OSEF@Home Challenge
Keep up your STEM Learning while we flatten the curve!
New challenges every week leading up to our virtual Science & Engineering Fair.
Shout to everyone who participated in this years OSEF@Home Challenges!
Check out the Challenges & Work Submitted!
WEEK 1 - APRIL 20-26
EARTH DAY IS EVERYDAY
CHALLENGES
TRANSFORMED TRASH
#oseftransformedtrash
Conduct a waste audit to calculate and categorize your trash. For trash items, list out ways these could be eliminated. Save an item that you were planning to throw away and think through the 7Rs. Repurpose the item by transforming it into something useful.
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
GROWING GROCERIES
#osefgrowinggroceries
Start growing your own food! Save seeds or a scrap from a fruit or vegetable you eat and try planting it....experiment to see what grows! Victory gardens are making a comeback and we can all be a part of the movement.
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
DATA DISCOVERY
#osefdatadiscovery
What data can you collect about the world right outside your home? How can you visualize that data to share with others? For this week’s theme: Earth Day is Every Day you may want to try out:
Use the Earth Challenge 2020 app to collect data about your air quality and plastic pollution.
Participate in the City Nature Challenge by finding and taking pictures of wildlife near your home.
STUDENT WORK
TRANSFORMED TRASH
Violet, 4th Grader @ Glenview, built a planter out of an old coffee can.
GROWING GROCERIES
Eric, 3rd Grader from Hoover, started growing a new scallion from leftover scraps.
WEEK 2 - APRIL 27-May 3
HEALTH FOR ALL!
CHALLENGES
COMBAT COVID-19
#osefcombatcovid
Scientists and public health experts are working hard to find solutions to contain the spread of the coronavirus. What other solutions can you think of to help stop the spread of the virus, treat the sick and support the community? A more effective mask or face covering? A tool to help the most vulnerable? A way to make life easier for everyone sheltering in place? If you're 13 and older you can join the international competition to design a solution with Hack Quarantine or Combating COVID-19.
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
BUILD-A-BODY
#osefbuildabody
Forget about Build-a-Bear, this is Build-a-body! Create a model of a body part that effectively models its structure and function. Take it a step further and use your model to show how an infection or disease affects that part of the body.
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
DATA DISCOVERY
#osefdatadiscovery
What data can you collect about the world right outside your home? How can you visualize that data to share with others?
For this week’s theme: Health for All you may want to participate in one of these community science projects:
Participate in Colony B, a game designed to help unravel the secrets of microscopic life, specifically the microbes of the human gut!
Help researchers look at cells or bacterial growth to fight disease. Participate in Science Scribbler or Bash the Bug.
STUDENT WORK
COMBAT COVID-19
Students from Bridges and Redwood Heights show off their homemade masks!
BUILD-A-BODY
Violet from Glenview and Eric from Hoover created models.
BUILD-A-BODY
Lexington, 3rd Grader @ Montclair teaches us about the lungs and what happens during Covid-19.
BUILD-A-BODY
Max and Riley from Sequoia show us the lungs work and what happens to the lungs of someone with Covid-19.
COMBAT-COVID 19
OUSD’s Youth Beat Students Create Music Video With Simple But Powerful Message for Protecting Oneself from COVID-19. It was a large crew that put the video together, and importantly, they all worked separately. The singer is Vince Vo from Oakland High School, and the director is Danielle Thompson, a graduate of MetWest High School. The producers are Aiden Thornton from Oakland Technical High School and Maddy Dittmer from Skyline High School. Jinkang Fang from Oakland High served as assistant director and the videographers are Chuyi Fang from Oakland High, Serina Grinage (a recent graduate from Oakland Tech), and James Palacios and Jared Medina from Skyline. The assistant editor was Olin Pritchard from Oakland Tech.
WEEK 3 - May 4-10
INVENTMANIA!
CHALLENGES
TAKE IT APART
#oseftakeitapart
Do some reverse engineering and take something apart! Reverse engineering is a process that examines an existing product to determine detailed information and specifications in order to learn how it was made and how it works. Carefully take something apart and figure out all its parts, processes and complexities!
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
COMPLEX CONTRAPTION
#osefcomplexcontraption
Design a complex contraction or Rube Goldberg Machine (RGM). A RGM is a machine that solves a simple task in the most overcomplicated, inefficient and hilarious way possible.
Click through the images for ideas & inspiration!
DATA DISCOVERY
#osefdatadiscovery
Great ideas for inventions can come from collecting data. What data can you collect about inside or right outside your home? How can you visualize the data? Maybe you're curious about... How much energy is my family using? or What are all the things I have in my house? or What plants are within .5 miles of my home? or What are all the noises I can hear from my window?
The possibilities are endless! Just come up with a question you're curious about and start collecting data to answer it!
You can also check out scistarter.org or zooinverse.org to be part of a community science project.
STUDENT WORK
TAKE IT APART
Students from Bridges, Montclair and Redwood Heights take things apart to explore structure and function of everyday objects.
DATA DISCOVERY
Students from Bridges, Oakland Tech and Sequoia use data to make new discoveries!