cartoons.
Don’t miss out on YOMO next year, it’s coming again to Los Angeles October 22-24, 2019. You can ask to be put on their list so you’ll be notified next year. When they notify you, you can try to register your school, register as a teacher (if you are one), or in some cases, register as a parent and take your children.
There are a lot of STEAM opportunities all around us that are great for inciting our kids’ passions or perhaps igniting their curiosity. Good places to look for STEM or STEAM opportunities are Eventbrite, Groupon, Odyssey of the Mind, and Maker Labs, which are popping up everywhere. You can also search for STEAM and/or STEM clubs or organizations on Google.
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