Thursday, January 31, 2019
Reflection of MUS pre activity (1/29) - Destiny
I really enjoyed going to an actual school to see the students in their own element. I got there a little late for the first one since I was coming from my morning class at UCSB but I luckily did not miss much. The students were reflecting on what they had done the last session and were being introduced to the new challenge.
I really liked observing and helping with the students build on their ideas and test their contraptions. I think there needs to be improvement of the rounds. Maybe have the students work together on one plan first, then do two rounds of self built ideas. This is because each time we switched to the team building round 2 the groups I were at would not decide on something since they were all partial to their own first design. Then they had no time to build and ended up making their own. I did not stay for the last class since I had class again at UCSB but I know there was talk about changing the rounds. I would love to know int the comments how that went and what was successful comparing the two before and the last one.
My only comment would be the level of the school. I understand Loryn used to work at this school but I think it would be beneficial to test these activities in a less privileged school since most of the students at MUS will be introduced to the sciences early and probably put in the path for higher education and opportunities. I would love to hold these tests at a school like Harding Partnership because those students are put on unsuccessful path and this would at least open a door and maybe break down a break wall of the intimidation of the science and engineering fields.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Destiny - In the final class, we did two individual builds and a final collaborative build (in pairs). They did build together and some groups merged ideas. Other groups just went with one of the partners' ideas that they decided was better. We are also testing the activities at La Patera Elementary in Goleta - which has very different demographics and resources. We could talk about the differences in the schools and the classrooms in class this week. Harding would also be a great school to test the activities at. Right now, we are testing at schools that agreed to be part of the pilot program.
ReplyDeleteDid being in a classroom feel different than facilitating an ex-lab activity at MOXI? Or was it just interesting to observe a different space? If it felt different, I am curious as to how and why you might think that.
ReplyDeleteAnd totally agree about the importance of programs being tested with all kinds of schools (those MUS students were pretty precocious and ON IT!). I think that's one of the fascinating and rewarding parts about doing informal programming (like outreach and engineering field trip programs) is getting to see the curriculum applied to different groups. And fear not, as Danielle said, we are! Also, different ages.