Authentic Engineering Drawings | John Heffernan

Authentic Engineering Drawings

Posted on May 25, 2011 by John Heffernan

At the Tufts Lego Engineering Symposium, we were assigned the task of making a drawing of a device that could hover in a vertical wind tunnel powered by a fan.  After time ran out, we were told that the we should pass the drawing and our device to another team to implement the modifications.  While drawing, there was not a strong motivation to make a good drawing.  Of course, if we knew that it would be used, there would have been a strong motivation.

via jheffernan.com

Why do we have students do activities? Are we always clear in our expectations?

Jeff Heffernan discusses an activity he experienced at Tufts LEGO Engineering Symposium.

He has proposed an authentic drawing diagram to create authentic drawings. Drawings should be for external audiences and express high complexity.

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Boy Delivers Motivational Speech After Learning to Ride His Bike

by Jessica Samakow

Filed under: Amazing Kids, Funny Stuff

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We adore this little boy, who gives hope to any kid who has ever failed at riding a bike with an inspirational speech to rival the best rhetoric out there. A recently accomplished rider himself, he reminds his peers with training wheels to believe in themselves and to keep practicing.

We can't wait to buy a T-shirt that reads, "Thumbs up to rock and roll!"

via parentdish.com

Very simple message - Everybody can do it.

Great video and such extreme and genuine excitement.

Thumbs up for sure!!!!

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Failure is not optional « Physics! Blog!

Physics! Blog!

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. – Samuel Beckett

Failure is not optional

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Kelly O'Shea

20

It’s time for the mindset talk in my physics classes. I’ve been trying to prime them for a while now. Honors Physics read part of Carol Dweck’s book as part of their summer homework and two chapters of The Talent Code during the year. The “regular” physics class has been talking about myelin and how feeling confused means you’re about to learn something. On the course evaluation in January, 36% of them agreed with “You can learn new things, but you can’t really change how intelligent you are.” while 38% agreed with “You can always substantially change how intelligent you are.” (it wasn’t either/or).

I’ve decided that the regular class is going to read a short part of Bounce aloud and discuss it on Monday. Honors Physics is going to read an abridged version of How Not to Talk to Your Kids (the parts about very young children are cut out) for homework and talk about it in class. We read it in Honors last year at this time, and it had a profound effect on many of my students. They start to recognize themselves as they read the article, and some start to recognize what has happened to them this year in physics. At this point in the year, almost all of them will have “hit the wall” in this class. They will have encountered something difficult enough that they couldn’t immediately understand how to do it. For the students who have always found easy success in math and science, they initially believe this means they’ve reached the end of their “potential” and are no longer as smart as they’d always known they were. Sure, they’ve earned A’s on every math test they’ve ever taken, even as they’ve watched their friends struggle, but 10th grade science is as far as they are going to get on their academic journey. This is the end of the road.

via kellyoshea.wordpress.com

Very interesting post by a Physics teacher Kelly Oshea. Students are required to do reading during the summer prior to the school year. He discusses students approach to the year and Project Based Grading.

He emphasizes the Failure is not an option if you want to be successful. It we want to get better at something, we must practice which involves practice.

I received a painting from my Aunt Kaki when I was young. It read " I am not judged by the number of times I fail but by the number of times I succeed, and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail." Step forward, make yourself do something. If you fail, try again. If you succeed, step forward again.

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Life lessons: Try, Failure, Try again.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
— Samuel Beckett

via goodreads.com

Great quote.

Key points are
-Try again
-Failure is not bad.

F

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Kitbot Presentation (Kitbot On Steroids) | Simbotics

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Posted 3 months ago

Team 1114 on Jan 8, 2011 at Don Mills Collegiate

Presenters: Karthik Kanagasabapathy and Todd Willick

via simbotics.org

Simibotics, Team 1114 video on Kitbot on Steroids.

Great video and example of a FIRST Robotics team sharing resources.

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"Quought for The Day" Not a misspelling.

Announcing "Quought for The Day" series

By Rajesh Setty on Thu 21 Dec 2006, 12:25 AM - 0 Comments and 0 Reactions

No, there was no spelling mistake.

Quought = Question that provokes thought. Questions are important. Thinking is important. Questions that make you think are very important!

Some background first – I have always believed that it is not always the answers but sometimes asking one good question is what is required to make a difference in a person’s life or business or both. So as we approach the new year, I thought posting a series of questions that people should consider asking themselves in 2007 to get more out of their life or business or both. Since there is only so much that I can do alone, I reached out to several influencers and thought leaders to get those questions. Here was the question I asked these thoughtful, kind and smart people:

     So, what is the ONE important question a person should ask himself or herself in 2007?

I have started receiving those questions. My goal was to post one of these questions everyday but it will take me a long while to post them that way. So I decided to post more than one “Quought for the Day” starting today.

Here is the link to all the Quoughts.
Life Beyond Code:: Quought for the Day

For more about questions, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo lens: The Power of Questions

Note: The word “Quought” was coined by my friend Ashwin Rangan, former CIO of Walmart.com. Special thanks to Ashwin for the suggestion

via rajeshsetty.com

Interesting concept: Quought for the Day. "A question that provokes thought". This sounds like a good idea for journaling or reflecting.

Asking questions is such an important skill each of us needs to develop. Often times we ask all different kinds of questions but do we ever compile those answers for ourselves or even for others to read. Rajesh has done just that. He asked the same question of many others whom he feels are successful and has compiled and posted the answers here. Most often these questions are to others. He feels we should be asking ourselves these questions as well.

So, what is the one important question a person should ask himself or herself?

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Quote: Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us.

"Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us."

Author: Hal Borland

(Submitted by: RScrapIT)

via scrapbook.com

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