Academy for Science and Design held its 3rd SPARK Conference of the school year

Photo of ASD students joined by students from the Daniel Webster College ASME about to race cars made out of vegetables.

On Wednesday February 12, 2014 the Academy for Science and Design held its 3rd SPARK Conference (Symposium Promoting Advancement of Real-world Knowledge) of the school year. SPARK conference days are designed to expose our students to various STEM careers, relevant topics and issues in the realm of science and technology, as well as to cultivate their unique interests and talents. This SPARK Conference included sessions such as The Veggie Car Race – an exploration of Mechanical Engineering presented by the Daniel Webster College Chapter of the ASME, Down the Drain – Wastewater Flow in Nashua presented by Mr Bill Keating from the City of Nashua Engineering Department, HTML5 Fundamentals, Intro to Micronations, Aeronautics’ Greatest Hits, The Science of Baking which took place at the Great Harvest Bread Company with the assistance of Jeremy St. Hilaire, Stained “Glass” Ice Structure, Build-Your-Own Mousetrap Racecar, Stop-Motion Animation, Snowflake Science, The Ethical Leader presented by Major Kevin Harbison, Thermal and Radiant Energy presented by Dan Wolaver Electrical engineer and retired Professor at WPI, ASD Red Cross High School Club presented by Maura Lockwood from the American Red Cross, Identifying and Protecting your Intellectual Property presented by Kimberly Peaslee from Divine Millimet Attorneys at Law, and many more. Presenters at SPARK include various members of the ASD school community such as faculty, upper class students, parents, individuals from higher educational institutions, as well as innovators within the corporate sphere.

" I really liked The Veggie Car Race because it tested our skills to build cars out of vegetables. Then we got to race them," said 8th grade ASD Student Ben. This session was run by the Daniel Webster College Chapter of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The students first built race cars out of vegetables, having to include at least 3 different produce items on their cars, and then they raced them down a ramp the engineering students built for them. “The Daniel Webster ASME was happy to celebrate engineering week with a group of future engineers. We loved seeing the cars that they made out of vegetables and helping them improve their designs. I think we had as much fun as they did,” said Meridith Campbell, Chair DWC ASME Student Chapter.

“HTML5 was my favorite session because it was interesting and we learned a lot about coding and Mr. Cava made it really interesting and cool to learn about,” said 8th grade ASD student Liam. This session was run by Bill Cava who brought a wealth of knowledge on the subject to the students, while engaging them in a fun and interesting way. The students learned about the new JavaScript APIs and Semantic Markup that makes HTML5.

The Academy for Science and design is always happy to partner with companies for things such as internships in STEM fields for our students, financial donations  as well as presenters for our students for the SPARK Conferences. Financial donations can be an outright financial contribution in the amount of your choice or consist of underwriting costs for installing a specific facility technology or program. All contributors will be listed in a year-end newspaper ad as “ASD Partners in Innovation” with reference to the levels of sponsorship. The Academy for Science and Design has two more SPARK Conferences scheduled this year and presenters from the community are always welcome. More information can be found on our website at www.asdnh.org.