Striking A Spark Helping Build Activities for “Spark A Reaction” Summer Reading Program

1. Striking A SparkHelping Build Activities for “Spark A Reaction” Summer Reading Program Presentation developed by Jo Oshiro Oregon Pre-Engineering & Applied Sciences Initiative (OPAS) & Ryan Collay Science & Math Investigative Learning Experiences (SMILE) October 2013 Updates and corrections in italic in notes, November 2013

2. Make A Chair • Work together • 6 index cards • 6 inches of tape • scissors • 6 minutes

3. So … about that chair • What if • you have to pick it up with two fingers? • it has to hold up under an apple? • it has to evoke thoughts of a different culture or time? • What must you change? • What if your starting materials were different from each other?

4. So … about the chair-building process • Purpose, constraints  design criteria, features • Engineering Criteria • Prototype, test, re-work We’ve just described the beginnings of a formal engineering process

5. STEMScienceTechnologyEngineeringMathematics

6. STEM definitions • Science: knowing more--more thoroughly, reliably, repeatably • Technology: the study of the tools and processes that are used to make stuff and solve problems, not just computers. There’s a technology for oil painting, pottery, dressmaking. • Engineering: making stuff that solves problems. Taking risks to solve problems with imperfect knowledge and limited resources – time, money, materials, ... • Math: a tool to describe patterns which may or may not apply to things and problems in the real world. When it does apply, math can widen one’s understanding of the problem and help predict behaviors under changing conditions.

7. Our goals for this session • Better understand STEM education hype and implications • Practice framing activities with STEM • Give you some leads to more … • Hear your views, ideas, needs and lay the groundwork for some (future) knowledge capture • Sign up sheet – we’ll send you slides

8. Your goals for this session? • 5 minutes now to record and post • Inspiration • Activities for all genders; dealing with gender stereotypes • Learn to fake it • Is economics a science ? Political Science? • Bike Rack -- comments, questions, goals

9. STEM definitions • Science: knowing more • Technology: Tools particular to a discipline • Engineering: making purposeful stuff within limits. • Math: pattern description tool

10. Engineering is a Way of Thinking The Engineering Design Process is a Team Process

11. Science Identify a question Research the question Generate ideas Formulate a hypothesis Conduct an experiment Communicate results Identify a new question Engineering Define a problem Research the problem Generate solutions Create a prototype Test the prototype Communicate product Redesign Similar Processes—Different Goals Adapted from Engineering Professor Chris Rogers, Tufts University; thanks to Cary Sneider

12. On Thinking Like an EngineerAdvice from 12 year old participants of a workshop with picoCrickets, devices used to build projects with motion, light and sound using LEGOS and other materials • Start simple • Work on things that you like • If you have no clue what to do, fiddle around • Don’t be afraid to experiment-Tinker • Find a friend to work with, share ideas! • It’s OK to copy stuff (to give you an idea) • Keep your ideas in a sketch book • Build, take apart, rebuild • Lots of things can go wrong, stick with it From “All I Really Need to Know (About Creative Thinking) I Learned (By Studying How Children Learn) in Kindergarten” by M. Resnick, MIT Media Lab, 2007. Downloadable at http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/kindergarten-learning-approach.pdf

13. Engineering Impact "Science seeks to understand the world as it is; only engineering can change it. …But the truth is that full scientific understanding isn't always necessary for technological advancement.” from "Want to Engineer Real Change? Don't Ask A Scientist", by Henry Petroski, Duke University Professor, civil engineer, historian, and failure analyst, Washington Post, January 25, 2009

14. Why TE for engagement?Connecting to the IES Practice Guide “Encouraging Girls in Math and Science”Downloadable at http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide.aspx?sid=5 • Hands-on • Open-ended, non-prescriptive • Real world • More objective feedback than “pretty”, “fun”, “cool” • Creative and collaborative

15. Culture of Inquiry • Curiosity • Making the familiar strange, seeing things no one has seen before • A community, a team, colleagues • It’s a journey, one question answered generates twenty more • Recorded, shared and vetted by your community through discourse

16. Strategies in the trenches Select a problem/context – Kids drive • Support a team-based process • Scaffold with reflection, process, content • Questions matter, collect and record • Reward effort and explanation before results You coach as they become experts • Open-ended, non-prescriptive, testable • Follow their lead when possible

17. Tactics in the trenches • Practice • spatial skills • number sense • observation • Connect to what they already know • Watch & Wonder, Test & Tweak, Show and Share • Any kit/activity must embody more than one workable solution/product

18. What might all this do for kids? • Learning to learn; finding joy in it • Self-direction, learning who they are • Persistence and valuing practice • Emotional safety while dealing with failure and success • Better teamwork, logistics, project- and time management skills • Enriched communication

19. STEM  STEAM • Integrating Art into STEM • Many other permutations of more holistic curricular acronyms

20. Watercolor Special Effects • As we do this, think about how you can relate this to our STEM discussion • Soap/Candle • Draw on the paper with the soap/candle • Watercolor wash over • Salt/Sugar • Watercolor wash • Sprinkle while still wet

21. Scaffolding and Reflecting • Observe & Discuss • What do you observe? • Might learning the “science” help the artist? • Art as a technology? • What other tools/technologies, uses for art, can we bring to make this a broader theme?

22. Let’s prototype STEM integration • What’s an activity you already do that could be scaffolded for STEM? • Want to work alone or in groups? • A thematic wrapper might be… • We will bring in STEM by… 12 minutes, then report-out by team

23. STEM Scaffolding Examples • Around the room report • Easy? Hard? Complete? • Thoughts on doing more? • Pulling it back together

24. Kick-start Scaffolding, Any Project • What do you know and how do you know it? • From whose perspective? • What is this connected to? • What if (supposition/constraints)? • What is the relevance (personal, community)? • What’s next? Deborah Meiers, Power of Ideas, thanks to Wendy Thompson, Wahkeena Arts

25. Wrap Up • Help kids see themselves as STEM-capable and STEM-curious • Highs? • Lows? • Check the Bike Rack • What should we do differently?

26. Want More? • Searchable hands-on activities (some STEM) at howtosmile • Computer models of science processes at Phet • Leading and student-originated questions • Harvard Question Formulation • Questions while building a robot • Questions while doing a robot challenge • Author Ed Sobey at the NW Invention Center • Author, speaker, kit-builder/seller Celeste Baine • Family Engineering has great activity books (Science/Math) • Join Jo’s NOISE List – email her via jo_oshiro@ous.edu

27. OST STEM in Washington County • 4-H Tech Wizards -- http://extension.oregonstate.edu/metro4h/techwizards • Girls Get IT -- http://www.girlsgetintech.org/ • Saturday Academy – www.saturdayacademy.org • Mad Science -- http://portland.madscience.org/ • Robotics Teams – www.ortop.org • Explore Engineering and Computer Science -- http://opas.ous.edu/Work2011-2013/Marketing/E-Week-explore-2012.pdf Google “maker”, “Arduino”, “VEX”, “Scratch”…

28. Resources for STEM Equity Big Takeaway: Believe and tell kids that intelligence, IQ, smarts improve with practice! Smart is not set at birth (innate). • Jo’s crude repository: http://opas.ous.edu/resourcesEngCurricular.php#equity • White Paper: "Fostering STEM Diversity" 2007 -http://opas.ous.edu/Committees/Resources/Staff_papers/Fostering_STEM_Diversity.pdf • Trip Report April 2009: NWREL/NGCP Encouraging Girls in Math & Science workshop - http://opas.ous.edu/Committees/Resources/Staff_papers/Trip_Report_NGCP_EncouragingGirls_2009.pdf

29. Thank you for fighting the good fight! Jo Oshiro jo_oshiro@ous.edu Ryan Collay ryan.collay@oregonstate.edu