STEP Day 4

You may recall that last week we didn't quite have enough time to get our final presentation completed for today, and we didn't even touch our poster board. I was crossing my fingers that we would get time before the presentations to finalize everything, and thankfully we did! I am especially glad for this because as I've said before, I really wanted this presentation to be something the students did, not me. What would be the point in me doing all the work for them? Anyway, the looming deadline of the final presentations meant that this morning we had to get down to business.

I'm proud to say that my kids really stepped up and worked their butts off to get a solid presentation put together. We finished going through the slideshow as a group to make sure the hypothesis was clear, the data analyzed, and conclusions fair. We also made sure the presentation directly addressed the criteria required for the STEP conference. After doing a couple practice runs of the presentation to help calm nerves, we had enough time to throw together a quick n' dirty posterboard - really, we just printed out the presentation and taped the slides to the board. But, it actually came out pretty well!

Not bad.... Got a nice consistent color scheme going....

We then made our way over to the venue for the final presentations, and I could tell my students were nervous. I did my best to help them relax, and gave them my best presentation tips and tricks. But I'll admit, I was rather nervous too - especially because I had no idea what to expect. I did not know who would be there. I did not know how many other groups there were, or what their projects were. I was really going into this blind. But I did know that we had a solid project, with good scientific data and an interesting story to tell. And most of all, it was theirs - and I made sure to let them know how proud I was of them for that.

We were first to arrive, and A/V was still getting set up. Nothing like a large empty room with frantic people milling about to calm your nerves, right? Anyway, other groups began to arrive and slowly the room filled with students, educators, STEP program administrators, parents, and colleagues. I know I said before that there were 5 activities going on across campus, but it turns out that due to someone dropping out there were actually only 4 (including us). The other projects related to chemistry, nanotechnology (sort of?), and art technology (sort of?). I say "sort of", because the nanotechnology group actually developed an app that was intended to educate people about nanotechnology; and the art group put together "wearable technology", which really meant they strung together LEDs with conductive thread and sewed them into shirts and hats, and programmed them to blink. I'm not sure what to call these, and I don't recall the titles they gave their projects.

ImSci participants presenting some data to a full house of spectators.

Without getting into too much detail about each presentation, I can at least say I am proud of how my students performed. They were still understandably nervous, but they did a great job. Each of them successfully presented a balanced amount of information (not all of the groups achieved that), and they demonstrated good scientific understanding. They showed pride in their work (and relief that they were done). It was not the most dynamic presentation, but IMHO it was the most thorough and appropriate for the program requirements, and deserves extra recognition because they designed and carried out the experiment themselves. Okay, so they phoned it in on the poster board - but some of the other groups didn't even have poster boards at all. Overall, I am very pleased with how our presentation went. You can view the slides from the presentation here.

Way to go, team!

It was interesting to see the other groups and compare their experiences to ours. Some of the other groups had a lot more students; some of the attitudes and levels of enthusiasm varied; and the amount of faculty oversight varied greatly from group to group. For example, the chemistry project basically involved giving the students a "recipe" of lab activities to carry out, and they did them and then created a presentation about it. In contrast, the nano group had a lot more freedom to make design choices, and (presumably) carried out their own research into nanotechnology; but, they didn't actually develop the app themselves, rather they used a tool that builds game apps for you, you just put in the relevant information. And the art tech group did arts and crafts. I could tell that my students were frustrated by this - they did research, they developed and carried out their own experiment, they discovered real findings. Why couldn't they just carry out someone else's instructions, or draw digital cartoons, or thread together blinky LEDs? But for how frustrated they were, it became apparent that they also took pride in what they did. Okay, so maybe they quietly called other projects "ugly" or "lame" or "boring", which isn't the most constructive or positive reaction; but they also began defending the hard work they did, and even said they were glad they were in this activity. Through gaining this perspective it made them realize how much they truly accomplished. It made me glad that I challenged them, and proud that they stepped up to it.

At the conclusion of the presentations, we all enjoyed lunch together. It was fun to get to kick back with my students and connect with them on a more social level. I even got to meet some family, who were so appreciative for the opportunity we provided their sons/daughters/grandkids. It made me rather sad that, now after spending 4 Saturdays together, we finally get to connect, only in time to say goodbye. And, the students finally had a wider frame of reference regarding the work they were doing. I wonder how different the past few weeks might have been if we had started off on this foot? We still couldn't totally relax yet, though, because there was still that one pesky detail that I've felt uncertain about all along: the competition to go to Albany for the state STEP conference.

Since there were only 4 activities, two groups were going to be given the opportunity to go to Albany and compete on the state level. Now that I knew who our competition was, I really couldn't predict who would make the cut. I could think of praise and criticisms for each group. I thought for sure, though, that my kids deserved to go (and I'm not just saying that because I'm competitive). But in the end, the committee chose the nano app and the wearable technology. I have really strong feelings about this selection, but I'm not going to get too far into it here. Suffice it to say, I am upset - not because my group "lost", but because I disagree with the whole competition to begin with. At the height of their pride and sense of accomplishment, half of the participants were crushed by disappointment and a sense of losing. I don't think that this conclusion to their experience sends the right message, especially considering the projects that were selected (sorry, I mean no offense to the facilitators and students who participated in those projects - but what's the experiment? How do you write an abstract about that? What exactly are your methods, procedures, data, results, and findings? Just what happened to all the program requirements we were supposed to follow...?). Sorry, I don't mean to show an ugly sour loser face, which I'm afraid I'm doing here. But even if we had been chosen, I would still disagree with introducing competition to this experience. As much as I'm not a fan of "everybody gets a trophy!", I just don't think any of the kids who participated in any of the activities should be left with any feeling of discouragement, especially when it comes to STEM subjects where it's so difficult to get kids engaged to begin with. All of these kids should feel some sort of validation for all the effort they put forth. Not that I have a suggestion for a better alternative off the top of my head... but having tried it, I don't think I would want to do a competition such as this again (and not just because I lost - really).

Okay, so there was some symbol of accomplishment and validation: at the conclusion of the event we were all presented with certificates. Mine was a "Recognition of Teaching Excellence", awarded to "Professor" Bethany Choate - hey, I'm moving up in the world! - for successful completion of the workshop.

Awk.

This piece of paper makes a nice little document to hang on my cork board and put in my performance appraisal, but I'm not sure how much it realistically means to the students. Does it really make up for their disappointment? Would they do it all again? I can only hope that they still feel the sense of achievement I think they deserve to. At the end of the day, if they walk away feeling pride and accomplishment, then I can truly accept my certificate of successful completion.