tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83358640237651312532024-03-14T13:10:10.372-04:00Engineering KookMary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-30188155967552153132013-07-15T18:01:00.000-04:002013-07-15T18:07:14.685-04:00Coaching math<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My take on math is that we typically think we are either GOOD or BAD at it. Somewhere along the line, a teacher (usually starting in 3rd grade) told us that we were GOOD at math if we could finish that speed multiplication chart without errors. The not-GOOD ones then assumed that they were BAD at it when they were put in a lower math group than the GOOD ones. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I think that doing well on a speed multiplication chart tells you exactly two things: that you can write quickly and that you can memorize well. When did these two qualities get to tell you that you were GOOD or BAD at anything?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When you listen to the radio, and jump around to find music that you like, are you thinking you are not good at music? Of course not. You have different preferences and appreciations. You are unique. Classical, jazz, progressive rock, alternative, rap, you get to enjoy the music and being you as you are driving along.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If we followed the math model of assessment, if and only if you could change radio stations very fast and memorize where all the stations were you would be GOOD at enjoying music. Baloney. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Everyone has an innate ability to appreciate math and use it for some good purpose. You may have had that thought drummed out of you when you were young, but please give yourself another chance. It is your TEACHER'S job to give you enough ways of learning and to present enough of the beauty of math that you gain flexible skills with using it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It's
nervous and exciting to be starting something new. After years of
helping homeschool students learn high school math and science in
Charlottesville, Virginia, my family of six has moved to Tampa,
Florida. I've had a chance to think about what to do next and how to
keep a toe in the water with math education. This school year, I'll be
offering an online course in Calculus that I hope has a different
approach.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I'll be "coaching" calculus. My goal is that the students who take this class will remember what they learned when the course is done! They will be able to think about how calculus can help solve problems and be prepared if their future coursework, lives or careers calls for familiarity with the subject.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am not a licensed teacher. I am a engineer by education and an educator by way of helping homeschoolers learn high school math and science for the last eight years in a cooperative.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you are interested in this type of a learning environment, please contact me! I'm limiting enrollment for this year to ten students. We'll meet online for three hours a week, there will be a syllabus and homework, quizzes and tests - but all geared toward understanding instead of just surviving. Students will be greatly encouraged to take the AP Calc exam in May 2014 so that they can get all the college credit they can, saving their families the cost of a college course at any institution that accepts AP credit (many do).</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Tuition is $100 per month. Course runs from late August to late April for a total of 8 months. Quizzes and tests are submitted digitally to Mrs. Saville and can be assessed a grade if requested. References are available.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Course textbook:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2006 Calculus of A Single Variable Eighth Edition AP Edition (H) by Ron Larson, Robert P. Hostetler, & Bruce H. Edwards ISBN-13: 9780618503049</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My short bio:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mary Saville graduated from the University of Virginia in 1997 with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering, with honors. Since then she worked as an engineer and a project manager for several years in private industry before raising four children. In 2005 Mary began teaching high school math and science at a home education cooperative in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has taught Geometry, PreCalculus, Calculus, and Physics and designed a multi-year STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) course for home schoolers.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the school year 2012-13, her STEM class was awarded the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Grant and spent the year prototyping an invention. The students’ work was displayed with the other winning high school teams at EurekaFest in Cambridge, MA at MIT this past June 2013.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mary, her husband, and her children Kara, Mark, Jack and Caleb recently moved from Virginia to Tampa, Florida.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Mary can be reached at 434-996-7633 or marycsaville@gmail.com.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-80999598605896354412012-10-17T09:27:00.000-04:002012-10-17T09:28:08.276-04:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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We did it! </div>
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The exciting journey into STEM education continues this school year 2012-13! Our pre-engineering class of home educated high school students has won a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams prize for our proposed invention: a turbine for capturing shear wind energy from traffic flow, and novel wind tunnel for testing.<br />
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"Engineering the Future" is a group of fifteen students who meet at the ACTS home education co-operative in Charlottesville, VA. ETF began brainstorming over a year ago and submitted their initial proposal to the LMIT foundation in April of 2012. Today, October 17, LMIT announced that we were granted $10,000 to bring our invention to life.<br />
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ETF is the only home educated group to win the prize this year. We thank Lemelson-MIT for their vision of supporting youth in their pursuit of STEM and invention.<br />
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For press inquiries, sponsorship or general questions, please email etf.inventeams@gmail.com.<br />
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<br />Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-12131729423592566922012-06-20T22:36:00.000-04:002012-06-21T15:58:08.873-04:00MIT and EurekaFest, day 1I stepped off the plane at Logan Airport in Boston today hoping I had left the scorching heat behind in Virginia. Nope. Just as hot in Boston. It's time for EurekaFest, MIT's annual celebration of all thing inventive. Over the next four days students, teachers and industry partners will converge on Cambridge in the spirit of helping our young students get the know how they need to make ideas into reality.<br />
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I'm here through one of the featured programs, InvenTeams. MIT chooses around 15 high school groups per year to receive a $10,000 grant to prototype a student generated invention. That's not us yet but teachers whose teams are vying for the prize over the following school year are brought here to observe and learn. I'm thrilled to say that my small group of homeschoolers is in the running!<br />
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Tonight we ate food from all parts of Massachusetts and watched 30 teams of students try to build the tallest free-standing balloon structure. Very fun. The balloon towers were measured in Smoots, a uniquely MIT unit of length based on a freshman years ago who was laid end to end across a bridge.
Looking forward to more design and invention lectures tomorrow.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-72544694319592817692012-05-21T10:58:00.003-04:002012-05-21T11:01:08.249-04:00STEM Curricula: Are online courses good enough?<br />
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Photo credit: <a href="http://www.freeimages.co.uk/galleries.htm">http://www.freeimages.co.uk/galleries.htm</a></i></span></div>
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In my <a href="http://engineeringkook.blogspot.com/2012/03/stem-for-homeschoolers.html" target="_blank">last post</a>, I gave an example of how traditional science classes differ from multi-disciplinary, project based STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) classes. It's important to consider how to engage your student in STEM programming, with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william/wouldnt-it-be-cool-stem-education_b_1376435.html" target="_blank">new options</a> popping up all the time. Some homeschooling parents use online curricula for traditional sciences, and these courses have validity and a
solid place in education. Unfortunately, I think online coursework for STEM only hits about half of the target.<br />
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It's true that part of what STEM offers could be learned from a textbook. Its concepts are drawn from any of the physical
sciences, technology, or mathematics and are often criss-crossed between two
or more of these. But STEM is much more: it's about learning how to communicate and interact
well with peers in <a href="http://www.nwlink.com/%7Edonclark/perform/brainstorm.html" target="_blank">brainstorming</a>, design, invention, innovation and collaboration.
These are the "soft" skills needed for the next generation of workers and they may seem obvious but require many hours of
practice to master. These are also the skills that an online course does not address.<br />
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I have taught STEM to five separate groups of homeschoolers (about 65 total students) over the past two years. I have noticed that the skills
that my STEM homeschooled students most need practice in are not vertical collaboration (ages
above and below) but rather <a href="http://www.ehow.com/about_6561176_vertical-horizontal-organizational-structure.html" target="_blank">horizontal project collaboration</a> (peer, same
aged). The homeschoolers I teach are wonderful, well-socialized and have good friends. However, friendships are different from collaboration. What my experience has shown me (this is not
scientific, only observational) is that it takes nearly 30 hours of practice for
homeschooled students to become very skilled in
brainstorming and completing design projects together under constraints. Acquiring STEM skills is less like charging through a textbook and more like apprenticing in a trade or growing a garden. It takes time, mentoring and iteration. <br />
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So what is a parent to do? My next post will have links to real-time (as opposed to virtual, online) STEM resources. I'd love any and all comments and thoughts.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-31947650669366174662012-03-01T10:42:00.002-05:002013-08-14T17:23:21.631-04:00STEM for Homeschoolers<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Graphic tile by E. Keyser, ACTS Geometry student</i></span></span><b><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: large;">What is STEM and how is it different from science or math?</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">"STEM" or "STEM education" are hot topics right now, but they sound like you're into teaching plants or helping flowers. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">The name itself is misleading. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math, all lumped together in a handy dandy acronym. So - not plants, but math and science loosely glued together? No, that's not quite it either. With this post I'm going to break down what STEM is and compare one day's science class versus STEM class. </span></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">What is STEM?</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">Although you can find umpteen <a href="https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4BZyrSX4YcZX0ZfTWgzcWpTMWU4dUdFeVFHNUhoZw" target="_blank">definitions of STEM</a> around, many agree on the following: STEM education combines multiple subjects together while using student-centered learning techniques. It is an effort to bridge the gap between what a pure science class teaches (biology) and the skills a biological research scientist uses in a career (knows biology, but also needs to communicate well, design and test, use math to analyze data, and interact with other scientific professionals). STEM education has a heavy focus on design, student initiative and "soft" skills such as <a href="http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/collaboration.html" target="_blank">collaboration</a>, <a href="http://ideas.economist.com/blog/defining-innovation" target="_blank">innovation</a> and <a href="http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/guide.html" target="_blank">invention</a>. </span><br />
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">What's a real example of the difference between a science, math or computer class and a STEM class?</span></b><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">I teach several high school math and science courses at a co-op to homeschoolers, along with STEM classes, so I experience this every week. Here's the rundown of what happened on a recent day.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;"><b>Physics class:</b> <i>we are studying <a href="http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/u10l0b.cfm" target="_blank">periodic motion</a>, and begin a unit on spring systems. Students sit on chairs around a table and listen while I lecture and use the whiteboard. I have several visuals to illustrate how springs work. Students seem like they understand, and I prompt them for where they see springs in everyday life. I do all my usual "teacher-ey" things to keep students engaged. We do a lab exercise, where students in small groups measure data about springs. I review what their lab report should look like. End of class. The next class will continue with periodic motion.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;"><b>STEM class:</b> <i>Early in the year student groups brainstormed areas of interest in any STEM field. One group picked alternative energy, so </i></span><span style="color: black; font-family: arial;"><i>this day we are studying <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/k-4/stories/what-are-wind-tunnels-k4.html" target="_blank">wind tunnels</a>. I arrive with a fan, clear containers and lots of tools. After a brief lecture on how wind tunnels design, student groups spread out on the floor to make their own models. I walk between groups, making sure everyone is collaborating well. While each group works, we talk about how to make smoke lines, how a mesh can help reduce wind turbulence, and what kind of turbines might work well. We also brainstorm about where turbines could be placed. We pack up and groups take their models home to finish. The next class will test our models and smoke lines.</i></span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">Let's run that back. Both classes were valuable. Physics was concept-centered, and I used strategies to engage students including a hands-on lab. STEM was also concept centered, but those concepts drew from multiple sciences and design work. Students chose the topic and drove the flow of class, working with their peers the entire class. Their end product will be a workable wind tunnels to test turbine prototypes, along with enhanced collaboration and design skills.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial;">In coming posts I'll
outline some age-specific STEM opportunities and what some barriers to
STEM involvement are for homeschoolers. If you have any experience with
STEM and would like to add to the conversation, drop me a line at
marycsaville@gmail.com or on twitter at @marycsaville.<br />
</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"></span>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-71634214654578423402012-02-22T23:54:00.000-05:002012-02-26T11:50:53.134-05:00<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_py03xi-i0aKRNNCJzodjKlV1j7DqjYiAH4Ja2YLjwLT4EtB_tL-sHQwt7hiPzb9yeqCOv4Ugjejn8AdNx95K3OS-xwCEqc4draAxnhzaD5ExbLBrKOii2PGFatq-Rl0fYA_PQWSRZ2s/s1600/stem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_py03xi-i0aKRNNCJzodjKlV1j7DqjYiAH4Ja2YLjwLT4EtB_tL-sHQwt7hiPzb9yeqCOv4Ugjejn8AdNx95K3OS-xwCEqc4draAxnhzaD5ExbLBrKOii2PGFatq-Rl0fYA_PQWSRZ2s/s320/stem.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Graphics by ACTS Geometry Students. Produced in Google SketchUp</i></span> </div>
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It's time for a conversation about <a href="http://changetheequation.org/" target="_blank">STEM</a> (science, technology, engineering and math) and homeschoolers, both secular and non-. <br />
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Traditional subjects like biology or physics might have homeschoolers using a single subject textbook, digital book, online course or co-op. STEM is something different - it's an opportunity to combine many scientific, mathematical and technological concepts into an amazing soup.<br />
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For example, in my STEM class I begin with a outline of what we'll cover, typically a science concept, technology issue, or description of an engineering career. I lecture - briefly, usually no more than 15-20 minutes - then the fun begins. The students, having received information, immediately split into groups to tackle a challenge based in the lecture concepts. Collaboratively they filter water, separate ingredients, <a href="http://engineeringkook.blogspot.com/2011/03/tsunamis-engineering-and-compassion.html" target="_blank">study tsunami waves</a> using a model, devise structures out of crazy supplies, launch marshmallows, and many other things. We debrief the exercise as a class and the students complete a <a href="http://www.audiencedialogue.net/journal.html" target="_blank">reflective journal entry</a> on what they've experienced.<br />
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STEM class ends up being student-driven and highly interactive. The students practice the design cycle, brainstorming techniques, innovation skills, and mostly, how to collaborate well on a group project. I publish their work on my blog, on YouTube or other digital venues. Some high schools, like our local public <a href="http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectionid=1638" target="_blank">Albemarle High School</a>, have academies or programs that promote STEM. Albemarle has <a href="http://schoolcenter.k12albemarle.org/education/dept/dept.php?sectionid=8097" target="_blank">MESA</a> - which stands for Math, Engineering and Science Academy. There are wonderful non-profits around, like Charlottesville's <a href="http://www.computers4kids.net/" target="_blank">Computers 4 Kids</a>, that mentor low-income students in computing skills while providing them computers at program's end.<br />
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The nagging question for me is, what are other homeschoolers doing? Even better, how can we create a community to help them get involved in collaborative STEM work?
Our county has a large and thriving co-op, but what do you do when that's not an option? Do you know of homeschool co-ops or home groups that offer STEM classes that I can contact? Many areas also have service learning opportunties, which my older STEM students are doing this year. Is your local homeschool co-op or family group interested?<br />
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I'd looking to hear and collect knowledge about what homeschoolers do
for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. In the future I hope to blog more on creative ways to engage
homeschoolers in STEM, pre-engineering curricula, collaborative work and
service learning. <br />
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If you
are in the field of STEM ed and work with homeschoolers or a parent
looking to find resources, comment or find me on twitter @marycsaville. I've created the twitter hashtag #stemhomeschool to bring resources together.<br />
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Every day STEM programs online offer ways for homeschoolers to get involved even if they are living in remote areas.<br />
Some of the links that I've found to be very helpful are:<br />
<a href="http://www.servicelearning.org/what-is-service-learning">
National Service Learning Clearinghouse</a><br />
Tells you everything you need to know about service learning and how to begin a project in this excellent, hands on, service based educational model.<br />
<a href="http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/" target="_blank">PBS Zoom Science</a><br />
Colorful, engaging site with how-to experiments, engineering challenges, science inquiry and observation. Geared toward elementary through middle school students.<br />
<a href="http://www.discoveryeducation.com/" target="_blank">Discovery Education</a><br />
With all the quality that Discovery brings to the table, this site has resources for STEM curricular units and lesson plans. Discovery is also pioneering digital textbooks called "techbooks" for future learning - techbooks would be interactive digital content that updates, educates and inspires. Plus you'd save the backache from lugging around a huge textbook.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-54048737864626201522012-02-16T10:33:00.011-05:002012-02-26T11:52:06.274-05:00STEM ED for Homeschoolers<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3je1djWBdqc?rel=0" width="420"></iframe><br />
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Recently my STEM class (offered at a non-profit homeschooling co-op) finished up an interactive multi-lesson unit on alternative energy technology. Each student picked an energy topic, researched it and presented it to the class: we heard about fission, photovoltaic effect, high-speed train function, wind turbines and more. One week students designed paper turbines to see how they could affect rotational speed - see how speedy the "turbines" were in the video! We used a Thames and Kosmos car kit where the car could be powered by solar energy, battery energy, or hydrogen energy. The kit helped us explore electricity including static and current, concepts of voltage and resistance, solar panels and battery circuits. Students were able to tinker with, observe and sketch a one-wheel drive transmission and map how electrons actually move through a circuit, turn a gear, and propel a car. One session had students measuring voltages of batteries with a multimeter and experimenting with how to orient a solar panel to maximize voltage or current.<br />
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My favorite part was getting the fuel cell component working - this took a ton of repair on a kit that unfortunately was fragile. Once it was workable, students observed the electrolysis of water using a current to separate water into its component gases oxygen and hydrogen! This separation required electronic current to complete, and we were able to make it work with currents from both batteries OR our solar panel! After the oxygen and hydrogen were formed and stored in small tanks leading to a fuel cell, the students saw how the gases combined back into water, releasing electrons, which powered the car without any other energy source!<br />
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Recently, we've spent time each week debriefing service learning group work - what's been accomplished, what goals are coming up, and how best to accomplish those goals. I'm happy to report that all four groups now have meaningful work. The teams and projects are:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Team 1: Partnering with the non-profit homeschool co-op for a parking lot study, scale model creation, study of people movement through the system, and presentation of findings and graphics to the board. Students have already provided feedback on a short-term solution with a graphic showing new car and pedestrian zones.</li>
<li>Team 2: Innovation/invention group designing a wind tunnel that models shear forces. Planned use of the tunnel to model a vertical axis wind turbine. Potential for copyright/patent application.</li>
<li>Team 3: Partnering with Computers 4 Kids to design and teach a short class on Google SketchUp. C4K helps low-income students become technologically literate through project-based lessons and mentoring. Team Hedges may present their course to C4K staff, volunteers, or students.</li>
<li>Team 4: Partnering with the Culpeper Senior Center to increase technology resources available. Students have already done an assessment of the current computer technology available to seniors. Currently there are no networked computers and only 2 of 4 desktops are functioning. Seniors mostly play games like solitaire, if they use the computers at all. Studying ways to provide internet access to the computers and basic computer skills training to either Senior Center staff or seniors themselves. Training may be in hardware or software.</li>
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If anyone else is working in the field of STEM service learning in homeschooling, traditional schools or alterative ed, drop me a line! I'm especially eager to hear how and what other homeschooling co-op classes are doing with STEM.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-3756982128026228292011-10-06T10:28:00.005-04:002012-02-26T11:53:20.449-05:00STEM Service Learning: Homeschoolers Gain Collaborative Skills<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupG5yC9IpfvDt5hx_gTkcc4GQbXDoslwZHcQ9uEwkKjnOOdIlqg3V4DFu6I8AAvVKKKax7sJ-MDX8vLFFEJZwoycnfXusGG-53VC-RBZ-MIUIRwqe_vRAGCRdkYYDfyD0GCX4mCDpqCY/s1600/service+learning.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5660398857626582290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiupG5yC9IpfvDt5hx_gTkcc4GQbXDoslwZHcQ9uEwkKjnOOdIlqg3V4DFu6I8AAvVKKKax7sJ-MDX8vLFFEJZwoycnfXusGG-53VC-RBZ-MIUIRwqe_vRAGCRdkYYDfyD0GCX4mCDpqCY/s320/service+learning.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
For seven years now I've taught at a homeschool co-op while my own kids attend public school, and I attended parochial school for 12 years, so I feel like I've gotten a front-row seat to the best of all worlds. I've heard endless debates about which mode of education is best, with lots of stereotypes and suspicion thrown around. My take? There are excellent aspects to each, and each has its own drawbacks. I'd rather skip the esoteric arguments and move right to being part of a solution. If that sounds OK to you, keep reading. If not, go on and post on a debate website somewhere.<br />
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My passion is STEM (science technology engineering and math) education. Key elements of STEM ed include group collaborative skills, innovation, and stem concepts through project-based learning. What better place for homeschoolers, who are traditionally more independent learners, to gain experience than at a co-op with other same-aged students?<br />
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Last year my 9th and 10th grade Introduction to Engineering students filtered water, built tiny cantilevers, played with polymers and crafted a Wright Flyer out of recyclables. This year many of those same students are in Engineering 2 and we're starting a new effort. It's called service learning, and it's been on my brain ever since I stumbled upon the <a href="http://www.service-learningpartnership.org/site/PageServer?pagename=reus_homepage">National Service Learning Partnership's website</a> .<br />
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We're embarking on a 20-24 week project (we're 3 weeks in now) called Capstone. In the Capstone projects, teams of three, four or five students will practice service learning and the design cycle. Service learning is a model where educational concepts and teamwork are put to use in projects for the good of the local community. Service learning can happen in any subject - an example would be creating "reading buddies" where older students practice reading skills by working with younger kids.<br />
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In the STEM (science/technology/engineering/math) world service learning can happen by student teams designing computer models for churches, inventing products for animal shelters to make their work easier, creating computer applications to help senior citizens, and many other possibilities. Some of these very ideas were proposed last week by student groups.<br />
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Some service learning models are student-led, and this is what I'm striving for. Our four class group leaders volunteered for the leads and are doing an admirable job so far. After assembling teams and brainstorming ideas, teams presented their select ideas for feedback. Criteria for Capstone Project approval include meeting an actual need, having a community partner, teacher approval, and of a scope and level of effort to fit well inside a 20-24 week process.<br />
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If you are in the Charlottesville, Virginia area, work with a non-profit or community group that has a project, and are willing to partner with some awesome high-school engineering students, drop me a line! Also, if you are interested in supporting our efforts with a donation, that would be much appreciated and would help offset materials costs.<br />
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I'll post updates throughout the year on what we cook up.</div>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-67451208798038005602011-05-28T11:36:00.014-04:002012-02-26T11:54:41.356-05:00The Wright Stuff<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzqzGz8PefaM0N29acuxNQnBqL1Vx8sDwCm4CVObOylXvVwxp2EzZS2Vg9jqOmlb4zMY9i7J8gLEL_6onhjFRHuVXQ99wbtIClWy2nES0iwdFyVFQoP16ku_YHD5SzbfiZvmKzXhg00I/s1600/Snapshot+2011-05-28+12-14-58.tiff"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611804775361125410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHzqzGz8PefaM0N29acuxNQnBqL1Vx8sDwCm4CVObOylXvVwxp2EzZS2Vg9jqOmlb4zMY9i7J8gLEL_6onhjFRHuVXQ99wbtIClWy2nES0iwdFyVFQoP16ku_YHD5SzbfiZvmKzXhg00I/s320/Snapshot+2011-05-28+12-14-58.tiff" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 189px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 267px;" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: silver;">Image credit: Jm@n Google 3-D warehouse 2011<br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFCJPugZYCu2ZiNIktYcU6tEt8SdOTVHM2SR8JpqSNEiF_OieAUiWh1nXbBXcJWKhA8FKvT8ZB1rMWmdrwXnjCrNY-k1474kfTQW9m9_djfOvoaYgY4QJzLSnAD717N0v79T93lvG39U/s1600/241272_112609498827588_100002356145045_137907_4761398_o.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611852778036820354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFCJPugZYCu2ZiNIktYcU6tEt8SdOTVHM2SR8JpqSNEiF_OieAUiWh1nXbBXcJWKhA8FKvT8ZB1rMWmdrwXnjCrNY-k1474kfTQW9m9_djfOvoaYgY4QJzLSnAD717N0v79T93lvG39U/s320/241272_112609498827588_100002356145045_137907_4761398_o.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 213px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a></span></div>
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What can you do with 200 square feet of corrugated cardboard, 100 feet of cardboard rollers, yards of yarn and Makedo connectors? If you add in over 20 students and 5 hours in the hot sun, you get a half-scale model of the Wright Flyer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQPgfYNqVfK-yqf_Nul3wVUK6uFosUNabwOKKegMGLlTbTPff2aRz4LIXsPnJaJmru0MwhrUDp1WOB9LI1Ws0_2Xzr7WzOLZ7MYPBo8AW7aJfOlHzHh0ptoU2sPHytEKK1URGK0L66TWQ/s1600/258182_112595788828959_100002356145045_137709_1445033_o%25282%2529.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611808942210032546" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQPgfYNqVfK-yqf_Nul3wVUK6uFosUNabwOKKegMGLlTbTPff2aRz4LIXsPnJaJmru0MwhrUDp1WOB9LI1Ws0_2Xzr7WzOLZ7MYPBo8AW7aJfOlHzHh0ptoU2sPHytEKK1URGK0L66TWQ/s320/258182_112595788828959_100002356145045_137709_1445033_o%25282%2529.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 290px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 193px;" /></a><br />
Why? Why would we do such a thing? I'm slightly crazy and the awesome students were actually really happy to do it. We finished up our Intro to Engineering course for the year with a four-week unit on the STEM concepts of recycling - where do plastic bottles, diapers, cardboard and glass come from, and where do they go when we throw them away. To "tangify" the lessons (I'm totally coining that word, meaning to make tangible) we did mini-challenges with Makedo and then brainstormed a LARGE group build using only recyclable materials.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfsQbjOtMUP6HYAjG7rjHuMqMg9pM_KfUFya9vuIsY5RXnwfdHBW0m4ia7KUCbrM5qiPxxO6X8teA4xU28TQ7i_CzlptihQuX6aTzs2Gfczs5FhbyIORMLPP6IDxBsmL6f-rejVYreQM/s1600/240484_112601038828434_100002356145045_137766_64522_o.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611809646161182834" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfsQbjOtMUP6HYAjG7rjHuMqMg9pM_KfUFya9vuIsY5RXnwfdHBW0m4ia7KUCbrM5qiPxxO6X8teA4xU28TQ7i_CzlptihQuX6aTzs2Gfczs5FhbyIORMLPP6IDxBsmL6f-rejVYreQM/s320/240484_112601038828434_100002356145045_137766_64522_o.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 213px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
In order to practice the design cycle, smaller student teams imagined projects and pitched them to everyone. Students voted and the winning project was to model the Wright Brothers' first flying machine, the 1903 Wright Flyer.<br />
Working off of a Google SketchUp model of the Flyer (credit: J-m@n) from the 3-D warehouse, we shrunk it to half size and printed multiple views with dimensions. Students brought boxes, tubes, plastic bags and old yard, lots of it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBrFfoASmLN5YzLmQh2yKG7b6o2kG_lVnuMd1-Oq8t2j57TglLYE7ScoXONCqosOiX9cAJiEKVmccod9ch_F0hsqJVVlDmoSvZCyE0z7yx8IyGeZsFL_unagsgk58Vq_9-dtpXCLXe1w/s1600/240447_112600855495119_100002356145045_137764_7159831_o.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5611809982658652802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzBrFfoASmLN5YzLmQh2yKG7b6o2kG_lVnuMd1-Oq8t2j57TglLYE7ScoXONCqosOiX9cAJiEKVmccod9ch_F0hsqJVVlDmoSvZCyE0z7yx8IyGeZsFL_unagsgk58Vq_9-dtpXCLXe1w/s320/240447_112600855495119_100002356145045_137764_7159831_o.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 213px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
Although our ultimate goal of constructing such a solid Flyer that we could actually launch it failed, we did manage to put together over 75% of the very complicated airplane. I think each of us knows a ton more about Orville and Wilbur's ingenious design and how to work together on a project. We ran into the same issues that every project has: time overruns, material shortages, weather factors - but there's nothing better than practice to learn how to deal with these in a productive manner and keep progressing to a goal. Excellent work, students - you really did something special.<br />
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<embed flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FMaryCSaville%2Falbumid%2F5611811779130819073%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCPKL6uC-qsH-ogE%26hl%3Den_US" height="267" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></embed>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-83185501055726498222011-05-07T12:35:00.003-04:002011-05-13T23:49:54.116-04:00Use Less by Makedo-ing More, Part 2<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-twh7HRNDFgYKJpsdNAjDuvIxIuDYJdecO4eV4tayWZ4Maa3sxK_LWRxxO05VxjigUUtoYNeJ96QoMunMQXPxowrygMG-tA2IAGmd1g5cG_8D1JOBbltlx-jLfYBxhvglskjh7gvwVE/s1600/IMG_0093.JPG"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 240px; display: block; height: 320px; cursor: pointer;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5604015300985668258" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr-twh7HRNDFgYKJpsdNAjDuvIxIuDYJdecO4eV4tayWZ4Maa3sxK_LWRxxO05VxjigUUtoYNeJ96QoMunMQXPxowrygMG-tA2IAGmd1g5cG_8D1JOBbltlx-jLfYBxhvglskjh7gvwVE/s320/IMG_0093.JPG" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;">Student-made Makedo windmill using plastic cups, styrofoam and connectors - video below<br /></span></div><br />We're continuing to study STEM recycling concepts using <a href="http://makedo.com.au/">Makedo</a> as an activity focus. Last week we studied the life cycle of cardboard and made Makedo creations with reusables, this week we covered <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&biw=1408&bih=960&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=making+glass&aq=f&aqi=g6g-m3&aql=&oq=">glass</a> and made more Makedo-dles.<br /><br />Teaching this class is like playing one big game of <a href="http://www.best-family-games.com/balderdash.html">Balderdash</a>. If I had to guess what words like "cullet" and "vitrification" meant I would have guessed, in order, a fish and a wine process. No points for me - want to take a try yourself, just pause before reading on...<br /><br /><a href="http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=5640">Glass</a> is one example of an amorphous solid, which is just a fancypants way of saying it doesn't have structure like a crystal. Glass' primary raw material is sand, or silica (SiO2) which is heated and combined with additives to make different types of glass. (I can't help sharing that when lighting strikes sand the intense heat instantaneously forms lightning glass, or <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+glass&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=CFrFTebkJYTUgQfl1YzLBA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q_AUoAQ&biw=1408&bih=960">ful</a><span style="font-size:100%;"><a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=lightning+glass&hl=en&prmd=ivns&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=CFrFTebkJYTUgQfl1YzLBA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CC8Q_AUoAQ&biw=1408&bih=960">gurite</a> - it's like petrified lightning!)<br /><br />Just like water, when glass turns from a solid into a liquid through heat it's called melting. But glass gets its own awesome word, "vitrification", for the change from liquid back to solid glass. Really, at room temperature glass is as frozen as we would be at -50 Celsius. Next time you look through a pane of glass or at a bottle, see a frozen completely reusable liquid!<br /><br />Glass can withstand this change back and forth from liquid to solid an unending amount of times, which is why it's so good to recycle. So "cullet" is not a bottom-feeding fish, it's crushed glass that's ready to recycle by adding more raw materials and reheating.<br /></span><br />My students' earth-friendly activity was to use Makedo to design an object with recyclable parts that moved on their own in the wind. We ran out of time for all groups to complete a working model, but there was one notable success:<br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe style="font-style: italic;" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_bgVEbRptzc" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" width="425"></iframe><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">excellent work, Zach and teammates!</span><br /></div><br />If you want to learn more, check out the following links:<br /><br />Video for how glass is recycled<br /><a href="http://earth911.com/recycling/glass/video-how-glass-gets-recycled/">http://earth911.com/recycling/glass/video-how-glass-gets-recycled/</a><br /><br />Listing of everything that is recyclable in the city of Charlottesville, VA<br /><a href="http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=566">http://www.charlottesville.org/Index.aspx?page=566</a><br /><br />Household hazardous waste disposal guide locally<br /><a href="http://rswa.avenue.org/household.htm">http://rswa.avenue.org/household.htm</a><br /><br />Corning Museum of Art's website with tons of fun pictures and explanations:<br /><a href="http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=11886">http://www.cmog.org/dynamic.aspx?id=11886</a><br /><br /><span class="status">F2NFVAAD857J</span>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-55534156809175670842011-05-06T09:17:00.008-04:002011-05-06T10:19:43.719-04:00Failure does hurt. It just isn't the end.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSOvmZXBNal05hqIAaUOk_Ky3s1IuvsorHDvoKLHUQgKwWZhLD5x0gWc5VvMolO-Bvs5GZVUzHykPVlnBpCUUuBy7M1QWUsHEXGSA011Jbk_WGnHf9Jz73tF8n7Te0dAVJMFqeLoSKTs/s1600/sad+mary.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 198px; height: 316px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKSOvmZXBNal05hqIAaUOk_Ky3s1IuvsorHDvoKLHUQgKwWZhLD5x0gWc5VvMolO-Bvs5GZVUzHykPVlnBpCUUuBy7M1QWUsHEXGSA011Jbk_WGnHf9Jz73tF8n7Te0dAVJMFqeLoSKTs/s320/sad+mary.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5603604359568191938" border="0" /></a>Hello students and blog readers - I'm going to write something here, and it's tough but I especially want my students to know that I really mean what I say. Blog readers, you can listen in on the conversation but this is primarily written to my students. I tell them all the time that failure can be the best thing because you can learn so much. I cheer when they put tons of effort into a model that doesn't work, since then they pick up and try again. I remember things the most when they have thwarted me over and over before I get it.<br /><br />Students, our team was just turned down for the next step in the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams grant cycle. We spent dozens of hours of creative and thoughtful work to document our potential invention and plan, and I have the highest respect for the teams ultimately chosen by MIT. Students, I am so proud of you, you have come so far in just one year. I'm sure we'll still try to prototype our invention through other funding or grants.<br /><br />This is the real world - yes, I'm fantastically disappointed but also not crushed - if I add up all the times I "succeed" versus "fail" I'm sure the fails would far outpace the wins. I writing this so you know that how we handle the losses is so key, so clutch - and when it comes down to it even though I'm your teacher I'm still learning, just like you.<br /><br />Here's to you - great work, and I'm looking forward to next year's application.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-87255828349208111102011-04-29T14:06:00.004-04:002011-05-05T08:35:17.665-04:00InvenTeams or Bust<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZJXITiQx-6vDoNIZGFDOBRIhnIxPtTrC-SM7ANSUg3B-NxNkAVxGhh77pcHD8DAxhwXSf7e_KwhoP6OpWYev9ZLqx6IYFbYqrzo-BCGqecTEk5wLy0BhvbnYZYlY_WgvTFpjcn1xceD4/s1600/itbannerwork.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 42px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZJXITiQx-6vDoNIZGFDOBRIhnIxPtTrC-SM7ANSUg3B-NxNkAVxGhh77pcHD8DAxhwXSf7e_KwhoP6OpWYev9ZLqx6IYFbYqrzo-BCGqecTEk5wLy0BhvbnYZYlY_WgvTFpjcn1xceD4/s320/itbannerwork.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5601070516459393170" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Our group has an application in for a $10,000 <a href="http://web.mit.edu/inventeams/faq.html">Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams</a> grant and we'll find out May 6 if we win! We submitted our multi multi part proposal April 22nd for this extremely cool program run through a partnership between the <a href="http://web.mit.edu/invent/w-foundation.html">Lemelson Foundation</a> and <a href="http://web.mit.edu/">Massachusetts Institute of Technology</a>. Too excited to wait. Even if we don't get it it's been an awesome learning experience and a chance to give students a leadership and brainstorming role - we had to document a potential invention - and we'll try again next year! I'll keep everyone posted!Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-73087050310850255752011-04-26T19:55:00.011-04:002011-04-27T16:20:31.459-04:00Use Less by Makedo-ing More<div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAdspQEEw-TkEdlZjuFxbyf1hRGvFr3EmgzaiaoBNkp3MzlW414TLA4tQXwqhQXmil7xwFV0UqncmtIW1WjjzaDsgOZGq4Sb0yfWgJR6H-jd2jqQ_U29rBs_g2D3tj6l5_QIQr8p4OC0/s1600/makedog.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 275px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCAdspQEEw-TkEdlZjuFxbyf1hRGvFr3EmgzaiaoBNkp3MzlW414TLA4tQXwqhQXmil7xwFV0UqncmtIW1WjjzaDsgOZGq4Sb0yfWgJR6H-jd2jqQ_U29rBs_g2D3tj6l5_QIQr8p4OC0/s320/makedog.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5600281997979496034" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" >Photo credit http://makedo.com.au/creatures/ retrieved 4/27/11, © Makedo and Paul Justin</span><br /></div><br />We're now starting a multi-part unit on green engineering and STEM concepts that is similar to the <a href="http://sugru.com/">Sugru</a> challenge (<a href="http://engineeringkook.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html">see posts from Febr</a>.). We've got eco-things to learn and a large-scale project to design, all tied into the science and technology surrounding the environment. Now, before your eyes begin to glaze over at the thought of an environmental lecture and guilt-trip into recycling, give me just a minute. I am just like anyone out there. I recycle when it's convenient, try to reuse things, watch what I throw down the drain but definitely could do a better job of being eco-friendly.<br /><br />What I find over and over again with my students, though, is that inspiring them to take hold of concepts through fun activities is much more effective than trying to grind subject matter into them. I'm taking a cue from them right now as I've recently been very moved to think differently about the materials I use and then discard. Learning doesn't always have to taste like <a href="http://www.livestrong.com/article/35022-hide-taste-liquid-fish-oil/">fish oil</a>. Sometimes it can taste like popcorn.<br /><br />Our new partner in this effort is the awesome Australian company <a href="http://makedo.com.au/">Makedo</a>. Makedo describes themselves as "inspiring social change through playful creativity". They make a set of universal connectors and hinges that can transform a pile of paper into a toy, bird or a car (my own kids love their <a href="http://makedo.com.au/creatures/">gallery of creations</a>). Makedo is especially fond of cool designs and collaboration. We've got enough of their <a href="http://makedo.com.au/what-is-makedo/">universal connectors and tools</a> for all thirty engineering students and any others who are interested in making something BIG and FUN out of materials that would otherwise have been thrown away.<br /><br />Makedo and STEM concepts came together in yesterday's lesson:<br /><br />Students learned facts about the size and scale of human trash production, like how humans generate more than four pounds per person per day. We also ran through the complete life cycle of cardboard: beginning with fast-growing pine trees trunks, wood pulp is shredded, "<a href="http://www.paperindustry.com/paper-digester.asp">digested</a>" by sodium hydroxide to break up wood fibers and then pressed, rolled and dried into sheets or shapes. Once used, cardboard can be stuck back into digesters with fresh wood pulp and reused (as long as it doesn't have plastic coating on it). We named and discussed local recyclers like <a href="http://www.vanderlinderecycling.com/">Van der Linde</a> that offer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-stream_recycling">single-stream</a> recycling.<br /><br />Finally, they practiced the design cycle using Makedo connectors and reusable materials from my home, which were cardboard, plastic bottles, caps and grocery paper bags. Their goal was to make a pet or creature in only 15 minutes using only Makedo and the recyclables.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FMaryCSaville%2Falbumid%2F5600288019643969057%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26authkey%3DGv1sRgCOz71t2pmo72wgE%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" height="267" width="400"></embed><br /><br />If you want to explore more, see these links:<br /><br />Common recycling facts<br /><a href="http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html">http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html</a><br /><br />How corrugated cardboard is made<br /><a href="http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Corrugated-Cardboard.html">http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Corrugated-Cardboard.html</a><br /><br />Recycling cardboard<br /><a href="http://cardboardrecycling.org/">http://cardboardrecycling.org/</a>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-88945755381242939592011-04-07T23:29:00.007-04:002011-04-22T08:46:56.301-04:00Biomedical Engineering: more than just Frankenfruit<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdnekarPl7wA74ekwY0Jg61nE-dmsmBHdcCEYb9uVrIExVmew363XWjRInhm1HsbC0g1JaAsnyCpoCk0wMX6j_vXACqdqfModWH941jaWx4-Lhfo0L-Npu4ir60kRJSLeqeDZ6kFuzaA/s1600/133310__chewbacca_l.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 204px; height: 272px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNdnekarPl7wA74ekwY0Jg61nE-dmsmBHdcCEYb9uVrIExVmew363XWjRInhm1HsbC0g1JaAsnyCpoCk0wMX6j_vXACqdqfModWH941jaWx4-Lhfo0L-Npu4ir60kRJSLeqeDZ6kFuzaA/s320/133310__chewbacca_l.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598384681959232274" border="0" /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:trebuchet ms;" >I</span><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:78%;" >mage credit: Return of the Jedi: © & TM Lucas Film. LTD</span></a><br /></div><br /><br /><br />How can a debate of the relative strengths between Chewbacca and Yoda help students learn?<br /><br />Ask <a href="http://bme.virginia.edu/people/chen.html">David Chen</a>, faculty member at the <a href="http://www.bme.virginia.edu/">University of Virginia Department of Biomedical Engineering (BME)</a>. David was our third guest speaker for the year and brought stories, descriptions of current research, and some fun to our class. He heads UVa's partnership with the Coulter Foundation to support <a href="http://commonfund.nih.gov/clinicalresearch/overview-translational.aspx">translational research</a> (making scientific discoveries and bringing them into real-world situations). As I've mentioned before, lack of knowledge of current careers and research in engineering is often a barrier to choosing to study engineering. In his engaging way, David helped take down a few more barriers for this group of students.<br /><br />David started off by dividing class into two teams. Each team had to pick and defend a superhero with uncommon strength, skill or special powers. One team picked <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/yoda/">Yoda</a>, the other, a hundred <a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/chewbacca/">Chewbaccas</a>. Who would win if they fought<a href="http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/chewbacca/"></a>? Why? What are some traits that are biologically different? Could you combine genes to make a Yobacca, or Chewyoda? Would it be right to do so? After the laughter died down from picturing Yoda using the force on a giant circle of Wookies (I know they're on the same side, silly) David drew parallels between the discussion and modern biomedical engineering.<br /><br />He described a field that bridges medicine, biology, materials science and engineering, a field where you quite possibly could take desirable properties of one element and combine them with another. <br /><br />A BME might listen to a surgeon describing a need for a surgical tool. A BME could understand the problem, then apply his or her knowledge of biology and design to create and test a new medical technology.<br /><br />BME's also grow <a href="http://health.howstuffworks.com/medicine/modern/lab-grown-skin.htm">skin cells and tissue for grafts</a>, study ways to improve <a href="http://www.opcareers.org/op_technology/">prosthetics</a>, or generate strains of crops that are drought resistant or have special properties (example: <a href="http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2010/06/franken-fruit-its-alive/">frankenfruit</a>). <br /><br />Biomedical engineering is filled with ethical debates on stem cell use, genetically modified foods and cloning. David helpfully told us that the embryonic stem cell debate is lessening because there are alternate, ethically preferable sources of stem cells coming into use from adults or umbilical cord blood.<br /><br />Bio-medical engineering is an excellent example of a cross-disciplinary career that is changing and developing quickly due to its young age. Thanks again to David Chen.<br /><br />Check out these links for further exploration.<br /><br />Homepage of the University of Virginia Biomedical Engineering Department. There are easy to find tabs for people, research, news, and contact information. Look at what they are studying in tissues, imaging or cardiovascular engineering.<br /><a href="http://www.bme.virginia.edu/" target="_blank">http://www.bme.virginia.edu/</a><br /><br />Frequently Asked Questions about biomedical engineering from the Biomedical Engineering Society. This page has a nice summary of specialty areas within Biomedical Engineering including bioinstrumentation, biomaterials, biomechanics, rehabilitation engineering, medical imaging and systems physiology.<br /><a href="http://www.bmes.org/aws/BMES/pt/sp/be_faqs" target="_blank">http://www.bmes.org/aws/BMES/<wbr>pt/sp/be_faqs</a><br /><br />If the conversations about ethics in biomedical engineering interested you, you might want to browse the National Society of Professional Engineer's Code of Ethics. Just as doctors must "first, do no harm", professional engineers must "hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.<br /><a href="http://www.onlineethics.org/Resources/ethcodes/EnglishCodes/9972.aspx" target="_blank">http://www.onlineethics.org/<wbr>Resources/ethcodes/<wbr>EnglishCodes/9972.aspx</a>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-3604189555795563982011-03-30T17:58:00.008-04:002011-03-30T22:52:39.337-04:00Keep it Simple<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 345px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 273px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590052296028865986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV5STE_9uI_SKpiTllDbklq2CXRyokenYWRNOfKpjS7yzX3FxwNAlRbael7To2ZISHQ0-VXjnPi56p1jdQbNtZP9JgaiV250EFgeGz3C1rPa2-kiIj_Qhkd9CZG2nVkwES9kQ7WgLBnIk/s200/DSC05810.JPG" /> <br /><div><br /><div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I'm thankful for lots of things in this world. Some of those things are General Tso's chicken, hugs from my kids, and simple machines. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Simple machines doesn't mean machines that don't know much. It means tools that provide mechanical advantage, or increase the amount of work someone is able to do. The six simple machines are the pulley, wheel and axle, lever, wedge, screw and inclined plane.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>Any of these six can be combined to make more complicated machines, like.... marshmallow launchers.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I have to admit that as a teacher my lesson plans often include elements to make me laugh, but this time I think it was the students who got the laugh. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>This week myself, two bags of large marshmallows and twenty-some students covered the basics of simple machines and used at least one simple machine to make three launchers: high-flying, far-flying, and precise flying to a target.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>It was highly amusing to see four teams of students working furiously with styrofoam cups, lego blocks, rubber bands, foam plates, bamboo skewers, a yardstick, paper and tape. Launchers went on a table and marshmallows went in the launcher so that no part of a student touched the mini-astronaut before it flew.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>There were a number of lever-type launchers with fulcrums, some "wheel and axle" devices with the skewer poked through a plate and a notable, alarming bow and arrow. To be fair, the only simple machine really in the bow and arrow was a foam plate wheel on the bottom, but they did cover themselves. The arrow group stuck a marshmallow on a skewer, ran the skewer through a hole in the yardstick, used rubber bands for tension, and swish - I've never seen a marshmallow move so fast. </div><br /><div></div></div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 202px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5590070948167895570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2zyYt1ATZ-i-BQVIAP379q3bEVYchnig84KJcnDzVpvUF3E4G1xdBsY880pMX1nusBsJO6cf2CIYj0gZiEWcTU0hZLy373PhXvad-EkbIHKs-RhmAoghMuC53YavDeLeS2T-fjOVWJZA/s320/image002.gif" /> <br /><div></div><br /><div><br /><div>I have to disclaim here that my husband was rightfully upset with me since I had as the target for precise launchers my face, and more specifically my mouth. In my defense I was picturing soft arcs of delicious marshmallows, not speedy dangerous marshmallows, but still - don't shoot sharp things at anyone's face, not even if the sharp things are tipped with marshmallows.</div></div><br /><div></div><br /><div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The goals of this exercise were to teach a STEM concept (simple machines), foster creativity, practice the design cycle AGAIN, and have students own these ideas by doing and making. I'd say it went well. My only change would be to have someone else hold the bag of marshmallows. I think I ate about twenty of them.</div></div></div>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-90942504508643625992011-03-16T11:27:00.007-04:002011-03-16T21:53:22.134-04:00Tsunamis, Engineering and Compassion<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZcwFdlGk-z05dpBR4ZKJ2DZkZn9XEmuLegmAu8zr0XMIjBTmVTCeYZN55zpykwEgWoGmsv4Yp8zWSrYYFAUK7aebjQLXgER0tvg0yr9_Z-sY4zeiigwDb0S3szlFD0SrJBLlA03B657o/s1600/Mar+16+2011+-+VID00014_3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZcwFdlGk-z05dpBR4ZKJ2DZkZn9XEmuLegmAu8zr0XMIjBTmVTCeYZN55zpykwEgWoGmsv4Yp8zWSrYYFAUK7aebjQLXgER0tvg0yr9_Z-sY4zeiigwDb0S3szlFD0SrJBLlA03B657o/s200/Mar+16+2011+-+VID00014_3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5584745817086796082" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Scale model tsunami zone</span></span><br /></div><br />I felt conflicted over this week's lesson on engineering structures for <a href="http://www.ussartf.org/tsunamis.htm">tsunami survival</a> using a scale model. I didn't want students to laugh over or trivialize the enormous trauma our brothers and sisters in Japan are undergoing. I <span style="font-style: italic;">did</span> want to give them a better sense of a giant wave's size, scope and destructive power while teaching about tsunamis being a <a href="http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=natural+disasters&cp=10&qe=bmF0dXJhbCBkaXM&qesig=QnLM6GHJ5HPLWv1spISMTQ&pkc=AFgZ2tl3yW29gNMy8gyFfR2_nMHSvIHpBZqwBeX9OdBaHo33LTymPH3L_1__wkttQslMsttBmJUOyoLbt0R-hx0rQvLJ3eQAFQ&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=y_-ATe38KczqgQep3q2ECA&sqi=2&ved=0CFcQsAQ&biw=1025&bih=608">natural (unpreventable) disaster</a>. Not a single person should think that anyone in Japan bears fault for the earthquake or tsunami. I want to help in some way by contacting a Japanese homeschooling group similar to ours here to find out what we can do. I'll update everyone as that effort comes together.<br /><br />The facts:<br /><ul><li>Tsunamis travel faster than the beach waves we bob in. Most beach waves are created by wind traveling over the ocean for long distances. Their speed must be less than the speed of the wind. Tsunamis are created by earth movement in the deep sea and are not limited by wind. They can travel up to 500 mph.</li><li>Tsunamis are much higher than beach waves. Because of how shorelines are shaped, a two-foot shift in deep seabed can translate into a thirty foot (or higher) breaking tsunami wave at the coast.</li><li>Engineers can improve building tsunami survival odds by materials design and changing building structure and geometry. Stronger materials are better but more expensive. Minimizing exposed surface area helps too.<br /></li></ul>Students had three materials: paper towels, manila-type paper, and paper with toothpicks. Their challenge was to create model houses on a scale of 1 inch:10 feet quickly out of each material and position them on a "beach": a long, wide container half-filled with water and with sand on one end for a mini-coastline. Thanks to <a href="http://www.teachengineering.org/view_activity.php?url=http://www.teachengineering.org/collection/cub_/activities/cub_natdis/cub_natdis_lesson06_activity1.xml">TeachEngineering</a> for the plan.<br /><br />Armed with six model houses (two from each material) the students placed their houses on the beach. We generated a scale-model thirty foot wave (video below shows how). Some houses were placed on sand 15 to 20 feet above sea level and were inundated. Toothpicks elevated other structures (some to ludicrous heights) and those fared better. Students observed how housing material and shape related to damage. They thought about the tradeoffs between material strength and cost, and between safe height and a height that occupants could actually reach!<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy1NFV7HZcVVybx9L5BW6hQ5nS_0l6tLTI6QxmLwKjcHXR_mYjnvCXh9XhRf4qjxZLnxBPFnqNNkykfM2kilQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br /></div><br /><br />Students did a wonderful job. They collaborated, practiced the design cycle (they were able to rework the buildings and have a second trial) and learned some STEM concepts. I'd say they also gained a better appreciation of the challenges engineers face due to tsunamis.<br /><br />Additional resources: here's some recent tsunami survival design from a collaboration beteween Harvard and MIT: the <a href="http://projects.gsd.harvard.edu/tsunami/index2.htm">Tsunami Design Initiative</a> and <a href="http://senseable.mit.edu/tsunami-prajnopaya/2.htm">SENSEable City</a>.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-77183058797149793562011-03-09T14:12:00.006-05:002011-03-09T16:35:38.836-05:00Help Others with Your Skills<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbC7r7DzRqJpqjQBxL5Gsgv9STD2GFR5tM-Gik2ENFsKe4saXmUxx_3AamIW87pLzKoSt9-7j4N62WgWRl5D86o_e8UrdbG60PeaRF7zeTZjhUtFXDqKQ4bGe9VT_qappjHniZbyvS0E/s1600/powerlog.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 42px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipbC7r7DzRqJpqjQBxL5Gsgv9STD2GFR5tM-Gik2ENFsKe4saXmUxx_3AamIW87pLzKoSt9-7j4N62WgWRl5D86o_e8UrdbG60PeaRF7zeTZjhUtFXDqKQ4bGe9VT_qappjHniZbyvS0E/s200/powerlog.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5582189614008238946" border="0" /></a><br /><br />"I bought my first slide rule for $30 in 1956, which would be about $200 in today's dollars."<br /><br />The look on the students' faces was priceless. I'm not sure how many had even heard of a <a href="http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=slide+rule&cp=8&qe=c2xpZGUgcnU&qesig=YhizerANA-eTMiS1oL1D7w&pkc=AFgZ2tm5UU2AusJfue0-c-JvPh0Oy2zywhW57od0x5ghCyLI6-yU-u6445z2xmcJqvL-pTXXR7ypYm4Qkftt1y1lqursoIzlnQ&bav=on.2,or.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=c-t3TaP5M4a0lQeh6-CPCA&sqi=2&ved=0CFEQsAQ&biw=1023&bih=610">slide rule</a>, much less held one, as the wooden and decidedly un-electronic device was passed around. Dr. Kenneth Brewer began his guest lecture to our engineering class with a history of the technology that he used as a student, then as a doctoral candidate, then as a professor of engineering. When he asked how many in the class had calculators, there was only a smattering, since most of them use the calculator through some other device like a phone or ipod!<br /><br />Our second guest engineering speaker of the year, Dr. Brewer taught Civil Engineering at <a href="http://www.engineering.iastate.edu/">Iowa State</a> for over 30 years and is now retired. Students (and I) learned that <a href="http://www.vintage-technology.info/pages/calculators/general/calccompany.htm">in 1970 a calculator</a> cost him $400! And that was from a discount store!<br /><br />There are several obstacles to students choosing and sticking with engineering as a major. Yes, there's the math and science background, but there are a couple of other sneaky ones. It turns out that <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=1612235">people study such things as student motivators</a>, and have learned that 1) negative stereotypes of engineers and a 2) lack of knowledge of what engineers do are both harmful to engineering enrollment. Students need to hear, see, and wrap their brains around lots of positive role models and creative careers. Dr. Brewer was a fantastic example.<br /><br />Aside from the slide rule, the coolest things he shared were stories and pictures from volunteer work he does with <a href="http://www.emiusa.org/index.html">Engineering Ministries International</a>, or EMI. EMI is a faith-based non-profit that sends teams of architects, designers and engineers to areas where they can help families and children through construction projects. We saw slides of a team next to a tank in Afghanistan and on a bus in India. How amazing for students to see that something they learn now can help someone across the world build a bridge, a school or a place of worship!<br /><br />Dr. Brewer kept using words like collaborate, creative, listening and constraints. A constraint in design is something that is a boundary, something that you must keep in mind when doing your work, a line not to cross. His EMI trips ran into all kinds of constraints: environmental (work in India at night with a flashlight because it's 120◦F during the day) geological (sandy site in Jordan mean extra big concrete "feet" for support) and cultural (moving from province to province in Afghanistan required armed guides). <br /><br />Even he "learned with a lone wolf mentality, the game has changed and it's a team now". Thanks to him for adapting and sharing his work with us.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-35099813056448140102011-03-04T08:50:00.000-05:002011-03-04T20:08:06.722-05:00Learn for Free<div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaT9CP-CF_5UxwsZlIW55JgoAc2HZrZRoleoJhgVmIH-P6ctvYuZG_VNJFObpfCPbUctjk-ZFZyewR7uNCWCE5vQZwkV0yB4Xzr1y0W74p4LoPlbNDbf_iokxCctEc5-4Em9PMPkR8gAY/s1600/Snapshot+2011-03-04+09-30-55.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 167px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaT9CP-CF_5UxwsZlIW55JgoAc2HZrZRoleoJhgVmIH-P6ctvYuZG_VNJFObpfCPbUctjk-ZFZyewR7uNCWCE5vQZwkV0yB4Xzr1y0W74p4LoPlbNDbf_iokxCctEc5-4Em9PMPkR8gAY/s200/Snapshot+2011-03-04+09-30-55.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580232585994129922" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Geometry student's graphic repeat cell</span></span><br /></div><br /><br /><br />This is an exciting time for education. Digital media and connectivity make it more possible than ever to learn what you want, when you want, applying it as creatively as possible. Here's a list of free resources that I've come across that can help both students and, well, I was going to say out-of-schoolers - but we really all should be continually learning at this point.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.majortests.com/">majortests.com</a><br />Free SAT, GRE and GMAT standardized test plans and problems. Has a nifty feature that can print you out an eight week study plan. Totally costless, has a thousand vocab words.<br /><br /><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">Classes from MIT</a><br />I spent one summer in high school studying at MIT and fell in love with it. Even though I went to University of Virginia, it's been in my heart ever since. MIT now offers many of its classes online FREE, calling it Open Courseware. Chemistry, economics, urban planning, engineering, it's all there. Some courses have notes only, a few have multimedia.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ocwconsortium.org/courses/ocwsites">Classes from Everywhere</a><br />Organized by language, this site lists universities that offer Open Courseware similar to MIT's program. Notre Dame, Michigan, even Oxford's Mathematical Institute let you learn, self-paced, without cost.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.teachengineering.org/browse_activities.php">Teach Engineering</a><br />Standards-based engineering lessons and activities, searchable and sortable by age and discipline. Great for encouraging students to think and collaborate, with lists of materials needed and how long activities should take.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Alcumus/Introduction.php">Alcumus</a><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The Art of Problem Solving</span>'s free, challenging and slightly addictive math tutorial. What I like about this site is that you sign up and are given a math problem to solve. If you get it right, the program bumps you up to harder problems. Get it wrong, and you'll work through more problems until you understand the basics. You score points and can compete, see your rankings, and if a whole class does it the teacher can view class stats. Many math disciplines treat subjects like silos, going deep into algebra or geometry but never mixing the two. An engineer might have an issue that requires algebra, geometry, logic and be open-ended; Alcumus comes up with problems that (in my opinion) more closely simulate the real world.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.engineering.com/GamesPuzzles/tabid/82/Default.aspx">Engineering.com</a><br />I've spent my share of time playing pointless but fun online games. This link gets you to more point-full games that integrate physics concepts, mechanical knowledge, and oh, by the way, are just as easy to fritter away time on. The only difference is that you'll be sharpening your mind.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks">Amazing lectures from TED</a><br />I've so enjoyed learning obscure, wonderful things from TED, a nonprofit that has as its goal sharing ideas. They invite speakers who are inspiring, strange and informative. In the last few days I've watched the world-champion whistler, learned about bioluminescence and saw a mathemagician.<br /><br />That's probably enough for now. I've got tons more, if anyone wants particular help finding math vs. engineering vs. something else, let me know!Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-83972361403669033682011-03-02T12:15:00.000-05:002011-03-02T13:51:29.967-05:00Designing PackagingTest your packaging acumen - out of these solid shapes, given a volume of 12 ounces, which would use the least packaging?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7G6GwyHydbJWO-6TqjHtrx6iN1zP-nrVt1IDrHMmh0XkEfah-S4vczgY9L40Hks8kU8iN-wJaXjAvzvNgk2B1fPpNttky9t-47usR4LDKV0hrIyJ9QJObru-6TuGhyTAC2ZYUaTrFKrA/s1600/images-2.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 110px; height: 161px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7G6GwyHydbJWO-6TqjHtrx6iN1zP-nrVt1IDrHMmh0XkEfah-S4vczgY9L40Hks8kU8iN-wJaXjAvzvNgk2B1fPpNttky9t-47usR4LDKV0hrIyJ9QJObru-6TuGhyTAC2ZYUaTrFKrA/s200/images-2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579541979471807202" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacMQY8nVFcA9Y7FVBAaiBlTPITatV0bqYWWKaE-yKkvJiuahf6-qDYnup27Q4rXpI-byM7Fgegz6zDyG6WvzdWieWbi6R5fbFN5ZvRO8F1IxqJNjZ2kqSj364gXwwpIsnRhj2YE-CSfY/s1600/images-3.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 131px; height: 156px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjacMQY8nVFcA9Y7FVBAaiBlTPITatV0bqYWWKaE-yKkvJiuahf6-qDYnup27Q4rXpI-byM7Fgegz6zDyG6WvzdWieWbi6R5fbFN5ZvRO8F1IxqJNjZ2kqSj364gXwwpIsnRhj2YE-CSfY/s200/images-3.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579541679960839906" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGmG0JZ7HVo_0MAKDT7QlAc1CoWAeJPaM0G2NzSbzaj8LpI1GOV3ToHunMYznqsq3q9Ula3ZyFtSn3mCzNVmhG1tdKYmi9CWbLWv00w_3RjYmRKvr27ZMYMzigC8L0XvUjMlQ3uw0sK-M/s1600/11954346871389455163molumen_blue_cristal_ball.svg.med.png"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 146px; height: 157px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGmG0JZ7HVo_0MAKDT7QlAc1CoWAeJPaM0G2NzSbzaj8LpI1GOV3ToHunMYznqsq3q9Ula3ZyFtSn3mCzNVmhG1tdKYmi9CWbLWv00w_3RjYmRKvr27ZMYMzigC8L0XvUjMlQ3uw0sK-M/s200/11954346871389455163molumen_blue_cristal_ball.svg.med.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579541673299854818" border="0" /></a>Yesterday I gave the class a taste of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packaging_engineering">packaging engineering</a>. It made sense since we just finished a materials science unit with a focus on properties - the kind of stuff that wraps and protects the things we buy and use is vital!<br /><br />Packaging engineers must be able to successfully integrate industrial or chemical engineering and work with a team of marketers, designers and financial types. Choosing the proper material, labeling it with the right colors, transporting it safely, while protecting the food or consumer goods inside is a complex task.<br /><br />Take fast-food soda cups for instance. I'm a forgetful type, so when I've got that large drink of lemonade in my cupholder I'll often leave it there for, um, let's say a few days. The same cup that nicely brought lovely cold lemonade to my lips has, after 72 hours or so, begun leaking out of the bottom seam and depositing unlovely sticky lemon syrup in my cupholder. Why didn't the quick serve eatery make a better takeaway cup? Why not plastic instead of waxy paper?<br /><br />Every <a href="http://www.greenerpackage.com/renewable_resources/paper_and_sustainability">paper packaging decision</a> involves a trade-off. Fast-food joints could easily provide solid plastic take-out cups but the cost for plastic instead of waxy paper would be much higher. They could also design the cups with better paper to hold the liquid longer but that would take more money as well. The fact is, engineers and marketing teams have decided that for the given design goals of serving a beverage that (should be) finished and disposed of in a few hours a slightly waxy paper cup is just the right container. In some sense the fast-food cup is "designed to fail" at just the right time to save everyone money and reduce waste.<br /><br />How about a half-gallon of orange juice? Now there's a product that won't usually be finished in a few hours, barring an attack of thirsty teenage boys. (Once I drank a quart of milk in one sitting but that was kind of gross.) The paper is thicker, more waxy, with a replaceable cap. It won't leak in a few days - but it won't last forever, either. It also has very cleverly designed features and colors to make you enjoy drinking it and think that it's fresh, usually <a href="http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=orange+juice+packaging&cp=17&qe=b3JhbmdlIGp1aWNlIHBhY2th&qesig=j0zYvkgwVmszViXS5EKZ-g&pkc=AFgZ2tk2zgVPnkioYc742idnE5N62sXhGHY9mDSyKeHRzf16XKvf_sfoVHiotZmaTBvlfVk2XsNINEE_zkB-NcrMxWxctqeJJw&bav=on.2,or.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&sa=X&ei=RItuTeKWM8KblgeoweVY&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=611">pictures of trees and oranges and straws on the outside</a>. You could have a great sturdy container of OJ but with drawings of candy on the outside and it wouldn't sell because moms would think it was full of sugar, even if it wasn't.<br /><br />Now, which shape did you guess would use the least packaging? It's the sphere.<br /><br />Students this last week listened to a lecture on <a href="http://www.shodor.org/interactivate/activities/SurfaceAreaAndVolume/">surface area and volume</a>, void space and efficient shapes. Even though the <span style="font-weight: bold;">sphere</span> has the best surface area to volume ratio (the least packaging to hold the most volume) we don't see spheres of juice on the shelves! Why? Not an engineering constraint, but a consumer use one - people don't want their soda to roll away! Also, spheres take up more room when stacked in a box than rectangular prisms do.<br /><br />After the lecture, students worked in teams of about five with pieces of paper to <a href="http://teachers.egfi-k12.org/lesson-paper-cup-challenge/">design a paper cup</a> that could hold the most volume of water for about a minute. With only one piece of paper at a time, the surface area was set but the volume could vary - and did! Designs that were rounded in shape seemed to work best, although plain paper without any coating would leak water within a matter of minutes. Still, if someone could engineering a paper cup that could be made by folding only, no glue or cutting needed, while still serving consumer needs, there would be much less waste and tons of money saved on manufacturing.<br /><br />For more study check out these sites showcasing excellent design in packaging:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.thedieline.com/awards-2010winners">The Dieline </a><br /><br /><a href="http://annualdesignreview.id-mag.com/category-winners/packaging/">I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review</a>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-61860136119931043242011-02-23T14:34:00.002-05:002011-03-07T12:44:15.186-05:00Sugru Designs by StudentsWe've just finished two classes' worth of sugru solutions. I am so proud of my students, most of whom are around 15 years old, for creatively practicing the design cycle and giving excellent presentations. Several of them have been so kind as to allow me to post pictures of their work. There were modifications, repairs, even suggested inventions.<br /><br /><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="https://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf" width="400" height="267" flashvars="host=picasaweb.google.com&captions=1&hl=en_US&feat=flashalbum&RGB=0x000000&feed=https%3A%2F%2Fpicasaweb.google.com%2Fdata%2Ffeed%2Fapi%2Fuser%2FMaryCSaville%2Falbumid%2F5574712464705590321%3Falt%3Drss%26kind%3Dphoto%26hl%3Den_US" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed><br /><br />Overall, I think using an actual substance to help students understand materials science, polymers, and design was a good way for them to own the knowledge.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-44448719681041947762011-02-07T10:20:00.000-05:002011-03-02T13:52:55.656-05:00Woohoo! The Sugru is here!It arrived just in time to hand out to eager students.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzSkP_RO6NTrRw0Dx156zbnN0x_QEp-8zlLlEfCtFnXcekSxaBwBquIt9BPvCHh8N525PVCxcGu2pTKWFSS2g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-35522184897738214122011-02-05T14:38:00.000-05:002011-03-02T13:53:24.975-05:00On FailureI had someone this week ask me what to do if his or her engineering project "failed". Would he or she still have to present to the class?<br /><br />I've never been good with failure. Something about coming from a driven family, my mother being a second generation immigrant and my father being the youngest of five where his dad was a longshoreman. We scrapped and scraped in many ways because we had to.<br /><br />I even remember a time in my life when it felt like failure was an impossibility, when everything I did seemed to turn to gold. Why think about failing when it was not a reality?<br /><br /><br />The truth of it is, during that golden period I was the most despondent I've ever been. Accomplishment, academic and athletic success, and I was still hunted inside. I remember feeling embittered that honors could not make me happy inside or bring together my broken family.<br /><br />Now, married thirteen years with four kids, I've had plenty of opportunities to fail. Plan a notable family activity, surely one for the scrapbooks, and end up mad with frustration instead. Promise myself I won't say that extra mean thing on the tip of my tongue. Too late. Love someone so hard that they'll stay on the straight and narrow. Nope.<br /><br />It all extends to this class in a way. I feel like my growth as a person shows up in what I say and affects my students. I've had a lot of lumps and honestly get uncommonly excited about failure. It's that failure is instructive and presses the experience deep into our minds. My acceptance of "messing up" allows me more grace with others.<br /><br />Failure or not, everyone will present. It's better that way, more honest and revealing, and those who have their project go awry will probably getting something juicier from the experience than those who got it on the first try.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-67092204920412336862011-02-04T09:54:00.000-05:002011-02-04T11:32:49.471-05:00Just getting past the dead of winter and we're beginning an awesome new project. So last fall as I ran around the internet bookmarking resources I came across <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://sugru.com/">Sugru</a> by way of a contest on <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://instructables.com/">instructables.com</a>. I stopped moving for two hours while reading about this new synthetic polymer designed by an Irishwoman named Jane. Right out of the pack, before it sets or "cures", Sugru is moldable and plastic-y like play-doh. After 30 minutes it begins to cure and after 24 hours it is a flexible, heat- and cold-resistant, form-keeping waterproof silicone substance. Sugru can adhere things if pressed together before curing, making it handy for repairing or modifying anything, really. Seeing as how my main objectives for Intro to Engineering include thinking/learning like an engineer AND practicing the design cycle I was hooked on the thought of getting some Sugru, teaching a unit on materials science engineering around it, and letting them engineer their own solutions (the folks overseas call these fix-its "hacks").<br /><br />Here's how it's gone so far:<br /><br />In early January I introduced the topic of materials science with some goofy commentary on how you wouldn't want a concrete sweater or a bridge made out of marshmallows. How materials react under stress and temperature is a key concern for an engineer. We covered stress, strain and their correct units and looked at how a <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress%E2%80%93strain_curve">stress vs. strain graph</a> might give us helpful data. After an overview of elastic, plastic and brittle characteristics, the students used cans of various weights to squash marshmallows, clay and lego towers. They measured the amount of deformation, calculated and plotted points for their stress-strain curves, and made estimates as to which material belonged in which category.<br />(Marshmallows were a tricky substance since I had mini ones and needed to smash them together to make a marsh-ball. I didn't use any water to goo it because that would have changed the elastic properties.)<br /><br />The following week we covered what polymers are and named common polymers such as rubber, PVC, stryofoam, teflon and silicone. Thanks to the <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://pslc.ws/">Polymer Science Learning Center</a> for many helpful resources and links for students to explore. I also introduced Sugru and briefly discussed it's properties when uncured and cured.<br /><br />Rewind here: after falling in love with Sugru, I sent Jane an email with possibly the worst sales pitch of all time. "Send us some Sugru for our class or I will be forced to buy some!" I did buy some and played with it around the house, fixing and patching things, and Jane graciously agreed to send us some for this unit.<br /><br />Students have brainstormed with classmates, peppered me with insightful and silly questions (Does it float? How old is Jane?) and are currently drawing a diagram of their proposed solution. This week I hand out the Sugru to students. After a week of making their hack and documenting the results each will present to the class.<br /><br />I can't wait to see what they decide to do with it. I'm contemplating such hacks as safety-proofing a cabinet, modifying a game controller or attaching a lamp directly to a bedframe.<br /><br />More posts to come.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-78468099704305665762011-01-10T12:15:00.000-05:002011-02-04T11:23:06.546-05:00So much for me blogging consistently all year!<br /><br />I've now spent the last four months teaching thirty eager homeschoolers introductory principles of engineering. The students range in age with most landing on 14-15 years old. Why am I teaching homeschoolers? In Charlottesville, Virginia, there is a flourishing homeschool community that organizes itself nicely into co-operatives and smaller classes for specialized subjects that parents aren't as comfortable teaching on their own.<br /><br />For five years I've been a Geometry and Physics instructor, pulling from my Engineering degree at the <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://www.virginia.edu/">University of Virginia</a> (thank you, professors). This course is really a work in progress since there's no way to cover all the amazing aspects of the field and this is the first year. I've got five units as guide:<br /><br />1. Thinking and Learning Like an Engineer<br />2. Communicating and Collaborating Like an Engineer<br />3. Knowing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and the Design Cycle Like an Engineer<br />4. Ethical Dilemmas of Engineering<br />5. Engineering Careers<br /><br />My husband Dave, who has a master's in teaching, helped me to create a class format that would achieve learning objectives in a fun and interactive way. I provide a brief lecture on a unit topic, followed by an activity illustrating the topic, ending with a class debrief. Students have as their primary aid a bound notebook for reflective journaling. Each week they record diagrams and drawings from class, thoughts, likes/dislikes, suggestions, and things that surprised them from the activity.<br /><br />Students also complete a second journal entry on an internet resource that I provide that complements the topic.<br /><br />As an example - for one of our first classes, I combined a STEM concept with a Collaboration concept for Cantilevered Bridges. The lecture time covered center-of-mass, cantilevers, common cantilevers in society and how a successful cantilever can be designed. For the activity, teams of 3-4 students had about thirty toothpicks and gobs of molding clay. The design goal was to make the longest possible cantilever in a set time. Once time was over, students compared their structures with other groups', then had another round to revise and improve. Finally, we recorded lengths and sketches and discussed what worked and what didn't.<br /><br />A typical student journal from that class might comment on what he or she knew already vs. what was new, what was unexpected, what it was like to work with others, and what successful cantilever design might entail.<br /><br />The resource link I sent to students as an application was an article about the <a style="color: rgb(51, 102, 255);" href="http://matdl.org/failurecases/Bridge%20Cases/quebec_bridge.htm">Quebec Bridge Collapse over the St. Lawrence River.</a> The Quebec Bridge in 1907 was the most ambitious cantilevered bridge project to date, and it failed catastrophically. Students read the link and make connections between the real-life bridge, our activity, group work, and ethics.<br /><br />We've now had 15 classes in a similar format, with a focal point, interactive project, and then verbal and written reflection.<br /><br />There are so many other tie-ins that I'd like to include - visits to engineering firms around town, connections to colleges, helping students get internships - I can't do it all, but I want to!Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8335864023765131253.post-68626737002644816612010-09-06T23:00:00.001-04:002011-02-04T11:34:04.511-05:00Well, it's the night before my first Introduction to Engineering class. I'm not studying, mind you, I got my chemical engineering degree back in the 90's. I'm teaching. Homeschoolers, 30 of them. There'll be me, ten different colored dry-erase markers, a whiteboard, and not much else. This year I've spent a lot of time thinking through the curriculum and mostly decided that I have a lot of great ideas and am terrible at paring them down and organizing them. "Murdering my darlings," my husband quotes from some poet. I'm telling my class that they need to journal their reflections, interests, loves/hates, inventions, all for learning. <span style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(51, 102, 255);"><a href="http://www.audiencedialogue.net/journal.html">Audience Dialogue</a></span> gave me a great foundation and a set of questions for them to answer. I might as well take my own advice, so I'll blog this year. Wish me luck.Mary Savillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18419089061308274348noreply@blogger.com0