For more information about the Sci-Tech Engineers 4-H Club

Contact: York County 4-H Extension Office 717-840-7408 or email Maryjo Kraft -
mnk2@psu.edu



Tuesday, October 12, 2010

October Meeting Reminder...Oct 16 at 2pm

Hello Sci-Tech Engineers,
Just a reminder that our next club meeting will be on Saturday Oct 16 at 2pm. at Friendhip Baptist Church.

I hope to see all of you there!!

Ms. Jean

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Hello Members!! October Update

Again I appologize for not being more timely in my postings. I am real new to blogging and ask for your patience as I develop better blogging skills.

Please be sure to get your Club Evaluation and your Project Evaluations to me by Oct 3. This will help me in planning for next year. I have posted a link to them to the right on this page. I am asking for parents and members to do these and get them to me.

I have also posted the Pizza Order Form there too so you can download it. Orders & money are due to me by October 18. Pizza pick will be October 26 at my house in the afternoon / evening.

Be sure to look at the club schedule on the right for upcoming activities until the end of the year. The club banquet will be on November 20 at 2pm at Friendship Baptist Church. This is a family event that you can invite your whole family to participate. This will be a coverdish event and we will be discussing how we will be doing this at the October meeting on October 16.

Hope this brings you up to date on things. If you have any questions...please give me a call or pop me an email.

See you all soon,
Ms. Jean

Friday, July 9, 2010

July Update-

Hi Members,
Sorry it has been so long since posting. It has been a very busy summer!!!

Just a reminder that we will have our last regular meeting before the 4H Fair this Saturday, July 10 at 1pm at Friendship Baptist Church. It will be a good time to get any questions answered about the 4H Fair and understand what your requirements are for this event. We will be working on our club demo to refine what we are doing.

Our field trip to Custom Molds & Plastics will take place next Wednesday July 14 at 6pm. We have 14 signed up for this event.

The 4H Fair is August 14 & 15. Projects need to be dropped off at the 4H Center on Thursday , August 12 between 1pm and 8pm. Then picked up on Sunday at 4:15pm(not one minute sooner). If you need Ms. Jean to take up or pick up your projects contact her ASAP.

Our club is having our 4H Fair demo on Saturday August 14 from 10 to noon. We are splitting this up into (2) one hour sessions. Please sign up for one of these times.

If anyone is having any problem getting ONE project complete to hand into the 4H Fair PLEASE contact Ms. Jean ASAP. There are some quick one day projects that can be done to meet your requirement as a 4H member of submitting one completed project to the 4H Fair to stay in good standing with the 4H.

See you all soon,
Ms. Jean

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Upcoming Stuff for Sci-Tech Engineers 4H Club

Hi Sci-Tech Engineers,

I have been hard at work getting the Patron Drive up on our club's page. It is finally done and up on the web site with directions on how to do this. I am hoping each of us can get at least 5 doners. Even if it is at the lowest amount per patron this will still add up! You can start now! I need all doner info back to me by June 30, 2010 so I can get the books set up and printed before our first demo. If you or your parents have any questions about this fund raiser give me a call.

Mark your calendars for our sandwich sale which starts at the next meeting May 15, 2010. I will probably put the forms up on the web site before this date for those who want to get a jump on taking orders. Your orders & money are due to Ms. Jean by June 9, 2010 and sandwich pick up will be June 17, 2010 at Ms. Jean's house.

With these two fund raisers going on at the same time...if someone does not want to order sandwiches then ask them about our Patron Fund Raiser.

Take note to the 2010 Projects being offered by our project leaders on the right side of the blog. If you have any questions about these projects call Ms. Jean. The Project leaders need to be notified ASAP if you are planning to take any of these projects so they can get your project books and let you know if there is anything else you need to bring.

I ask that all members attend our monthly meeting. If you are not doing the Robotics Project then you can leave after the business meeting OR bring along another project you are working on and we will set up an area for you to work on this. It is important for you to have a voice in what our club does and plans to do. This can only happen if you attend our monthly business meeting. If cannot attend then touch base with Ms. Jean to find out what will be gone over.

Do not forget I need a head count for each family attending our field trip to by the May Meeting- Trip Info: Custom Mold & Plastic, Red Lion, PA on July 14, 6pm- then for those who wish... to go and get ice cream at McDonald's. This can be a bit of social time for the members.

See you May 15 for our monthy meeting!
Ms. Jean

Friday, March 26, 2010

Robotics Project Homework for the April 17 Meeting

Hi Sci-Tech Engineer Members,
Here is what you should have done by the April 17 meeting...

1) The assignments from the March 20 meeting- See previous entry under Blog Archive in February on the right for more info.

2) On the club web page (see link on the right) in the "Robotic Project - Lessons Info" box you will find some additions. These are what we went over quickly at the March meeting. Read over all of these. What you should be doing is:
a) READ the Team Organization & Documentation docs. This is how we are going to be doing our groups. Everyone will have a chance to do each job.
b) READ & DO the All About Flow Charts docs- This will help your teams to organize your thoughts and how you will attack a challenge.
c) LOOK AT & DO IF YOU CAN(if you have these Lego parts at home)- The Building Basics #1 & #2. These pages show you some strong building techniques that you will be using at the upcoming meetings very soon.

3)We went over the NXT Brick Identification paper in your notebook. If you missed the March meeting, see if you can figure out what these parts are... write in pencil. We will make sure your answers are right at the next meeting.

4) SCRATCH- Keep working on your Scratch. I am hoping that most of you will have Scratch lessons 1 & 2 done by the May meeting. This is the meeting I am planning to tackle ROBOT PROGRAMMING with you. Having at least the first 2 Scratch lessons done will be helpful in you picking up the Robot Programming.

At the April meeting we will be building robots!!!!
IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF THE ASSIGNMENTS----CALL ME!!!!
Ms. Jean

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

March 20 Meeting REMINDER

Hello S-T Engineers,
This is a reminder about our upcoming meeting this Saturday, March 20 at 2pm.

Bring your calendars as we have a couple dates to firm up.

We have a little business to quickly take care of and then Robot Time. I think we will get to work with the brick and maybe start building our first robot. This is: as long as most of you have completed the assignments I gave you. If you are not sure what to do go to our blog at http://sci-techengineers.blogspot.com/ This is where I will be posting monthly assignments so you can check it when you need to.

SCRATCH- work at your own pace and BE SURE TO GET YOUR LESSONS TO ME OR SEND ME A LINK TO YOUR LESSONS AS YOU COMPLETE THEM. If you do not send me a link or the lesson for me to review you should not be moving on to the next lesson in SCRATCH until I have done this for each lesson. I will send you an email about your performance in the lesson then you can move on. If you have sent me a project or link for any lessons and I have not replied to you please send me a reminder.

For the parents who volunteered to become a project leader this year...Amy Anderson, Sue Geary, Michelle Wilt, Debbie Burton, Andrea Flynn, Kim & Mike Windon....THANKS A BUNCH. Maryjo from the extension office will be at this Saturday's meeting to do the required V.I.P Training and one on one interview with you while the kids are working on their robotics project. If you are on this list and unable to attend PLEASE let me know ASAP...you will then need to either go to a scheduled VIP training session at the 4H Center or schedule something one on one at the extension office with Maryjo. I sincerely hope you take advantage of this training session I have set up at our meeting.

A question for all club members: Does any of our club members have an NXT robot at home that would be willing to share it with the club for this year until we can get all the robots we are working on getting for the club? I am trying to keep the groups working with each robot small so each of you can have more close up time with the robots. Skyler & I are sharing our robots with the club this year.

If you have any questions or will not be able to attend the upcoming meeting PLEASE contact me ASAP.

Ms. JeanJean KlinedinstSci-Tech Engineers 4H Club Leaderhttp://www.4hyorkpa.org/id47.html717-417-1113

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Project Stuff Due at the March 20th Meeting

REMEMBER: Write in Pencil!!!!
1.No Do-Hickeys Lesson(for those who missed the meeting) and Parts Test These are posted on the club web page. You can print out the color version of the parts test for your note books if you wish.

2.Also you need to go the Activity One chapter which is just before the No Do-Hickeys lesson in your project book and work on answering the APPLIED R & D question at the bottom left corner of page number 7. On a separate piece of paper in YOUR OWN WORDS write what Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics are and why these are important and put this in your Robotics Project notebook. If you wish, you may take a crack at all the other questions on this page but we will be going over these together in the future. Again remember to write in pencil!

3.Also read Activity 2 ROBOT OR NOT and do the activities on page 8. Since we do not have the CD it refers to I have found this to help you...
What is the difference between a robot, machine, and computer? Or are they all just the same thing?
Answer:A robot is a virtual or mechanical artificial agent. In practice, it is usually an electro-mechanical machine which is guided by computer or electronic programming, and is thus able to do tasks on its own. Another common characteristic is that by its appearance or movements, a robot often conveys a sense that it has intent or agency of its own.

A machine is any device that uses energy to perform some activity. Robots can be considered machines but not all machines are robots.

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.
You can also do your own research on the topic too. Also reading the Nuts & Volts on page 9 to help with this too. Do the FEEDBACK LOOP on page 9. These are pretty easy and should not take you long.

I am trying to get us further along on the project with stuff you can do at home so we can start building the bots sooner at the meetings!!!

Those who did not get make it to the meeting need to catch up with me and get your project book so you can work on the assignments. Until you get your project book you can work on the first 3 lessons of SCRATCH and the No Do-Hickeys lesson.

SCRATCH: just work at your own pace we have until July 31 to get at least the first 3 lessons done or more if you like.

Any questions just contact Ms. Jean - signs@jestek.net



Monday, February 22, 2010

Welcome to our new club blog

Hello Sci-Tech Engineers and other potential 4H Science & Technology club members!

As a way to keep our membership informed and updated more easily I have decided to set up this blog and see how it works in helping us keep current info out there.


I plan to link this back to our York County 4H Web Site club page. Until I can figure this out here is the link http://www.4hyorkpa.org/id47.html


I will create a link on the club page back to the blog. This will make navigation much easier for all.


Most often changed info like calendars, project schedules and meeting updates will appear here. Check back as often as needed. Share your ideas on how to improve this blog too.


Ms. Jean