Kids Engineer!

Sorry I have not been posting much.  I spent a lot of time this summer working on my “comps” papers for my PhD.  This involved a robotics literature review and a write up of my pilot study, where I examined a second and sixth grade student doing an open ended engineering challenge.  The second drafts of both papers are in the Research section of this web site.

I am trying to finish up my coursework this fall taking 3 courses and finishing an independent study.  The latter is a reworking of a lit review  paper my advisor wrote on robotics as computational manipulatives.  If I survive the grueling schedule (7 weeks to go), I will have my final course in the spring (Qualitative Research 2) and a CAGS (Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study).  I am planning to defend my comps sometime this fall/winter and start my dissertation proposal this spring.

Couple of other things going on.  I went to Denmark for a week this summer of a consulting job.  We went to the Grand Canyon.   I am on a committee defining new computer science and digital literacy for the state of Massachusetts.  I was named a finalist (one of three) for the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching.  We have all new technology at our new school so it’s exciting but also a ton of work to get everything deployed.  My three enrichment students are working the the LEGO EV3 Space Challenge, which has been a lot of fun and it’s giving me chance to work with the EV3 more in-depth.

I will write about my pilot study research when I come up for air.