Posts
Conclusion
These videos have recently been posted to Youtube so students will be able to use them as educational aides. Watching these videos back after a semester of tutor training, they seem as though they will help students or people who are interested in learning about Math and Physics concepts. Creating these videos has also taught us a lot about teaching and learning. Rewatching ourselves explain these concepts has helped us learn to communicate better. We will use everything we have learned in our future tutoring sessions. We also look forward to any feedback we will receive.
Update Two
We have finished recording our videos and have one left to edit. We are very excited about how they have turned out and cannot wait to share them. We ended up changing from related rates problems to chain rule and implicit differentiation problems. I currently tutor at the Math and Stats Learning Center on Ohio State’s campus and have noticed that chain rule and implicit differentiation is something that a lot of students struggle with. These are concepts that will be used later on in the course and it is important to have a good understanding of them so we decided to focus on these concepts. We are so excited to share our videos with students who can use them as teaching aids.
Capstone Update One
Working on this project has taught me a lot about teaching and learning. I have also learned a lot about creating videos and the resources available to help with that. The room we are able to record in has a lot to offer us and has made recording our videos much better. When we record our videos we record for over an hour because we often repeat things multiple times. This gives us the option to choose which wording works the best and helps to make sure we are communicating as effectively as possible. One problem we have had is that this is too long to record without stopping. The first video we recorded only captured fifteen minutes of our hour long recording and we had to redo the whole thing. We have learned to split the video up into sections to record and then put it together when we edit.
We have recorded our first two videos and plan on editing them completely over winter break. Then we will watch and decide what we like and dislike and how we can improve for our last two videos. Another problem we have had is trying to decide the best way to test the effectiveness of these videos. This is something we are still trying to figure out. We would like to have someway to make sure they would truly help people who don’t understand the concepts we are trying to explain.
Planning for Capstone
For our capstone project, we plan on creating four videos about STEM topics. The topics we have chose are hyperbolic trigonometry, related rates, general problem solving for physics, and projectile motion. We plan on recording our projectile motion video first because we have some ideas that we want to try for that one and test the video’s effectiveness before we record the rest of the videos.
We found a place on campus that is made to record educational videos and we plan on using this resource. After recording our first video, we will edit it and then review it and decide what changes we would like to make. We plan on doing one video at a time to start so we know how effective our communication is in general. We will then make changes and know what to focus on before recording the other three videos. We hope to have everything recorded by Thanksgiving break so we can edit on break and have all of the videos recorded and edited before finals this semester.
When we get back for Spring semester, we will test the effectiveness and go from there on if we need to record again or edit the videos more. Then we will focus on our Capstone Research Paper and how we want to present our project at the Research Symposium!
Introduction
Our capstone project is going to consist of creating four educational videos in STEM areas. The four concepts we want to create videos for right now are: hyperbolic trigonometry, related rates, general problem solving for Physics problems, and projectile motion. Our videos are going to be supplements for students who are learning about these topics or are just interested in them. Abstract math tends to be very difficult for students when they come to college. They are used to focusing on more concrete math questions. It can be hard to visualize and understand what is happening when working with abstract math concepts. Our goal is to break these down and give some concrete examples to help students with abstract math and physics topics.
Math and physics are both difficult topics to learn, but many STEM students have to take many of these courses and learn a lot of abstract topics. According to Wiggins (2018), “Results in one field can suggest concepts and ideas to be explored in a related field. Occasionally, methods and techniques developed in one field can be directly applied to another field to create similar results”. It’s important that students in STEM majors understand these abstract math and physics topics so that they can apply them to their own area of study.
There are many benefits of educational videos. According to Bevan (2017), educational videos increase student engagement, offer flexibility, and increase knowledge retention. Students are used to watching videos all the time, so why shouldn’t they be able to learn that way as well? The goal of our project is to make learning difficult math and physics problems easier and more enjoyable for students.
References
Bevan, M. (2017, January 31). Why Videos are Important in Education. Retrieved October 24, 2019, from https://www.nextthoughtstudios.com/video-production-blog/2017/1/31/why-videos-are-important-in-education.
Wiggins, H. Z. (2018, February 28). Real-life maths or abstract maths? Why abstraction is so amazing. Retrieved October 23, 2019, from https://www.parent24.com/Learn/Primary-school/helping-our-kids-understand-maths-through- abstraction-and-application-20180228.
Learning with Escape Rooms
Escape rooms have become very popular in the last few years. Even more recently, teachers have started using escape rooms as educational tools. The New York Times article linked below talks about a science-based escape room made by a physics professor from the University of Illinois, Paul Kwiat. It is one of few escape rooms based on real science. Before entering the room, the four team members were given a sheet of paper that had science information on it that they would have to use to escape. Kwiat did not want people to remember all of the information, but he wanted people to become more interested in science. Keeping students interested is a crucial part of teaching. It is important to help students learn, but let them have fun at the same time.
I have seen escape rooms used in high school classrooms and it really made the students more excited to learn and they were much more engaged than they ever were during regular classroom lectures. There are limitations in using escape rooms in classrooms, because of all the time needed to plan and perfect it, along with the classroom time that it would take up. However, I believe that it is extremely important to keep students interested in classes such as math and science that are usually considered hard and uninteresting. Using activities like escape rooms in classrooms is a good way to introduce or review topics. In the specific escape room talked about in the article, people were given a sheet with scientific information on it. In a classroom, teachers could give students formulas or key points from a lesson before it is taught so the students can have a hands-on learning experience and become more interested before the teacher’s lecture. It could also be used as a review for tests to keep students excited about learning when they are drained from all of the testing that they have to do. Overall, I believe escape rooms are a great educational tool and teachers should be using these and more hands on and engaging activities in their STEM classrooms to keep students excited about learning.
Resume
Year in Review
I came into college excited for my future and not knowing exactly where I would end up. I did not realize how many opportunities I would have at Ohio State, especially as a freshman. I was and still am a STEM Education major with a focus in Mathematics and thought that I would want to work in a rural school district for sure.
However, after being here for a couple months I realized that I had so many opportunities to get involved and personally better myself. I got to spend 75 hours in Columbus City Schools this Spring and struggled with it at first because it was nothing like what I had ever experienced. I thought that maybe teaching was not for me because there were situations that I did not know how to handle. However, after being there for a few weeks I started to build relationships with my students and learned about their home lives. Now I get excited to wake up and go see my students in the mornings. I know that I can make a difference in their lives and it truly is one of the best feelings. I am now open to teaching in any type of school district and cannot wait for my future as a teacher.
Overall, I have learned to take advantage of the opportunities I have here. I joined a professional education fraternity, Kappa Phi Kappa. This has helped me meet administrators from many school districts and I get to participate in different training sessions. I also am part of STEM EE Scholars Leadership Council which has help me gain leadership and communication skills. If an opportunity is given to me I know that I should take it. Getting involved on campus has helped me make great friends and have valuable experiences. I have learned a lot and had a really good first year at The Ohio State University.
First Education Experience Program
During my second semester at The Ohio State University, I was had the opportunity to observe a classroom at Columbus North International High School in Columbus City School District. I have been observing a 9th grade Math 1 class and a 10th grade Math 2 class. Before I started observing here, I did not even know that Math 1 and 2 were classes; I had only heard of Algebra 1 and Geometry. Along with learning about the curriculum, I also learned about working in Columbus City Schools which has been a very different experience than mine was in high school. This experience overall has been very eye opening. I have been able to work with students who come from many different backgrounds and are going through a variety of different difficult situations at home. I am thankful for the opportunity to learn about education from being in the classroom.