Field Trip Day...

Today we spent the afternoon on field trips.

We visited the Decision Theater at the Brickyard. It is a very cool seven-screen theater where simulations can be seen in a virtual world. There is a driver of the program who can take the theater through the simulation so that people can see what a scenario would look like prior to spending lots-o-money on the actual pursuit of their project. It is a very cool theater.

After the Decision Theater, we traversed the campus and visited the NMR/Spider Lab. I had visited the lab on opening day, but it was good to see it again and to here the perspective of the graduate student who works there v. the professor in charge. Both were fascinating to listen too. I took some cool pics of the NMRs and the spiders. One of the main purposes of the research taking place in the lab is to identify the structure of spider silk. The goal is to be able to reproduce the silk with a synthetic version. The silk has very attractive properties as it is both very strong and very flexible and elastic. The hope is that some day we will be able to use it to create artificial tendons to be used during reconstructive surgery. The Dept. of Defense is also interested in the research.

Visual C#

This week we are beginning our adventures in becoming familiar with C# (C Sharp) programming. I say familiar because we are shown an example and then we replicate the example for practice. I don't feel like I am really "learning" the programming language. I understand, of course, there is little time to accomplish that task. There was a homework assignment given. This was challenging. All of the tools were not necessarily given or learned to complete the assignment. With some effort and creativity I was able to complete the first two of four assignments. Once you become familiar with the language, the programming seems quite simple and friendly to use.

Reflecting as a student and thinking as if I was a teacher, I wonder how often I send my students off with an assignment with the assumption that they have the prior knowledge necessary to complete the new task. This is what I felt when trying to complete the assignments. It was a powerful experience that will be used to remind myself to consider what it is that I am asking students to do on an independant basis, especially when considering the number of school-dependant students there are in my student population.

The afternoon sessions are frustrating. I am not feeling like it is a constructive use of time. Honestly, it feels like we are being coddled. I'm not sure if the idea of "mentors" is a good one. Some are helpful and only assist when asked, others are a bit overbearing and intrusive.

Yesterday we began working on our PowerPoint presentation. We completed the task in short order because we have been compiling peices of the project as we have gone along. I think we are pretty much ready to role.

Our breakout session with our research group was basically non-productive. I want to start woking on my project, but the group wants to keep trying to define everything. What are the groups, who is in the groups, what are we going to do, how is it going to transfer to our class, etc., etc., etc. The group dynmaics are frustrating, people running over others attempts to have conversation, people attmepting to provide all the answers, many, many frustrated participants. Personally, I have a group and an approved idea that I would like to spend my time developing and producing. I am close to the point that I will not be sitting with my group joust so that I can proceed. We have lots of work to do and lots of wasted time that is enfringing on our efforts. Unfortunatly, this seems to be the norm when woking with groups of teachers. In our group's case there are many particiants who want to move forward, do a good job, and produce something meaningful and worthwhile. There simply seems to be a lack of direction and information. What is made available is vauge, perhaps intentionally. I think back to other programs that I have participated and remind myself to think of a useful phrase: "trust the process." I will trust and will reflect again at the conclusion.

Robotics Competition...

Today is the capstone event for the robotics portion of our program. There are two groups of student competetors and one group of teachers. We have been working on programming our Lego Robots all week. There will be three different tasks that each team will be competing. It has been a fun, but frustrating experience. The instruction was limited. Most of what we accomplished was done independently and with group members.

The tasks that our robots must complete include: manuvering a maze, capturing a ball and delivering it to the finish line; an artificial intelligence course where the robot must be pre-programed to manuever the course independantly; and finally a three-on-three ball capture competition. Each event presents its own challenges and has provided many opportunities to troubleshoot and fine tune our programs.

The students are great to watch. They are so engaged and full of energy. They seem much more comfortable with programming, technology, and the like. It seems that many of the adults reach their frustration point much faster that the students.

Let the games begin...

Screen shots from 3 minute movie...

Alice...

This week we are learning how to program using Alice software.

Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience. You can read more about Alice and download the free software at: http://www.alice.org/

One of our projects for this week is to create a three minute animation set to music. The software is extremely easy to use, friendly and fun. In addition, Calvin, our grad assistant/teacher for the week, is an outstanding facilitator and teacher.

Brainstorming ideas for the classroom...

Yesterday I received my Lego Robot! I took it home and the 13 year old boy in me sat on the floor for two hours constructing the robot. As I sat there piecing together the little monster, ideas were rushing through the space between my ears as to how I could write a unit for my algebra classroom.

Coming from a business background, my mind was churning with ways to inventory the parts of the kit, assigning costs to each piece of the inventory, creating a project that included business application such as inventory control, purchasing, budgeting and auditing. In addition, parts of the unit could focus on the manufacturing of the unit, quality control, and testing. Once the production of the unit is complete, experiments could be run to discover certain physical phenomenon. The experiments would include posing a question, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of the data with interpretation of the data.

The task for this summer is to develop a 4 to 5 day unit. I see potential for much, much more with this idea. This is a very exciting start of my fellowship.

What I'm doing this summer...

This blog is my personal journal that will document my experiences as a fellow in the Math and Science Teacher Fellows Project at Arizona State University.

The goal of the Math and Science Teacher Fellows Project is to begin building for Arizona a cadre of teachers who demonstrate a deepened understanding of the nature of science, a stronger grasp of the content they teach, and improved pedagogical knowledge and skills based on data emerging from STEM education research.

I will be participating in the area of Advanced Computing Systems & Information Technologies. Specifically I will be working in the Software Research Laboratory: Co-directed by Dr. W. T. Tsai and Dr. Yinong Chen. The lab performs research in software engineering, service-oriented architecture, service-oriented computing (SOC), model-driven development, verification and validation, robotics, and gaming. The lab is actively engaged with high schools—teaching an SOC class at Coronado High School, serving as mentors to high school robotic clubs, and teaching modern robotics and game programming at summer camps.

My activities will include working alongside lab researchers studying applications of service-oriented architecture and computing, and as part of that process will design a 3-D game or movie and a robot.

This is an exciting venture for me, as every summer I try to throw myself out of my comfort zone in an attempt to become a better educator. This program promises to offer a peak into real world applications of research and design, and an opportunity to develop and write curriculum that will be able to be implemented into my classroom.