By Mike Greife,
February 25, 2016
WARRENSBURG, MO – More than 30 student Internet of Things projects that use data to
solve real-world problems will be featured Internet of Things Student Innovation Challenge
Demo Day Thursday, March 3, on the second floor of Think Big, 1712 Main St., Kansas
City, Mo.
Area middle and high school students working in teams have created solutions to problems
they identified in their schools, neighborhood or communities. The middle school team
demonstrations are planned for 9:30-11 a.m., and high school team demonstrations are
planned for noon to 1:30 p.m.
Student projects will be judged by local professionals based on the criteria of creativity-innovation
impact, public good-social/environmental impact, and economic benefit-financial impact.
The University of Central Missouri joined forces with three Kansas City area education
partners to coordinate the launch and deployment of the SensED “Internet of Things”
STEM Education Program.
UCM and Thing Big Foundation, Cisco Systems Inc., and Summit Technology Academy in
Lee’s Summit developed and initiated the program as a pilot to share IoT know-how
with middle school, high school and college students in the fall of the 2015-16 academic
year. This Demo Day is just the initial phase of the program.
The SensED IoT programprovides Internet of Things recipes to educators and students
so they can learn about the underlying technologies and applications and gain a critical
understanding of this new technology. Embedded in the program are key learning opportunities
to ignite critical thinking and build digital literacies, including:
- What are sensors and embedded computers?
- Basic Electronics
- How to program connected devices
- Using GitHub
- How to connect devices to the Internet
- Characteristics of real-world sensor data
- How data accumulates over time
- How to share data with other people
- Where standards are needed
- Considerations for security and privacy
“UCM is excited to be one of the leading organizations in this area with regard to
IoT,” said Joe Mullins, consultant with Workforce and Professional Development at
UCM-Lee’s Summit. “This Student Innovation Challenge Demo Day is just our first step
in helping to build curriculum in this space.”
“With the SensED program, we’re building tomorrow’s experts in emerging technologies
and social innovation,” said Kari Keefe, executive director of the Think Big Foundation.
“I strongly believe early literacy is critical so ensuring that students not only
understand how technology works, but also see the personal and social impact of their
experience. This program can do just that.”
For more information about Internet of Things Student Innovation Challenge Demo Day,
contact Mullins at UCM-Lee’s Summit at jmullins@ucmo.edu, 816-347-1612.
