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Peace Takes Learning to Infinity and Beyond

(left) Peace senior Selenia Murillo speaks into the microphone during Peace’s Infinity lab assignment. On her laptop, she will show how the microphone converts the pressure variation in the air into a sequence of numbers that can be used for computation.
(right) Five-year Peace teacher and industrial engineer Karen Amador shows senior Nicole Fosco how to interpret the sound signals on her laptop so that she can figure out the frequency of her voice. This lab assignment is part of Peace’s Infinity Project, the first nationally recognized engineering program to be implemented in an all-female high school in Illinois.

Burbank, IL – October 3, 2007 –Creating digital music is only the tip of the iceberg for some Peace juniors and seniors this year. Students in industrial engineer Karen Amador’s digital engineering class are learning how basic ideas drawn from the right triangle, such as cosines and sines, are fundamental to making computer music. Students will learn how a microphone converts the pressure variation in the air into a sequence of numbers that can be used for computation. The overall objective is to see and explore the shape and form of one’s own voice, the sound of music, and other common sounds.

This semester, Peace did something that no other all-female high school in the state of Illinois was able to do. Peace introduced its young women scholars to the possibility of an exciting career in engineering. Ten Peace juniors and seniors who completed at least one lab science are participating in The Infinity Project, a nationally recognized pre-engineering program created by Southern Methodist University’s School of Engineering and Texas Instruments.

Participants include: Candice Bilina, Lenka Durisinova, Nicole Fosco, Rebecca Hacker, Margeret McClellan, Veronika Miranda, Selenia Murillo, Martyna Plonka, Marian Streeter and Julie Vargas.

The Infinity Project uses cutting-edge technology installed on students’ laptops to illustrate the ultimate value of real-world math and science applications. Students are thinking and designing like real engineers by measuring sound scientifically, turning PC’s into cellular phones, developing special effects movies, and building digital musical instruments.

As 65% off all Infinity course graduates plan to pursue engineering in college, Peace takes giant steps to boost students’ math and science confidence, to create educational and economic opportunities for its young women, and to diminish the gender gap in this creative and technical industry.

“Oh, I get it! I can see my sound signals on the laptop screen after I speak into the microphone, and the plots of speech allow me to pause the sound and figure out my voice measurements,” senior Rebecca Hacker exclaimed during the lab. Students will use the concepts learned in this lab to make digital music.

“Students will use LabView software from National Instruments to do some basic programming and lab activities. They will learn about digital sound, which is basically turning sound into functions and lists of numbers. After that they learn how an image can be converted to numbers. Our other topics will include the Internet, coding and digital security,” Infinity teacher Karen Amador stated.

“The course is taught in the science department but includes a lot of math including functions and formulae, but we use and apply the math concepts as we learn them. When students are done with the course they have a greater understanding of technology they use every day. Our job at Queen of Peace is to prepare students for the future since all career paths use technology. We are preparing students to be intelligent, confident and courageous with technology.”