Year in Discovery – February 2016 3D Printing Martian Tools

@ Discovery: Students 3D Print Martian Tools

The STEM Accelerators program is an after-school program for Bridgeport students who are excited about STEM. In February 2016, we welcomed our third cohort of students to the program. This past year, Cohort 3 has been working on some cool Mars-related projects. Students were challenged to design and create medical tools that they envision would be necessary if humans were to colonize Mars (see photo of tools they designed and 3D-printed). Our first cohort also programmed robots to navigate around obstacles in a simulated martian landscape!

Flash Forward: In February 2017, we will welcome our fourth cohort of students, who will participate in a marine biology unit and even dissect a shark.

Global Science News: February 2016

• Solar Cell Advances: The Massachusetts Institute of Technology exhibits the thinnest, lightest, most flexible solar cell ever produced, even capable of sitting on a soap bubble.
• Climate Change: According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, coverage of sea ice in the Arctic Sea during January 2016 was at its lowest level in satellite record.
• New Immunotherapy Breakthrough: International cancer researchers report at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference that dramatic success rates have been found in using patients’ immune cells (T-cells) to attack cancer cells.

Thanks to Wikipedia’s 2016 in Science for the our Global Science headlines.