Month: April 2022

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Week 11

This week, I worked on writing revisions to the student packets for the Drone Dance and Invent-A-Drone lesson plans.  In addition to this, I finished drafting the student handout that I was designing for the Physics Behind Flight lesson plan and created a poster for the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence showcase happening in May 2022.

WORKING ON THE PHYSICS BEHIND FLIGHT LESSON PLAN

This week, I continued working on the student handout for the Physics Behind Flight lesson.  My first draft of the handout is linked here.

WORKING ON A RESEARCH POSTER FOR THE CUE SHOWCASE

This week, I also worked on making a research poster for the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence showcase about what I have been working on for URSA Engage so that I can present at the showcase in May.  This was my first time creating a research poster and working with the Oregon State University branding guidelines. I have almost finished my poster draft, and I would like to show it to my mentor during our next meeting to ask for some feedback before I submit it for printing.

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK

My goals for next week include finishing and submitting my poster for the CUE showcase, continuing to revise the student handout for the Physics Behind Flight lesson plan, and finishing writing up the lesson plan for the Physics Behind Flight lesson.

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Week 10

This week, I continued working on the Build-A-Drone lesson plan and began working on a Physics Behind Flight lesson plan.

CONTINUING TO WORK ON THE BUILD-A-DRONE LESSON PLAN

During our meeting last week, my mentor suggested adding a section to the Build-A-Drone lesson plan that shows some examples of jobs that drones can do, as well as what kinds of technologies (such as sensors and cameras) they use to do those jobs. This is to provide students with some real-life examples of drones being used to solve problems and the kinds of technologies that drones can use, which can give them inspiration for the drones that they make later during the workshop. After adding this content to the English version of the student packet, I also translated it and added it to the Spanish version of the student packet.

BEGINNING TO WORK ON A PHYSICS BEHIND FLIGHT LESSON PLAN

This week, I also began working on a lesson plan on the Physics Behind Flight. I started working on the lesson plan, and I also started working on a student worksheet. In this lesson plan, students get to learn about some of the physics that allow aircraft to fly. Afterwards, they get to decorate their own balsa gliders or paper airplanes that they can fly. I was able to get started on the lesson plan document and make progress on the student worksheet.

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK

Next week, I would like to continue working on the Physics Behind Flight lesson plan. I still need to add the education standards to the lesson plan, add extra notes for instructors, and finish the worksheet. I would also like to translate the worksheet into Spanish.

In addition, during this coming week, I plan to work on submitting my registration for the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) Showcase so that I can present what I have been working on during this URSA Engage project in May 2022.

I will also meet with my mentor again next week. During the meeting, I would like to share the progress that I have made on both lesson plans. I would especially like to talk to my mentor about the Physics Behind Flight lesson plan. I did my best to research the topics (aerodynamic forces and principal axes), but since I do not have much background knowledge in physics, I would like to double-check that the information that I put on the worksheet is correct. I would also like to ask for some feedback from my mentor on how the worksheet looks so far.

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Week 9

This week, I worked on finishing up the Drone Dance lesson plan, met with Dr. Adam Talamantes to talk about my lesson plan, and worked on creating a Build-A-Drone lesson plan.

READING ABOUT THE IMPACT OF USING DANCE TO TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT CODE

This week, I read the article “Choreographing Increased Understanding and Positive Attitudes towards Coding By Integrating Dance” by Breeann Flesch, Camila Gabaldón, Matthew Nabity, and Darryl Thomas. All of the authors of this article are from Western Oregon University, and the article was published in Volume 4 No. 3 of the International Journal of Computer Science Education in Schools.

The article was about the effect of integrating dance into coding lessons to increase the participation of minority students in coding by improving their attitudes towards coding, as well as by teaching coding in a way that is fun and engaging for them.

The article mentioned Peppler’s eight guiding principles of STEAM-powered computing education that were utilized in the coding lessons used with the students. The different parts of the coding lessons were described in the article, and these guiding principles were referenced throughout as they were addressed by the lesson. After reading about these, I would like to see if the lesson plans that I am working on already meet any of these principles and to see if I can incorporate more of them to further improve the lesson.

It was really awesome to hear about some of the student responses in the article saying that they felt more comfortable with coding and had a positive experience after participating in the lesson. It was also neat to read that the authors of the article are looking into creating a college class for college students to learn about coding through dance as well. I think that the research the authors are doing is really impactful, and they are doing it on a topic that I think is really valuable to continue exploring.

MEETING WITH DR. ADAM TALAMANTES

This week, I also met with Dr. Adam Talamantes. Dr. Talamantes is a part of Oregon State’s Pre-College Programs and helps with the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience (SMILE) program.

During the time that I met with Dr. Talamantes, I asked him more about the work that he does and about the SMILE program. I found out that he is also working on doing a literature review on how programs can support problem-solving, creativity, and innovation in students through using technology, as well as creating an evaluation that can be useful for evaluating lessons and workshops like the one that I am working on. I also got to hear more about the SMILE program, which provides STEM education to students through after-school and summer programs.

I was really grateful to also be able to get some feedback from Dr. Talamantes on my Drone Dance lesson plan. I appreciated the suggestions that he gave me, such as adding extra activities and changing the ones that I already included to provide students with more opportunities to engage in teamwork. Examples included adding an “ice breaker” activity at the start of the workshop, which not only warms students up to the material that will be taught during the workshop, but also warms them up to the other students on their team. He also suggested adding more pictures, making things more interactive, and providing demonstrations for students in real time to make the workshop more friendly to them. I really appreciated his feedback based on his experiences working with students.

CREATING A BUILD-A-DRONE WORKSHOP LESSON PLAN

In addition, I also worked on a Build-A-Drone lesson plan. This lesson is slightly simpler than the Drone Dance one, but students get to work in teams to draw and design a drone to solve a problem of their choice. Afterwards, they get to use arts and crafts materials to create that drone in real life, which they will present to the class to explain what the drone does and the different design choices they made. The link to the lesson plan is included here. Like the Drone Dance workshop, I worked on making both an English and a Spanish version of the student packet so that the lesson can be taught to a wider audience of students. I was able to completely finish the plan for this lesson this week, and I plan to present it to my mentor this coming week to get some feedback.

GOALS FOR NEXT WEEK

I will be meeting with my mentor Victor Villegas the next week, and I look forward to sharing the progress I made with the Drone Dance and Build-A-Drone lesson plans. My goal for next week is to begin working on a lesson plan for the physics behind flight that can teach students a bit more about how drones fly. I also want to set aside some time to make changes to the Drone Dance lesson plan based on Dr. Talamantes’s feedback from our meeting, as well as to add some final touches to the slideshow presentation for that lesson to finalize it.

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Week 8

This week, I met with Mr. Mario Magaña Álvarez, an Outreach Specialist for 4-H Youth Development, for an informational interview about his work helping students from underserved and underrepresented communities. I also continued working on finishing up my drone dance lesson plan, translating the student packet into Spanish, and beginning to work on the PowerPoint presentation that goes with the lesson plan.

MEETING WITH MARIO MAGAÑA ÁLVAREZ

This week, I was very lucky to be able to meet with Mr. Mario Magaña Álvarez. He works with the 4-H Youth Development Program, which is a network of educators and volunteers that help youth develop professional skills while learning about various career pathways. The main way that this program supports this is by providing students with valuable hands-on experiences through experiential learning. I found out that he works as an outreach specialist to recruit students to participate in the program, as well as volunteers to help run the program. I asked about what kinds of work volunteers can help with, and he told me that volunteers are welcomed throughout the year to help out with the different programs and activities, as well as to help with camps that are held during the summer.

It was really great to hear about the amazing work that Mr. Magaña does with 4-H. I was really glad for the opportunity to get to meet with him and learn more about what 4-H does.

continuing to work on my lesson plan

I also continued to work on my lesson plan this week. I looked at the Oregon Visual Arts Education Standards and added the standards covered by the curriculum into the lesson plan so that teachers who use the curriculum can use it to teach about computer science and/or visual arts. I also finished adding the additional instruction notes for teachers to the teacher version of the student packet included in the lesson plan. After completing this, I now have a finished version of the lesson plan in English. I also began working on creating the PowerPoint presentation that complements the lesson plans.

In addition to doing this, I also translated the student packet into Spanish so that it can be accessible to a wider range of students. I eventually hope to create a version of the PowerPoint presentation that is in Spanish as well.

However, since I now have a finished version of the lesson plan, I would like to get feedback on ways that I can still improve it before it gets used for a workshop.

goals for next week

Next week, I would like to reach out to Dr. Adam Talamantes from the Office of Precollege Programs at OSU to see if I can talk to him about my lesson plan. Dr. Talamantes is a Program Coordinator for the Science and Math Investigative Learning Experience (SMILE) program, which provides underprivileged and underrepresented students gain STEM skills through afterschool science, math, and engineering programs. I think it would be really valuable to review my lesson plan with him and to hear about some of his experiences working as a Program Coordinator for SMILE. I would also like to talk with my mentor again about the progress that I have made on the lesson plan.

In addition to this, I would also like to continue working on the PowerPoint presentation to go with the lesson plan. I plan on contacting Dr. Cythia Reséndiz, and Oregon Coast STEM Hub Director for Oregon State University, to see if there is anything that I can do to help out with the planning of an in-person workshop using this lesson plan that will happen around April or May 2022.

Finally, I would also like to register for the Celebrating Undergraduate Excellence (CUE) Showcase in May 2022 to present the work that I have been doing as a part of URSA Engage.