Information Technology Education

Next major stop was two weeks spent on the beautiful (yes, beautiful) campus of Texas Tech University in Lubbock, TX.  Turns out it is the second largest campus in the United States, second only to the Air Force Academy due to its runways.  This is where I met with my cohort and professors to finish up summer coursework.  The highlight was a project-based learning course - again, learning by doing.  The best part was getting into the research and history of PBL as well as refining the practice side of it.  Starting with the launch activity, and continuing with driving questions and need to knows. we were all immersed into the world of PBL and learning from the literature, but also from one another. Here  is the link to the Buck Institute for Education's YouTube channel full of amazing resources to get started, dig deeper, or learn from practitioners. I am reminded of another quote by Dewey that continues to guide me as an educator: “The belief that all genu...

It's been a busy summer full of learning by doing, to quote John Dewey.  I started off with presenting at a STEM club conference in Phoenix, AZ on computational thinking, creativity, and PBL integrating technology such as coding and 3D printing.  It still amazes me when I see where we are in education now and what my third and fourth graders are doing.  Truly creativity and collaboration in action and a reminder that:   “If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow.”   John Dewey It is great that organizations  within the state such as Helios Education Foundation  working together with businesses and educators to bridge the STEM gap.  STEM clubs are a great way to directly impact the lives and futures of our students.  From Phoenix, I spent living for two weeks at the Biosphere 2 (B2) in Oracle, AZ attending an APS-sponsored educator workshop where we lived, breathed, and did STEM.  We tru...

Throughout this school year, my class has been using telepresence to connect with Ari, a student at University of Arizona majoring in Russian.  He has been giving weekly sessions on various aspects of Russian culture, politics, current events, and history.  These have been so inspiring, in fact, that one of my students' companies that called themselves Sug-Art (3D sculptures printed from sugar), decided they wanted to create a prototype of a sugar sculpture modeled after one of Russia's most beloved animated characters - Cheburashka.  This was the biggest challenge so far for my students to design on Tinkercad.  The big ears that stick out to the side were giving them issues... We attempted a total of 11 versions before we finally got Cheburyashka just right.  So many lessons learned along the way and nuances in using Tinkercad.  In the world of education where it seems like things are black and white, right and wrong, it is so refreshing to inspire in my s...

Another student company idea got their inspiration from one that 3D prints edible sugar cake toppers.  They called themselves "Sug-Art" and set off to create a company that custom creates sugar sculptures.  In doing so, they had a lot of research and cost analysis to do.  What better way to do research than to write to the company from whom they got their inspiration?  We got their contact information from their site: http://the-sugar-lab.com/ What started out as a quest to use 3D printing in meaningful ways in the classroom has led to interdisciplinary, authentic inquiry. Here is the students' request for information: Dear Ms. Vonhasseln,   We are third graders in Phoenix, AZ.  We are working on coming up with a business idea as a school project and am interested in your technology for creating sugar art.  We are wondering about what type of machine you use, where and how much the sugar floss costs, and what it would cost to buy a 3D sugar printer. ...

Last time, I shared about Untangled and how my students created, designed and printed a device to untie shoelaces.  They redesigned it based on timed trials and made it thinner, even adding an 'ergonomic' handle to it.  While the original was too thick and cumbersome, the redesign was too thin and flimsy.  In the meantime, however, they retimed themselves using the redesign and halved the amount of time it took them to untie difficult-to-undo double-knotted laces.  Not too bad...

The student 'companies' in my class have begun working on the product development process.  They have designed and printed their company logos in 3D and now are working on their actual products.  One of the companies called themselves "Untangled" and specialize in gadgets to help with untying those difficult to undo double-knotted laces.  They designed a printed a hook, but it was too flimsy and thin.  They then redesigned their hook on Tinkercad and thickened it all around, printed it again on the Makerbot Replicator 2 and tried it out.  I then recorded the students trying out the new tool after which we discussed what they might need to change in the next 'version' or iteration of the 'untangler.'  

Our student 'companies' have been formed and students applied for positions such as President and VPs of Design, Manufacturing and Finance.  I have been using this website to pull articles for my students to read and learn about aspects of starting a company such as naming their company and creating their logo.  We studied a variety of company's logos to see trends, patterns, and colors.  They then worked on designing their own company logo initially through sketching and then in 3D on Tinkercad.  The product ideas have been incredible.  One company is creating a tool to undo too-tightly-tied shoelaces and called their company 'Untangled.'  Another is working on candy sugar sculptures and dub themselves 'Sugart.'  One is working on creating ways to carry i-devices AND other belongings and call themselves 'I-Keep.' The process of 3D design has been interesting.  It hasn't been as easy as we thought to transfer ideas to a new way of viewing the wor...