>>Some local high
school students love

the challenge of
working on a project

and solving problems that
have no clear solution.

So much so that they
even formed a club.

Join us today as we talk

with Charlottesville High
School teacher Dr. Matt Shields

about the after school
group he leads called BACON,

the best all around
club of nerds.

Come on!

>>I think it's really cool
that there's just a club

at CHS that facilitates
science, engineering,

all these things
that so many kids are

so passionate about
including myself.

>>There's something for
anybody who loves science here

and that's so important.

And even for people who
don't love science like me,

like they can get involved

through making sure
everything's running smoothly

or fundraising and
so that's great.

>>I cant say I started BACON,

I signed the paper
to bring BACON

into existence because my
students wanted it to exist.

>>But it started with you

because you were trying
to think of a way

to get your students
more excited

about science fair
projects they had to do.

>>Right, you might
be able to press me

to take a little bit of credit

but what happened was
they were supposed to do

a science fair project
that was a school policy

and they were not
interested in that.

So then I proposed to
them that they could

instead of a science fair
project they could do

a project with me
and I found a project

that someone else had
done something similar

where somebody had attached a
weather balloon to a payload

with a still camera
and a video camera

and some radio equipment
and GPS antenna

and sent it up to space
and it's just awesome

because from an
altitude of around

a hundred thousand feet,
so 20 miles you get,

you're just in space, it's black

and you get the
curvature of the earth

and it's just beautiful

so I thought I'd like
to be able to do that.

So I went back to
class the next day

and I pitched a similar idea.

I said, okay,
we're "Ocean's 11",

I need a radio guy,
I need a balloon guy,

I need a helium guy, I
need a fundraising person

and a music person and
I just kind of listed

all of the things that I might,

that might go in to
a project like this

and I sent them home with the
homework assignment that night

and the homework assignment
was write down on

a piece of paper if you'd like
to participate in the project

and if so what would
you bring to the project

and the next day like I said,
29 students brought back

a piece of paper saying I'm in

and heres what I can contribute.

>>And when you did it,
the first time it failed.

And then the students just
wanted to go back and fix it.

They were all excited and
they wanted to do it again.

And this eventually
led to BACON.

>>To BACON, right.

>>Okay and then what's the
story behind the name BACON?

>>So we decided to
make it an actual club

and we called it the
Charlottesville Science Club,

I thought that was all right.

And I think, it was
after a few months,

the club got huge really fast,

I think we had 80
students in the club,

pretty quickly after
we had started.

And it was in a meeting one day.

I don't even remember why,

somebody decided that
we should rename it,

and I remember it was
this guy named Nicky,

he said we should name it Bacon.

And someone said why Bacon?

And he said, "I don't know,
lets come up with an acronym,"

so the name actually
proceeded the acronym

and he said, "Best All
Around Club Of Nerds."

>>That's great!

>>We went and got shirts
made and bumper stickers

and I think that's one
of my favorite things

about the club is
just it's a fun name.

>>And you stand out
at the competitions

because no one else
is named BACON.

>>I love that, most of
the other teams have

either button-downs
or polo shirts

with the embroidered
something like that

and we just have these blue
t-shirts that say BACON.

>>[Competition Announcer]
It's BACON time.

Three, two, one, Go!

>>I'm a part of FTC, which
is First Tech Challenge.

It's a robotics club

and every year there's
a different challenge.

This year it's Velocity Vortex.

And we have to shoot balls
into this spinning thing

in the center and we
are building robots

to try to achieve that.

>>So, shoot it? Shoot?
Yeah. NICE. Yes.

(power saw buzzing)

>>I like building
stuff of course

because there are so
many machines here

to do stuff with
and I just can say

I only know like a
quarter of the machines.

I've had no experience with
a lot of them, but still.

Like there are saws
and lasers cutters and

all that so that's
definitely the most fun.

>>Having the 3D
printers is really cool

'cause the whole concept
behind being able

to design something
on a computer

and then a few hours later
actually seeing it like

and being able to hold
in in your hand is

just kind of, I enjoy that.

>>How many different
subgroups in BACON?

>>Uhhm, I've lost
track, at least a dozen.

The group that goes to Boston,
that's Zerobotics or ZR.

And Zerobotics is a
programming competition

and that one is wild,
they just write code

to control a virtual
robot in 3D space

so it's a robot that's
floating around in 3D space

which is very difficult because
it's got little thrusters

on it and once its off axis
it has to do all these-

has to perform all
these maneuvers with
a competitor robot,

and there's strategy,

it's a very complicated
tough competition

but the kids are so in to it

they stay up all
night working on it

and that one's a lot of fun

and we've made it to the finals
I think three or four times.

If you make it
finals you go to MIT

and you sit in an auditorium

and your code flies on the
International Space Station.

And so last year we went

and Commander Scott
Kelly ran the experiment

so there's Scott Kelly saying,

"Alright BACON, you're next
and your robot's going."

It was really a
great experience.

>>Okay, tell me about that.

>>So we got Zerobotics.

A big one that you saw making
a lot of noise today was FTC,

that's First Tech Challenge.

First Tech Challenge is
sort of the little brother

of First Robotics which
was founded by Dean Kayman,

this big nationwide
robotics competition

and you robot has to
accomplish all these tasks.

So for example, this year,
our robot has to go around

and pick up these whiffle balls

and be able to shoot
them in to a target.

For part of the game, it has

to be able to do
that autonomously.

So It has to have
sensors on board that

are figuring out
where it is in space

and where the thing is,

calculating the right
velocity and everything.

Then after the autonomous
period is over,

the robot is controlled
with a joystick.

There's a big yoga ball

that it has to put
up on the thing,

it has to spin something
around, it has push buttons.

All in about two
and a half minutes

it has do all of these things

and so the kids have
to build a robot,

just that in and of
itself is a challenge,

so they're figuring out how
to wire up motors and servos

and sensors and all that stuff

and then they have to
write computer code

that runs the
whole thing so when

one of the drivers
pushes the joystick,

they've written
the code that says

okay that joystick voltage
goes in to this bit of code

which causes the
robot to do this

and it travels over here

so that is just an
intense competition,

we probably have 20 to 25
kids just involved in that.

>>Well, and then you
have club members

that are all about logistics.

>>Yeah, so BACON
has gotten so big

and I mean with all
those other subgroups

and I haven't even talked
about science fairs,

Science Olympiad, Science
Bowl and Green BACON and DERP

which is Dangerous
Extracurricular
Research Projects.

Everything has an acroynm

and all of them spend money
and we also take field trips -

>>Right, Geneva.

>>We do a lot, if you
include the Geneva trip

about a hundred
thousand dollars flows

through our club
every single year.

>>BACON is complicated
I would say.

Maybe I just come from that

because I hear everybody's like,

I need this, I need
this, I need that.

And I'm just like oh, my gosh.

And then I have to fill out

all these expense
pre-approval forms or whatnot.

But there's a lot of
different things going on.

I don't think we ever have
a dull day I would say.

There's a lot to
learn from every day

and things do go wrong,
mistakes are made

and that's how everyone learns.

>>We have so much brain power.

Everyone is so smart and
so we are always trying

to find new tasks and
problems that we can solve

and keep everyone involved.

Science Olympiad is what
I spend most of my time on

and that's this club where
there's 23 different events

with ranging from hydro-geology,

which is the study
of ground water,

to building the tallest
tower that you can.

So you compete in
those events as a pair

and then the whole pair
contributes to the team score.

>>BACON is honestly amazing.

It's probably my
favorite thing about CHS.

Collaborating towards
something I think is actually

even more valuable than
all the programming,

all the CAD experience I've
gotten out of the club.

>>You say this club is
run by the students.

Talk about that because this
whole style of teaching has

now become a part of your
classroom approach to teaching.

>>Right, when BACON started

that was my first
year teaching at CHS.

It was my fourth year teaching,

and I think I was doing okay

but I was teaching the
way I had been taught,

and that was I gave
a lot of lectures

and a lot of
quizzes and homework

and then when BACON happened,

I would watch the rate
of learning go up a lot

and so that I think
was a clue for me

to watch students learn things
that they were excited about,

learn them quickly
and I just know

that there was more retention.

And so those are some
of the things that I saw

and said okay this
could be curriculum

and so over the last few years

I've turned it into curriculum
and it's been a lot of fun.

>>Yeah, so your educational
background is...

>>I went to undergrad
for mechanical

and air-space engineering
and then I actually worked

as an engineer
for a little while

but then I went back to grad
school also for engineering

and it was then I decided I
liked computer programming,

I worked as a computer
programmer for a while.

Then taught high school
for a couple of years

and then at that point I decided

that education was
something that I wanted

to know more about so
then I went back to school

for education and since
then I've gotten my PHD

in curriculum instruction.

>>What are some of the kids
doing who have graduated

from CHS who were a
part of this program?

>>Oh, wow, the year
BACON was founded

there were three students
that I put in charge of it.

Lizzy went on to get a
double major from YALE

in physics and philosophy
if I remember right.

Jesse went on to become a
mechanical engineer from MIT.

Dania now works for Northrup
Grumman up in Baltimore.

She earned her engineering
degree from UVA.

The girls that started SPAM,
the Science Fair Project group,

they both went to MIT and
they're doing cancer research

at MIT, it's wild.

>>It's very
exciting, so alright,

so the club meets every Thursday

and it started
with about 80 kids.

How many are involved now?

>>We kind of - we
have about a hundred

on the roster
right now and with-

the thing is these kids
that are so amazing

and do such incredible
things with BACON

they're also captain of
the field hockey team,

they're also in theater,

and they're also
in five AP classes.

>>And they're
designing lab space

because wasn't it two kids?

It was two students.

>>Ryan and Ellie
designed this space.

>>When they said
what do we need?

They told you and
this is what you got.

>>Yeah and that was just an
advantage to have them around

so when an architect came to me

and said how would
you design a lab?

I just turned to Ryan
and Ellie and I said,

"Well you guys have been crammed
in to my physics classroom

"for four years, what
would be your dream lab?"

And they immediately
knew what they wanted.

That period, they
drew up on a back

of a piece of paper
what a lab would like

and it pretty much
looked exactly like this.

>>So, do you ever get tired
of being a part of BACON

or is it always exciting?

>>Not even close, I've
not gotten tired yet.

I mean just today, so today
is probably I don't know

my 600th BACON meeting
or something like that

and every meeting is
fun, every meeting is-

one of the great things is
that every meeting is new kids

so I get a new batch of kids
every four years that are

going down that path
and learning new things.

We're always getting
involved in new projects

and coming up with new
solutions to old projects

so it's still my favorite
part of the week.

>>All the resources
that we have here

and all of that it really
facilitates learning

about engineering and
learning about science

that you don't really get

just in science and math
classes during school.

So this really makes it easy.

>>Just the experience
of working on a team,

putting in those long hours,

staying up late sometimes
just to get things done,

all these are skills that could

pretty easily be applied to
a job outside of High School.

>>One of the cool things
we did was last year

we had a robot pull-up to the,
did a pull-up all the way up

to the ceiling and
then it just hung there

the entire summer.

And coming back and
seeing it still there was,

I don't know, it was
a really good memory.

(smooth jazz music)