Coming into this experience, I was unsure if I had what it takes to work with children at the middle school level. I've volunteered with 9-12 twelve year old girls but it was a close and intimate group. This summer undergraduate research experience helped me gain confidence in my ability to lead others. Children won't take you seriously if you doubt yourself. It's almost as if they can smell fear. I am really going to miss the children and their energy. It was nice to go to a place everyday where people were happy to see me and had something to share with me everyday. Initially I was irritated by their constant talking but I appreciative that they trusted me enough to not only help them with their class work but to also let me into their personal lives. What I find great about the iSTEM program is that it exposes children to STEM and gives them a opportunity to see African American students as well as professionals that are excelling in STEM. I am grateful for the opportunity and can't wait to see what the iSTEM students accomplish in the future.

My research question is "What are African American students attitudes towards STEM fields an how does it affect there success?'. I have already observed that the students in the back  the classroom who do no participate and have to be disciplined more often are the ones who have lower scores on homework and test. I plan to use the observations I've already made in my study. My data will include observations, a survey, quotes from students. I plan to give the students a survey asking them how they feel about STEM, if they want to pursue a STEM career, and I want to leave a blank portion for them to explain their feelings toward STEM. I want to use phrases that I have already and heard some of the students say about STEM and use quotes from interviews of randomly selected students. because a lot of the students do not like the program, I would also like to asses whether the lack of stimulation in lecture based STEM courses can aid in causing students to feel negatively towards STEM. I am not sure if I will have enough time to explore this. I plan to analyze my data by trying to find a correlation between attitude (positive or negative) to test scores and homework grades.

My first class is developmental algebra. It is a interactive classroom. She  lectures and if she does, it is to explain a homework or warm up concept that the students are not understanding. The students often ask questions and come to the board to solve problems. In this class they also do hands on activities. Today the students made plains out of paper and then cardstock. They conducted flight trials and then used the average distance to find the percent error. My role in the classroom involves walking around to makes sure all of the students are on task and to assist them with problems they need help with. I also help the teacher by passing out papers.

In physical science class the students are way less engaged. The teacher lectures to the students who they take  notes. There is not many opportunities in the class for students to ask questions or do hands on activities to further understanding of the ,material being taught. I do not have a role in this class. I sit at the back of the classroom and have to sit through the lecture with the other student. The teacher has yet to acknowledge me. There is also not much today because of the structure of the classroom.

In the english class the teacher gives a brief lesson on how to write a certain type of paragraph. After the lessons, the students do activities that challenge them to incorporate their lessons in a creative way. for example they've written raps and have had to write pretend instructions in the format of a process paragraph. In this class, I am a group activity facilitator. I'm assigned a group and facilitate the activity. 

The research   posed in "Engineering Education in the Science Classroom: A Case Study of One Teacher's Disparate Approach with Ability-Tracked Classrooms" were "how did the teacher modify the curriculum for her upper and lower-level science classes?", "How did the teacher's instructional practices differ between the upper and lower-level classes?", "What were the leaning outcomes in the two classes?", and "What inferences can be drawn about the relationship between learning outcomes and teaching strategies?"

The data collected in the paper was classroom observations and video transcripts. Also formal pre and post experiment interviews were conducted with random students in the study. Homework assignments, pre and posttest scores, and test grades were all use for evidence in the study. The observations are qualitative data and the grades are quantitative data.

Observations helped answer the their research question by providing another source of data to explain the grades collected. By observing the researchers were able to differentiate between the teachers learning style and see a first hand view of how the students reacted to the engineering lessons. My research question is what are  African American student's attitudes toward STEM and how does it affect their success. I have already made observations that could help answer my research before i implement a study on the students. 

Today is very similar to last week. The students were not very engaged in any other class besides the mathematics class. In physical science the teacher just lectures the students with a powerpoint. There is very little interaction between the professor and the students. The math professor keeps the children active by allowing them to come to the board to answer questions or by making posters of what they have learned. In english, the professor keeps them active by letting them split off into groups and create a rap song. The students came up with the lyrics themselves and it sparked a lot of competition between them.

The math professor had a stay behind of a little after the class. Because the physical science class is just note taking she said it would be smart if we stayed behind to plan out our research project with one of the Morehouse student. We worked on our research because we are no helpful in the physical science class. The learning environment is dull in that class because it is just a powerpoint lecture with an occasional worksheet. Because today is vey similar and we follow the same schedule I did no notice anything that I would like to explore further. 

An Overview

1. Describe what concepts, strategies, and pedagogies you have learned from the two speakers this week? Were there any ideas you would have liked to explore further? A strategy Dr. Jones taught us is to use technology to connect with students because technology is so prevalent in today's society. She also used other fun ways that would connect the students and help them remember what they learned such as singing and dancing. Dr. Franklin used strategy of making college more affordable by giving free textbooks to students so that they can be successful. I would have liked to further explore using dancing and singing to teach concepts because dancing is one of my passions and it would be easy for me to incorporate this.
2. Provide a specific example from both a) Dr. Jones’ presentation  b) Professor Franklin’s presentation explaining how you would create a mini-lesson using one or more of their strategies.

In Dr. Jones presentation she showed us two examples of the students singing songs and dance. They made a song to A Beauty and Beat to explain concepts in geometry. I would create a mini lesson by giving the students an outline of how a process goes. That way the song would challenge them to explain each concept in the outline so that their song will be long enough and flow.

I would use Dr. Franklin's method of having to measure things and and use a formula that is not a shortcut so that the students will have to think critically and understand why they are using the formulas.

3. Pick one course (preferably one that you observed both days) and answer the following:

1. Explain how the instructor taught the class (i.e., what pedagogies or strategies were used). In the math course the professor had random students to come up to the board and explain the problems. She also called on other students to explain someone else’s work to make sure that everyone is paying attention and participating.
2. Referring to the instruction, what, if anything would you have done differently?I would have had everyone answer the questions first before going to the board.

4. Describe your role in the SMASH afternoon activity today? Explain how you can apply today’s experience to answer one or more of your research goals and/or questions.

I can apply today’s experience to answer my research question of  what are african american children's attitude toward STEM and how does it affect their success in the course. I found that the students who did not participate in the games thought they were boring and therefore they did poorly in the game.

5. Overall, how has your SURE Experience been this week? State at least one thing you have enjoyed and state what you may like to see from the program.

My SURE experience this week has not been very eventful. I spent most of my time observing the classes and did have a chance to work as closely with the students. I enjoy the english class because we are able to help the students with their activities and help guide them on the right track of answering their homework and classwork. I would like to see us be able to move around the classroom and help with problems instead of sitting in the back of the classrooom.

I was told that each student is given their own computer once the program was over. While I was looking at the students computers I notice that one girl had changed her computer screen to a crips and blood background picture. When I asked her about it, she did not want to comment on it which was a little alarming. In english, the children had a activity where they created a rap song on how to write a paragraph. They split up into groups and had to make or find their own beats and lyrics. This aided in keeping everyone interested and challenged them to work together. Even the student who do not usually complete their work were active in the activity. After math class I talk with the professor. She helps me and a few other flows with ways to start working on our research project and tells us about opportunities that would be useful for our future.