Updates from the Grant Presentations

It was decided that all of the grant proposal presentations were worth funding!  I am extremely excited about this!  My students came up with great project ideas and were able to convey them in a manner that brought their creativity and ingenuity forward.  This was an interesting process. I asked my students to initially come up with an idea for a project that they wanted to build, and it had to be something they could build, whether it be a website, an app, or something more tangible like an arcade machine, etc.  Each student received a copy of a grant proposal that I wrote while in graduate school; although I was not expecting my students to write something as long or in depth as I did, I did expect a certain level of detail from them. I pushed my students to think critically about the project they were going to propose; what materials will they need, how much do those materials cost, where are the materials going to come from, how long will it take them to build their project, what are their anticipated results, and what are some anticipated improvements they could see making in their next iteration?  All questions that students had some trouble with initially because many of them never have had to think about a budget or a timeline. I really enjoyed seeing them work on the proposals and struggle a bit. The timeline they had to come up with, in my humble opinion, added another level of accountability to their projects. It is something I can hold them to and let them know that this is what they said they are/were going to have accomplished by a certain date. Now that we are in the initial building phase of many of their projects, I asked many of the me for cardboard prototypes first, before we purchase the other more expensive materials, because I want to see how they work with each other, and for them, it will give them a sense of how things do not always go as planned when prototyping. I feel it will give them the chance to iterate several times before they decide on a final plan. I am also asking them to continue to evaluate their process as they move along; are they working efficiently, is there a better way to construct something, etc?


A sampling of some of the projects that are getting started:

A group of students are working on constructing their own virtual reality app!  The requested a BoBo VR Z4 headset and we received it yesterday. The kids had some great reactions when they put the headset on for the first time.

One group of students are creating a mobile arcade machine using a Raspberry Pi. They are working on their cardboard prototype in the photo below.

I have one student working on creating a 3D printed 8 iron head of a golf club. He would like to see if the head of the club could actually be used to hit a golf ball and set some lofty goals for how far he would like to see the ball go; 100 - 130 yards!

Another group of students are working on a challenge that I issued to my classes; to construct from scratch their very own bag toss game (aka Cornhole). They started by learning how to use a miter saw to cut some 2 x 4s.

Grant Proposal Presentations

This week, my students worked on their grant proposal presentations, and gave them yesterday. This was extremely cool! It was similar to the show Shark Tank, where inventors present their ideas to investors and either receive the funding or not.  My students presented their grant proposals to the Head of our Upper School, our Chief Information Officer, Director of Admissions, and Director of Development, in addition some faculty members dropped in throughout the day. It was really cool!

The presentations ranged from a 3D printed golf club head, read this Tweet; to building a pool table from scratch!  It was a great day, and I'm going to be telling the students which grant proposals will receive funding for their project and those who will not on Monday. I am anxiously awaiting the results myself! Stay tuned for more!

Teaching My Students How To Use a Drill Press

This week, we were fortunate enough to inherit a drill press from a family that no longer needs it.

This is a great tool to have at our disposal and will definitely help one of my groups of students with their project. The group is working on something they started last year, but had a little trouble with it. The drill press will allow them to drill holes in the PVC pipe and steel they are going to use for their exoskeleton.  While drilling holes freehand with a regular drill last year, the group found that lining up the PVC and drilling were somewhat challenging. The drill or the PVC would move and either way, it would produce holes that were not lined up properly and thus, did not allow for the bolts they used to line up properly. This all resulted in the exoskeleton not moving the way they anticipated.

I found this to be a great teaching experience. By the students not being able to create exactly what they anticipated, they needed to continually attempt to make better iterations of their exoskeleton. Ultimately, the were able to make an arm for the project and attach it to a steel backbone, but that was as far as they got as we ran out of time as summer approached. Now that we are back in school and we have a drill press, the students can now see how much better the holes are lining up. The drill press is also cutting down on the worry that I have the a hand-held drill will slip off place and catch a finger or part of the table. The drill press allows the students to secure the pieces to the plate and then drill in a  smooth motion.

I also showed the students how to change the speed of the drill press. This is important, as the harder the material and the bigger the drill bit, the slower you want the drill speed. Vice versa, softer materials and smaller drill bits require faster drill speed.


Here is a little video of one of my students using the drill press.

It was a great week coming off of a holiday weekend.

Start of the Year 2016-2017

We're off to a fast start once again at The Oakridge School! My students in my Honors Tech 2.0 class are currently working on grant proposals. You might be asking yourself, 'why are students in a tech class writing grant proposals?'

When I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, part of my training was in writing project and grant proposals. I decided that this would be a great skill for my students to learn.

My first step in this process was always making an outline of what I wanted to ask to get funded in my grant. I had my students do the same. A big reason I do this, is so that the students learn how to get the big picture (their idea) on paper; give me the executive summary (30,000 ft viewpoint) of the project or purpose of the grant.  The outlines needed to include: 1) introduction, giving me the purpose, background, and significance of the project, 2) methodology, giving me the materials they need, proposed budget and a timeline for completion, 3) anticipated results, tell me in a perfect world how the project will work, and 4) future directions, telling me what the logical next steps for their projects will be, what will be in the next iteration making it better than the last.

The next step, which all of them are currently working on, is writing the full grant proposal. This needs to include all of the sections listed above as well as references. Students that turned in well done outlines, I've found, have an easy time putting some 'meat on the bones,' as I had them think about the outline as a skeleton for their proposal.  Once they finish their proposal, they will then need to turn that into a presentation, either using Prezi, Google Slides, or PowerPoint, and give that presentation to myself and other "grant proposal board members." The purpose of this is to give the students experience presenting their ideas in front of a group, because in every profession I can think of, at one point or another, they will have to present something to someone; whether in business it's pitching to a client, or giving a summary presentation to your boss.

As my students are turning their proposals in, I am amazed at the creativity that I am seeing. It also gives me some great insight into what their interests are outside of school.

It is a great time to be an Owl!