The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

Hear from two nonprofit organizations trying to provide girls with more education in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). In Part 1 (start @ 00:59), we visit Girlstart, a Texas-based nonprofit that reaches thousands of girls from 4th grade up to junior high with hands-on programs. Executive Director Tamara Hudgins shares what it’s like to develop the program over the past years and into the future. In Part 2 (start @ 27:27), we talk to the founders of Scientific Adventures for Girls, a newer nonprofit around Oakland, California, that targets younger girls in early elementary. Courtenay Carr-Heuer and Tiffany Sprague are using their experience in the both the corporate and nonprofit sectors to start this organization from the ground up. Together these nonprofit directors give stories about why reaching girls in engineering is important and what practical strategies can help others in this same mission. Hear about after-school curricula, recruitment methods, family engagement, key data to collect, fundraising, and other pivotal aspects of their work. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

● Girlstart: http://www.girlstart.org/about-us 

● Scientific Adventures for Girls: http://www.scientificadventures.org 

● After School Alliance December 2016 report “The impact of afterschool STEM”: http://afterschoolalliance.org/documents/AfterschoolSTEMImpacts2016.pdf 

● Girlstart’s October 2016 research report: https://issuu.com/girlstart/docs/strong_promise_girlstart_after_scho_863a7961051441 

● UTeach teacher prep program: https://uteach.utexas.edu/ 

● 5E Instructional Model, with which Girlstart aligns: https://bscs.org/bscs-5e-instructional-model 

● DeSTEMber program: http://www.destember.org 

● Curiosity Hacked makerspace in Oakland: http://www.curiosityhacked.org/ 

● TechBridge Girls: http://www.techbridgegirls.org/ 

● Previous podcast episode with Linda Kekelis: https://soundcloud.com/piuswong/much-more-than-a-social-network 

● Girls Inc: http://www.girlsinc.org/ 

● Makerfaire: http://makerfaire.com/ Remember that the podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! We will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers: https://www.sxsw.com/ and http://sxswedu.com/ 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, who’s also on Soundcloud. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

Step into the classroom of 16-year veteran CAD teacher Audrea Moyers. Audrea also teaches engineering design, and she talks about how the pathway of CAD and engineering classes at her school link up. What are her thoughts on the different CAD packages out there? How do you integrate more design into a CAD class, and vice-versa? Where do you teach drawing by hand? Hear about all this and more in this conversation. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

● AutoCAD: http://www.autodesk.com/products/autocad/overview 

● SolidWorks: http://www.solidworks.com/ 

● CAD program at Austin Community College: http://www.austincc.edu/info/cad 

● Inventor: http://www.autodesk.com/products/inventor/overview 

● SketchUp: http://www.sketchup.com/ 

● Engineer Your World curriculum: http://engineeryourworld.org/ 

● Revit: http://www.autodesk.com/products/revit-family/overview 

Remember that the podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! We will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers: https://www.sxsw.com/ and http://sxswedu.com/ 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, who’s also on Soundcloud. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

High school engineering teacher Joe Malchar helps Pius and Sadhan review the guidelines for effective brainstorming. Joe talks about some common misconceptions and challenges related to brainstorming and how he uses it in his classroom. We have a live brainstorming session to come up with exciting and new engineering lessons for students in K-12. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

● Our open brainstorm session: https://padlet.com/pioslabs/24onnj6e8r6n 

● Our original brainstorm session (closed, organized): https://padlet.com/pioslabs/lheqof5cw4 

● Padlet mind-map tool: https://www.padlet.com 

● Gliffy mind-map tool: https://www.gliffy.com Remember that the podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! Pius and Rachel from the podcast will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers: https://www.sxsw.com/ and http://sxswedu.com/ 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, who’s also on Soundcloud. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

"What else can high school look like?" Mikala Streeter wondered about that question as her career expanded from the computer science industry into teaching young people and nurturing their passions. Mikala is Principal and Lead Teacher at the LIFE School, an independent high school that she founded in Atlanta, Georgia. She talks about the philosophy of The LIFE School, which focuses on curiosity, real-world work, and breaking barriers among disciplines. As an MIT grad, she also highlights how her students integrate design thinking into their interdisciplinary self-directed projects. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

● The Life School: http://www.thelifeschool.co/ 

● Google Ventures “Design Sprint” process: http://www.gv.com/sprint/ 

● The book Freakonomics: https://www.amazon.com/Freakonomics-Economist-Explores-Hidden-Everything/dp/0060731338 

● Contact Mikala Streeter: http://www.thelifeschool.co/contact.html Remember that the podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! Pius and Rachel from the podcast will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers: https://www.sxsw.com/ 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, who’s also on Soundcloud. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

Teach engineering using something that a lot of kids and adults love: ice cream. We get expert advice on the technology and methodologies behind making ice cream from guest Joe Morris, production manager or "ice cream man" from Amy's Ice Creams in Austin. He gives a tour of the Amy's ice cream production facility and explains how art, science, technology, and engineering come into play. Also engineering teacher and chemical engineer Melanie Kong talks about potential ways to connect this to the classroom. 

Mentioned in this episode: 

● Amy's Ice Creams: http://amysicecreams.com 

● Videos of Amy's Trick Olympics: https://www.youtube.com/user/amysicecreamslive 

● The podcast will be at the SXSW Conference and Festival in March, 2017! Pius and Rachel from the podcast will be running workshops for educators and professional engineers; more details to come soon. Check it out at: https://www.sxsw.com/ 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net. The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

We explore the alleged phenomenon of teachers getting bad dreams and nightmares, more often than everyone else, starting with several engineering teachers' most memorable ones. Do other teachers really get these dreams? Why do they get them? What should they do about them, if anything? Based on a little reading and communication with experts, we developed some preliminary answers to those questions. 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

● Research on dream content and emotions, "Thematic and Content Analysis of Idiopathic Nightmares and Bad Dreams" (Robert & Zadra, 2014): http://www.journalsleep.org/viewabstract.aspx?pid=29326 

● Research on dream frequency and themes, "Nightmare frequency and nightmare topics in a representative German sample" (Schredl, 2010): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20229263 book 

● Website of Roxanna Elden, author of the book "See Me After Class": http://roxannaelden.com 

● The "Disillisionment Power Pack" email series: http://roxannaelden.com/2015/09/announcing-the-new-teacher-disillusionment-power-pack/ 

● "What are Dreams?", PBS Nova documentary: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/what-are-dreams.html 

● Research on the transactional stress model/theory in teachers, "Identification of Elementary Teachers’ Risk for Stress and Vocational Concerns Using the National Schools and Staffing Survey" (Lambert, McCarthy, Fitchett, Lineback, & Reiser, 2015): http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v23.1792 

● TeacherPop.org, a teachers' mental health blog: http://teacherpop.org 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net

Engineer and professor Dr. Dave Allen speaks about what motivated him to get into the work that he does. Dave is the director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources (CEER) and Professor of Chemical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He talks about his research interests in air quality, the life of a professor, engineering education in high school, and the importance of trying many things. 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our interlude music is from "When You Go" by Steve Combs. Our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. All are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: www.k12engineering.net

Today's guests present a smorgasbord of resources available for K12 engineering educators, starting with the website www.LinkEngineering.org, an online toolkit to support PreK-12 engineering education. Guests Dr. Elizabeth Cady and Dr. Linda Kekelis explain what LinkEngineering is. It's hard to sum up the website in one word. Produced by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE), it's part social network, part resource database, part review site, and part Q&A site. A bit like LinkedIn, Yelp, and Quora, morphed together, but for engineering education. And it's still evolving. Listen to this episode to learn more, as well as to hear about role models, philanthropy, gender equity, and toys. Dr. Linda Kekelis, Ph.D., consults on STEM programs and research to help increase access for girls and underrepresented youth; she was the founder and former CEO of Techbridge. Dr. Elizabeth Cady is a Program Officer for engineering education at the NAE. Among other projects, she staffs LinkEngineering and administers the Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium, which recognizes and supports innovative engineering faculty members. 

Resources mentioned this episode: 

● LinkEngineering - http://www.linkengineering.org 

● National Academy of Engineering - http://www.nae.edu 

● EngineerGirl - http://www.engineergirl.org 

● TechBridge - http://techbridge.org/ 

● Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Enginergizing and Employing America for a Brighter Future (2007) - https://www.nap.edu/catalog/11463/rising-above-the-gathering-storm-energizing-and-employing-america-for 

● Linda Kekelis's blog entry on LinkEngineering - http://linkengineering.org/Discover/698/14392.aspx 

● TeachEngineering - https://www.teachengineering.org 

● GoldiBlox toys - http://www.goldieblox.com/ 

● The Connectory - http://theconnectory.org 

● Changing the Conversation: Messages for Improving Public Understanding of Engineering (2008) - https://www.nap.edu/catalog/12187/changing-the-conversation-messages-for-improving-public-understanding-of-engineering 

● Online Ethics Center: http://www.onlineethics.org 

● Linda Kekelis - [email protected] 

● Elizabeth Cady - [email protected] 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Subscribe and find more podcast information at: www.k12engineering.net

How do other countries besides the USA motivate and educate future engineers? Guest Sadhan Sathyaseelan shares his view, comparing his Indian and American education in engineering. Sadhan is a mechanical engineer who currently works in engineering education in Texas. We talk about grad school, salary differences, and thoughts on how to improve education systems in both countries. 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: www.k12engineering.net/ A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep13.html

Starting a business these days in educational hardware and software takes more than technology. Guest Connie Hu explains. Connie is the CEO and CoFounder of ArcBotics, an educational robotics company. Previously she advised top global nonprofit leaders on strategic planning and K12 STEM Education at The Bridgespan Group. She holds an honors degree in Anthropology from Dartmouth. Today host Pius Wong talks with Connie about how ArcBotics got started, the philosophy of open-source tech, relationships with teachers in the nonprofit and commercial worlds, and how back in the day she found programming loops to be magical. Mentioned in this episode: 

● ArcBotics Sparki: http://ArcBotics.com/products/sparki 

● ArcBotics Sparki 60-Day Educator Trial: http://arcbotics.com/sparkieducatortrial/ 

● The Bridgespan Group: https://www.bridgespan.org/Home.aspx 

Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe and find more podcast information at: http://www.k12engineering.net/ A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep12.html