Monday - Chemical Engineering

All of us split up and went to separate tables to introduce ourselves to the girls and get them more comfortable. The kids were really shy and quiet. They mumbled their names and I never got farther with any other questions. As a group, we did a DNA extraction for a kiwi fruit as well as make some gack. I honestly had fun with this since one of the kids made a blood red colored gack. I got my hands to look like the hands of a serial killer fresh from a murder—with a few bits and pieces stuck to my fingers. I was REALLY tempted to run upstairs and scare some people but decided against it since I had to set up lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent making shrinky dinks and jewelry. By this time, the girls were more outgoing and interactive.

Tuesday - Mechanical Engineering

We started off with a Be the Machine game. The kids acted out a machine and we were suppose to guess it. After that, we had a scavenger hunt around the museum for different types of simple machines. After lunch, we got to take apart the motor of a dirt bike. I honestly thought that only some of the girls were really interested. They were really excited to use the different tools and to take screws/bolts out. No one wanted to document where the different parts went. As a result, putting it back together wasn’t really do-able. It was challenging since no one wanted to document and the girls had already lost interest by then. I managed to put back together a few of the inside parts with Cassie’s help.  We ended up packaging the motors back into the boxes—unfinished. After that, I spent quite a long time trying to complete sets of tools. It was a pretty frustrating day, but pretty interesting as well. Kudos to all the mechanics out there, since they do this stuff for a living. I could barely do an afternoon of it. :P

Wednesday - Absent

Thursday - Electrical Engineering

The day started off with a game called Electricity Pulse. The girls basically stood in two lines holding each others’ hands. The two at the front would squeeze the hand they were holding depending on if a coin flipped heads or tails. Whoever gets the potato at the end of the line first would win. I guess one can compare this to an electricity pulse running through the girls—in the form of hands squeezing. After that, the girls built simple circuits with battery packs, switches, wires, and light bulbs. A lot of the stuff the girls used were similar to the tinkering stuff Viv later showed me. The rest of the day was devoted to deconstructing electronics and making jewelry that lights up. Allie and I had a hard time taking apart the hard drive of a computer since it was secured with “security screws”. They were basically weirdly shaped screws that weren’t produced in the U.S.. Somehow Alex found a set in the shop so we could take it apart. The inside of the hard drive was so cool. It had a really shiny spinning disc. One of the girls named Lucie actually took apart a computer by herself to extract the motherboard. That was craaazy. 

Friday - Rube Goldberg Contraption Challenge!

Cassie revealed to us that the final challenge was to -drumroll- build our own Rube Goldberg Contraption using the various/random stuff we had around the classroom. A Rube Goldberg machine is basically a machine that is engineered in a really complex way—only to complete a very simple task. Allie and I were grouped with two other girls to build our own contraption which was at the end (all the contraptions built by various groups had to connect together). Zoe suggested that we make a sign at the end that lights up. The two girls we were originally grouped to work with weren’t really enthusiastic about this challenge, despite our efforts to get them interested in it. Allie and I ended up doing most of the work—plus a lot of help from the other Xtech girls, of course. (; It’s basically a ball balanced on a strawberry basket. When the motor starts (the group before us ended their contraption with a running motor), it hits the ball which slides down a popsicle ramp and into a tube. At the end of the tube it hits a foil gum wrapper flap which hits the alligator clip that completes the circuit needed to light up the sign. I’m pretty proud to say that the Xtech Girls’ Contraption at the end worked without human assistance. ;D

We did maintenance as usual today. They moved the Perspective Drawing so that it was closer—less walking yay! After we finished, some of the kids started coming in.

There was more staff than kids I think. We took the kids to the bus stop and bussed over to California Academy of Sciences. After taking a group picture outside, we all went in. We split into groups and were given a scavenger hunt, which the staff weren’t allowed to touch—good call, Denny. The kids seemed more involved since we weren’t allowed to hold the paper with clues and answers. The first clue we did was basically counting all the empty plaques around the alligator pen. I felt a bit sorry for a few of the kids who counted, lost track, and had to redo it. Took a us awhile, but we got a number eventually.

After that we went off to search for the Basilisk Lizard. We were told it was in the Tropical Rainforest and our whole group lined up to go inside of it. It was really hot and humid inside! I was sweating so much even wearing just a thin jacket. We went to the very top of the dome only to find out that they moved the Basilisk Lizard. We went off explore a bit more of the museum and ended up getting separated. We met up again at the penguin area. Since the clues about Darwin and his research were nearby, we went there and found a few more answers for our scavenger hunt. After that we had lunch in an outdoor area next to the museum. The orders were messed up due to trouble between communications, so we all had vegetarian sandwiches.

After lunch, we all lined up for the Planetarium show. It was a really cool experience. We sat near the top, so our range of vision was greater but the sensation was a bit reduced. Sensation basically means how much we feel when the screen images change.

When the showing was finished, we took our group of kids to explore the different gift shops. After a bit, it was time to go. We all met up back outside the museum and dismissed the kids. 

The kids came in and had till about lunchtime to finish their bridges. There was one group that ended up remaking their bridge TODAY. It was amazing that they even finished it in time for the competition…I mostly watched the kids build their bridges—none of them seemed to have needed any help in building it. 

For the competition, I was the scorekeeper as well as one of the judges for which bridge looked the best. We chose two groups that had the best looking bridge and then continued on with the competition. To my surprise, most of the groups held everything we had for the weights. :) Even one of the bridges that was completely held together by tape.

We took the kids down to the gift shop as the prize. After that, Viv introduced the girls working during the Girls’ Engineering Week to Cassie, who was leading it.

Today Viv came in for a meeting with all of us. Basically we talked/reflected some more on the collaboration. What we liked, what we didn’t like. What could be changed. One of the thoughts that was put out there was that the adults took a bit too much of an active role in this collaboration. I totally agreed with that. Throughout the collaboration, I couldn’t help but think that some of the adults (who shall not be named) took an approach to what we were doing in a way that was borderline micromanaging. I thought that for the next collaboration(if there is one!) the interns/staff should be taking a more active role while the adults take a step back. Just an opinion though. After reflecting a bit, we started to brainstorm for the next collaboration, that is again, if we have one. Kathleen suggested a project that would encompass more of the biological aspect of life in relation to engineering (our side). 

Today we all attempted to make a working Stirling Engine. It’s a pretty complicated process and a tiny bit frustrating. We were split into groups and each tried to build a Stirling Engine. We stopped around 11:30 to go down to the LC for Shirin’s presentation.

Shirin presented her research, which she had been collecting during our collaboration with Cal Acad. She was originally a teacher as well as a teacher with programs that were outside of school. She basically observed the differences between how we learned versus being in a classroom. Shirin showed us clips of our collaboration which illustrated quite a few interesting points. One is that there isn’t a set teacher-student relationship. We learn from each other, both student and teacher. Another point that the clips illustrated is having a safe environment to discover/inquire. This basically means that we won’t be dinged or marked off for not having the right answer or producing the expected end result. It’s less strict so that there’s a bit more of a discovery aspect to the learning. Both instructor and students learn from this as students learn how something works or does not work whereas a teacher may learn a new way of how something works. A great point that Andrew made was that this relationship has to go both ways. A teacher has to be willing to learn and a student has to be willing to learn. A few of us shared personal stories about how certain teachers being condescending ultimately affects the way we perceive a subject.

Taking this into account makes me think of the way we teach the kids here at the Explo. I feel like we have a balance of both structured and unstructured curriculum. An example would be how we do the building bridges project with kids. We have a few basic rules to follow, but anything after that is to their own designs. This presentation also changed the way I tend to teach kids. I tend to help them by showing them how to do it—the way it’s suppose to done. I’m going to try to take a more subtle approach—nudging and guiding rather than just laying down the path for them to follow.

We started off the day playing an ice-breaker game with the kids. Noemi wrote different questions all over a soccer ball and we just tossed it around the circle of staff and kids. I felt that I learned a few more names after that game. (:

After the game, the kids continued building their bridges. Some took the simple route, and others built really intricate bridges. I supervised them for most of the morning while counting out popsicle sticks for groups that run out of popsicle sticks. There’s so many different designs and I’m curious to see which one can sustain the most weight. 

I also heard that we’re developing a new project for the kids to work with. It’s called Sterling Engine(?) or maybe Stirling. I’m not sure. I haven’t heard much of it yet, but I know that it involves soda cans. We’re basically going to test it out and improve it over the next few weeks. 

After the kids left, we had a mini meeting. I ended up volunteering for the one week with an all girls program during spring break. I was originally hesitant about doing it since my knowledge of engineering is next to nothing. Jiao Wei confessed that she didn’t know much either but still wanted to do the one weeker.