add outreach summer post

_posts/2024-9-10-operationsoutreach-update.markdown

@@ -5,11 +5,19 @@ date:   2024-9-10
 categories: outreachoperations
 ---
 
-This past spring, CSI’s Outreach team won the Robert D. Lilley Award for Socially Responsible Engineering. We were awarded for our work with our educational space science program that reached over 1,000 students in the past year. We are so honored to be recognized with this award and look forward to continuing our work in exposing STEM to middle schoolers across the city!
+This past spring, CSI’s Outreach team received the Robert D. Lilley Award for Socially Responsible Engineering at Columbia’s 2024 Leadership and Excellence Awards. This award is presided over by the Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia, and is given to engineering groups that focus on engineering projects in economically or socially disadvantaged areas, student research projects directed towards topics that relate to socially responsible engineering, and campus education efforts that focus on engineering ethics, among other things.
+<br><br>
+We were awarded for our work with our educational space science program that reached over 1,000 students in under-resourced middle schools in the past year. Some of our work includes model rocketry, a balloon-dropping activity, and a paper-airplane lesson. In our model rocket lessons, we teach students about aerodynamics and design considerations when making a rocket, then they build their own rockets with components manufactured by CSI volunteers. We then launch the rockets, which is always a fun and exciting activity for students and Outreach members. The balloon-drop activity includes Outreach members also volunteer as space science educators at a summer camp hosted by our partner, Sophie Gerson Healthy Youth. The summer camp programming includes all of the activities mentioned before, and we also provide the opportunity for students to learn about and view constellations and planets through CSI-provided telescopes. We are so honored to be recognized with this award and look forward to continuing our work in exposing STEM to middle schoolers across the city!
+<br><br>
+Read more about the award here: <a href= "https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/awards/honorees/2024">https://www.cc-seas.columbia.edu/awards/honorees/2024</a> 
 
 <p align="center">
 	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-10-1.jpg">
+	<div>
+    <figcaption class="text-center">
+      <b>Outreach team at the Columbia award ceremony.</b>
+    </figcaption>
+  </div>
 </p>
 
-
 -- Outreach Team

_posts/2024-9-11-operationsoutreach-update.markdown

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+---
+layout: post
+title:  "Summer Outreach at CSI!"
+date:   2024-9-11
+categories: outreachoperations
+---
+
+This August, CSI’s Outreach team conducted the Space Science Program at Sophie Gerson Healthy Youth’s yearly summer camp, where we ran rocket launches and observational astronomy sessions, taught students to fly drones and make simple electric circuits, hosted space-themed jeopardy, and challenged students to engineer in creative ways! Our six space science counselors set up and ran these activities for 140 middle school students over the course of the week-long camp. Some activities were familiar to the students, because Outreach had run them during Auditorium Programs at their schools. However, some were completely new—including the constellations circuits activity, which debuted at the camp this year to great success!
+<br><br>
+The circuits activity challenges students (and willing Camp Zeke Counselors!) to create a circuit using conductive copper tape and a coin battery to light up an LED. In preparation for this activity, CSI had ordered the materials necessary, but the night before the scheduled day of the activity, we realized we were missing a crucial piece—the 500 LED lights we ordered. After all space science counselors searched high and low, former Outreach directors Kate Lampo and Will Specht came up with a creative solution—to use decorative LED fairy lights from the nearest store (about 45 minutes away) instead. CSI counselors got to work splicing and twisting wires and melting off wiring insulation in order to make these fairy lights function into disconnected LEDs. After hours of work, we had created about 300 LEDS, which we were able to put to use during the activity. The joy of the students when they managed to put together a working circuit made the twists and turns of the preparation well worth it.
+<br>
+We can’t wait to see what camp has in store for us next year!
+
+<p align="center">
+	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-11-1.jpg">
+</p>
+
+<p align="center">
+	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-11-2.jpg">
+	<div>
+    <figcaption class="text-center">
+      <b>Students examining their parachute and cushion device to protect a water balloon in a 10 foot drop.</b>
+    </figcaption>
+  </div>
+</p>
+
+<p align="center">
+	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-11-3.jpg">
+	<div>
+    <figcaption class="text-center">
+      <b>Students gathered around to watch the Water Balloon Drop.</b>
+    </figcaption>
+  </div>
+</p>
+
+<p align="center">
+	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-11-4.jpg">
+	<div>
+    <figcaption class="text-center">
+      <b>A line of students preparing to launch their water rockets.</b>
+    </figcaption>
+  </div>
+</p>
+
+<p align="center">
+	<img src="/assets/media/img/outreach-operations/2024-9-11-5.jpg">
+	<div>
+    <figcaption class="text-center">
+      <b>Students playing “laser tag” with headlamps.</b>
+    </figcaption>
+  </div>
+</p>
+
+-- Outreach Team