Nearly a year after Trish Morgan was named as a national winner of a $100,000 grant through Farmers Insurance’s Dream Big Teacher Challenge, her “Innovative Invention Imaginarium” set-up is near completion.
“It’s a huge project, but we’re chipping away at it and making good progress,” said Morgan, a STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) teacher at Stevenson Middle School. “We’re ambitious and pushing to see the project through its full completion.”
The Imaginarium’s “Innovation Lab” is equipped with computers, iPads, 3D printers, electronic breakout boards, video equipment, green-screen technology and professional DJ equipment. “The first time my students saw the room, their mouths dropped. They couldn’t wait to get their hands on the new technology and they were especially excited to learn how to code,” said Morgan, who is now in her sixth year at the Punchbowl area school.
The set-up’s “Makerspace” is outfitted with a dazzling array of construction tools, vinyl cutters, a T-shirt press, sewing machines, computerized embroidery machine and various other gear.
“There’s something for everyone’s interest in there. Some students are drawn in by the vinyl cutters to make stickers, some come to sew. We continue to add equipment to the room with the hopes that we can continue to reach more students and teach them new lifelong skills,” Morgan said.
The California native started college as a business major, but found her calling as a teacher when a math professor called her to the front of the class to explain a problem that students had been struggling with.
“When I got up and thoroughly explained it, they got it,” Morgan said. “My professor was impressed and from then on, students in my class came to me for tutoring … and encouraged me to become a teacher. With a combination of feeling good about helping my classmates and my love for math, I decided to switch majors and go into education.”
And what does she enjoy most about her job as an educator? “Watching your students’ excitement and confidence skyrocket when they conquer a challenge. When students find success, their motivation increases and it inspires everyone around them. … I can’t even begin to tell you how fun it is to work collaboratively and learn right along with my students.”
Morgan added, “When it comes to technology, I’ll give them a tutorial and get them going on a task or challenge. … Then they take off and blow you away.”
Question: Your grant proposal aimed to create a “place where kids can come to learn 21st century skills.” What sorts of projects pursued so far?
Answer: Now that we see what you can do with technology, its importance, in combination with seeing so many people in our community who are in need, we’ve shifted our focus to developing assistive technology. … We feel the responsibility to pay it forward.
… Once students learn how to use a mix of technology, we end the year with an “Innovation Challenge.” The objective is to use technology to change someone’s life in a positive way. When students are able to create something for someone else, they develop a deep sense of empathy for the person and have a stronger connection to their project. The quality of their work increases because they want to perfect it for their client.
Last year, a few students 3D-printed a prosthetic arm for an alumna of our school. When other students saw their success, they wanted to be a part of it and create prosthetics for others in need.
This year, we started with an introduction to coding using Micro:bit and Arduino programmable electronic breakout boards. My students were completely engaged. … Several students are currently working on creating a wearable smart device for a student who is visually impaired. The wearable device relies on ultrasonic waves to alert her with a vibration or sound indicator to avoid obstacles in her way. Another student is creating a UV detector to help monitor dangerous radiation in sunlight, and others are working on health and water quality monitoring systems.
Q: The Imaginarium aims to help students at neighboring schools, too?
A:We’ve reached well beyond our neighbor-schools K-12 pipeline network to put on two full-day “Arduino and Micro:bit Coding and Prototyping Academy” workshops for teachers and students in our complex.
We take a group of 30 teachers and 70 students and scaffold the programming process starting with the introduction to block coding, programming electronic components in C, reading schematics, and finish the day with an open-ended innovation challenge.
We were amazed to see the projects the students came up with in a short two-hour timed countdown competition. An elementary school student created a wearable technology Micro:bit to help students with autism recognize emotional expression in faces. Another student coded a Micro:bit to play a symphony. …
Our middle school students are learning a variety of technology skills that they will turn around and teach to the elementary school students. Our students will serve as mentors for coding, 3D printing, Design Thinking and Engineering Design Process- based projects.
Our neighbor Roosevelt High School STEM teacher Howard Kam’s coding club put on a coding camp for our middle school students to teach them HTML. We’re making headway to establish a culture of innovators within our community.
Q: What are the most important STEM skills being taught at Stevenson?
A:The ability to think critically, engage in collaborative teamwork and the ability to research and explore their curiosities. … Middle school age is a critical time for future success. Learning experiences can make or break students’ interest. STEM education is exciting and it keeps students connected through experiential learning while developing valuable skills like leadership, teamwork, entrepreneurship and out-of-the-box thinking.
STEM provides hands-on and minds-on opportunities, which enable our students to use their imagination to innovate solutions to real-world problems using the Engineering Design Process or through Design Thinking.
Q: Through the Imaginarium, you’re trying to help launch the next generation of local talent in information technology talent?
A: Learning to code is often compared to learning a foreign language. While the language of coding can be learned in high school or college, it is easier and more naturally acquired at a young age. The world is changing and it’s possible that coding is the language that their future occupations will rely on. Computer science and technology influence nearly every industry and we have a great responsibility as educators to prepare our students for the demands and skills that their future holds.
Businesses in Hawaii can help by offering internship opportunities to high school and college students in order to hold on to homegrown talent. Once hired, they need to receive higher pay in order to keep them in Hawaii — or we will continue to lose our talent to tech-centric places.
Q: Partnerships are also forming with tech-related companies and higher ed?
A: University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Pre STEM Academy has been a huge support to us. They’ve been instrumental in helping us build our STEM program with instructional materials, knowledge and the use of lab and tech equipment. We were able to borrow a variety of tech equipment from them, such as ozobots, spheros, Arduino shields and 3D printers in order to test them out with our students and decide whether or not they were worth purchasing with our grant funding.
Also, we attended an Artificial Intelligence workshop put on by Oceanit (a Honolulu-based science and engineering company) a few weeks ago and received instruction on training a computer to recognize an aloha shirt. The Oceanit team will be providing our students with instruction on coding with Altino (autonomous) cars in January.
Q: What advice do you have for educators drafting grant proposals?
A: Find out what excites your students and develop learning opportunities that will empower them to take ownership in their own education. Keep it innovative and keep pushing the envelope. … Brainstorm and infiltrate the students’ voice in the writing process, and don’t give up if you don’t receive one the first or second time. Consider it a draft and keep applying until you get the funding to enhance your ideal learning opportunity.
MORE INFO: This year, three Hawaii teachers are among the 15 finalists for Dream Big grants; winners will be announced in mid-December (see www.farmers.com/thank-americas-teachers).
