Entanglement, Information, Uncertainty, and Poker
Today in Atomic Farming at Mezzacello Urban Farm, my MenTern, Grady co-taught a section on Quantum Entanglement through a card game called, “Indian Poker”. In this game, each players “wears” a card on their forehead and has to guess what their card is. In the quantum world this is entanglement and decoherence. When you know one piece of data, you can INSTANTLY collapse all fields and know everything. This is how human consciousness, chicken eyes, and quantum computers work.
Emerging Products at Mezzacello.org
Mezzacello Urban Farm is committed to sustainability and organic solutions to food and resources. Each year we design, build, test and modify a fertilizer product line to share our wealth. Last summer we created “Fintastic Fertilizer” a emulsion of algae, fish waste, gypsum, and comfrey tea. The summer camp kids tested and modified the product and designed the marketing.
Biomimicry and BioEngineering
The door to the biodome has been plaguing me. But my 10-year-old bioengineering intern came up with an ingenious design based on a dick’s wing.
BioEngineering Summer Camp 2023 Guest Blogs
These are two guest blogs written by middle school brothers for my last bioengineering summer camp. Their drawings!
Design Challenge: Build a Covalent Atom
In this design challenge, students must understand valence shields, atoms and covalent bonds to show phases of matter.
Design Challenge: Birds vs Mammals vs Insects vs Bacteria
In this design challenge we will .look at four unique life forms on an urban farm. What do they have in common, how are they different? What do they need?
Design Challenge: Interview for Your Future Job
In this design challenge we will play a word association game to create a road map for a future career.
Design Challenge: Build a Gate
in this design challenge: build a gate we discovery all the design constraints for proper fences and gates to keep animals safe.
BioRenewables Lesson Plans
BioEngineering Camp 2023 five day lesson plans with lesson, activity, challenge and presentation data. For teacher use at Mezzacello
Design Challenge: Reframe a Problem
In this design challenge we pretend to be encountering an elephant blind. How does the way we look at a problem change us?
Design Challenge: Mastering Fear
In this design challenge we explore the intersections of time, biology, emotion, and courage by creating an emotion hourglass.
Design Challenge: Duct Tape Trivia
In this duct tape design challenge, students must resaerch and create a solution using duct tape and data. No ducks harmed!
Design Challenge: DIY Chicken Feeder & Waterer
Students must find a way to combine three simple items to create an efficient way to feed and water animals.
Design Challenge: Lewis Structure Spelling Bee
In this design challenge, we introduce atomic symbols, quantities, and bonds in physics, chemistry, and biology.
Design Challenge: The Alcohol Family
This design challenge explores the alcohol molecules and the basics of the Lewis Structures. Using magnets and steel rods.
Design Challenge: Why Do Animals Panic?
In this Design Challenge we learn what motivates common farmyard animals and how we can better treat them.
Design Challenge: The Large And The Small
This Design Challenge we explore how scale affects the way life, light, and reality interact. We sort the scales here.
Design Challenge: Build a Stomach
In this Design Challenge we will explore how living animals digest food and create energy and wastes by creating a stomach.
Design Challenge: Build an Animal Tractor
In this design challenge we ask students to build a system to keep animals safe and healthy. With many options.
Design Challenge: Six Simple Machines
In this Design Challenge we create a game of reducing objects into the simple machines that comprise all machines.