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We Are IT: High
School girls learn about technology careers
Edison Community College…
By Bob Robinson
Lead photo courtesy of
Edison Community College
In an effort to get young women more interested in technology and
engineering careers, Edison Community College hosted its annual “We Are
IT” event Friday for more than 200 high school girls from the Miami
Valley. Students from Greenville, Mississinawa Valley and Versailles
were among the participants.
I was privileged to hold three “Breakout” Sessions dealing with “Go
Anywhere.” Options ranged from a study of statistics and forensics to
robotics and chemistry to cartoons and marketing.
The girls got to choose three sessions from more than a dozen topics.
“Go Anywhere” dealt with the “magic” of digital graphics… how weather
maps worked, putting your image or others into exotic locations,
altering images to improve (or detract from) the originals…
The photos below kicked off the session by providing a step-by-step
look at the process of taking an image and putting it on the seashore
or some other location. From there, students learned how to alter
images, ranging from using filters to cartooning the features of images.
For a complete list of the options available, see below. This is an
annual event and one that should be kept in mind for interested young
women in the future.
Breakout session descriptions 2011…
Go Anywhere - Digitally! Learn the secrets of TV weather maps and movie
special effects. Put yourself in an exotic location using digital
photography and video tools.
Are brunettes taller than blondes or redheads? Do you ever wonder
if girls from Greenville have higher GPAs than girls from Anna?
Or if girls who live in the country are more athletic than girls who
live in the city? We’ll be exploring these questions and others
as we design our own study and see what results we discover together.
Math and Physics Magic: In this action-packed session
participants will experience the magic of math and physics through a
series of experiments with unusual and exciting results.
Robotics: Girls will build a mobile robot and compete against other
teams. They will work with engineers to program an industrial robot to
weld metal parts.
Cartoons Are IT!: A fun, fast (and interactive) breakout session where
participants are introduced to digital cartooning as a creative and
conceptual method to problem solving.
What You See Isn’t Always What You Get - Come and see how marketing and
media pros can manipulate an audience into buying what they’re selling.
Whether it’s clothing, computers or ideas, someone out there thinks
they know exactly what YOU want... and most of the time they’re right!
We’ll examine some of the most successful marketing and media campaigns
of the past 10 years, assemble a personalized movie poster right in
class and finish off with a funny look at what happens when it all goes
wrong.... the best Photoshop Ad Fails from around the Internet!
Teaching Penguins to Dance and Fly: Did you see the movie “Happy Feet?”
Did you ever wonder how animators made all the penguins dance? In this
break-out session, participants will use ALICE software to teach a
group of two penguins to dance. Participants will also introduce
environmental elements (such as snow, igloos, and an audience), sound
effects, and music to the animated world. This world will them be saved
as a movie file which could be uploaded to YouTube. This session is
designed to provide an introduction to this easy programming interface
for novice, experienced, and non-programmers alike. You need not be an
expert artist or animator, as ALICE will provide everything you need.
Cryptography (Session #1): Cryptography is the practice of
converting information (“cleartext”) into unreadable data
(“ciphertext”) and related protection of information. Going back
to ancient Egypt, cryptography has been used by diplomats and armies to
protect their secrets. The twentieth century saw tremendous
upheaval in the practice, moving away from mechanical to mathematical
systems. Today, cryptography is used by organizations of all
types to protect trade secrets, customer records, and other important
information. In this session, Matt Curtin will walk students
through the process of helping a large retailing company to identify
sensitive customer information and how to use cryptography to protect
customers from identity theft and related fraud.
Forensic Computing (Sessions #2 and #3): Forensic computing, sometimes
known as digital forensics, is the process of analyzing data to answer
specific questions for legal proceedings. In some cases, these
lines of inquiry can be used to establish facts, to reconstruct
information that might have otherwise been destroyed, or to offer
expert opinion to the court about how to interpret certain technical
facts. In this session, Matt Curtin will introduce students to an
investigation conducted under his direction that identified how one
company had critical information about its business stolen by an
employee who was leaving the company to go to work for a competitor.
Hot Technologies: Join me for a fun and exciting session on the
latest and greatest hot technologies on the web! Get an inside look at
new technologies and learn how they can help you solve problems, get
information quickly, or communicate in new ways.
Light, Color, Chemistry: Participants will put on goggles, burn
chemicals to create colored flames, and mix chemicals and watch as they
change colors or create brightly colored products.
CSI at Edison: Come join Edison’s CSI team for a day in our crime
lab! You will analyze blood types, hair samples, and DNA
fingerprinting to try to figure out who the criminal is. Teamwork
will be essential, so come have fun with us!
Do You Have ALL The Angles? Come see how angles determine
how you walk, stand and move between different positions. You
will see how to measure step length, reach and flexibility. See
how angles can also predict your fitness level.
Are You on the Tube? A fun interactive look at how to use YouTube
as a resource for learning and for your homework assignments, assisted
by The Twilight Saga and The Vampire Diaries. Participants will
explore several different academic topics using YouTube and compete
against each other in order not to become the food of the vampires.
Divine Design Starring Packet Tracer: Step into the world of
simulation and design a computer network with iPads, IP phones,
televisions, laptops, desktops, and servers. Tips and trips for
setting up wireless networks will be shared. Participants will
also learn to speak “GEEK”.
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