Topic Post #4 – Inquiry Project – based on Assignment #3

 

Well that was interesting!  I did my inquiry project on the woodstove installation in my garage.  Things that I noticed during the assignment that I can apply to my teaching.

• I chose the topic; and because I did I found getting into the work easy and interesting.  By giving my students more control about how they get their learning I believe that they will become more engaged.

• The topic has high stakes (could burn down my house). By teaching more of the why things are important rather than just “do it like this” students will come to understand the gravity of the work they are doing.  (We don’t want gravity to win with airplanes)

• The largest stressor that I had during the project was that I had a difficult time find reputable sources,  for my students, whom most of them are starting with next to no aerospace knowledge I would have to provide the sources for them to make sure they were not lead down the wrong path.

On reflection of the presentation format (Ignite) that we used.  I found is extremely stressful.  I like to pace my presentations and look for opportunities for to engage the class.  With the Ignite format I felt like I was riding a horse with no reins.  I think it went over OK but some of the comments that I got were that it was too distracting from what I was saying.

 

Topic #3 Web Quest

It took me a while to think about how I could use a web quest in my program.  Most of the information that we teach comes from aerospace customer specifications that are not available online due to the proprietary nature of aerospace manufacturing.  I do  think that I could use it in more a a general way so that students could get a deeper general understanding of composites and why we use them in aerospace.

These would be some good sites for the students to do their research on composites.  The information here is about general composites basics but with connections to the aerospace industry and the advantages of using them

Blog

Blog 2

Aeropedia

Video

The questions that I would ask them to answer is we know that the data shows that composites have a better strength to weight ratio to metallic part and all new aircraft are using more composites in their manufacture.

1. Why are they stronger that metallics based on strength to weight ratio.
2. What will the new aircraft achieve by using composite materials
3. What are some of the downsides of composite structures?

These questions are just a matter of finding the information in the documents.  An exercise for deeper learning would be something like this.

Base on the video that you have watched and articles that you have read, design a composite part that would go on the the wing of an aircraft.

Your design must have

1. Type of Fabric
2. Type of Resin
3. Layout of ply orientation
4. Create a blueprint of the panel
5. Write a 200 word document explaining why you made the choices on materials and design that you created.

I can see how an assignment like this would force the students not to just memorize fact but actually apply what they have learned in the real world.

Topic Post #2

Flipping the classroom; changing where the learning is centered.  Rather than lecturing in class and sending the class home to do their homework the lectures can be recorded and watched at home and the hands on learning in moved to the classroom where the teacher takes on the roll of a coach with more time to help the individual.

The course that I teach was developed 18 years ago with about 20% of the time teacher centered and the remainder is hands on practical projects ( More Student centered).  It may sound like that is the good ratio but in teaching it for the last 2 years I know that some students are not getting the most out of the teacher centered lessons.

What I am planning to do during the  next session is to flip the way I do math.  I am going to use the amazing resource Khan Academy for students to watch the “lecture portions” at home and when they get to class they can do what would usually be assigned as homework.  I am currently finding that while I am teaching the math unit everyone’s head in bobbing up and down in understanding but come assessment time its clear that I left some students behind.

With using Khan Academy I can track students progress at home and then in the class time I can work with the individuals that are having difficulty and assign more challenging work to the students that are doing well.

It does take a small amount work on the teachers part to create the class in Khan Academy and to monitor progress and to assign additional tasks but for the most parts once you have it set up the web site runs itself.  I has also seen that some students love it and keep using Khan Academy in their spare time to improve their math skills.

Topic Post #1

The Best Advice for Creating Student-Centered Learning

This article has an embedded video within it that goes though the history of learning starting in the 50’s with teacher centered learning and thought to today where there is more focus on the student being the center of the learning.  There is also a second video that is about 20 mins long showing how a teacher actually implemented Student Centered Learning into his classroom.

The article defines what both learners and teachers do and are responsible for in student centered learning.

Learners

• Are active participants in their own learning.
• Make decisions about what and how they will learn.
• Monitor their own learning to develop strategies for learning

Instructors

• Provide structure without being overly directive.
• Encourage and facilitate learners’ shared decision-making.
• Help learners work through difficulties by asking open-ended questions to help them arrive at conclusions or solutions that are satisfactory to them.

This is my third year teaching and I would saw that I am just starting to implement student centered learning into my class.

The first 3 weeks of my program in mostly theory but there are portions of it that students need to discover and struggle to understand and do certain tasks.  We do a section on blue print reading where I lecture (for too long) and after that the students are thoroughly confused and then I give them the blueprints.  The first few activities they struggle to find information but with each failure and then eventual success they become proficient

After watching the second video in this article it has actually shown me how Student Center Learning can be implemented in real life rather than just talking about a theory.

The one place that I can see it to difficult to be difficult in the aerospace manufacturing program is where it comes to customer specification.  there is no opportunity to discover threw trial and error what is correct.  You are told what is correct.

This site will be the home of Assignment #2

Topic Post #1 – Student-Centered approaches – views on your chosen reading; post a question to readers based on your reading and writing. Assigned October 1.
Read an article about student centered learning from this link – scan the articles and choose one.
Post #1 due October 8 at the BEGINNING of class.
Set up a blog at wordpress.com – or use an existing blog – add your address to your Google Doc and to Todaysmeet
Create a new blog post to share your thoughts on your reading, i.e., what is the learning opportunity using student-centered approaches; do you do this? if so, how? if not, why not? etc., etc.
Length of each post – 300 words, include a contextual link to your reading

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Topic Post #2 – Flipping the Classroom – what are the opportunities for you and your students? Readings to support your blog post.
Post #2 due October 15 at the BEGINNING of class.

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Topic Post #3 – Webquests (see assignment #4)
Post #3 due October 22 at the BEGINNING of class.

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Topic Post #4 – Inquiry Project – based on Assignment #3
Post #4 due at the end of the course, November 19.