https://www.flatheadstem.org/aboutus daily 0.75 2024-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1589591241080-XD6W8F1BODDS58WOQBAF/RR+Photo.jpg About Us - Main Thrusts: - Provide teacher and student training and classroom resources to allow school classes to engage in the actual use of the laws of physics, mathematics, the logical process of hands-on development and testing, and other STEM concepts that are appropriate for each grade level. - Provide classroom guest speakers who are engineers and scientists who can speak directly to students about their field(s), experiences, and how what the students are now studying is used in the real world. They also provide guidance on what subjects are important to learn if they wish to pursue a similar technical career path. - Provide school and community STEM outreach through demonstrations and lectures, fixed and mobile displays and exhibits, and multimedia presentations at schools, summer camps, and community events. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1580685318555-4R4SUHIKUG4XRPB1GHQF/blob About Us https://www.flatheadstem.org/donate-1 daily 0.75 2020-05-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1582500484248-DGYXX4LZZLOC79D1ETYT/image-asset.jpeg Donate https://www.flatheadstem.org/volunteer-2 daily 0.75 2024-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1583624948396-OVTB42LEXB1L5BBP4BEI/image-asset.jpeg Volunteer https://www.flatheadstem.org/home-impact daily 0.75 2025-05-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59dbc7c2cf81e0c47e15482d/1509981664066-URCHCKEDU0YDAYBKHSES/_50A4133.jpg Home - Our Mission Here is a description of your mission and goals. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce mattis turpis vel ex semper, feugiat tincidunt quam mollis. Etiam malesuada molestie lacinia. Donec neque lectus, ornare ac massa vitae, faucibus vestibulum. Learn More https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59dbc7c2cf81e0c47e15482d/1509981485774-SEFF87258WRO7RY3PZKE/_50A4240.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59dbc7c2cf81e0c47e15482d/1507822063979-U1YX8PJ2ZSJAT18D20I1/Untitled-3.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59dbc7c2cf81e0c47e15482d/1507745414569-G3QA4OL0JYWH8688QFOD/Untitled-2.jpg Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/59dbc7c2cf81e0c47e15482d/1508275125376-JS5UW5HKEMC9UK5ZOE9H/Untitled-7.jpg Home - Our Partners Here is a description of your partners. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce mattis turpis vel ex semper. Learn More https://www.flatheadstem.org/blog-impact daily 0.75 2025-05-08 https://www.flatheadstem.org/blog-impact/example-blog-post-1-whgeb monthly 0.5 2017-11-09 https://www.flatheadstem.org/blog-impact/example-blog-post-2-dkc8a monthly 0.5 2017-11-09 https://www.flatheadstem.org/introduction daily 0.75 2019-12-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1577489505680-ABYO77PTK43DW68P3Y3J/image.jpg Introduction https://www.flatheadstem.org/sponsors daily 0.75 2024-11-26 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1580521515653-ONIVLWY2FXU3C120ZTE0/image.jpg Sponsors - Sponsors EINSTEIN SPONSOR Two Bear Capital Society For Science PLATINUM SPONSORS: Applied Materials Foundation Glacier Bank Albertson’s Foundation GOLD SPONSORS: Trail West Bank Stockman Bank 1st Montana Bank Chick-fil-A Flathead Electric Co-operative Rural Technologies Foundation Staples Home Depot NAPA Auto Parts Western Building Center SILVER SPONSORS Pacific Steel 3 Rivers Bank BRONZE SPONSORS: Please contact us if you wish to become a corporate sponsor. https://www.flatheadstem.org/home daily 1.0 2023-09-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1577502086324-8T4JNW5I3OJQFMDUG64N/image-asset.jpeg Home - OUR MISSION: To bring STEM studies to life in Flathead Valley Schools We give students the tools to become future innovators in the fields of engineering, science, technology, and math. https://www.flatheadstem.org/news daily 0.75 2025-06-30 https://www.flatheadstem.org/impact daily 0.75 2024-07-19 https://www.flatheadstem.org/programs daily 0.75 2024-07-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1583550418273-4ILE7UY4801SBO5EWIC1/photo-1509062522246-3755977927d7.jpg Programs - Guest STEM Class Speakers Students are given lots of math and science information, but it is unfortunately academic without much, if any, association on why it is important and how it is used in the real world. We provide the opportunity for students to hear from local current and retired engineers and scientists how what they learn is used in the real world along with a description of relevant career opportunities. Presentations are tailored to the audience grade(s) which are usually 6 - 12. At the higher grades, a discussion of what sort of high school and college courses they should expect to take to obtain a degree in the discussed fields. Our current speaker pool includes a retired software and rocket engineer from Raytheon Missile Systems and Honeywell Space Systems, a retired engineering physicist from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Founder of Synergy Aircraft, a meteorologist with The Weather Channel, a chemical engineer with Applied Materials, and a freelance software developer. The students are extremely engaged with the insight into the world of real science and engineering provided by the videos, photos, and stories the guest speakers present. Timing of the class visits are usually correlated with when the students are studying and/or engaged in lab activities in the presented fields. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1618186218938-WAUJ2H558ODMV6IKTR1H/E+%26+M+Kit.gif Programs - STEM Teaching Resource Library We have spoken with multiple school boards, school administrations, and science teachers. The common theme is, STEM is important, but it is just too expensive for limited rural school budgets. Why should each school have to individually pay for the same STEM lab equipment and other resources, just to use it 1- 3 weeks at a time, then it sits on the shelf the rest of the school year? Why can’t there be a facility that has this equipment so the schools can just check out the equipment, for free, when they need it? The STEM Resource Library will provide these critical resources to schools on a scheduled basis. Students can then work individually or in teams performing experiments and projects to bring their studies to life. This is where we see STEM for Flathead Valley Schools bridging the school capabilities gap and allowing the schools to meet the Montana STEM education standards! Students from rural schools would now have education on par with the students from more affluent districts. Schools with less funding will have as much access to the STEM hands on experiments as schools with larger budgets. We currently provide experimentation kits in the areas of Electricity & Magnetism, Electronic Circuits, Physics of Forces and Motion and Mechanics, Light and optics, and Physics of Flight, and Rocket Design and Flight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1618188803648-X6MP5KZ00B94QOKXP3KH/VDG+%26+Rubin%27s+Tube.gif Programs - STEM School Demonstrations, Lectures, and Labs Photo by monkeybusinessimages/iStock / Getty Images https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1583721341449-OLCCMR7ZOH7BXVWQH041/Presentation1.gif Programs Stomp Rockets Stomp rockets are paper rockets launched by air pressure. The air pressure is derived from stomping on a 2 liter soda bottle connected to a 1/2” PVC pipe. The rocket is set on the other end of the PVC pipe and shoots into the air when the soda bottle is stomped on. Stomp rockets are an excellent introduction into the physics of rocket design and flight. They are easy to build and can quickly be launched. But if attention is not paid to the key design dynamics of rocket fundamentals, they will not fly efficiently. The slower nature of the launch make it very easy to diagnose design issues that adversely affect its flight. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1583722053764-J4SMJY3EXYYPMLFMEEM3/Presentation3.gif Programs - Support To Other Organizations Power Your Future (PYH) The PYH program is managed by the Flathead STEAM Alliance, but we support it by running one of the engineering career modules called Rockets and Aerospace Engineering. The PYH program takes middle school girls from schools all over NW Montana and brings them together at the Flathead Valley Community College for a full day of experiencing different STEM career fields. Each girl attends 4 different workshops. Our President, Alison Godfrey has been supporting this program since annually since 2015. Each of her workshops has 4 pairs of girls (our rocket engineers) design, build, and launch water bottle rockets. Another team of two build the launch pad (our ground support engineers), and a final team of two (our system engineers) fabricate the altitude finders to determine the apogee height for the launched rockets. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1618195746287-FH26W2WHF23NSJHTYERR/Rocket+Camp.gif Programs Spring and Summer Camps We support local spring and summer camps for grades 3 and beyond with STEM demonstration and hands-on labs to show how science is important and can be fun. Camps we have supported include Camp Ironhorse, Kalispell Parks and Recreation summer and spring programs, West Valley School summer rocket camps, as well as local scout troops. Programs include fun learning and building activities such as those that teaches kids about the science of flight and rockets. For this activity the participants build hoop gliders, paper airplanes, pop rockets, stomp rockets, and water bottle rockets. Competitions are held in each category to see whose design flew the farthest or highest. We also have other activities including electricity and magnetism, states of matter, and pretty much any of the other physics activities and demonstrations we bring into the schools can be done with these other organizations, given the proper environment (inside/outside depending on the activity). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1583721712987-93D10X4CJDTKEZF4S8JE/Presentation2.gif Programs Pop Rockets Pop Rockets are safe Alka-Seltzer based rockets that are excellent teaching tools for the younger grades. An empty film cannister is filled with a tablespoon of water and 1/4 Alka-Seltzer tablet. The film cannister lid is then put on the cannister and the resulting CO2 gas pressure from the fizzing tablet builds up until the lid pops off and the cannister body (the rocket) flies into the air. Flights over 20’ are easily possible. Cannisters that have no rocket body taped to them fly unstably and quickly begin tumbling. But when a rocket body with fins are added, they ar extremely stable and fly quite high with a very loud “pop” that the students love. While the specific moment of launch is unpredictable since it all depends upon the moment the gas pressure exceeds the lid’s holding capability, control of the general time to launch is possible and forms the basis of additional STEM study beyond just the laws of motion and rocket aerodynamics. When water is added, the citric acid and bicarbonate of soda in the Alka-Seltzer tablet react to rapidly form CO2 gas. Experiments can be made exploring rates of chemical reactions. Hold the tablet and water amounts constant and varying the water temperature will change the rate of CO2 gas formation and the time it takes for the rocket to launch. Similarly, you can hold the water amount and temperature constant and vary the amount of Alka-Seltzer to determine the optimum amount for the best performance, or you can vary the amount of water and hold the amount of Alka- Seltzer constant. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1582508407131-JLTP5CXV2SMKRPL78LEW/FVRR+Welcome.gif Programs - Flathead Valley Rocket Rally The Flathead Valley Rocket Rally is dedicated to the promotion of science and engineering to 8th grade students by applying the knowledge they have learned in class. It has seen incredible expansion since 2016 and continues to expand each year as more schools ask to join. During the months prior to the Rally, which is held in late May each year, the students learn about the physics behind flight and rockets while experimenting in various designs and making improvements in designs based upon flight tests. All of this is in preparation for the Rally where participating schools send teams of 2 - 4 students (depending on class size) to compete for awards in 5 judged categories. We hope the 2025 Rocket Rally will include 13 schools and over 70 teams. The objectives of this program are: - Explore the Science, Engineering, and Technology of Rockets and flight - The program shows real world use of those science and engineering principles students learn in class such as the laws of motion, stability, aerodynamics, and thrust - Explains the many types of engineers and scientists that work together to make rockets - Learn the Engineering Process through the design, build, and test/launch of Rockets - Learn to work together as a team - Experience the challenges of rockets by testing, fixing failures and successful redesign https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5de9b580472d381da3de9430/1618184652002-J738BHGA1H0YC7Y7PJCA/Surfers.gif Programs - Grades 3 - 8 Physics of Flight and Rocket Design and Flight Testing In addition to the water bottle rockets the 8th grade students build and test, we offer other experimental activities for other grades that allow them to begin learning about flight and rockets. These programs have been our #1 hit among the students. We start off with paper airplanes and wave gliders for them to understand the basics of flight such as lift and drag. Then, depending upon the grade level, we progress on to Pop and/or Stomp rockets. Walk Along Surf Gliders Walk along surf gliders are great educational fun. By pushing a wave of air behind the glider, they are able to control the glider’s flight. They can speed up, slow down, turn, and control landing. All of this is easily comprehended by the students as controlling the essential elements of flight by controlling the airflow around the glider. The gliders are made from very thin foam with a small clip of metal on the nose that can be adjusted to control the center of pressure of the airfoil. https://www.flatheadstem.org/contact daily 0.75 2020-03-09