{"id":4111,"date":"2022-12-14T11:33:53","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T16:33:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/?p=4111"},"modified":"2024-10-31T10:15:29","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T14:15:29","slug":"november-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/november-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"SMILE Blog November 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our SMILE students from West Warwick High School were fortunate enough to spend a beautiful day at the Norman Bird Sanctuary and Sachuest Point Wildlife Refuge. Norman Bird Sanctuary\u00a0is a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary and an environmental education center with more than 300 acres of diverse habitats and 7 miles of well-maintained hiking trails with a diversity of plants. There is a variety of wildlife, including local and migratory birds, depending on the season. Sachuest Point Wildlife Refuge is one of five national wildlife refuges in Rhode Island. The land totals 42 acres that provide a resting point for migrating birds. The students were able to explore, bird watch, and learn the importance of protecting diverse habitats and wildlife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SMILE Executive\u00a0Director Carol Englander visited the South Kingstown High School SMILE club led by SKHS teachers Mike Lobdell (science) and Reed Fraser (math).\u00a0 The students were having a first-quarter report card celebration and enjoying special snacks.\u00a0 Afterwards, the students started making a small electronic bristlebot robot. It detects strong light using light sensors which send current to motors that make it move.\u00a0 Connections are through a breadboard.\u00a0 Quite a hands-on challenge!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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New SMILE Grants for 2022-2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

American Association of University Women (AAUW)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SMILE is pleased to report that we have received a Community Action Grant from the American Association of University Women (AAUW)<\/strong>.  This grant (the first we have received from AAUW), entitled \u201cPropelling Girls Futures in STEM, The SMILE Program\u201d will help fund SMILE at the elementary, middle and high school levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women have historically been the minority in the STEM workplace.\u00a0 Currently, about 61% of SMILE participants are girls and, with the assistance provided by this grant, we are working to increase the number of girls who will graduate from Rhode Island high schools well-prepared to enter college and pursue STEM careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ocean State Charities Trust<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SMILE Program is very happy to announce that we have been awarded a grant from Ocean State Charities Trust<\/strong> entitled \u201cSMILE\u2019S STEM in Action Annual Events 2023\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This grant provides funding for the Middle School Engineering Challenge scheduled for March 31 and the Elementary Outdoor Science Adventure on April 28. Both events are held at URI, and mentors from URI faculty, students, and industry help to make these wonderful on-campus events even more meaningful. Students work in mixed teams assembled from different schools, learning valuable collaboration and teamwork skills. They eat in the URI dining halls and interact with a diversity of students from around the world. The message is clear to these SMILE students that they too can be a future URI student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nordson Foundation <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SMILE Program is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a grant from The Nordson Foundation <\/strong>entitled “Propelling the Future of an Equitable STEM Generation\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s SMILE curriculum will expose students and teachers to various engineering fields and new STEM experiences, making connections between STEM and its use in everyday life.\u00a0 Associated activities include career-oriented field trips, teachers\u2019 professional development, and annual events. The 2022-23 SMILE program will teach the youth of today, and the future workforce of tomorrow, the value of science literacy and STEM skills in the modern world. The goals of this project are to increase the knowledge and interest in STEM amongst minority, BIPOC and educationally disadvantaged students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our SMILE students from West Warwick High School were fortunate enough to spend a beautiful day at the Norman Bird Sanctuary and Sachuest Point Wildlife Refuge. Norman Bird Sanctuary\u00a0is a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary and an environmental education center with more than 300 acres of diverse habitats and 7 miles of well-maintained hiking trails with a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4722,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4722"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4111"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4816,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4111\/revisions\/4816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/smile\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}