General Motors and NASA today introduced the world to Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot capable of working side by side with astronauts and autoworkers.

Computerworld – Instead of sending a regular astronaut to make a dangerous spacewalk outside the International Space Station, NASA might some day soon be able to send a robotic astronaut to do the job instead.

NASA and General Motors (GM) announced late on Wednesday that they are working together to develop and build humanoid robots that can work side-by-side with humans. The idea, according to NASA, is to build robots that can help astronauts during dangerous mission and help GM build cars and automotive plants.

“This cutting-edge robotics technology holds great promise, not only for NASA, but also for the nation,” said Doug Cooke, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Mission Directorate. “I’m very excited about the new opportunities for human and robotic exploration these versatile robots provide across a wide range of applications.”

To read the entire article, please visit Computerworld.com

Student using the PCS Cortex Programming Software and The Brain Robotic Micro-Controller. Robotics is the ideal way to integrate STEM Education into any classroom.

President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 calls for sweeping changes to programs within the U.S. Department of Education (ED), including a restructuring of federal education technology grants.

Under Obama’s budget plan, the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program—the largest single source of federal funding for school technology hardware, software, and professional development—would be consolidated along with several other grant programs into a new initiative called Effective Teaching and Learning for a Complete Education.

This new initiative would focus on improving teaching and learning within three areas: Literacy, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), and Well-Rounded Education (arts, foreign languages, civics and government, history, geography, economics, financial literacy, and other subjects).

To read the entire article, please visit eSchool News

To view STEM solutions for your classroom, please visit PCSedu.com

How to work with well-meaning but demanding moms and dads.

Written by Susan Gregory Thomas

Not long ago, administrators at a small private school in New York City were reorganizing two mixed-grade elementary classrooms. Looking at the third grade, they determined that one girl was particularly well suited to switch from one class to the other: She was adaptable and genial and loved working with teachers and friends. The administrators called the girl’s mother, assuming she would be flattered.

Wrong. The mother was distraught: Her daughter had started at the school only last year! She would be leaving friends in the other classroom! She had enrolled her daughter in private school for its stability and intimacy — not for disruption! The administrators didn’t understand what had been happening at home!

The mother, in tears, needed to have a conference — now. Educators were stunned. Who was this mother?

That would be me, and here’s why: I am a Generation X parent, a member of a demographic that has been making teachers’ and school administrators’ jobs a pain in the butt for more than a decade.

To read the entire article, please visit Edutopia

Robots will most likely be a household fixture in the years to come

Robots have been gaining importance in the fields like engineering and education and Robotic Engineer Prof. Prahlad Vadakeppat feels that by 2030, robots will also find a place at homes. Even he and his students are working on some of these kinds of robots. Vadakeppat said to Gulf Times that a host of robots would soon be available to assist doctors, at home and to care for the elderly.

According to Vadakeppat, many more interactive robots were being planned and they would become reality within the next five to 10 years and he and his students are building a number of robots. “Interactive robotic systems would be able to communicate and assist in homes and those with less mobility like the elderly would have robots on an assisted technical platform, which will be used to get them water, their medications and newspapers,” he explained. He said that the human-like robots would be mass produced and would soon be available in China, India and Singapore. The prices of the robots vary depending on their specifications.

To read the entire article, please visit the Encyclopedia Society

The 2010 Lemelson-MIT Invention Index asked teens who contributes the most to our society's well-being. (Credit: Lemelson-MIT Program)

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2010) — The nation is hoping for a bright future. Many believe the key to strengthening the U.S. economy and competing globally lies in fostering an innovative culture and educating America’s youth in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). According to this year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index , an annual survey that gauges Americans’ perceptions about invention and innovation, teens are enthusiastic about these subjects, with 77 percent interested in pursuing a STEM career.

Hands-On Learning Approach Needed

The positive findings of this year’s survey come on the heels of President Obama’s introduction of Educate to Innovate, a campaign designed to increase interest and improve performance of U.S. students in STEM. The focus of Educate to Innovate is on hands-on activities outside the classroom, which the Lemelson-MIT Invention Index revealed is one of the most effective ways to engage youth ages 12 through 17.

To read the entire survey, please visit Science Daily

To view hands-on STEM education products, please visit PCSedu.com

President Obama delivering his State of the Union speech

President Obama used the State of the Union to tout his national competition to improve schools and said he would work with Congress to expand the program to all 50 states. He urged the Senate to follow the House and pass a bill making college education more affordable.

From the prepared text:

This year, we have broken through the stalemate between left and right by launching a national competition to improve our schools. The idea here is simple: instead of rewarding failure, we only reward success. Instead of funding the status quo, we only invest in reform – reform that raises student achievement, inspires students to excel in math and science, and turns around failing schools that steal the future of too many young Americans, from rural communities to inner-cities. In the 21st century, one of the best anti-poverty programs is a world-class education. In this country, the success of our children cannot depend more on where they live than their potential.

To read President Obama’s entire speech on education,  please visit  The Washington Post

Student using hands-on learning to understand Engineering and Robotic fundamentals with PCS Robotics Lab (PCSedu.com)

A new study by Purdue University has shed some light on how to most effectively engage students in technology and engineering at a young age.

The study took five classes of 8th graders in a rural Indiana school and taught them about human impacts on water and water quality through a traditional textbook and lecture method and then compared their comprehension of those subjects to another five classes of 8th graders from that school who learned about water quality through engineering design modules. The students in the latter group were asked to build a water purification device as a way of learning the concepts.

The researchers found that students who built the hands-on water purification system had “a deeper understanding” of the concepts than the students who had lecture-based lessons, especially in students for whom English was not their first language. Both groups—a total of 126 students—were tested before they took the lessons and after they completed the unit.

To read the entire article, please visit edweek.org

To view engaging hands-on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and Robotics products for your classroom, please visit PCSedu.com

Building on President Barack Obama’s Educate to Innovate campaign, The Motorola Foundation- the charitable arm of Motorola – said that it will increase its 2010 giving to U.S. science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education programs through its signature Innovation Generation grants program.

The Motorola Foundation’s Innovation Generation program will get a $7.5 million bump in funding to increase overall grants, employee volunteers and intra-grantee collaboration to boost American students’ engagement in STEM.

“We believe in the Innovation Generation – the pipeline of critical thinkers who will drive America’s competitiveness,” said Eileen Sweeney, director of the Motorola Foundation. “Through our expanded support to programs that make success in science and math both real and possible for young people across the country, we are empowering a new generation to develop solutions around our most pressing global issues.”

To read the entire article, please visit TheDailyTell

For additional grant information visit PCS Edventures Grant Page!

The Dash robot cockroach can be built cheaply in about an hour. It can scurry like a cockroach, climbing over obstacles and entering tight spaces inaccessible to humans. Courtesy of Fox News

Tech wizards at UC Berkeley’s Department of Electrical Engineering are developing mini-robots to help locate earthquake survivors easily, cheaply, and quickly … and without jeopardizing the lives of rescuers.

The robot is known as Dash. It’s made of cardboard, plastic, and parts of computers and bits of old toys, and it’s operated by remote control.

The goal of the project: to develop swarms of the cheap, diminutive robots that can hunt down the survivors of disasters such as the earthquake that’s laid waste to Haiti. The long-term goal is to equip Dash with heat sensors, a Wi-Fi wireless Internet connection and cameras, as well as the capability to relay the location of survivors back to the surface.

To read the entire article, please visit Fox News

Reporting from Washington – President Obama, delivering a schoolhouse pitch for a $1.35-billion expansion of his signature education plan, promised Tuesday to “raise the bar” on what is expected of public school teachers and students.

“Nothing will make as much of a difference as the way we educate our sons and daughters,” Obama said after meeting with children at an elementary school in Falls Church, Va. “The countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, and I refuse to let that happen on my watch.”

Under the administration’s Race to the Top program, states are competing for a share of $4.35 billion in federal funding aimed at spurring public schools to make student achievement the core of their programs. That potentially could include evaluating — and paying — teachers according to how well students perform.

To read the entire article, please visit Los Angeles Times