1. Nancy Taylor
  2. http://thestoryexchange.org/nancy-taylor-san-diego-science-alliance/
  3. Principal Investigator
  4. Exploring STEM Careers Initiative
  5. http://www.sdsa.org
  6. SDSU Research Foundation, San Diego Science Alliance
  1. Robin Kendall
  2. Admin Support Coord/Marketing Manager
  3. Exploring STEM Careers Initiative
  4. http://www.sdsa.org
  5. SDSU Research Foundation, San Diego Science Alliance
Public Discussion

Continue the discussion of this presentation on the Multiplex. Go to Multiplex

  • Icon for: Vivian Guilfoy

    Vivian Guilfoy

    Facilitator
    Senior Advisor
    May 11, 2015 | 09:17 a.m.

    These hands-on engineering explorations give teachers and students a great opportunity to experience the design cycle. With so many schools and students involved, do you have data that highlights the different ways that schools have responded to the program. Are there gender or other differences in the selection of which engineering challenge to pursue. Are you collecting data or “stories” about student interest, engagement, and pursuit of STEM classes following their participation? Any results? How did you achieve such widespread participation?

  • Icon for: N. Newsome

    N. Newsome

    Education Outreach Manager
    May 11, 2015 | 04:45 p.m.

    What a cool curriculum, and an amazing outlet to STEM exploration you have in San Diego! In what courses are you curricula taking place? Are they special electives, or core classes? Or, are all these experience occurring in informal learning environments?

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:29 p.m.

    One motivational part of the teacher led, after school program is a visit to an informal setting for several opportunities – deploy SeaPerch, practice or compete with Botball robotics, and demonstrate maximum efficiency with KidWind. Interacting with STEM mentors benefits everyone in the pipeline.

  • Icon for: Debra Bernstein

    Debra Bernstein

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 11, 2015 | 09:38 p.m.

    This sounds like such a great opportunity for students in San Diego! Following up on Vivian’s question, I also wondered about the choice of engineering challenge. Do the teams get to choose which challenge to engage in? If so, how do they choose?

  • Icon for: Vivian Guilfoy

    Vivian Guilfoy

    Facilitator
    Senior Advisor
    May 12, 2015 | 07:55 a.m.

    As a followup question, I wonder about the cost of supporting the program. Does each school purchase the materials for each engineering challenge? What is the approximate cost for a typical group of students? Are any of the materials reusable?

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 12, 2015 | 04:54 p.m.

    Yes of course the cost of supporting the program is significantly supported by the NSF grant. Teachers receive PD on one of the 3 engineering challenges, receive kits of materials for their challenges and are compensated for implementing after school. Some materials are reusable and all materials are inexpensive. Stay tuned for a better analysis of costs, we’re on it!

  • Icon for: Vivian Guilfoy

    Vivian Guilfoy

    Facilitator
    Senior Advisor
    May 13, 2015 | 10:06 a.m.

    Have you reached out to business partners who might help to support this over the long term? Maybe a wide variety of business partners (e.g. those who supply each of the parts that make up the kits such as plumbing or instrumentation firms—as well as technology and more likely supporters). Just a thought.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 13, 2015 | 03:10 p.m.

    Great idea for sustainability. Our work across multiple districts has demonstrated suitability in multiple settings and this kind of collaboration with public and private partners is essential

  • Icon for: Nevin Katz

    Nevin Katz

    Facilitator
    Technical Associate
    May 12, 2015 | 08:35 a.m.

    This really looks like a groundbreaking project. I’m curious about what some of the aquatic challenges are. Do any of them involve interactions with the sea life in the tanks?

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 13, 2015 | 07:04 p.m.

    Nevin, the SeaPerch deployment in the aquarium’s tank is a careful interaction. We mount a Camera to record their navigation through the tank, including sitting on the bottom observing what swims by.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 12, 2015 | 11:36 a.m.

    Thanks to all for your encouraging remarks. We are working in out-of-school time, so coursework is not impacted at this time. The goal for teachers is to transfer the engineering experiences to the classroom. Teachers are reporting that some new coursework is in development. Teachers select 1 of the 3 engineering challenges and then recruit students (any on their campus) to participate. We are in Year 3 and compiling data – trends indicate changes in teacher practice and enthusiasm for engineering among students

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 12, 2015 | 11:39 a.m.

    Across the engineering challenges – Botball, SeaPerch and Kidwind we found a mix of student team configurations Boys and Girls, All Boys, All Girls. Students involved in Botball all indicated a plan to attend college, whereas in SeaPerch and KidWind students indicated interest in college

  • Icon for: Debra Bernstein

    Debra Bernstein

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 12, 2015 | 01:45 p.m.

    It’s interesting to see that there were some single gender and some mixed gender teams among the challenge groups. Do you think that will wind up being significant in terms of student experiences, or in terms of your outcome variables?

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 12, 2015 | 04:45 p.m.

    Debra, great question. While we are not studying gender participation we’re delighted to see girls only teams in the mix. We know that for girls,gender specific experiences is improving the pipeline (AAUW)

  • Icon for: Debra Bernstein

    Debra Bernstein

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 14, 2015 | 08:07 p.m.

    Indeed, in robotics some girls respond very well to single-gender teams, and take on different roles than they would in mixed gender teams. l understand it’s not your research focus, but great that you’re seeing some variations in the groupings and good to make a note of it.

    Thanks so much for sharing this work!

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 12, 2015 | 11:41 a.m.

    SeaPerch engineers deploy there ROV in the Shark Tank only to take pictures and navigate. We load a Polaroid Cube onto the SeaPerch and video the dive.

  • Joy Wolf

    Guest
    May 12, 2015 | 04:32 p.m.

    I enjoyed seeing so many smiling and fully engaged students. This is the type of hands-on real world application of science that encourages students to take the next steps in science.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:24 p.m.

    Thanks for noticing the student engagement, they plan to make/present videos of their shark tank dive.

  • Dave Dressler

    Guest
    May 12, 2015 | 11:25 p.m.

    Great video. It’s good to see that Sea Perch is shark friendly. I wonder what the Great Whites would think of Sea Perch at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe_Island ?

    Very nice presentation Ellen.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:22 p.m.

    Thanks for your vote, tell your friends!

  • Bill Davis

    Guest
    May 15, 2015 | 09:12 p.m.

    Awesome work, Nancy! I only learned of this today via John Fry’s Colt update. Voted and passed it on. Best of luck!

  • Kassie Gruel

    Guest
    May 13, 2015 | 05:16 p.m.

    This is a really great opportunity for students to be able to build and create hands on projects to get them interested in STEM.I am a middle school student, I am moving soon and when I move if they do not have a STEM program I plan on making one of my own with my dad to help people get a better idea on what STEM can do for us and for the world. This video makes me want to do that even more now!

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 13, 2015 | 07:01 p.m.

    Kassie, thanks for sharing your remarks and I do hope that you gather other kids and Dad’s together to build and engineer!

  • Catherine Prodor

    Guest
    May 13, 2015 | 08:26 p.m.

    Great work for kids! I support this!

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:30 p.m.

    We are meeting our objective! Thanks for your vote!

  • Icon for: Nevin Katz

    Nevin Katz

    Facilitator
    Technical Associate
    May 14, 2015 | 01:05 p.m.

    This sounds like it would be a transformative experience. Have you received any teacher or student feedback on what students have learned from these projects in the engineering and/or biology realm?

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:19 p.m.

    I like to describe this work as transformative, the teachers report gains in disciplinary content knowledge, in Botball- increased understanding of computational science; SeaPerch- engineering design process, bouyancy, math integraion: KidWind-aerodynamicx, engineering design process, wind energy. Similar data with students!

  • Icon for: Serigne Gningue

    Serigne Gningue

    Associate Professor Mathematics Education/Co-PI
    May 14, 2015 | 03:03 p.m.

    This is really inspiring. I will vote for this. I would like to know about this program and how it could be done in New York City.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 14, 2015 | 04:24 p.m.

    I encourage you to replicate this work, maybe even narrow it down to one of the three that appeals – Botball is robotics, SeaPerch- gotta have access to water, KidWind lots of extensions. Having a public exhibition ramped it up just a notch.

  • Icon for: Vivian Guilfoy

    Vivian Guilfoy

    Facilitator
    Senior Advisor
    May 14, 2015 | 04:15 p.m.

    Thanks for the rich discussion. I learned a lot.

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 15, 2015 | 01:23 p.m.

    Last Saturday we held a SeaPerch tournament at a local swimming pool, The press showed up and crafted a nice article quoting more teachers and students, check it out
    http://www.eccalifornian.com/article/seaperch-t...

    It feels great to know we are changing things up for students and teachers as they approach engineering! I am also proud of the teamwork it has taken to bring the community together. Thanks NSF!

  • Icon for: Joni Falk

    Joni Falk

    Co-Director
    May 15, 2015 | 07:41 p.m.

    Thought this video was great. How did I not see this earlier? I could definitely see how this would be very engaging and enhance any visit to an aquarium. Thanks for sharing this!

  • Icon for: Nancy Taylor

    Nancy Taylor

    Lead Presenter
    Principal Investigator
    May 15, 2015 | 08:24 p.m.

    Thank you Joni! Why not add relevance to underwater exploration!

  • Further posting is closed as the showcase has ended.