Community College Engineering Student Transfer

Yesterday I checked in via LinkedIn with a Holyoke Community College Engineering program
graduate who transferred to a nationally ranked top ten engineering university. The student is studying Electrical Engineering there and I asked how things were going. Here’s a screen shot of the response I got with identification information removed – including student name and the transfer university. Pretty cool!

The student compliments my two classes (Circuits 1 and Circuits 2) but there is so much more. Both classes are Calculus and Differential Equations based so the students need to really know their math stuff before I get them. The math, physics and chemistry instruction is  exceptional at Holyoke Community College – as it is at so many other community colleges in the country.  It is not just the STEM classes that prepare students for my classes though. To get their degree our students need to take additional courses including English Composition, History, Social Sciences and in some cases Business courses. These courses are critical, complementing the technical knowledge, skills and abilities gained in engineering courses, producing well-rounded professionals capable of addressing complex challenges with creativity, empathy, and ethical awareness.

 

I see it every day with students coming to my classes prepared to learn, solve problems, communicate and understand some pretty complex stuff. Amazing faculty doing amazing things in their classrooms makes it pretty easy for me to teach those classes.

We (community colleges) often face unjust criticism due to misconceptions. Despite offering quality education, we’re sometimes seen as inferior to four-year institutions. We provide valuable opportunities and options with smaller classes, dedicated faculty, and affordable tuition. And let's not forget transfer to four year institutions.

 

Thanks to the unnamed student – you certainly made the day!

End of First Full Week Teaching – Fall 2020 Semester Remote

Some quick thoughts/observations after the first week: 

• Email volume from students is through the roof. Not meeting in person means not being able to ask questions. Email does not scale in an online “classroom” setting. I’ve used Slack in the past in courses with mixed results. At Holyoke Community College (HCC) we are using Moodle as a learning management system (LMS) and there are ways to integrate Slack with Moodle – as an example see https://zapier.com/apps/moodle/integrations/slack I’m not sure if I have the proper privileges to do this. Will give it a try this weekend. Some are using Discord and I am also considering giving that a try.

• The more I use Moodle the more I like it. I’ve used lots of different LMSs over the years and Moodle is very nice. I’ve been really impressed with the IT staff and Moodle admins at HCC.

• More on Moodle – very nice on mobile devices. I’ve been able to make my Circuits 1 Electrical Engineering course content 100% mobile accessible. I like to think of mobile as the lowest common denominator for our students. At home they may not have a computer, have to share one, not have access to broadband, etc. The majority do have cell phones with data access though.  

• I bit the bullet on a 12.9 inch iPad Pro over the summer and it has really been nice. Using an Apple Pencil I’m using GoodNotes to record my lectures and keep track of just about everything else in my life. 

Finally, I snagged the pic here from a recent (and brilliant) Nokia ad...... imagine what it would have been like back then.....

Engineering Faculty - How Not to Talk to Parents and Potential Students

We’ve been making the rounds with my youngest daughter who is a junior in high school. She’s interested in a college that has a strong Mechanical Engineering program. She’s not interested in going to a large university - she’s looking for something a little smaller.

So far we’ve checked out some really good schools and have had some great visits. One in particular was so bad though I just have to write about it. No names.... Here’s how the day went in bullet form:

• 3 hour ride so we leave early.
• Get to the school and find the admissions office.
• Admissions office staff tells us about our appointment with the Mechanical Engineering Department Chair. We get the name and “office” location of the chair and head over to the Engineering building.
• We get over to the Engineering building and find out the “office” is actually a small conference room. 
• There are two other families with us. Two of the potential students are female and one is male.
• The department chair (at least I think he was the department chair but not 100% sure) shows up.
• The professor/chair spends 15-20 minutes talking about himself. The awards he has received, the grants he has. When he found out we were from Massachusetts of course he just had to tell us about all the time he had spent and great work he had done at MIT.
• So far, just a waste of everyone’s time. No real damage.... yet.
• It gets bad though when someone breaks in with a question.
• One of the parents asks about curriculum. He goes into a diatribe about how he is teaching the same courses as MIT using the “big thick classic books”. He mentions ABET but does not describe what it is or means. Other families are so lost.
• He then stressed over and over again about how much time students have to spend reading these classic textbooks each week. He indicated with his fingers (about an inch) saying “this thick” for each class. He says "this thick" and indicating with his fingers at least 10 times. Each time he does it is with a scowl on his face. 
• He then tells us the problem with American students is "you are lazy" and “you will likely fail”. This time with a look of disgust on his face.
• “You will have at the most 4 hours per week of free time. You can use this time to go to the mall (and that is a "waste of time") or to do your laundry. You will have no other free time and must constantly study those classic textbooks reading "this thick every week.”
• Then we got more of the lazy American student language.
• At this point I cut it off and told him we had another appointment and had to leave. The other two families got up and followed us as quickly as they could out the door.
• I did tell them don't listen to that guy.
• 3 hour plus ride home with traffic. What a wasted day.

Lucky for us my wife and I are both engineers and we were able to prevent some of the damage to our daughter. I cannot help but think about those other two families and those two 17-18 year olds whose dreams of studying engineering were likely destroyed in about 20 minutes by this guy. One of the families had a younger sibling and that kid has likely been damaged too. Nice work.

Again, no names here. I am sending a link to this post though to the admissions director at that school.

UPDATE 3/30/12:

The Dean of the Engineering school called late this afternoon and we talked for a long time. Good honest discussion and he is going to be sure this does not happen again. I was impressed with his understanding and dedication to the program and especially the students. 

I feel confident the problem will be taken care of. You know I'll be checking! 

I spend a lot of time (it's 100% of my own time, not work) writing and I wonder sometimes if what I'm doing is having any impact at all. Today was pretty good!

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 4A - the "Column Strength Test Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning. In this level, the learner advances through the level by selecting columns that will support dead loads.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 4C - the "Platform Bounce Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning. In this level, the learner advances through the level by selecting braces to stablize platforms used to cross an obstacle.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary demo video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 1 - the "Cave of Volume (shape volume and surface area) Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning.

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You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a demo video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 3 - the "The R Value Snowshoe Relay Race" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 2E - the "Heat Flow Formula Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning. In this level, the learner advances through a "snowball assault" level by solving for unknown variables in the heat flow formula - arming their laser that they use to disable snowball firing turrets.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary demo video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 2D - the "Material Thickness (L Value) Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary demo video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 2C - the "Thermal Conductivity (K Value) Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning.

Thermal conductivity, k, is the property of a material's ability to conduct heat. Heat transfer across materials of high thermal conductivity occurs at a higher rate than across materials of low thermal conductivity. Correspondingly materials of high thermal conductivity are widely used in heat sink applications and materials of low thermal conductivity are used as thermal insulation. Thermal conductivity of materials is temperature dependent. 

(source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_conductivity)

You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project Production Video

Here's a recording of a panel session presentation by Jim Kiggens, describing the project production work.



 Follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

Here's an overview video of the  Survival Master game for STEM learning.




You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temp demo video for the Survival Master game for STEM learning - Knowledge and Skills Builder 2B - Surface Area Heat Flow Challenge level. In this single player platformer level, the learner uses knowledge about heat flow for shapes based upon surface area - to negotiate unlocking a series of elevators and catapulting across a pit of solvent hazard to complete the level and earn energy bonus points and achievements.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is an overview of the design of the Survival Master multiplayer game level, which is a small team survival shelter engineering challenge that incorporates the STEM skills developed in the four single player "knowledge and skills builder" levels for shape volume and surface area, conductive heat flow, insulators, and structural stability and integrity.

You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

Work continues on the SMTE Project. Here's a video giving a  brief overview of the Survival Master game, Physical Modeling Curriculum and Hybrid Model.



 Follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

This is a temporary demo video for the  Survival Master game for STEM learning -  Knowledge and Skills Builder 2B - Catapult level. In the video the learner uses Heat Flow knowledge to negotiate the single-player platformer gameplay. This is a first playable temp build.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a temporary demo video for the Knowledge and Skills Builder level 2A - the "Delta T Challenge" in the Survival Master game for STEM learning.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Community College Students

By far the best part of my work at our National Science Foundation funded ICT Center is getting to meet lots of great people. I especially enjoy meeting students. It’s great to hear them talk about their backgrounds and experience - where they are from, where they are now and where they see themselves going after graduation. I’m always amazed at their focus, drive and ambition and often walk away feeling a little (admittedly) jealous.

Here’s a short video with some examples of the kinds of things community college students are doing from ATETV, a web-based video series and interactive network designed to connect students and professionals with careers in advanced technology. This 7 minute and 50 second episode includes an interview with a Fuel Cell Technology major embarking on a new career, discusses the importance of writing and communications for any technical career, and takes a look at the aviation field -- from a woman's perspective.

The ATETV weekly video series highlights success stories from community colleges and National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education (ATE) programs nationwide.

Great stuff and great people!

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is a quick animation demo for the Survival Master game for STEM learning illustrating how the development team plans on introducing the concept of the "Net" of a cube to the player.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/

Simulation and Modeling in Technology Education (SMTE) Project

This is the third of three videos demonstrating the use of the Moodle QA database we'll be using for the Survival Master game for STEM learning development team. The video goes over how to access the database, how to write up a bug report, and how to view bugs that have already been reported.



You can follow along via the project website at http://gaming2learn.org/