Last May during his visit to my school, Dr. Madsen invited me to come to River Falls, Wisconsin, to visit the Upward Bound summer program that Ice Cube hosted at the University of Wisconsin. On Sunday, July 18, 2013 I flew in the early morning from JFK to the Minneapolis, Minnesota, taking a one week break from my summer semester of graduate studies, finishing my Master of Ed at Cambridge College, in Boston. I was picked up by Dr.Madsen, and after a breakfast of bagles , cream cheese and coffe I checked into the brand new Ames dorms building, where I settled down into my room. Dinner was at Dr.Madsen’s home, with delicious tex-mex food cooked by his wife Linda, where I met his kids Megan and Josh, as well as Linda’s sister and friends of the family.
Upward Bound
The next day MondayI was picked up by Eric Muhs, one of the Upward Bound teachers, for breakfast in the morning. Mr.Muhs, was a teacher in Seatle, and one of the first teachers to be sent to the South Pole with Ice Cube, as part of TREC, the program that later became Polartrec, in the early 2000s. later that morning I met two other teachers, Katie and Steve who, lo and behold, had also been to the South Pole. Wao, what are the odds of that. Steven had been to Antarctica with TREC, and Katie was more recently in Antarctica as part of Polartrec. She is an amazing teacher in Virginia, who just recently applied to be a NASA astronaut. Steve was a teacher in the Twin Cities, Minnesota area, and was one of the first to work with Dr.Madsen in the Upward Bound program at UWRF. Upward Bound is a federal program that has been running for many years, providing opportunities for youngsters to be engaged in Science and college prep during the summer months. There was a group of about 40 high school teens from the Twin City urban area, mostly girls, from the Asian minority Hmong, as well as a few Latino and African American kids. Hmongs belong to an Asian minority from the regions of Laos, Vietnam and South China, who were relocated to the US by the Government, since they were US allies during the Vietnam War. These high school students were also sleeping on campus and enjoying the full college experience. The students were divided in three classes with each teacher conducting several STEM hands-on activities. The theme of this year was Solar Energy, and the connections to the Ice Cube Project. The week before students studied about Sun Spots and drew on paper their observations of the Sun, and they also built Solar Powered Ovens. During a break students took outside their Solar Ovens, and tested them by baking cookies inside them. They also used Vernier Probes to test how high could their oven get, by measuring the temperature with the probes. Some ovens reached temperature as high as 100 degrees. One class was learning about Solar Panels, and Serial Circuits with Katies, and how to draw a Circuit Diagram, while I was with Mr.Muhs class where another group of students were connecting solar panels to propellers, in preparation for building Solar Powered boats. It was amazing to see these high school kids applying the engineering concepts they had learned early on, and how they had to check and trouble shoot their circuits, testing the connections until they finally worked, just like real scientists and engineers do as part of their work. They had to test and measure the angle that absorbed the most sunlight and produced more energy output, using protractors and Voltage meters. The following day the students spent the day designing, cutting and putting together their Solar-powered boats. They used blue foam to build the hull of the boats, which they drew and cut, using a hot wire in one of the Engineering labs. The students really put a lot of effort in their designs, often times sanding, cutting and even discarding their designs and starting over. I saw a connection with my After School Boatbuilding program back in New York, and I even made a scale model in foam of the Bevin’s Skiff wooden boat, from the Alexandria Seaport Foundation Building To Teach program, that we built this school year at the Mirabal Sisters Educational Campus in New York City. The next day Tuesday, was an exciting one because the students had to finish mounting the solar panels array that connected to the propeller that powered their boats. They worked really hard in teams of two with names ranging from Pixie Girls to Sharknado. The first part of the morning saw a flow of kids testing their boats on two large inflatable pools outside the building, rushing to have their boats ready for the afternoon competitions. I had to monitor the hot wire station, where students were still cutting their hulls even as the competitions were going on, so I missed the action. On Wednesday morning the final competition resulted in all teams racing their boats, while applying everything they learned about solar panels, such as the best angles to place them on their boats that maximized the power input, to the best position for the propeller to push or pull the boats. All these are 21st Century Critical Thinking and Inquiry skills necessary for real-life careers that these high school students learned as part of Ice Cube UWRF Upward Bound. I also noticed that every student had a writing Science journal where they had to take notes, sketch diagrams and pictures, and answer reflection questions about their own learning. In addition to taking part in STEM activities, students took part in Team Building and leadership skills necessary to pursue college careers.
Field Trip to the Net Zero Eco Village and the River Falls
That afternoon we went on a school bus to visit the Eco Village built by Habitat for Humanity not far from the UWRF campus. Under a blazing sun we visited one of the about a dozen low-cost energy “Net Zero” houses, where Jim, a representative from Habitat for Humanity gave us a tour of the construction site. He explained to us that the houses had heated floors to reduce heating cost in the winter, as well as solar panels covering the roof, that ultimately will consume zero energy from the power grid. In fact the houses will be able to put back any excess electricity back to the power grid, allowing for the cost to build each house, (about $130,000) to be repaid in about 10 years. The houses will have meters that will measure energy consumption in what could be a national model. Next we took the kids to a park next to a power plant, where the kids were able to test their boats on the running waters of a stream. It was a cool relieve to a very hot afternoon. Visit to St. Anthony Stone Bridge, Minneapolis, Minnesota That evening we drove to Minneapolis, Minnesota to visit the St. Francis Stone Bridge. I really was not in the mood to go, due to an uncomfortable incident that occurred while returning to the bus from the water stream, but since it was the last night I would spend with the teachers, I decided to join the group. Once there we met with Dr.Madsen and his wife Linda, who is a Nurse just like my wife Milly, and works in Minneapolis, setting up the new digital billing format to be used in public hospitals as part of the Obama care reform. We ate at an outdoor café on the renovated waterfront, full of people biking, strolling, jogging, or just enjoying a hot summer evening outdoors. Later on we took a stroll across the river, navigating a crowd that was taking part in a local marathon, with a rock band jamming, and ice cream and food vendors every where you looked. Once on the bridge I could not help but be mesmerized by the incredible view of the falls in the distance, with locks similar to the ones used at the Panama Canal, to allow chips to pass down and up river. The stone arches and the cobble stone road gave me a sensation of what is going to feel when I cross the Highbridge from Manhattan to the Bronx next year. Just like the St.Anthonys, the Highbridge, the oldest bridge in new York city will be filled with people enjoying the view of the Harlem River, while strolling or biking across its span. I noticed the railings on either side of the bridge and picture them how they will look on the Highbridge. There were police officers on motorcycles supervising the crossing. Once on the other side we went up to a modernistic building with a balcony/ledge that extended from the main building. This black structure housed the Metropolitan Opera house, and it was designed to have open space available to the public right on the top level. I was amazed at the elegant and modern design of the building with electric staircases that went right through the middle of the opera, that featured glass and steel walls, allowing the public to access the open space on the top, right next to the crowd heading in and out of the Opera House. Once on the top, the glass doors opened up and leaving behind the AC space indoors, we reunited with Eric Muhs who had left earlier to get his car from the parking lot, right before we crossed the bridge. The 360 degree view of the river was magnificient an breath taking. I could imagine how it looked at night, with perhaps the falls illuminated like they do at the Niagara Falls. Soon the crowd from the Opera flooded the open space and then we left back to River Falls.
Last day at Upward Bound
On my last day, Dr. Madsen gave a presentation about the Ice Cube Telescope Project at the South Pole, and even showcased one of the ROMS or sensors used to detect the Neutrinos under the ice. The circuits of the sensor were encased on a hard and heavy sphere, designed to withstand the crushing pressure of the Antarctic ice. The day before we took the kids to the university Planetarium where they participated in a presentation about the Universe, galaxies, stars, and the Solar System. Here Dr. Madsen spoke about the connections to the Ice Cube Neutrino project and the research done on the nature of neutrinos from outer space. Again, just like when Dr.Madsen was visiting my class in New York, the question of why studying Neutrinos at all surfaced among this group of students. The presentation include some very cool graphics that helped them understand better what neutrinos were, and what was the significance of studying them. Being able to go to the South Pole and work hand in hand with the research team of the Ice Cube will give me a greater understanding on the importance of researching neutrinos. I could not helped but connect with this group of young Hmong immigrants, who were bilingual ELLs just like my students and I. Part of my duties involved in help assist the teachers in every way I could, and my last assignment was to help Katie grade the students journals. They each had to answer 10 reflection questions on what the learned about Solar energy, and while checking their journal I also read a writing assignment they had from other instructors of a College Application Essay. I learned about some of their stories of struggling to come to America with their close knit families, who did not speak English, and came with nothing but dreams of a better life. They wrote about the challenges they have faced and how they were able to overcome them. Challenges ranging from not having a place of their own to live and lack of jobs for their parents, to adapting to a new culture, language and society. These were all very similar to the same immigrant experience I went through 20 years ago, as well as my students and their families had to just recently. I liked mostly how they wrote as their strength that fact that they learned to speak English, and that they were very responsible with their homework and school class work. I noticed that most of the boys and girls spoke English fluently, carried IPhones and dressed very American, but easily switch to speak Hmong at all times. You could tell some were probably recent arrivals for they had a strong English accent, whereas the ones that spoke English more fluently were probably first generation Americans. I left River Falls with a great respect for these kids and their families.