Estela’s Escuelas: Irvin students learn about the physics of sound waves
You can hear music. You can feel it. And now, you can see it.
In preparation for the 2016 STEM+Art Fiesta this week, Irvin High School students are learning about the physics of wound waves, or cymatics. A team of students at Irvin’s Music and Media Lab developed exhibits based on cymatics, using materials including metal, water, and salt.
David Gunn’s media class will present five different exhibits explaining how cymatics can help them find a good paying job. “There are many careers that involve knowing how sound works the sound engineers recording engineer and architect, so really anything to do with vibration you need to understand the physics of it,” said Gunn.
During a presentation to ABC-7, Senior Aaron Woods showed one of the exhibits. “Sound is going to travel through this medium and it’s going to create nodes and antinodes the vibrations are going to cause the sound to move away from places and you can see beautiful patterns mandela like structures,” explained Wood.
The team for Irvin and 40 other high schools will present their exhibits at the 2016 STEM+art fiesta Thursday and Friday at the El Paso Community College Administrative offices.
The goal is to get students interested in stem fields: science, technology, engineering and math. This year — “art disciplines” have been added to stem so it’s now “steam”. About a thousand middle and high school students will learn about architecture, robotics, culinary arts and music.
The 2016 STEM+Art Fiesta, which is coordinated annually by Workforce Solutions Borderplex and the STEM+Art Fiesta Committee, will host seven high school competitions in addition to workshop rotations for middle schoolers.
On Thursday, more than 30 exhibitors will entertain the students in areas such as the Drone and Game Zones. Dan Barstow with CASIS will present the group with a keynote address at 9:00am and 1:00pm. High school competitions in the VEX Robotics, KODU Game Lab and the STEMentorship categories will also take place on this day.
On Friday, more than 40 high school teams will compete in the STEM Business Challenge, Living on Mars Model Showcase, JAVA Coding, and the Prudential Math Challenge. A reception, awards ceremony, and recognition program will be held from 5:00 to 7:00pm. Thousands of dollars in cash prizes and scholarships will be granted.
To learn more about the 2016 STEM+Art Fiesta, visit http://www.borderplexjobs.com/programs-and-services/stem
