The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

Modern robotics can interact with the human body in newer, innovative ways, using flexible materials and compliant actuators. Dr. Holly Golecki, Ph.D., wants to teach young people all about it, recently sharing her team's K-12 curriculum in soft robotics in The Science Teachermagazine. A professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Golecki teaches bioengineering and engineering design to undergraduates, while also research applications of materials engineering to bioengineering and engineering education. She discusses her pathway to her current focus on engineering education, and her ideas about increasing the diversity of students who can access engineering at younger ages by way of soft robotics.

Related to this episode:

* Dr. Holly Golecki's website: https://www.hollygolecki.com/

* Revolutionizing Robotics: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/19434871.2023.12290283

* Soft Robotics Toolkit: https://softroboticstoolkit.com/

* UIUC BioE: https://bioengineering.illinois.edu/

* Drexel Materials Science and Engineering: https://drexel.edu/engineering/academics/departments/materials-science-engineering/

* Sandia National Labs: https://www.sandia.gov/

* VEX Robotics competitions: https://www.vexrobotics.com/competition

* McKibben artificial muscles: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/803170

* Control Pneumatic Cylinder with Arduino (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXNNjtK5hp8

* Tim the Nitinol Lepidopterist (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyVGpRjG5-0

* Mark Rober on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY1kMZp36IQSyNx_9h4mpCg

* hgolecki on Twitter / X: https://twitter.com/hgolecki

* Soft Robotics Toolkit Competition: https://softroboticstoolkit.com/competition/requirements

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net [http://www.k12engineering.net/]. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games [https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Guide-Improv-Art-Games/dp/1520634900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=], The Calculator Gator [http://www.piuswong.com/calculatorgator/], or Chordinates! [https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/]  Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com [http://www.pioslabs.com/].

Music by seth_makes_sounds [https://freesound.org/people/Seth_Makes_Sounds/] under a Creative Commons 0 License [https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/].

Cultivated meat has the potential to disrupt the meat industry, and engineer Dr. Katie Kam joins the podcast to talk about it. Katie founded BioBQ, her startup that's developing cultivated beef brisket. She explains how cultivated meat – also known as "cultured meat" or "lab meat" – is real meat that avoids animal slaughter by being grown in a bioreactor. Katie discusses her motivation for her work at BioBQ, including her Texas roots, love of barbecue, interest in ecology, and being vegan. She also highlights partnerships with the cattle industry, investors, and many different fields in science and engineering.

Related to this episode:

• BioBQ: https://www.biobqing.com/

• "Cultivated meat bioprocess design" article: https://gfi.org/science/the-science-of-cultivated-meat/deep-dive-cultivated-meat-bioprocess-design/

• "Eat Just to Open Asia's Largest Cultivated Meat Facility in 2023": https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-10/eat-just-to-open-asia-s-largest-cultivated-meat-facility-in-2023

• "Upside's cell-cultured chicken is first to receive FDA blessing for its production method": https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/16/upside-foods-cell-cultured-meat-fda/

• Good Food Institute (GFI): https://gfi.org/

• New Harvest: https://new-harvest.org/

• IndieBio incubator in San Francisco: https://indiebio.co/

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net [http://www.k12engineering.net/]. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games [https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Guide-Improv-Art-Games/dp/1520634900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=], The Calculator Gator [http://www.piuswong.com/calculatorgator/], or Chordinates! [https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/]  Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com [http://www.pioslabs.com/].

Music by timouse [https://freesound.org/people/timouse/] under a Creative Commons Attribution License [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/].

As part of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, cybersecurity engineer Nicole Bushong shares essential cybersecurity habits and tools for keeping organizations and individuals safe, as well as hot tips for getting into the many parts of this critical industry. Learn about data privacy, compliance, coding, hacking news, degrees and certifications, multi-factor authentication, and more.

Related to this episode:

• Cybersecurity and Being Human: https://k12engineering.net/episodes/80

• IR (incident response)

• Terraform: https://www.terraform.io/security

• GRC (governance, risk, and compliance)

• DevSecOps (development, security, and operations)

• Cybersecurity Awareness Month is October: https://www.cisa.gov/cybersecurity-awareness-month

• Cambridge Analytica scandal: https://www.wired.com/story/cambridge-analytica-facebook-privacy-awakening/

• DeSantis accused textbooks of 'indoctrination.' Here's what he meant: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/05/09/florida-banned-textbooks-math-desantis/

• Pen tester (penetration tester)

• Hack the Box: https://www.hackthebox.com/

• SANS courses: https://www.sans.org/cyber-security-courses/

• UK police arrest teenager suspected of Uber, GTA 6 hacks: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/15/uber-hack/

• KnowBe4 / Kevin Mitnick: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Mitnick

• GDPR: https://gdpr-info.eu/

• HouSecCon: https://www.linkedin.com/company/houseccon

• StaySafeOnline: https://staysafeonline.org/

• OWASP: https://owasp.org/

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net [http://www.k12engineering.net/]. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games [https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Guide-Improv-Art-Games/dp/1520634900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=], The Calculator Gator [http://www.piuswong.com/calculatorgator/], or Chordinates! [https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/]  Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com [http://www.pioslabs.com/].

The Solve for Tomorrow design competition from Samsung is starting up again, and

three guests join the podcast to explain how it works, and why schools and

businesses should invest in K-12 STEM education. George Dowdy led his students

at Porter High School to win the most recent competition, while Autumn Dowdy led

her students at the same school to win before that. George and Autumn, an

engineering education power couple, talk about what it's like teaching

engineering today and how the Solve for Tomorrow competition complements their

existing curriculum.  Ann Woo is the Senior Director of Corporate Citizenship at

Samsung in the US, and she explains why Samsung funds or support the K-12

education pipeline with professional development and other programs like this.

Related to this episode:

• Samsung Solve for Tomorrow competition:

https://www.samsung.com/us/solvefortomorrow/

• Porter High team wins national STEM competition for second year:

https://www.yourconroenews.com/neighborhood/moco/news/article/Porter-High-team-wins-national-STEM-competition-17192932.php

• Project Lead The Way: https://www.pltw.org/

• MindSpark Learning: https://www.mindspark.org/

• Porter High School Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/porterhs_spartans/?hl=en

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net

[http://www.k12engineering.net/]. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects

like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games

[https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Guide-Improv-Art-Games/dp/1520634900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=],

The Calculator Gator [http://www.piuswong.com/calculatorgator/], or Chordinates!

[https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/]  Thanks to our donors and listeners for

making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production

of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com [http://www.pioslabs.com/].

Amy Pirzada started My Coding Place as an educational business focused on

teaching coding to kids in Austin. But she soon expanded to teach chess, game

design, 3D modeling, 3D printing, and more technical topics in problem-solving

to wider audiences. She talks about the mission of her entrepreneurial business,

how to teach kids programming effectively, the right tech tools for teaching

kids of different ages, and her goals for the business and possibly a future

nonprofit.

Related to this episode:

• My Coding Place: https://www.mycodingplace.com/

• Gamemaker: https://gamemaker.io/

• Blender: https://www.blender.org/

• mBot by Makeblock: https://www.makeblock.com/steam-kits/mbot

• Hansol Hong of Robolink, on a past episode:

https://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/74

• Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/

• Lua: https://www.lua.org/

• Girlstart nonprofit, on a past episode: https://k12engineering.net/episodes/21

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net

[http://www.k12engineering.net/]. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects

like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games

[https://www.amazon.com/Engineers-Guide-Improv-Art-Games/dp/1520634900/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=],

The Calculator Gator [http://www.piuswong.com/calculatorgator/], or Chordinates!

[https://www.pioslabs.com/chordinates/]  Thanks to our donors and listeners for

making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production

of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com [http://www.pioslabs.com/].

The Physics Circus at The University of Texas at Austin tries to attract kids to

science using loud and entertaining demonstrations that might not be as

accessible to the average school. Led by graduate students doing the latest in

physics research, The Physics Circus is getting back into live shows again.

Joseph Ziegel is one of the coordinators of the group, along with Jordan Zesch,

and Joseph describes their mission of young scientists spreading more love of

science. Related to this episode: • The Physics Circus at The University of

Texas at Austin: https://web2.ph.utexas.edu/~circus/ • Should a Person Touch

200,000 Volts? A Van de Graaff generator experiment! From the Jefferson lab:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZuSZYVBng • How To Make Pickles Glow, from

TKOR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFefJyQhw0c • The Physics Circus YouTube

channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSPOGbgbw7D4ogjV5_UpFxA Opening music

by LogicMoon: https://freesound.org/people/LogicMoon/sounds/617295/ Closing

music by JetSmith88: https://freesound.org/people/JetSmith88/sounds/206065/

Subscribe and find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support

Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs.

You'll also be supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art

Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners

for making the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a

production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

Do scientific research articles sometimes sound like another language? To K-12

students, very often it's yes. Tanya Dimitrova tried to help solve this problem

by founding the Scientific Journal for Kids, where her team of writers,

designers, and teachers translates articles from scientific research journals

into more kid-friendly language. Tanya talks about how her time as a science

teacher in Central Texas influenced her to found this nonprofit, and then

explains all the details that go into collaborating with scientists to make

their work more accessible. Related to this episode: • Science Journal for Kids

(SJFK): https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/ • SJFK article relating to

osmosis and energy:

https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/how-can-we-turn-ocean-water-into-renewable-energy/

• Tumble Podcast: https://www.sciencepodcastforkids.com/ • Past episode with

Marshall Escamilla: https://k12engineering.net/episodes/59 • Sarah

Galvani-Townsend:

https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/lesson-ideas/meet-a-scientist-sarah-galvani-townsend/

• Past guest Xiaojing Gao: https://www.k12engineering.net/episodes/113 • SJFK

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScienceJournalforKids • r/explainlikeimfive:

https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/ • CC BY (Creative Commons

Attribution licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ • Dr. Shannon

Currie: https://www.shannoncurrie.org/ Opening music by LogicMoon:

https://freesound.org/people/LogicMoon/sounds/617295/ Closing music by

JetSmith88: https://freesound.org/people/JetSmith88/sounds/206065/ Subscribe and

find podcast updates at: http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with

regular donations on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be

supporting projects like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The

Calculator Gator, or Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making

the show possible. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios

Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com.

What is synthetic biology? Researcher and professor Dr. Xiaojing Gao introduces

this cutting edge field. He explains how his lab at Stanford University

engineers biomolecular circuits, which are meant to be programmable,

reproducible, and friendlier to mammalian cells than non-biological molecules.

Xiaojing hopes to create the building blocks of this technology, to one day

better treat all sorts of medical conditions ranging from cancer to epilepsy. He

also describes his path to his interdisciplinary career. Related to this

episode: • Dr. Xiaojing Gao: https://cheme.stanford.edu/person/xiaojing-gao •

Gao Lab at Stanford: https://gaolab.blog/ • CAR T Therapy for cancer:

https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/car-t-cell-therapy

• Targeted Therapy for cancer:

https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/types/targeted-therapies •

biological logic gates:

https://phys.org/news/2020-04-cells-protein-logic-gates.html • Brain & Behavior

Foundation: https://www.bbrfoundation.org/ • Cell Reprogramming With CRISPR/Cas9

Based Transcriptional Regulation Systems:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fbioe.2020.00882/full • Physics

Olympiad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Physics_Olympiad • Michael

Elowitz: https://www.bbe.caltech.edu/people/michael-b-elowitz • Liqun Luo:

https://profiles.stanford.edu/liqun-luo • Can we write biological "software

updates" to cure disease?:

https://www.sciencejournalforkids.org/articles/can-we-write-biological-software-updates-to-cure-disease/

• Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists (WDTS)

https://science.osti.gov/wdts Subscribe and find podcast updates at:

http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects

like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or

Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.

The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs:

http://www.pioslabs.com.

Learning in robotics doesn't have to take weeks, if you can design, build, and

test a robot in hours in a video game. Dan White, CEO of Filament Games,

introduces RoboCo, their game meant to teach principles of robotics to players,

from the mechanical design all the way to testing in the 3D world. Dan discusses

cofounding Filament Games with partners Dan Norton and Alex Stone, what

constitutes a good or bad learning game, plans for integrating RoboCo into

educational curricula, and more. Related to this episode: • Filament Games:

https://www.filamentgames.com/ • RoboCo: https://www.roboco.co/ • Meaningful

Gaming in Education, PAX presentation from Ashley Brandin:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kk1pkwi7X8w • iCivics: https://www.icivics.org/

• Roblox: https://www.roblox.com/ • Besiege:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besiege_(video_game) • Space Engineers:

https://www.spaceengineersgame.com/ • Minecraft Edu:

https://education.minecraft.net/en-us/homepage • 'RoboCo' Looks to Fuel Interest

in STEM by Letting You Build Useful (and Crappy) Robots:

https://www.roadtovr.com/roboco-looks-fuel-interest-stem-letting-build-useful-crappy-robots/

• FIRST Robotics: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc • Steam Workshop:

https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/ • Civilization: https://civilization.com/ •

Micro, by Michael Creighton and Richard Preston:

https://www.michaelcrichton.com/micro/ Subscribe and find podcast updates at:

http://www.k12engineering.net. Support Pios Labs with regular donations on

Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects

like the Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or

Chordinates! Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible.

The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs:

http://www.pioslabs.com.

Chicago educator and entrepreneur Scott Steward breaks down his teaching

philosophy, rooted in getting to know his students. Steward founded Genius Lab

in Chicago, where he teaches young people technology, business, and how to

become an adult. He honed his curriculum from teaching in Chicago Public Schools

classrooms for fifteen years in largely black and brown communities. First

Steward traces his youth on the South Side of Chicago, when he did not

prioritize academics at all, and then he explains the turning points that took

him through the corporate world and eventually to teaching youth who grew up

much like himself. Related to this episode: • Scott Steward:

https://scottsteward.com/ • Genius Lab: https://www.geniuslabchicago.com/ • 666

new Texas laws go into effect Sept. 1:

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/08/31/new-texas-laws-september-2021/ • Derrion

Albert: The Death that Riled the Nation:

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/derrion-albert-the-death-that-riled-the-nation/

• Million Man March: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Million_Man_March •

Guillain-Barré syndrome: https://www.cdc.gov/campylobacter/guillain-barre.html •

NFTE (Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship): https://www.nfte.com/ • Gwendolyn

Brooks College Prep: https://brookscollegeprep.org/ • SEL (social-emotional

learning):

https://www.nu.edu/resources/social-emotional-learning-sel-why-it-matters-for-educators/

• Chase the Lion, by Mark Batterson:

https://www.markbatterson.com/books/chase-the-lion/ • 31 Ways to Improve Your

Life, by Scott Steward: https://scottsteward.com/merch/stewisms • Scott Steward

on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@therealprofessorstew • The 2019 Chicago

teachers strike:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2019/10/15/20915723/chicago-teacher-strike-2019-cps-ctu

Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net.

Support Pios Labs with regular donations on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/pioslabs. You'll also be supporting projects like the

Engineer's Guide to Improv and Art Games, The Calculator Gator, or Chordinates!

Thanks to our donors and listeners for making the show possible. The K12

Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs:

http://www.pioslabs.com.