New Year! New Collaborations! Scibridge hopes to collaborate with Shaw University Students more in 2017.

​December of last year, NC State students of Scibridge collaborated with the Shaw University students in an opportunity to perform a trial run on the experiment kits and gain feedback from students with diverse technical backgrounds in order to create a better lesson plan, and open the dialog for future collaborations.  Scibridge is currently working on building an experimental kit based in thermoelectrics.  Thermoelectric devices generate a voltage due to a temperature differential on opposite sides of the material. This goes hand-in-hands with Scibridge’s goal of making experimental kits based in Materials science, energy, and sustainability. This kit will make use of a Thermoelectric Peltier Plate.
 
The Shaw University students proved to be an excellent test case for the draft lesson plan and provided great insight. Alex Hsain, Scibridge experiments coordinator, expressed that the “Shaw University students were excited to learn and dive into experiments.” Alex also expressed how the “valuable feedback” the Shaw University students provided on “areas of the lesson plan that needed clarification [and] questions that needed adjustment,” would prove instrumental in improving on the TEG (thermoelectric generator) kit as well as future kits. Areas such as the length of the lesson plans as well as the clarity of the instructions will need to be reevaluated before sending the finished product across the globe.
 
Scibridge hopes to pair up with interested Shaw University students in the future.  When asked about the potential collaboration, Scibridge member Chris Boggs expressed great excitement. “Yes!  Even if it is just for building a better lesson plan,” exclaimed Chris, “They could even be involved in webinars about the materials they have been learning!”
 
The experimental kit and lesson plan is not complete yet, but Scibridge plans to ship the kits to some of our partner East African Universities in June 2017.  As we continue to walk through the year, future collaborations with Shaw University students will be instrumental in the finished product of the TEG kit and future kits to come.