Science Expo Ideas

BFMS Gets Students to Think Early about Future Careers

Eighth-graders at Benjamin Franklin Middle School participated in a career expo on Monday designed to help them identify their personal strengths and interests in order to begin to think about possible careers in the future.

Students learned about various college majors – specifically those in science, technology, engineering and math – and about skills that employers find attractive.

A dozen professionals from the community also were present for the two-hour event and led small groups to discuss their careers and answer any questions the students had.

The panel of professionals featured many BFMS alumni in careers that included a retail manager, dentist, veterinarian, surgeon, TV journalist, aerospace engineer, nutritional educator, sports agent, marketing manager, data-forensic consultant, pilot and entrepreneur.

BFMS guidance counselor Eve Klein spearheaded this year’s event.

“I want students to see the relationship in what they’re currently doing in school and what their future can look like,” Klein said. “I also want students to get a sense of what the top-earning careers are and how the STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) occupations fit into that.”

Pilot Jelani Kelley told the students that he started to get curious about aviation at their age and was reading aviation regulations and private pilot manuals during study labs.

“The sooner your interests peak, the sooner you can start to develop the skill sets required for whatever it is you want to do,” he said.

Veterinarian Antoinette Bush, who also teaches science at Thomas Jefferson Middle School , said the day was special to her because she attended a BFMS career fair when she was younger, and there was a veterinarian who spoke to the students.

“I noticed when I was 11 that I wanted to become a veterinarian,” Bush said. “I never changed my mind.”

Phil Herman is a manager of marketing projects for a pharmaceutical and biotech industry in Hackensack. He told the students that his current career diverts from what he actually studied for in college.

“You’re not necessarily always going to know the exact path you’re going to take,” he said. “The most important thing that you can do is to make sure that whatever you do you work hard at it, you believe in yourself, you have confidence in yourself and you rely on yourself as you move toward new goals in your future.

Chinese robot chefs - Science Fair Projects

At the Wishdoing Restaurant in China ages of science experiments have finally paid off. The restaurant is the first in China to employ or shall we say deploy two Robot Chefs. These robots can cook eight well-liked Chinese dishes such as spicy diced chicken with peanuts and Mapo Tofu, bean curd with chili sauce and Kung Pao Chicken.

What’s more the robot chefs will not have you waiting for long as they can cook a dish in three minutes flat. Talk about fast food. The restaurant workers need to push buttons to feed the name of the dish, the ingredients needs and the quantity and step back. The robot chef will then take over and cook the dish in record time.

It takes less than three minutes to clean the previous dish mess and restart work on the next dish. Talk about good time management. The robot chefs were showcased at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 at the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion. They were a major success with the crowd.

The efficiency of the robot chefs at the restaurant have seen the parent company Shanghai Qi Ding Food Development decide to use the robot chefs at its 100 plus restaurants all over China. Officials feel that since they assure low emissions of carbon, food hygiene, and standard tastes at all branches, they will be the trend in the future fast food segment. Want a new science projec t idea? Build a robot that can cook a burger.

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