The Qwest Foundation today announced a grant of $10,000 to Cascade Middle School teacher Scott Weide. The funds will allow Weide to purchase new technology so that his students will be able to determine Olson Creek’s viability for salmon habitat.
“In my vision, students are outside, scientifically observing their local community, recording observations digitally, formulating ideas and then sharing them through digital media,” said Weide. “These experiences will generate a passion for investigation that lasts a lifetime and a thirst for understanding beyond the classroom door.”
With the technology, students will study different aspects of the creek including temperature, stream flow, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity and nitrates. Teams will develop a specific investigation, record data, share what they learned and then develop a real-world research proposal that answers the question: “Can Olson Creek support a salmon habitat?”
“Mr. Weide thought of a creative and forward-thinking project that incorporates technology to make it happen,” said Kirk Nelson, Qwest president for Washington. “It’s an honor to provide funding that will bring his vision to life.”
Wireless sensor networks, using Zigbee, Bluetooth or WiFi, can distributed autonomous devices to monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants, at different locations.
Axcess International last week announced the industry’s first Smart Wireless Sticker. It provides automatic item identification, locating, tracking, protecting, data logging and condition sensing for items from up to a 1000 feet away at a cost of less than $10 each. It was demonstrated at the annual RFID Live Conference and Exhibition in Las Vegas from April 16 to 18.
The global annual market for microsensors is expected to be worth $3.2 billion in 2008, up 18.5 percent from 2007, and increase to more than $8.4 billion in 2013, a compound annual growth rate of 21.3 percent, according to BCC Research.
In other news, homeless teens and at-risk young adults in Santa Clara County, will work with professional artists to develop new media artwork for the 2nd Biennial 01SJ Global Festival of Art on the Edge, June 4-8, in downtown San Jose.
The young artists, ranging in age from 14 to 24, have already started attending weekly hands-on workshops staffed by new media artists and will continue their training through June 8.
Their artwork will be showcased across more than 20 large screen LCD displays using the Cisco Digital Media System’s Digital Signage solution, which will allow for the easy management and publishing of the young artists’ content.
According to WiFi Planet, Tropos works with a number of different vendors to deploy Automatic Meter Reading in its municipal wireless systems, including SmartSynch, Aclara, Badger Meter, Silver Spring Networks, and others. Aclara did the Anderson and Corpus Christi deployments, and SmartSynch is working with Burbank, Californias Burbank Water and Power on an AMR Wi-Fi network thats currently in the pilot stage, with a full deployment expected by the end of the year.
More information on sensor networks is available on Remote Magazine, RFID Journal, Telematics Journal, Measurement Computing and Wireless Sensor Networking Blog. Related Bluetooth, RFID and Zigbee stories on Dailywireless include; Cyclists Monitor Air Pollution, Grape Networks, Spy Squirrels, Sensors Expo 2007, Open Source Zigbee Net, MaxStream ZigBee module, RF-ID Giants Merge, RFID Tracking via Dutch Umbrella, Active ID & Temperature: On the Road.
