Material Science and Engineering Club (Club CIM)

Our Material Science and Engineering Club consists of eighteen (18) schools, mainly from the west side of Puerto Rico.

SU Galo Rosado Laura Mercado Dr. Pedro Perea Fajardo Segundo Ruiz Belvis Luis Muñoz Rivera (Lajas) Luis Muñoz Rivera (Isabela)
Francisco Mendoza Manuel Méndez Liciaga Río Cañas Abajo Juan Suárez Pelegrina Eladio Tirado López José Gautier Benítez
Eugenio María de Hostos Juana Rosario Inés María Mendoza Ramón Rodríguez Díaz Pedro Nelson Colberg Upward Bound Ponce

Our Outreach program provides at least two (2) visits to each school per semester to demonstrate concepts related to material science and nanotechnology.

The provided material is presented through educational modules and interactive demonstrations, which content meets the established standards in science and engineering within the Puerto Rico public school system.

2015-2016 Activities

Viaje en Globos por el Mundo

This activity was held for twenty (20) Girl Scout Troops from around the island and the UPR Mayaguez Campus Boy Scouts. Our goal was to introduce elementary, middle, and high school students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In order to achieve this goal, a passport named “Nanomundo” was given to each participant which purpose was to visit the following interactive stations:

Magnets, Light Effects, Fast Enough, Find Difference, Polymers, Love & Hate, Chemical Reactions y Smart Materials

After attending each experiment a stamp would be placed in the passport. When completing all stations participants would have finished “traveling around the world” and receive a prize.

The second part of this activity consisted in the construction of a scientific module with balloons. A circuit of twenty (20) pieces was constructed by each troop in order to create a balloon module expressing “Love Nano”.

Open House

The Engineering Open House consists of meeting junior and senior students during three (3) hours. A facility tour is given as well as a brief orientation of the different Departments in this Faculty. The hallways and the adjacent areas of the building (Stefani) were filled with Student Associations with informative and demonstrative stations related to their Departments and projects, in order to appeal to the visitors interests and possible recruitment for the different summer camp programs.

Annual Material Science and Engineering Club Meeting, titled, “Nanofilters for the Removal of Emerging Contaminants in Water”.

Our annual Material Science and Engineering Club Meeting was held in the Rafael A. Mangual Coliseum within our Campus. This activity consisted in the construction of nanofilters, water molecules, and contaminant molecules with balloons. We sought to interest students on the alteration of the ecosystem with emerging contaminants while motivating them to pursue a college career in Science and Engineering.

CRB STEM – ANIA WEEK

As Guestos of Honor in the event that took place in the Rosa Bell School, we provided interactive NanoDays demonstrations. These experiments represented the areas of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). They are designed to influence conduct, motivation, capture the students attention/interests and provide them the opportunity to participate in experiments and problem solving activities.

RUMbo al Acceso

CREST and the Material Advantage (MaAd UPRM) student association participated in a community event hosted by the “Centro Universitario para el Acceso (CUA)”. Its sole objective was to encourage children and teens to pursue a college education by exposing them to different educational activities and programs. During this event, several lectures were offered within the areas of social work, special education, College Board, and workshops. CREST and MaAd presented interactive demonstrations integrating STEM.

NanoDays

NanoDays is an annual event that is celebrated nationwide and is coordinated through NISE Network (Nanoscale Informal Science Education). Our activity titled, “Viaje en Globos por el Nanomundo” took place in the Mayaguez Mall with interactive demonstrations and experiments designed to create public awareness, impacting all levels of education within the community through different efforts regarding science and nanotechnology. In this activity, our Center represented the University of Puerto Rico with the collaboration of the following student associations: Tau Beta Pi Puerto Rico Alpha, Society of Women Engineers (SWE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). We were honored with the presence Ms. Fernanda Ramos, Coordinator of the “EcoExploratorio” from the Science Museum of Puerto Rico.

Student Summer Camp and Teacher Investigation Program

Seven high school students and four middle and high school teachers participated in this years Summer Camp and Investigation Program with the help of several professors and students whom served as mentors. Throughout four weeks they participated in workshops, seminars, poster presentations, investigations, and nano demonstrations serving as an intellectual Winners of the poster presentations were: 1st place Cristina M. Crespo, 2nd place Amir Gómez, and 3rd place Jeremy J. Márquez.

Videos

For more information, please contact (787) 832-4040:

Name Office Extension Email
Dr. Agnes Padovani Co-Director, Education Program S-616 6318, 5811 agnes.padovani@upr.edu
Mrs. Sylvianne Y. Rosario Program Officer S-219 5811 sylvianne.rosario@upr.edu
Outreach crest2@uprm.edu

arm@CREST2016