Getting Started - from Embedded Learning to STEM Education

The second half of Transformative Design is about one design project in a group. The first step, due on April 20, 2011, was to figure out our groups.

My group is Amit Shah, Teresa Tarn, and Cole Bennett. Amit is in the business school, Teresa is in the school of education, and Cole is a mechanical engineer. Teresa provided the seed idea that got us all together. She does research on using the environment to educate captive audiences. For instance, if a kid is bored in the airport, they should be learning about all of the cool engineering that goes into making planes fly.

We were all interested in the idea of learning from being immersed in our surroundings, so we brainstormed other forms of captive audiences. There was the beauty salon, the supermarket, taking public transportation, waiting rooms, and, taking "captive" literally, jail.

We were going forward in brainstorming how we might help captive audiences recognize or access the learning opportunities embedded in their environment. Some of the ideas that we came up with were:
-audio guide like the discovery channel has in some museums
-physical audio guide like they have on Amtrak
-augmented reality / location aware app
-educational announcements similar to public service announcements
-teaching parents so that they can teach tehir kids in these environments
-handing out pamphlets
-do something tangible

Some stakeholders:
-teachers and formal education
-informal educators
-the community
-ed tech
-ed policy
-parents with not enough time
-parents with lots of time
-parents who want to gain skills
-kids with too much time
-kids of different age groups
-inmates
-tourists looking to learn more about the culture or people who want to share their culture
-hobbyists and arts and craft people
-lab technicians and their trainers
-people who want vocational skills
-children with learning disabilities
-children with short attention spans
-children being dragged places by their parents

Some locations:
-doctors office
-waiting rooms
-restaurants
-public transit: bus, subway, carpool, traffic, airports, car rides, caltrain, walking, drive throughs
-shopping, grocery store, in line
-concerts, big events, bad half time shows
-camping, vacation, hotel room, with relatives
-home, tv
-gym
-jail
-in class
-bathroom, waiting for the bathroom
-exploring new places, being lost

Then, we started brainstorming possible solutions, and we realized that we all had some STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) background and were interested in STEM education. The shift was fairly sudden. Then, we started brainstorming STEM stuff.

Our Whiteboards: