WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS (STEM) INITIATIVE

Deborah FraleySTEM Director, TVC WID

Business Development ManagerQuantum Research International, Inc.

256-971-1800 x 258256-682-2951 cell256-971-1801 fax

dfraley@quantum-intl.com

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION

The Tennessee Valley Chapter (TVC) of Women inDefense (WID) is taking an active role in supportingeducational needs for the Science, Technology,Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Initiative thatencourages young people to pursue careers in nationaldefense and national security to eventually replace ouraging workforce. WID TVC support is focused onsecuring financial backing from similar professionalorganizations, defense contractors, and local communityorganizations that will fund the creation of STEMeducational tools for use in elementary, middle schooland high school classrooms in the Tennessee Valley area.

WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION

• Our STEM Initiative started in 2009 with the realization that our aging technical workforce in the Huntsville area (average age 57), both Government and industry employees, did not have a large number of young people trained in technical fields who were up and coming to eventually provide replacement capabilities when the senior level staff retire.

• We decided to take on the mission of adding a new element to the already ongoing STEM activities in the TN Valley area by providing hands-on tools to science teachers in the local schools that could be used to demonstrate scientific and mathematical principles to the students, supplementing lectures and standard teaching methods with tools that provide an element of participative fun to the students’ learning process.

WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION

• We work with the Huntsville Space and Missile Defense Working Group (part of the local NDIA chapter) to obtain the majority of our funding ($5K per year) that goes toward creation of the STEM tools that are donated to local schools. We report back to the SMD Working Group annually on the products developed with this funding and receive a recurring line item in their annual budget.

• We partner with the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) to get the STEM tools designed and built for the participating schools through selection of engineering student teams in the senior level engineering design classes that take on our projects by choice from a list of available projects.

WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION

Typical Process/Schedule for a STEM Tool over two semesters:– WID STEM Director coordinates between “customer” school and UAH student

design team to determine requirements for tool and assist with customer outreach activities that create stakeholders and teach engineering students about customer interface

– First Semester activities include final resolution of requirements, initial system architecture concept, patent searches, functional and safety evaluations, concept of operations, preliminary functional baseline, risk assessment and issue mitigations, structural analysis, potential manufacturing techniques, test planning, cost analysis, and two formal reviews, culminating in a preliminary design review

– Second Semester activities include finalization of all elements from the first semester that produces a final design, build and test of the tool, two formal reviews, and presentation of the completed tool to the students at the customer school

– An additional element to this process includes mentoring of the engineering student design teams by our STEM Director who possesses 35 years of engineering experience as a defense contractor

WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION• We have presented 17 STEM tools to local schools in the TN Valley area and to the Sci-

Quest Hands-On Science Center over the course of our program, including:– Fluid Flow Demonstrator– Wimshurst Machine– Tabletop Wind Tunnel– Learning Stations – reconfigurable stations equipped with computer systems for

research– Earthquake Simulator– Pulley System of Systems Demonstrator– Ballistic Pendulum– Trebuchet Catapult– Solar System Model – CO2 Race Car Launch System– Tabletop Catapult– Solar Roller Coaster– Solar Race Cars– Energy Racers– Hybrid Engine– Ping Pong Ball Shooting Gallery– Water Distillation Unit

WOMEN IN DEFENSE - TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO AREA SCHOOLS

PULLEY SYSTEM OF SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDENCE MIDDLE SCHOOL

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO AREA SCHOOLS

EARTHQUAKE SIMULATOR FOR PROVIDENCE MIDDLE SCHOOL

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO AREA SCHOOLS

LEARNING STATION FOR MT CARMEL ELEMENTARY

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO AREA SCHOOLS

TABLETOP CATAPULT FOR WILLIAMS MIDDLE SCHOOL

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO STUDENT MUSEUMS

SOLAR ROLLER COASTER FOR SCI-QUEST

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO STUDENT MUSEUMS

SOLAR RACER FOR SCI-QUEST

WOMEN IN DEFENSE TVCTOOLS DELIVERED TO STUDENT MUSEUMS

PING PONG BALL SHOOTING GALLERY FOR SCI-QUEST

WOMEN IN DEFENSETENNESSEE VALLEY CHAPTER

STEM MISSION

• In 2014 we worked three projects:

– Water Distillation Unit for Discovery Middle School

– Marble Roller Coasters for Mt Carmel Elementary School

– Mobile Experimentation Station for Sci-Quest

WOMEN IN DEFENSE - TVCPROJECTS FOR 2014

WATER DISTILLATION UNIT FOR DISCOVERY MIDDLE SCHOOL

WOMEN IN DEFENSE - TVCPROJECTS FOR 2014

MARBLE ROLLER COASTERS FOR MT CARMEL ELEMENTARY

WOMEN IN DEFENSE - TVCPROJECTS FOR 2014

MOBILE EXPERIMENT CART FOR SCI-QUEST