STEM Through the Arts

This week, along with last week, and I think kind of along with next week, really are the first stages, with mostly lots of online research, figuring out when events are happening and creating outlines for the big projects. I think by week 5, I will have had most of the online research done and really be jumping into turning the outline plans into an official 40 minute plan, hopefully have met with more people and hopefully really be diving into developing the research. Of course, I am sure I will be doing online research at the same time, but definitely these first few weeks have been building up my knowledge of topics I do not know much about to help me understand STEAM education to the best of my ability and create a plan that would be fun to teach kids.

I think I really just struggled with finding tasks for how to teach STEAM education, but with this next week’s tasks, I am hoping I will learn so much more about what STEAM education is and how to teach it in fun and cool ways. I think this week was a little more dead than the first two weeks. It was a lot of personal outlining, such as developing this website more, creating a timeline. But, based on my week 4 tasks, I can already see that I will have a lot more to publish next week.

My first two weeks working on URSA went pretty smoothly and I feel like I’ve already learned so much. I got to experience an on campus event I never would have known about and see some really cool technological advances. This event was called Shadowbox Three. I recommend to check out this event, or any event you wouldn’t normally attend to really involve yourself on campus.

I got to witness what building a brand and coining a term can do for you when searching on the internet for DroneSinger. I did get a little stuck trying to come up with a 40 minute plan for teaching about STEM through the arts, but plan on solidifying that in weeks 3 and 4 of URSA. Overall, it was a pretty breezy week for URSA, but still impactful and taught me a lot and definitely got the ball rolling.

My biggest struggle this week was coming up with a 40 minute plan to teach STEM through the arts, but after meeting with my mentor on Thursday morning, I felt better about it and that it is going in the right direction.

HIGHLIGHTS

Soundbox Three Exhibits

Thursday Performance

At this performance I witnessed Operabot, a bot created by OSU students for a play done at OSU, that had movement and could bend at a waist. It was a robot meant to play a statue that they used instead of casting a person to be the demon character for a musical. They had the Operabot do a musical routine. It was what they called a probiotic bot, if I remember correctly.

Next, Improvisers Collective did this music routine. They were similar to a band, but it was very techno. It reminded me of EDM music. It was very interesting and even a little frightening, in my opinion. Overall, it was very unique and fun to witness.

DroneSinger Top 5 Search Results

I decided to focus on top five search results because Google can go on forever and I figure most people know what they’re looking for within the first five results, or try again using different words within the search engine. 

When I type in “DroneSinger” into Google says “Did you mean: Drone Singer” suggesting that it be separated into two words.

The very first thing that pops up though is a link to a Twitter account DroneSinger (@DroneSinger).  

What immediately catches my eye about this Twitter account is that it says “drone parody songs” which is very interesting and something I have never really heard of before. I also notice a link to YouTube, and since I’m expecting drone parodies, that catches my attention. Through the YouTube link I am brought straight to the YouTube channel! The first thing I notice on the YouTube channel is Star Wars because I am a huge fan! Not what I would expect, but I am pleasantly surprised because that is so cool!

The second search result on Google is a link to a SoundCloud, DroneSinger, where there is a ton of audio drone songs. The first thing I notice here is a Christmas Drone parody! I also love Christmas as much as I love Star Wars, so that automatically pulls me in. 

The third search result on Google is a straight link to a YouTube playlist titled  “Drone songs by DroneSinger” which has 24 videos on it. A connection I make straight away from Google and this YouTube playlist is the Drone video “Yo Vuelo Mi Drone” as it is the first video that pops up under “Videos” on Google and is the second video in the YouTube Playlist. 

The fourth search result on Google is a direct link to Facebook, which again is DroneSinger. This one though doesn’t have as many eye catching links to Drone Parodies. No big videos or audios jump out at me. But, if I  scroll down just a few scrolls, I immediately notice an Oregon State Beaver Drone, which of course catches my attention as an OSU student and that is a pretty cool picture. The fifth result is networkworld.com, and the title is “Meet the Tech Dude Who Doubles as the Weird Al of Drone Songs” and is an article on the DroneSinger VS a direct link to the DroneSinger. But it does have a link to a YouTube video which draws in a lot of attention, and the title itself.