The K12 Engineering Education Podcast

Latest Episodes:

Empathy Aug 23, 2016

Show notes

Do engineers have empathy? Can they get into other people's heads? How do empathy and the arts relate to engineering education? We talk about this with today's guest, Rachel Fahrig, an educator with experience in high school science and engineering. We also preview our submissions to the SXSW conference, both related to integrating the arts with engineering. This episode was recorded in a market in Austin, TX, so there is some background noise. You can vote for our SXSW proposals on integrated arts and engineering online! "Improv & Art Games for Designers & Engineers" is at: [ http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/61557 ], and "Electronic Quilts: Weaving Art with Engineering" is at: [ http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/60958 ] One engineering abstract related to "Empathic Lead User Analysis" is here: [ http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/proceeding.aspx?articleid=1604193 ] If you don't know that Lily Tomlin sketch of "Edith Ann", here's one example: [ https://youtu.be/u-Jcny8RiMg?list=PL_lxjlU_5l5k2TWzH1GyLdH-7b6tBU-QF ] Our theme music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our other music today is from "William Henry Harrison High School Fight Song" by Steve Combs. All are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: [ creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ] A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep9.html

Engineering Teachers Replicate Themselves, Part 2 Aug 16, 2016

Show notes

Get tips on how to run a better professional development (or PD) for engineering teachers, directly from the trainers who just ran one. This is Part 2 of a topic we started in the previous episode. Melanie Kong (@melaniekong) and Natalie Wyll are teachers who formerly practiced engineering in industry, and they just finished running a teacher PD. They discuss how it went and what worked. Teacher Ellen Browne (@EllenSBrowne) also joins the discussion, since she helped run the same PD. Engineer Sadhan (@SadhanSathya) co-hosts with Pius (@PiusWong) again today. Our theme music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze. Our music clips in the middle came from "Live Wire" by Steve Combs, and our closing music came from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. All are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep8.html

Engineering Teachers Replicate Themselves, Part 1 Aug 09, 2016

Show notes

How do you prepare to train engineering teachers? Two teachers, who are also engineers, are preparing to train more teachers this summer to teach engineering. Guests Melanie Kong and Natalie Wyll are chemical and architectural engineers originally, and between the both of them, they have a few years of experience teaching high school engineering. They use the general engineering curriculum "Engineer Your World", developed by The University of Texas at Austin with sponsorship from the National Science Foundation. Melanie and Natalie haven't run this training session before. Here they discuss their mindset before they lead the two-week session, and in a future episode we hope to hear their thoughts after this session is complete. Guest mechanical engineer Sadhan Sathyaseelan moderated this conversation with help from Pius Wong. Links to items referenced in the episode: ● Engineer Your World high school curriculum: http://www.engineeryourworld.org/ ● Padlet online tool: http://padlet.com/ Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, our interstitial music and closing music are from "Love Is Chemical" and "Theme P" by Steve Combs. All are used under Creative Commons Attribution Licenses: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe, review, and send comments online! On Twitter, it's @piuswong. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K12EngineeringEducation/ And review us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/k12-engineering-education/id1119404863?mt=2 A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep7.html

Robot Philanthropy Jul 26, 2016

Show notes

Engineer Jeff Munn talks about teaching kids robotics in an orphanage in India. Jeff works for engineering hardware-software company National Instruments, based in Austin, Texas. With his company's support, he volunteers for a program from the nonprofit organizations Science in a Suitcase and the Miracle Foundation. The program aims to educate often marginalized children around the world, and they are raising funds for another trip to India to help another orphanage. He talks about teaching techniques, educational equipment, how he became an engineer despite starting as a musician, and what engineering means to him. Links to organizations mentioned on this show: ● Donate: https://give.miraclefoundation.org/fundraise?fcid=641437 ● National Instruments: http://www.ni.com/en-us.html ● Miracle Foundation: http://www.miraclefoundation.org/ ● Science in a Suitcase: http://www.scienceinasuitcase.com/ ● LEGO Education WeDo: https://education.lego.com/en-us/products/lego-education-wedo-construction-set/9580 ● LEGO Mindstorms: http://www.lego.com/en-us/mindstorms/?domainredir=mindstorms.lego.com ● GreatNonprofits: http://greatnonprofits.org/ Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Learn To Live With What You're Not" by Steve Combs. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe, review, and send comments online! On Twitter, it's @piuswong. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K12EngineeringEducation/ And review us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/k12-engineering-education/id1119404863?mt=2 Thanks for listening! A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep6.html

Going To Conferences Jul 19, 2016

Show notes

We talk about the pros and cons of attending professional conferences related to engineering education, including South by Southwest EDU (SXSWedu), whose deadline is coming up! Teacher Rachel Fahrig gives tips on how to make the most of your time at conferences and suggests some good ones. This episode was recorded at Black Walnut Cafe in Austin. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "William Henry Harrison High School Fight Song" by Steve Combs. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Subscribe, review, and send comments online! On Twitter, it's @piuswong. Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K12EngineeringEducation/ And review us on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/k12-engineering-education/id1119404863?mt=2 Thanks for listening! A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep5.html

Teaching High School Engineering Better Jul 12, 2016

Show notes

Teacher Jerry "Molde" Moldenhauer talks about what he's learned while teaching engineering to high school students over the past years in Austin, Texas. Molde and Pius discuss Project Lead The Way (PLTW), one of the leading K12 engineering curriculum providers today; teaching engineering when you're not an engineer; appropriately teaching math in engineering class; STEAM and other acronyms; and the importance of mentors in the engineering classroom. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Let me know what you want to talk about in K12 Engineering Education by connecting on Twitter: @piuswong. Thanks for listening! A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep4.html

Teaching Teachers (When You're Not One) Jun 28, 2016

Show notes

Engineers Sadhan Sathyaseelan and Pius Wong both have trained high school teachers in engineering curricula. We're talking about what we've learned, as non-teachers, to successfully train teachers in professional development programs spanning different engineering disciplines. How does it compare to teaching undergraduates? Or our own experiences learning and practicing engineering in school and at work? Our opening music today comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Let me know what you want to talk about in K12 Engineering Education by connecting on Twitter: @piuswong. Thanks for listening! A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep3.html

Educational Standards Jun 14, 2016

Show notes

Engineer Pius Wong speaks with teacher Rachel Fahrig about educational standards, including NGSS and Common Core. We cover what they mean, the various strong opinions about them, and how they might broadly affect K12 engineering courses. Rachel is a specialist in instructional support for a high school engineering curriculum that is produced by the University of Texas at Austin, and that is taught to high school students across the country. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Let me know what you want to talk about in K12 Engineering Education by connecting on Twitter: @piuswong. Thanks for listening! A transcript for this episode is at: http://www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep2.html

Why K12 Engineering? (Pilot) May 31, 2016

Show notes

In our inaugural episode of The K12 Engineering Education Podcast, guests Rachel Fahrig and Sadhan Sathyaseelan speak with host Pius Wong about the importance of teaching engineering at younger ages, and the questions we'd like to answer about this field in the future. Thanks to Jeff Munn for help on sound. Our opening music comes from "School Zone (radio edit)" by The Honorable Sleaze, and our closing music is from "Late for School" by Bleeptor. Both are used under a Creative Commons Attribution License: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Let me know what you want to talk about in K12 Engineering Education by connecting on Twitter: @piuswong. Thanks for listening! Subscribe, read transcripts, and find more podcast information at: www.k12engineering.net/ A transcript for this first episode is at: www.k12engineering.net/transcripts/ep1.html The K12 Engineering Education Podcast is a production of Pios Labs: http://www.pioslabs.com

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