- Interview with Cyra Sadowl
I had the pleasure to have an interview with Cyra Sadowl this week to get to know some of the work that she has been doing recently in the world of STEAM education.
Cyra has been working for Airway Science (Airsci) for just over a year now. Airsci is a program that was started by a black man from the air force to teach youth how to fly air vehicles. Since then, it has expanded to teaching kids about gravity, airplane design, robotics, drones, etc. The teaching method is very open ended and is intended to show the connection to what is being taught to career paths.
She works with students in local title-1 elementary, middle, and high school in a historically black area of North-East Portland that has signs of extreme poverty, and is underserved. The goal is not only to give these students potential for a good jobs, but to also try and balance out the ethnic variety in the aviation industry. Historically, the aviation industry has been dominated by white males.
Cyra has a background in literature, history, and art, teaching from third grade to high school. He husband taught more STEM subjects, but after his unfortunate passing, she has taken on their initial goal to help teach students STEM education.
Airsci also is partnered with Take Two Interactive, a video game software publisher that made Kerbal Space Program, a cartoon-style aerospace simulator. Because of this partnership, they are able to provide this software to students in Washington and Oregon as medium to teach scientific concepts. Cyra has been able to teach concepts such as gravitational sling shots around planets and moon with the Kerbal Space Program software, which is a very unique and interactive approach to STEAM education.
Airsci wants to help kids find connections that interest them, and then letting them find their own way from there. So far, there has been quite a bit of success through the program. Two board members have gone through it in their youth, and have all made significant accomplishments. One started a nonprofit. One is an aviation pilot. There have also been two students that have moved on to the air force following their involvement with the program.
Cyra ends by remarking that STEAM education is very open-ended, so there are many ways to approach it in a lesson plan. I thought that there was a lot to consider in terms of approach to STEAM education after learning about what Airsci had been doing.
- Research STEAM curriculum / lesson plans
In order to come up with a potential lesson plan for the Optron Mini, I had to look at some other lesson plans to get an idea of how to organize such a thing. One lesson I looked at was the Glass Frog, by Public Broadcasting.
This lesson plan is also music-related, so I thought it would good to base mine off of. Another lesson plan I looked at was Automobile Manufacturing Technology by Public Broadcasting.
- Create a STEAM lesson plan draft/outline using the Optron Mini
I made a draft for a potential lesson plan, and I will provide it below.
- STEAM Lesson plan with the Optron Mini
Overview: students will get hands on with the Optron Mini to manipulate the sensory information
Suggested time: 45 minutes
Activity:
Everyone as a group get introduced to the Optron Mini and what it can do.
Students will get a computer and Optron Mini for this activity.
Students will get max 8 and the optron software.
Students will be given a demo of playing keys with the optron and doing pitch bends as well as vibrato.
Students will get to try out messing around with these concepts (5-15 minutes).
Give students very simple sheet music with color coded instructions and maybe some note bends in there.
Let students try to play the song (10-15 minutes).
See if anyone wants to try playing the song for everyone.
as time goes on, I will either improve this one, or create a new one that is more suitable.
- Make a tutorial video, upload it to MediaSpace, edit and publish it
I decided to make a tutorial video on how to connect a midi keyboard to FL Studio, as well as how to assign controls to the knobs or other controls on the keyboard.
https://media.oregonstate.edu/media/t/1_bivtiauq
This concludes my research
