Four Corners Science and Computing Club graphic courtesy of Duane Koyewana Arts.
While pursuing a master’s degree, I also work with ITEP and PMI at NAU. We introduce Native American communities to scientific computing. We do this with schemes from the Four Corners Science and Computing Club (4CSCC), explore their website to view our latest projects. Part of working with 4CSCC involves environmental education outreach, often presenting curriculum we have built. Please take a moment to explore the 4CSCC Lab Manual, these lessons thoroughly build upon one another.
Recent projects involve creating environmental sensors, for example, we had programmed an air quality sensor that interacts with an RGB-LED bulb to indicated VOC levels. Another project involves creating a weather station, our goal is to have this project ready for K-12 Native American schools on the Navajo Nation. These projects are to provide students with an introduction to the world of STEM/STEAM.
Our tools consist of working in a UNIX environment, coding with the Python 3 language, all while using a Raspberry Pi 400, a very handy device. The Raspberry Pi 400 OS environment is like UNIX. A great introduction to UNIX can be found here. With the Raspberry Pi 400s, we will manipulate environmental sensors to interact with surrounding physical factors. We can monitor volatile organic compounds and particulate matter in a matter of minutes.
| Here are examples of scientific computing in action: |
| The 4CSCC GitHub webpage, GitHub allows software developers to share projects. |
| The Raspberry Pi Foundation has one example of building a weather station. Another is the Raspberry Pi Pico W, this microcontroller is useful for capturing data for the cloud (the Internet of Things). |
| Most supplies we will be using comes from SparkFun, a great resource for hardware, tutorials, and forums. |
Click here to see photos of our projects.
One response to “Four Corners Science and Computing Club”
This is an outstanding project that I can’t wait for our students on the Navajo Nation to explore. This is an excellent opportunity and resource for our children to explore STEM/STEAM opportunities. Thank you for sharing.