January 28, 2006 Teacher Training Results

On this day, schools competing in the second annual Rube Goldberg machine design contest at the Fay School on April 8 attended this faculty coach training day at MIT Museum. The training was jam-packed with information about the contest, changes from last year to the rules, a live safety training, a delicious lunch, a crash course on physics, and several hands-on physics experiments led by MIT students in the mechanical engineering department. Here are some pictures from that day.

(Above) Teachers representing 16 different middle schools across the New England region listen intently to Dr. Chris Schoberl (not pictured), academic dean of Fay School, give an introduction to the contest. Some teachers attended the Teacher Training Session last year as well.

(Above) Dr. Beryl Rosenthal makes a picture presentation of last year's contest. As always, preparing the material bins for each team is always a big challenge for the contest coordinators.

(Above) Time to inventory materials given to each team! This year's materials is very similar to last year's, with the addition of a slinky, a mini kickball, and a few more goodies.

(Above) Some materials are small and hard to find, some materials go by different names, and a few materials may be foreign to some people. Sandie (right), one of the lead mentors, is helping a teacher clarify the name of one of the numerous materials given to each team.

(Above) Phil from Fuller/Cameron/Walsh Middle Schools even wears the same outfit to this year's training day as he did to last year's, for added luck :-)

(Above) Safety is our number one priority. The safety violations during last year's contest prompted the coordinators to incorporate a safety training for the teachers. Here, the teachers listen intently to Dave Barber as he talks about the proper usage of a power drill. Safety videos will be posted online as they become available.

(Above) This year each team will be equipped with a heavy-duty Black & Decker workbench, which doubles as several vices.

(Above) The last item on the agenda for the day was physics experiments. Teachers break up into groups of four, and rotate through each of the four experiment stations. At this station, teachers learn about properties of springs.

(Above) Each experiment station is led by one or two MIT student mentors. Here, Howard, a mechanical engineering sophomore, guides the teachers through the pendulum experiments.

(Above) Andi, also a mechanical engineering sophomore, teaches teacher about static and kinetic friction.

(Above) Connie and Omoleye help teachers gain an intuitive feel for both English and Metric measuring systems.

(Above) After all the training is over, the teachers finally get to take home all of their materials, including the lumber and PVC pipes shown here. Bet Jon (the education coordinator) will be happy the supplies will be out of his hallway. :-)

(Above) The man behind the scenes, Dr. Chris Schoberl, Academic Dean of Fay Middle School, offers a silly smile at the end of a long day. He already has one year of this contest under his belt, so the second year should be a piece of cake, right? :-)

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