Virginia State University will host Fall Kids' Tech University program!

Hi Everyone,

We are excited to announce that Virginia State University will host their second annual Kids' Tech University program this fall. Please check out their new website here!! The VSU KTU program will also offer teacher workshops in conjunction to each program date!

The event dates will include Interactive Sessions by two world renown scientists:

Oct. 22, 2011 - “Patterns Are Everywhere! How And Why?” - Answered by Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher

AND

Nov. 19, 2011 - "Why Is Antarctica So "Cool" To Geologists?" - Answered by Cristina Millan

See the VSU KTU website for registration information!

2011 Mathematics Centric Kids' Tech University Program!

At the Virginia Tech Kids' Tech University Jan. 30, 2011 KTU event, Dr. Reinhard Laubenbacher engaged the students in a discussion on “Patterns are Everywhere! How and Why?”. After this session children were escorted by their parents to have lunch and then to the hands-on portion of the event where the children participated in two activities. During one activity, "Dancing with the Stars: what's math got to do with it?", with co-instructor Prof. Cara Rawlings, Theater Arts Department children arranged dance movements in mathematical patterns in order to choreograph dance moves. See here for a Youtube video of the event! During the second hands-on activity children used mathematics principles to predict patterns, interact with the mathematics formulas and create beautiful fractals. These activities are the basis of the Kids' Tech University, Virtual World of Patterns website where children can make fractals, ask questions to Dr. Laubenbacher and play the "Game of Life" invented by John Conway, a Cambridge mathematician.

Virginia Tech KTU April 2011 program

We created an KTU exhibitor based video on the April 9, 2011, Kids' Tech University program. Check it out!! At this event, Dr. Helena Carvalho engaged the students in a discussion on “Why do we want to touch everything with our fingertips? And more ‘why’ questions about how our bodies communicate with the world.” See this KTU website for a list of the hands-on exhibitors that participated in the event that day.

"Our Green Future" High School program

In July Virginia Bioinformatics Institute hosted "Our Green Future" high school internship funded through the NSF Award Number IOS-0922747. The internship exposed students to the exciting fields of research in biology, plant pathology, the environment, climate and bioinformatics. This week-long program consisted of serval research activity labs, research-related tours and a discussion/lecture series by undergraduate students, graduate students and Virginia Tech faculty.

There will be another high school internship program in 2012; see the website around March 2012 for more information!

"Our Green Future" High School Interns

VBI welcomes Higher Achievement

Kids' Tech University is a program of all the K-12 outreach and education efforts of Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI).

VBI welcomes a Higher Achievement visit this week! These high schools students are traveling from Washington, DC to come to Virginia Tech and participate in a variety of activities and tours around campus. During their time at VBI the students will extract DNA from a strawberry (see why we do this activity- here!) and take a tour of the facility.

For more information on how to get connected with Virginia Tech Faculty, researchers and students, visit the KTU Faculty Network site!