The New York City Department of Education has been working to expand its STEM programs, springboarding off studetns' use of tech gadgets, to show them how the various technologies work and possible career paths.  Programs include: software engineering for middle and high school students, Summer STEM for 2nd, 7th and 10th graders, expert meet and greets and hackathons.

Read the amNewYork article for more information.

Visitation Academy, an all girl middle school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, introduced a 3D printer and computer-aided drafting software this year and is already planning to purchase a second 3D printer.  The students have taken to the new technology so readily, they taught their teacher how to use it.

Introducing technology classes in 2012, Visitation plans to further expand its STEM program to continue fostering the girls' interest and offer them exposure to career opportunities in the numerous STEM fields.

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory recently posted an interesting article to their blog Lab Dish.  It was written by Cold Spring Harbor High School junior, Skyler Palatnick who enjoys writing about scientists, and the project his brother, Aspyn, has been working on at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.  Now a senior, Aspyn began working with Dr. Michael  Schatz as a 14 year old intern handling very simple tasks.  These served as building blocks, leading up to the nearly finished project: a mobile app that aligns and analyzes DNA sequences.

Visit the Lab Dish to read Skyler's well written article on his brother Aspyn's unique internship experience.

Eric Nguyen, an electrical engineer major at Cooper Union and Centereach High School graduate, partnered with fellow student, Abiyaz Chowdhury, last year at the Cooper Union Invention Factory to produce a water saving toilet conversion kit.

Their product was one of nine winners at the six week summer program and invention competition, started two years ago at Cooper Union.  In addition to winning $5,000, they, along with the other Invention Factory participants, were invited to present to Quirky in February.  Quirky is a Chelsea based startup that helps inventors make their ideas a reality, working with them from design to launch, and has brought over 400 ideas to fruition since 2009.

As one of four Cooper Union teams ultimately chosen by Quirky, Nguyen is looking forward to taking the next steps and hopefuly making it to the manufacturing stage.

Read the full Cooper Union article.