Intro 1: Scientists and engineers have the coolest jobs!

• Introduces John, the Wild STEM Magic workshop, and what scientists and engineers do
• John works on the world's fastest supercomputers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• 2 minutes long (all module times approximate)
• Key concepts:
  • Scientists figure things out and tells others what they have learned
  • Engineers use what they have learned to fix, improve, or invent new things
  • Both do a lot of experiments but usually with different goals in mind
    • Scientists aim to learn more about something through experimentation
    • Engineers aim to learn more how to do something through experimentation

Science 1: Dot the escape artist

• Experiments with an amazing ladybug illustrate what scientists do
• 6 minutes, 3 assistants used
• Key concepts:
  • Scientists can and do study practically anything, including ladybugs
  • Unexpected results are exciting because they often lead to learning new things
  • Publishing just means telling other scientists and engineers what you learned
  • Future experiments are driven by current theories and burning questions

Demo 1: Challenging assumptions

• Three-card Monte demo shows how false assumptions can lead you repeatedly down the wrong path
• 7 minutes, 6 assistants used
• Key concepts:
  • Falsely assuming something is impossible makes it hard to detect that it is happening
  • Scientists and engineers are trained to challenge assumptions
  • Teams need folks with different backgrounds, worldviews, and skills

Engineering 1: Testing new switch tech

• Students help thoroughly test a prototype light switch technology that is found to work perfectly, even for impossible test cases
• 6 minutes, interaction with 9+ students
• Key concepts:
  • Engineers experiment on equipment to see if it is working correctly
    • This is significant portion of John's job working with LLNL's huge supercomputers
  • Have other engineers test once you think something is completely working
  • Testing edge cases and undefined behavior is important part of what engineers do

Engineering 2: Testing a time-flux capacitor

• Students help test a new technology that claims to slow the flow of time
• Amazing initial test results are found to not actually prove the claims
• 10 minutes, 3 assistants plus everyone repeats cool demo
• Key concepts:
  • Perfect measurements are not possible, error bars represent likely error magnitude
  • Changes in measurements have to be outside error bars to be significant
  • Must rule out known phenomena before claiming a new discovery

Exercise 1: Student-led science experiments

• Students design experiments, test conditions, and controls to test theories on how John always knows which card they selected
• 7-15 minutes, 6 (or all) assist (depending on time allocated)
• Key concepts:
  • Scientists investigate intriguing mysteries like this one
  • They design experiments to prove/disprove theories and answer questions
  • Scientists sometimes find tiny changes can signal big things
    • Engineers often work with scientists to design equipment to accurately measure these tiny changes
  • Isolating key variables is a good first step in discovering how something works

Exercise 2: Reverse engineering the cork trick

• Students attempt to reverse engineer the cork trick for three minutes
• The cork trick is then taught and the students may take home both corks
• 8-10 minutes, all students participate
• Key concepts:
  • Everyone constantly learns by reverse engineering existing approaches
    • Engineers actively investigate solutions made by others and those found in nature
  • Even vague descriptions can significantly accelerate solution discovery
    • Hints about setup and limitations can dramatically narrow search space
    • Sometimes new and better solutions are found when working from incomplete descriptions

Demo 2: Play can lead to innovation

• The value of play is illustrated with a "self-righting pyramid" trick that was made to actually work through clever engineering
• 4 minutes
• Key concepts:
  • Engineers playing with tech often leads to new skills and even inventions
    • The cork trick solution from exercise 2 could be used by robots to exchange items efficiently
  • Sometimes a good solution is found first and then matched to a problem needing solving

Science 2: The science of illusion

• An amazing hand-held 3D illusion is demonstrated and explained where the robot dog's head twists dramatically as the robot dog is rotated
• All students get an build-it-yourself kit for the illusion to take home
• 7 minutes, all students participate (would need an extra 15 minutes to build kits during workshop, plus scissors and tape for everyone)
• Key concepts:
  • Most illusions are a side effect of how your brain extensively processes sensory input
  • Your brain can fill in perception gaps incorrectly due to incorrect assumptions
    • Notice how your brain patches up the discrepancy between the head's and body's movement
    • Illusionists and sleight-of-hand artists use this extensively to make impossible things appear to happen right in front of you
  • For other key concepts, see the Demo 3: Gorilla head illusion module
    • Demo 3 often combined with Science 2 into a bigger module

Demo 4: Vanishing an elephant

• A cleverly-designed comic combined with a neat geometric illusion is demonstrated
• All students get an cut-it-out-yourself kit for the illusion to take home
• 2 minutes (would need an extra 5 minutes to cut out kits during workshop, plus scissors and paperclips/envelopes for everyone)
• Key concepts:
  • There are many fun geometric illusions that do the unexpected
  • Several magic tricks John performs uses geometric illusions

Science 3: The importance of calibration

• John's head appears to shrink and an assistant's head appears to grow, after John temporarily miscalibrates specific motion sensors in the brain
• 5 minutes, 1 assistant and all participate
• Key concepts:
  • Using uncalibrated equipment can lead to incorrect measurements
  • Using calibrated equipment in situations it was not designed for can also lead to incorrect measurements
  • Aristotle wrote about the "waterfall" illusion, which this illusion is based, over 2300 years ago
    • Scientists studying the brain have learned much from performing experiments based on this illusion, as discussed in this Scientific American article

Wrap up 1: Consider being a scientist or engineer

• A magical demonstration of why the world need more scientists and engineers
• 4 minutes, everyone takes home an extraordinary gift (a million dollar bill)
• Key concepts:
  • Scientists and engineers turn the ordinary into the extraordinary
  • The more scientists and engineers with different skills, backgrounds, worldviews, strength and weaknesses working together, the more that can be accomplished
    • One of many reasons why students should consider being a scientist or engineer

Questions 1: Ask an engineer and scientist

• Students and teachers can ask John questions about working on the world's fastest supercomputers at LLNL, becoming an engineer and scientist, or any other burning questions the workshop raised
  • Although John cannot reveal how any of the magic was done, reverse engineering it is always encouraged
  • Sierra, the second-fastest supercomputer in the world (in 2019), is made up of over 240 racks of equipment similar in size to the two racks John is standing next to in the photo at the right
• 2-10 minutes (depending on time budget), students ask questions

 

Additional Wild STEM Magic workshop example modules

These additional Wild STEM Magic modules are also available when creating workshops (as well as many other modules developed after Feb 2019 but not shown below).

Demo 3: Gorilla head illusion

• An intriguing illusion is demonstrated and explained where a floating gorilla head appears to turn dramatically as the viewer changes position
• 4 minutes, all students move around room for 1 minute to view from different perspectives
• Key concepts:
  • Although it appears to be a high-tech hologram, it is actually a low-tech hollow-face illusion
  • Without careful lighting, shading and shadow cues expose the actual unexpected configuration
  • The illusion is often weaker when the gorilla head is turned upside down
    • The strong bias of seeing faces as convex may not occur
    • However, if you can convince your brain that it is convex, the illusion returns
  • For other key concepts, see the Science 2: The science of illusion module
    • Demo 3 often combined with Science 2 into a bigger module

Engineering 3: Testing an entropy pump

• Students help test a small self-cleaning house prototype, an entropy pump that operates on deck of cards
• Testing the functioning prototype shows that more work is needed before building a full-sized self-cleaning house
• 6 minutes, 2 assistants
• Key concepts:
  • Small prototypes are used to test technology when building the full-sized version is too expensive or potentially dangerous
  • Refrigerators and air conditioners pump heat out out of a space to make the inside colder
    • This prototype attempts to pump chaos out of a space to make it cleaner and more organized
  • Random tests and having multiple testers important so you don't only test what you know works
  • Investigating anomalies important when testing anything, especially early prototypes