Tag: stem

Week 9 Response

I’m taking Beyond Bits and Atoms with Dr. Blikstein, so I’ve been very immersed in the Maker Movement, teaching coding to kids, and building animals with the laser cutter this quarter. As an assignment for that course, I visited a maker space at Barron Park Elementary School, part of the PAUSD. Smita Kolhatkar, the head of… Read more Week 9 Response

Week 9 response

I am taking the “Beyond Bits and Atoms” course with Prof. Blikstein this semester so I was very familiar with the content in his article and that of Peppler and Bender. I think it’s important to share with the students in this class some of what we’ve discussed there, because there are critical tensions between… Read more Week 9 response

Crowley- Girls and Science

I found this article to be incredibly interesting. Particularly because it brought me back to a video I viewed a couple of years ago: https://youtu.be/XP3cyRRAfX0. The lack of encouragement and development girls receive around STEM at a young age is incredibly disheartening. I think we are moving towards attempting to create tools to give girls access to… Read more Crowley- Girls and Science

DQC Week 8

It was sad, but not shocking, to read in the research report by Crowley et al that parents are explaining STEM topics to boys three times more often when compared to girls. While wondering around the California Science Museum, young boys are being engaged more often by their parents sharing explanations that may inform a boy’s interests and… Read more DQC Week 8

Assignment 1: Curiosity Machine

Curiosity Machine A site that exposes students to the design process and design challenges, while providing access to advice from real engineers. URL: https://www.curiositymachine.org/ Focus: “We support parents, STEM mentors and educators to inspire children to build their curiosity, creativity and persistence, one design challenge at a time.” Target Age: K-12 (Seems to be a primary focus… Read more Assignment 1: Curiosity Machine

Week 4: Black et al 2014 Response

“The differences between these two text samples are striking, particularly in the indicators of lexical density, 5.7 words per sentence for Barbie Girls versus 14.61 for Xtractaurs, and grade level, 1.67 and 9.63, respectively.”     After reading this quote, I could feel frustration bubbling through my body. Why is it that today, in a world through which women should be perceived… Read more Week 4: Black et al 2014 Response

GoldieBlox Review and Redesign

GoldieBlox is an engineering toy set paired with stories about a female engineer named Goldie. The founder, Debbie Sterling, launched the company in 2012 after finding a lack of good construction toys available for girls. She found that when girls played with construction toys, they typically got bored quickly and prefered make-believe activities. This motivated… Read more GoldieBlox Review and Redesign