Do you know Burn Notice? It is a TV series on USA Network involving a spy, an ex IRA soldier, and a retired Navy Seal who end up working together to solve two problem streams: the ongoing difficulty of why (and how) the main character, Michael, was “burned” as a spy, and the novel problem that arises every episode in which the team helps some hapless innocent from getting out from under the boot of a nasty bully criminal, or something along those lines. During the process of handling these parallel problems, the crew have to MacGyver their way out of a lot of problems, and much of this is narrated by Michael, who is the most highly qualified spy on the planet, who explains to us the counterintuitive (but once you know them obvious) details of spycraft. For instance, if you want to make a certain kind of covert listening device, get the cheapest cell phone you can find and use that mic, together with the transmission circuitry of a higher quality phone. The cheap phone will not have a digital sound dampening system so it will pick up everything, while a more expensive mic will not, and thus, won’t work to bug a room or a car. A lot of cell phones and other household devices are dismantled and used to make motion detectors, bugs, or some other device.

The USA Network has developed the “BURN NOTICE Science Challenge, for High School students in the US… Continue reading BURN NOTICE Science Challenge (STEM) →