Church Hill tutoring sessions lift up neighborhood | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Many of my friends are involved in this Academy. How encouraging it is to see this from VCU. Thank you Richmond Times Dispatch for writing this story as well!

Church Hill tutoring sessions lift up neighborhood | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Microlectures via Podcasting

The VCU Center for Teaching Excellency recently released their monthly publication for the benefit of future faculty. One of the things I wanted to bring to light, remember and share with others was this background on and applications of Podcasting in teaching.

From that article Dr. Reis from Stanford explains:

Podcasts do not need to contain the full information from a 60-to-90 minute lecture. San Juan College is experimenting with "microlectures," a traditional lecture in which key concepts and themes are condensed down to a one to three minute segment (Shieh, 2009, p. 1). Some faculty find that a three-to-five minute audio clip is an optimum podcast length, similar to the length of a song students listen to on the radio (Walsh, 2004). Because microlectures are limited in the amount of content they can convey, students are required to complete their learning with additional readings and assignments. Pedagogical limitations include situations where a prolonged discussion or explanation is necessary, such as when solving mathematical problems, extending English literature discussions, and explaining complicated processes.

But how intriguing are the possibilities that result from all of the creative uses of podcasting as a learning tool? It reminds me of a section of Grad 602: Teaching and Technology in Higher Education, which focused on learning through generating content. If we can help students to create content, not only will they be learning as they do it, but they will be writing the "textbooks" that the students who follow after them will use. By bringing the textbook authorship back to the people who are learning, you will produce a more relevant and discernible learning aid.

Landon's Lab Lets Loose

So experimental work has been slow moving, but we have fixed our heater problem, found and fixed the AC adapter for our flowmeter, ordered additional rotameters, determined the correct dilution for our aerosol, used a fluorescent microscope to view our geometry and properly cut our tubing to equal lengths for our Lung geometry. Enjoy. Dr. Oldham is coming again tomorrow and I hope to have a filter paper with particles on it to show him! Early day tomorrow!

-Landon

Valedictorian on Education

Swiftkick reposted Erica Goldson's graduation speech as Valedictorian of her high school class.

Her energy is refreshing and she is able to verbalize glaring problems (not new problems) with our system of education.

Here

Progress!

A new post, A new post. Yes, progress to the process. Documented above. I will make some more posts about the work that will happen in the next week:

-Presentation of progress to Dean Jamison on Wednesday

-Generation of the first aerosol, hopefully before then!

More to come!

Open Access and Publishing

One of the interesting topics discussed in my Preparing Future Faculty class has been the change in ownership as well as the authenticity of published journals vs online "publishing". It is interesting to view authorship through the scope of scientific progress. The possibility is that there could be literally no cost to publishing science. This opens the door to all scientists and breaks down the barrier of formal education, but when that happens, fear walks in and proclaims that science itself will not be trustworthy.

It also raises an interesting question of where the funding for research comes from and where it will come from. This has been one of the motivating factors behind my blog posting of my experimental setup. So far my CFD work has been traditional "closed" science, while my experimental work has been "open" science. I am considering ways of making the CFD work more open, but my personal question becomes, "If I make posts about how to really do the work I am doing and someone learns it well enough to do it, what is left for me to do?"

Peace,

Landon

Whorls and Fleas

This morning, I was speaking with my friend who conducts himself in the scientific process within the Life Sciences building at VCU. Over breakfast we discussed the difference between Analytical, Empirical, and Numerical Analysis. These distinctions may not be something that are on your radar, but they play an important role in the drama/comedy of my life and work.

Please allow me to set the stage...

Analytical Sciences are formed out of Philosophic principals applied to societal needs. An interesting side note, Plato can be seen as a good example of the analytical scientist, but he was following in the footsteps of Socrates the "politician" (Good General Greek History). Plato created thought experiments, but he never tested them because of his belief that experimentation was never necessary. Similar to Einstein's thought experiments on quantum study because they were unable to do experimental work on that scale at the time (not by choice).

Similar to Plato stepping away from politics, Aristotle stepped away from unverified thought. Aristotle changed the way we see science by applying simple logic and keeping track of (empirical science). Statements are made by logically following physical observations and isolating the system you are observing to discover what might cause the change. This progressed for a while, but we'll fast forward a couple thousand years or so and settle on Galileo and the easy target of Sir Issac Newton to explore more of what we mean about the merging of empirical and analytical.

Mr. Issac's well known laws of motion (1687) are sentences that describe the motions of objects and relate Galileo's work on celestial bodies to objects we live in contact with. Every word is deliberate and has a precise meaning. These are analytical relationships, but the are confirmed with experimental success. Newton however, also offered "numerical" possibilities in his solution of problems which could not be solved "analytically".

Considering lastly the subject you may be least familiar with, Numerical Anaylsis. Leonard Euleris a good subject to discuss for the application of analytical and empirical thought to the pursuit of an answer, a result, a number. While this branch has been around for a very long time, it is the implementation of the personal computer that allows for a great number of calculations to be followed through quickly and reliably. Prior to the computer iterations would be computed by hand and could take months to complete. As an interesting anecdote, in 1910 Lewis Fry Richardson ran numerical analysis to predict the weather at 1 pm based on the weather at 7 am. Three months later, his results were incorrect, but his process was mostly correct and the amount of work it took to do by hand is astonishing. "He calculated himself that it would need 60,000 people involved in the calculations in order to have the prediction of tomorrow's weather before the weather actually arrived.(ref)"

The process of numerical analysis in terms of my research can be seen simply as using things that people like Euler came up with and Richardson used to simplify complex problems. These complicated problems are Differential equations, which simply means that things that we observe are changing with respect to the change in a quantity (or two, or three or more). These equations are "coupled" meaning that you have to solve them all at the same time. So numerical analysis is taking a small problem that is very complicated and translating it into a simple problem that is very large.

So what?

Ok, so the point is that there are many people who have undergone the tasks of science and I am studying in this line of scientists. I resonate with little bits of each biography and I am beginning to see why it is a good thing that I am studying as I am at VCU. I am forced now to learn to be comfortable with each side of discovery. My advisor excelled in analytical thought during his undergraduate and graduate education and has applied that to Numerical Analysis to become one of the top in his field. He has worked with Dr. Mike Oldham, who is similar and different in various areas of life. His passion for science is similar, but his passion is in the mechanics of the lab, not the numerics of the problem. He walked into the organized lab and just destroyed the cleanliness, but turned it into a real lab. He undid the assembling I had wondered about and guess and connected all the parts in a way that took up a small amount of space and will actually work. It is the kind of thing that comes with ~30 years experience, he's a good person to know.

Dr. Longest and Dr. Oldham both look at me like I'm doing something they are sure glad they don't have to. Both of them have great respect for the other's work, but are not comfortable doing it. Their goal for me is to be able to generate data from computer studies, validate it with experiments. This allows them to pontificate analytical relationships using these correlations. The interesting part for me is the application to the social and political. The application of my project to people and the impact it can have. But I am learning about the other parts because they are necessary to be well rounded.

Till Then, Poetry. - Landon

Big fleas have little fleas

Upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas

And so, ad infinitum.

-- Jonathan Swift

Big whorls have little whorls

That feed on their velocity,

And little whorls have lesser whorls

And so on to viscosity.

-- Lewis F. Richardson

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.

Dr Oldham visited to round out the first week of empiricism. He walked in lab proud of the equipment and confident in the ability of the devices to produce useful data.

Many hours later he walked out of the lab leaving a parts list for materials needed to finish setting up the lab so we can begin to gather some data. The list comes from a range of suppliers. From the auto store, to McMaster-Carr we will be placing an order next week, and then I will be returning to numerical studies while we wait for the parts to arrive.

I may document some of the more interesting parts of the numerical work, but there is much less attention grabbing items on computer screens than in an experimental lab, so we'll just see how it goes.

Till again-

Landon

Day three, a visit from Ben Kenobi

With Ben Spence's help we have setup the lab and I am beginning to understand what some of the machines do in it. But this is all very important for us to have it like this because today we'll have a visitor. A wise sage, Dr. Mike Oldham, is coming to give us guidance in becoming experimentalists.

We intend to duplicate an experimental setup that he used in 1997. This will be to get us experience with the devices, but then we will branch out and insert our own devices into the experimental design.

Here's to a week on the empirical side of science.

Cheers,

Landon

Day 2 Engineering Experiment

From Ordinary Radical Engineering

With yesterday spent organizing, today is to be spent assembling something to resemble an experiment and help generate questions for the expert, Dr. Mike Oldham. He is coming on Wednesday to answer questions I have and see how we have things setup.

From Ordinary Radical Engineering

With that, I'm off!

Peace,

Landon

What does a PhD in Mechanical Engineering look like at VCU

I'm transitioning from the pursuit of my Bachelor of Science in Engineering to my new pursuit of a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at VCU. I've been writing about the class I have been taking that is preparing me for the teaching and administrative side of obtaining a PhD. This is but one side of a three sided program. In addition to teaching and fulfilling administrative tasks I will also be conducting research.

Without further ado, I will begin my documentation of the experimental side of my research. I work for Dr. P Worth Longest in Mechanical Engineering. For years Dr. Longest has been conducting research in aerosols science and particle deposition . Well, as I am starting my work with him and am going to be here for a while, Dr Longest would like to begin an experimental side of his research to validate previous correlations and create new ones for future works. The difference between computational and experimental sciences is gigantic, but our plan is for me to be able to understand both and create case studies that spring from physical reality and can be validated by systematic numerical analyses.

Before this I have to wash the countertops and the shelves and learn what all this equipment does. Similar to a cooking blog I am hoping to add updates and include pictures. I will try to remember to bring in my camera and take nicer pictures, but to begin I will just post the overall look of the lab.

Peace,

Landon

Net Gen- The Catering Gen

Net Gen learners are young and they've been raised on computers. Because they were raised inside of technology, they've broken many conceptions of how long and how difficult it is to learn a process. Generation X can take classes and work on keeping up to date with technology, but at some point they have settled into "what works." The Net Gen doesn't know what works, but they have access to everything that might work. Through this access the Net Gen is able to explore possibilities in a fresh way and use whatever software or device is most efficient for the task.

In a video game you being with no idea of how to play. You know how to use the controller, but level by level you learn new rules and button combinations that are useful in new and different situations presented to you in a logical way that leads you to quickly master a game. It all happens very quickly. Within two hours of playing a game you can become familiar with it and the more familiar you are with it, the more you enjoy it.

My problem is then with applying this video game mentality to real life. Net Gen students raised on technology can accelerate through many of the normal road blocks of education, and can learn the software needed to solve a problem more efficiently than those who are teaching. But the students need the problems laid out like a video game. Setting little goals along the way to gain minor skills until a point is reached where the student is comfortable with the game and can explore the harder levels.

I don't believe that there is true creativity within the gaming world. The creativity is in the side dishes served with the video game, but not contained within it. You can choose your name, you can choose who you play with, what you play and when you play. But once you are playing you are governed by a long list of rules that does not allow for much room to create. This is my problem with linking it to school, academia, research, or learning. Net Gen learners within the modern constraints are not allowed the room to explore and apply understanding to problems in their neighborhood, state, or country. Without this understanding of how actions change surroundings, everything becomes theoretical and one sided.

The net gen learners have always been catered to and are used to being told what to do, how to do it, why to do it, and when it needs to be done. What happens when the directives are not so clearly laid out?

Lesson Planning and Course Design Considerations (Birth of an Idea)

Design and Teach Your (a) Course

Many of the decisions affecting the success of a course take place well before the first day of class.

Looking through the resources provided we find plenty of opinions, which is where an effective and unexperienced teacher would start.

Students reveal their understanding most effectively when they are provided with complex, authentic opportunities to explain, interpret, apply, shift perspective, empathize, and self-assess. When applied to complex tasks, these "six facets" provide a conceptual lens through which teachers can better assess student understanding.

Teachers, schools, and districts benefit by "working smarter" through the collaborative design, sharing, and peer review of units of study.

In general, a helpful way to design a course is to proceed through the following phases:

1) Identify desired results— GOALS

2) Determine acceptable evidence — PROGRESS

3) Plan learning experiences and instruction — PRACTICE

So wanting this application what would this look like at VCU? How can we get started in this and do instead of theorize? What about co-teaching an honors module sponsored by the preparing future faculty program and the Engineering Graduate school? How does an engineering professor get his or her initial exposure to this teaching? The Honors College appears to be a reasonable avenue for

Application to teach an honors course/module

Thank you for your interest in teaching a course or module with the Honors College.

1. You will need the following information to complete the application:
• A description of the course or module.
• The course or module syllabus and bibliography.
• Your time and day preferences.
• Your curriculum vitae (CV).

The next collection of links ( 1 2 3 ) all speak of the benefits of building a teaching portfolio and provide examples of how to do that.

Portfolios obviously need to be filled with experience, just as CV's must be filled with actual experiences.

And The Dream goes On

Speaking of college students, Martin Luther King Jr wrote:

Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.

And through the rest of The Purpose of Education, which Dr. King wrote to Morehouse College in 1948, he concludes:

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!

The theme of my blog indeed seems to be social reform, and it is hard to speak of this change and not refer to Dr. King. My previous entry had a few responses that prompted me to a few questions.

So my questions are: What are we doing to ensure that we are providing the education that we are responsible to provide? Not simply enough to not get fired or bad marks, but are we living up to the moral standard that a teacher should live up to?

How does this education of morality exist and effect our science classes? What is the role of morality and social consciousness in Engineering? (I am not satisfied with the idea that the Engineer needs to have only enough morality to not deliberately choose a bolt that is too small or weak when designing a bridge) As a highly educated individual what is my responsibility to my community and to my brothers and sisters?

Formative Years...

A new week and a new assignment for the preparing future faculty class. Reading over the Concept of Formative Assessment I am initially intrigued as we open the box...

...assessment encompasses teacher observation, classroom discussion, and analysis of student work, including homework and tests. Assessments become formative when the information is used to adapt teaching and learning to meet student needs.

...Secondly...

students who understand the learning objectives and assessment criteria and have opportunities to reflect on their work show greater improvement than those who do not

I have always approached school as a student with the mindset of trying to figure out what the professor wanted us to learn. If I can understand her motivations and why she is asking certain questions, I can then better study what is important within the subject.

Black and William recommend that teachers use formative assessment to better gauge the learning taking place in a classroom and they have a list of possible ways for teachers to gather this information.

* Invite students to discuss their thinking about a question or topic in pairs or small groups, then ask a representative to share the thinking with the larger group (sometimes called think-pair-share).

* Present several possible answers to a question, then ask students to vote on them.

* Ask all students to write down an answer, then read a selected few out loud.

Teachers might also assess students' understanding in the following ways:

* Have students write their understanding of vocabulary or concepts before and after instruction.

* Ask students to summarize the main ideas they've taken away from a lecture, discussion, or assigned reading.

* Have students complete a few problems or questions at the end of instruction and check answers.

* Interview students individually or in groups about their thinking as they solve problems.

* Assign brief, in-class writing assignments (e.g., "Why is this person or event representative of this time period in history?)

The interesting part is that inside this assessment, our students also gain insight into their learning and the learning of their peers. So if students have a better understanding of if they are ahead or behind they will be able to gauge their efforts better and are provided a better chance to learn.

In addition to these classroom techniques, tests and homework can be used formatively if teachers analyze where students are in their learning and provide specific, focused feedback regarding performance and ways to improve it. Black and Wiliam (1998b) make the following recommendations:

* Frequent short tests are better than infrequent long ones.

* New learning should be tested within about a week of first exposure.

It continues to provide links to resources for teachers who seek to introduce Formative Assessment into their curriculum. Most of the research cited in this article is done in high school, but they claim it can be extended to higher learning and general learning.

Having never taught a full class on my own, I want to start keeping a list of things I could try if things start going awry. The Vanderbilt Center for Teaching provides a list of a few possibilities of classroom assessment techniques,

• The Minute Paper tests how students are gaining knowledge, or not. The instructor ends class by asking students to write a brief response to the following questions: "What was the most important thing you learned during this class?" and "What important question remains unanswered?"

• The Muddiest Point is one of the simplest CATs to help assess where students are having difficulties. The technique consists of asking students to jot down a quick response to one question: "What was the muddiest point in [the lecture, discussion, homework assignment, film, etc.]?" The term “muddiest” means “most unclear” or “most confusing.”

• The What’s the Principle? CAT is useful in courses requiring problem-solving. After students figure out what type of problem they are dealing with, they often must decide what principle(s) to apply in order to solve the problem. This CAT provides students with a few problems and asks them to state the principle that best applies to each problem.

• Defining Features Matrix: Prepare a handout with a matrix of three columns and several rows. At the top of the first two columns, list two distinct concepts that have potentially confusing similarities (e.g. hurricanes vs. tornados, Picasso vs. Matisse). In the third column, list the important characteristics of both concepts in no particular order. Give your students the handout and have them use the matrix to identify which characteristics belong to each of the two concepts. Collect their responses, and you’ll quickly find out which characteristics are giving your students the most trouble.

Similarly, FLAG offers a wealth of modules for learning assessment.

WHAT ARE WEEKLY REPORTS?
Weekly Reports are papers written by students each week, in which they address 3 questions:

• What did I learn this week?
• What questions remain unclear?, and
• What questions would you ask your students if you were the professor to find out if they understood the material?

The difficult aspect of doing this is just the investment required by the students. If it is not valuable to the student and they don't invest in it, it won't do them any good. :(

But now we come to the end of our Post. We come to the end of our walk through introspective language. But we are American, so let's end it with a BANG!

What is the difference between teaching and talking?

When you Teach, you learn. When you listen you learn. But it is hard to listen when you're talking.

(2) What can you do in the classroom that you can't do anywhere else?

Either the answer is nothing, or I don't understand the question.

I wonder if that's radical.

-Engineer

Bicycle Apprenticeship

Independent bamboo frame builders are going to be speaking at the upcoming North American Handmade Bicycle Show (NAHBS). This concept of giving fish, teaching fish, and the expansions on it are good to hear because we can understand them in this analogy. Similarly we find:

“We’ve all heard the saying , “Give someone a fish and they’ll eat for a day, but teach them to fish and they’ll eat for the rest of their life.” But our friend John Perkins challenges us to go farther. He say, “The problem is that nobody is asking who owns the pond or who polluted it.”

Shane Claiborne - The Irresistable Revolution

Being able to take information and construction techniques that utilize local materials and skillsets is one of my aspirations as an educator, but I do not think that any of this can be separated from the political backdrop of our world. To this extent the small act of teaching someone to build a bicycle from their surroundings is one motivated by goodwill and genuine love for another. I see that as Hope.

The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community, so that when the battle is over, a new relationship comes into being between the oppressed and the oppressor.

-Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

The reason I want to be an educator is to help those who struggle with the basic problems of warmth, food, and shelter. The reason I am pursuing training to be a teacher is to have more to offer people in need, meanwhile wrestling the basic problems of a privileged life in a privileged environment. My inclination toward reformation comes not only from my education as a mechanical engineer, but from the rest of my life as well. It comes from the people I meet, from the eyes and hearts of the lost and lonely.

Undergraduate Educators

A general blog to be taken as blog is short for (weblog). So this is more of a log of what I think I learned from this paper, written as I read it...

If beginning teachers are to be successful, they must wrestle simultaneously with issues of pedagogical content (or knowledge) as well as general pedagogy (or generic teaching principles)

There is a list of features of what we want to teach. I'm not sure how this is related to comprehension. In those features are contained,

• To teach students to believe and respect others, to contribute to the well-being of their community
• To give students the opportunity to learn how to inquire and discover new information

I think that these are great ideals, but I would love to hear some ways that we could implement this kind of program in a public school. This is not me being cynical or even skeptical, just feeling like I haven't seen these points spoken of often. These both feel like implicit lessons in our american university setting.

Following the list of interesting points to consider for a teacher (comprehension, transformation, instruction, and evaluation is a statement of logical teaching that falls under reflection:

All teachers must learn to observe outcomes and determine the reasons for success or failure

And this is where we claim no gap between "squishy-hard" sciences. This is teaching, and it is based in reality. If we see something has failed, we try to figure out why it did and we only reenact it in our head. We don't repeat a failed method without good reason.

Moving to our second reading we now consider the shift of paradigms. We wish to observe a shift in our educational system from providing instruction to producing learning. Concerning the differences in how we may rate and quantify our progress we see:

We are so wedded to a definition of quality based on resources that we find it extremely difficult to deal with the results of our work, namely student learning.

I do have a worry about the learning production paradigm that is contained within the next statement:

It supports any learning method and structure that works, where "works" is defined in terms of learning outcomes, not as the degree of conformity to an ideal classroom archetype.

In fact, the Learning Paradigm requires a constant search for new structures and methods that work better for student learning and success, and expects even these to be redesigned continually and to evolve over time.

My worry is that in our attempt to redefine education we will lose some of the qualities that allow for teachers who are less capable to maintain classes. We have introduced a lot of ambiguity into our system by producing learning.. If we talk about it too much we will stray into arbitrary theoretical nonsense. In a sense, we need to be ready to adapt and change our methods, but we must also be willing to choose a method, fail at it, and choose again. We will not be able to provide a structure for some who need it if the class appears to be too floppy or without any structure.

However, I find it hard to argue with the logic in the motivation of our need for change:

"Fractionated instruction maximizes forgetting, inattention, and passivity. Both children and adults acquire knowledge from active participation in holistic, complex, meaningful environments organized around long-term goals. Today's school programs could hardly have been better designed to prevent a child's natural learning system from operating."

I finally come to the point, nearing the end of the article when I find that I need a direction of what needs to happen as opposed to what is wrong with everything. I am pleased to find a clear direction:

We need to work to have state legislatures change the funding formulas of public colleges and universities to give institutions the latitude and incentives to develop new structures for learning.

In reading this article I find that same push of governmental change. But there is still a fine balance between change from the top and the bottom. We need to begin by speaking the language to each other. Wondering what our university can look like, but also speaking the current language of failure to our legislative branch. This feels like a complete and refined thought, I like it.

Engineering Social Reform

Why?

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. - The Bible, NIV, Isaiah 58:12

In the summer after my last semester of classes as an undergraduate engineer I took a writing class that allowed me the opportunity to reflect on the education I had just received. I have attached a paragraph as well as the linked to the entire document below. During my teaching and technology class I was asked what an engineer thinks (or more why an engineer thinks) about social reform (see previous post), and I think this will shed a little bit of the light on the matter.

There is visible a great downfall to this whole progression of business. That downfall is that the upward march of progress in the global market appears to be to the edge of an unsure cliff. We want to compare what it is that we are hoping to accomplish versus what we are actually accomplishing. Therefore we need to stop teaching our students facts and formulas while withholding the dynamic interactions and conflicts within their very education. Can you train a student to solve a local problem within the frame of the bigger global picture by instructing her in how to solve a problem without a bigger picture? This compartmentalization of education has lead to a disenfranchised generation by causing a lack of coherence and purpose in our curriculum.

An Engineering Curriculum

Chlorophytum comosum

The ideal student/teacher relationship: Chlorophytum comosum, or better known as the spider plant. Out of the plant grows a new plant. It branches off and lands on the ground. Still connected to the mother plant, it gains nutrients from the host while developing roots of its own. It is possible for these roots to grow in water without the host plant, but the result will not be as full. Can this be considered an analogy for an ideal student teacher relationship? The teacher can provide a secure structure to work within and students branch out to develop roots of their own. Influenced by the host yet unique to themselves, these students have the capability to flourish on their own and in time play the role of host or teacher to the next generation of students.

This may also help to explain the disparity of how a student becomes a teacher. Thus we respectfully submit our solution to the transient problem of the ideal student/teacher relationship.

Signed,

The Radical and Empirical

fierdeltreempirical.wordpress.com

radicalteachings.blogspot.com

Teaching Perspectives

I attached the TPI results I received when I took this survey. My result was high for Developmental and Social Reform. This seemed to arouse some questions in the class on what an engineer can feel for Social Reform. As a quick view of where mechanical engineering can be used to speak a language of Social reform, we simply look at needs. What needs are there? Who needs it?



04-FEB-10
----------------------
Transmission total: (Tr) 33.00
B=13; I=9; A=11
Apprenticeship total: (Ap) 35.00
B=12; I=12; A=11
Developmental total: (Dv) 37.00
B=11; I=12; A=14
Nurturance total: (Nu) 31.00
B=10; I=10; A=11
Social Reform total: (SR) 37.00
B=11; I=12; A=14
----------------------
Beliefs total: (B) 57.00
Intention total: (I) 55.00
Action total: (A) 61.00
----------------------
Mean: (M) 34.60
Standard Deviation: (SD) 2.33
HiT: (HiT) 37.00
LoT: (LoT) 32.00
----------------------
Overall Total: (T) 173.00


For what it's worth, people have told me that I am not a normal engineer.

- An Ordinary Radical Engineer

Chai Chai Chai

StonyField:recipes:Chai Smoothie

After having a nice cup of Chai this morning and wondering what a home made chai might taste like, I began looking forward to iced chai and the summertime. Then my yogurt company sent me a recipe for a Chai Smoothie. Score!

Modulation in Moderation

The ideal student - teacher relationship is like a brother or a sister.

Expound..

...

Decompressing file...

...

Enter Assumption

People will encounter life and fit what they encounter to what they have experienced.

...

Processing.. Please Wait...

...

Result Found.

/Display/'Result'

Given that the ideal Teacher knows all he needs to teaching and the Ideal student is disciplined and obedient, we infer from these facts that there is a dynamic other than equality between these "siblings." Perhaps these "siblings" are not twins. With an age difference comes a different level of respect.

To Clarify,

The ideal student - teacher relationship is like a younger brother or a sister to an older brother or sister.

The older brother or sister has the respect and commands authority over the younger sibling through a message of "I know what you don't know yet." It can be either an attitude of strong encouragement or limiting intimidation. The role of the teacher is then to promote this idea of strength, trust, and wisdom and then encourage the student to take the steps to be more like the teacher (gain wisdom and confidence).

Teaching a passion (with passion)

Examining the science of art of how people learn, how does this change how you would design or deliver a course?

We will start with a quick review of what we have learned -

Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot of too cold and turns the heat on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature of the room) and take corrective action. Double-looplearning occurs when error is detected and corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and objectives.

Single-loop learning seems to be present when goals, values, frameworks and, to a significant extent, strategies are taken for granted. The emphasis is on ‘techniques and making techniques more efficient’ (Usher and Bryant: 1989: 87) Any reflection is directed toward making the strategy more effective. Double-loop learning, in contrast, ‘involves questioning the role of the framing and learning systems which underlie actual goals and strategies’

To flesh this out a little I would like to add to the thermostat analogy since it appears to have dropped a little when then explaining the double loop learning. I would add that the double loop response to a thermostat reading a cold temperature would be to adjust the pitch of the roof and the amount of solar gain that can be achieved, as well as adjusting the R value of the insulation. This changes the governing variables in the problem of heat loss in the room (Change the room!)

Now examining the concept of reflection both in action and on action we find that the name of the idea mostly sums up the concept we are trying to understand. Both ideas stress reflection. Which is the act of processing your surroundings and making connections between them and times gone past. The major difference between these ideas is merely when they happen, (In action, On action). Reflecting in action is a way of processing and adapting while you introduce a new concept. Reflecting on action is the more familiar description of something akin to 'journaling.' However, this reflecting on much can be gleamed from reflection after a matter has occurred.

When looking at a situation we are influenced by, and use, what has gone before, what might come, our repertoire, and our frame of reference. We are able to draw upon certain routines. As we work we can bring fragments of memories into play and begin to build theories and responses that fit the new situation

When I begin thinking of professors who have interested me and motivated me to think, I most often find that I have the strongest connections with Physics professors.

Like Dr. Walter H. G. Lewin

I believe this to be due to the joyful passion they have for their passion. They are constantly striving to understand their field and they simultaneously teach upper level as well as remedial classes. They continue to learn, because like me, they learn best by teaching. In a small interview describing his Electromagnetism lectures at MIT Dr. Lewin gave the introduction to the course saying "I wish to make them see through the equations, to make them see the beauty all around them and by doing that, making them love physics"

Physics | Electricity and Magnetism, Beginning of Course Philosophy

This introduction gives his structure for the course and the teaching method is worthy of notice. He introduces his concepts by prompting with physical reality. His demonstrations are funny, but relevant. He presents himself as the fall guy, not propping himself above the students, but supposing that perhaps he will be wrong this time. Building suspense and letting the students explore the possiblities

"What counts is not what you cover, but what you uncover" - Dr. Lewin

When you plan a lesson there are a host of considerations. Primarily you need to consider how your students learn.

• Have they already seen the material you are presenting?
• How can you present it in such a way that leads them to discover it instead of insisting on knowledge? (double loop)
• Take time to reflect on when did you first learned what you're about to teach. This may help plan escape routes and backup options for unfortunate classroom experiences.
• What cognitive stage of development are your students at? Try to gauge how deep you can go into the subject.
• Be ready to adapt to the level of depth (aim for significance and come up when necessary)
• Find your passion for the material and try to convey your passion both for the material presented and for the student's success in understanding material and acquiring a similar passion
• Have a structured balance of community, lecture, and reflection. Encourage idea generation and creativity to try to solve problems.
• Discover what the passion of the student is.

With that said, if the teacher holds too high an opinion of himself and does not consider himself a student, his students will not understand him. Nor will the lesson be relevant to how any student is developing in her or his education.

Lecture 27: Fluid Mechanics - Pascal's Principle - Hydrostatics - Atmospheric Pressure - Over Pressure in Lungs and Tires

This is a lecture (not short) of the kind of motivation I aspire to impart on others.

Preparing Future Faculty

Hi. My name is Landon. I am an engineer and much to the chagrin of the stereotype, I like to write. I was raised in Richmond, Virginia, but more in the suburbs in Glen Allen. I was home-schooled after 6th grade because I was stubborn and my family told me that I was too much of a "social butterfly" to be able to handle being alone in home-schooling. I tell you this as an explanation offering to ease your mind of trying to comprehend a "social" engineer, which is an oxymoron in general. People generally prefer knowing that I was home-schooled early so they can understand me as being the strange home schooled guy. I focused primarily on English and Philosophy during my formative years and reserved algebra and the sciences for college. Upon entering I began exploring engineering and found that I really only like it in as much as I can apply it to help people. But I also enjoy being the engineer who likes to write. Likes to think about the big picture, and likes people.

So with that taken care of, I have an assignment. This is to address the prompt, "Create an analogy for the 'Ideal student - teacher' relationship."

I'd say the ideal Teacher is one who knows everything and is willing to hear the most reduntant question or help the most utilitarian need.

The Ideal Student is one who carries no pride in her/him self and is disciplined and obedient.

The ideal student - teacher relationship is like a brother or a sister.

- Back to the fishtank,

Landon