Tweets of the Week: From STEM to STEAM, Relying on Robots and Fun with Perpetual Motion

Happy Friday, everyone! We hope your Independence Day celebrations were full of fireworks, fun and family time (and and food ... lots of delicious food). We've been looking back at all the conversations we had on Twitter this week, ranging from white paper shares on linear slides and rotary guides to blogs about the changing perception of manufacturing and the need for more skilled labor in the workforce. Here are a few standout tweets, including links to the tweeps who originally shared them. Follow us for more at @BWCnews.

1. Why America Needs More STEAM Power via PamelaKan.Blogspot.com: Advanced manufacturing needs more than just a workforce educated in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. They need a working knowledge of the arts, too. Bishop-Wisecarver President Pamela Kan blogs about this changing shift in the way experts view education. Art, they say, develops out-of-the-box logic and the ability to think in multiple dimensions — exactly the kind of mindset that's increasingly needed in the field of additive manufacturing, right? (Follow Pamela at @peekan).

2. Our Youth, the Future Depends on Them via FIRST Robotics: Our friends at FIRST Robotics sent out a newsletter highlighting the various successes of teachers and students in their robotics education programs. Find more robotics-related tweets by following them on Twitter at @FIRSTweets.

3. Why We Will Rely on Robots via Product Design and Development: Sensationalists talk about how robots will replace humans in the workplace, putting skilled manufacturing workers out of a job. But really, robots are more on pace to become helpful collaborators, a tool to enhance output for people in manufacturing and engineering. Read how here. Also, follow PD&D at @PDandD.

4. UtiliTrak Linear Guides Run Parallel via BWG: Have an application that requires parallel linear guides? You might be interested in this application story about an inventor who used UtiliTrak to build a patient lift for ambulances. Follow Bishop-Wisecarver Group on Twitter at @BWG_Diversity.

5. 9 GIFs That Make Perpetual Motion Machines a Reality via Gizmodo: You know the overbalanced wheel and perpetual water wheel? These contraptions move on and on until ... well, friction has its way with motion and all comes to a stop. But at least online, through the magic of looped video we call GIFs, these perpetual motion inventions can move on and on and on in perpetuity. Enjoy! And for more interesting tidbits about technology and invention, follow Gizmodo at @Gizmodo.