... October NSBE Jr Meeting ...

On October 13th, the students in NSBE Jr. had their first official meeting of the school year at San Jose State University. What is NSBE Jr. you ask? NSBE Jr. is the chapter based aspect of NSBE’s Pre-College Initiative (PCI) program. NSBE’s PCI is designed to encourage middle and high school students to excel in math and science and give them the tools necessary to successfully complete college. The NSBE Jr. meetings are hosted by mentors from both San Jose State University and the Silicon Valley Alumni Chapter.












The meeting began with students working through some difficult math problems. One student, Andrea, even volunteered to work through the problem on the board for the other students to follow along. After the students completed their math problems, we moved on to the meeting topic for the month: Robotics. Seitu Barron, a mechanical engineer and member of the Silicon Valley Alumni Chapter, spoke to the students about robots. His presentation included examples of robots in every day life as well as futuristic dancing robots.

The students, ranging from 5th to 12th grade, also participated in an interactive activity designed by college students at San Jose State. The students designed motors using primarily a wire coil, magnet, and battery. Initially the task was difficult, but the students stuck with it and explored ways to improve their motors. By the end of the exercise, all of the groups had spinning motors. Some of the students were so proud of their motors that they took them home for further improvements.

Next month’s meeting will be on November 10th from 10 am to 2 pm at San Jose State. The topic will be computer science and the students will be coding their own programs. If you are interested in helping out, please contact Jessica Miller for details (jessica_miller_52@yahoo.com).