To celebrate Engineers Week (February 19-25, 2017) we’re investigating exhilarating trends and innovations in Engineering, as well as inspirational educators capable of engaging and encouraging students in the field. We were lucky enough to spend time talking with Dr. AnnMarie Thomas, a professor of Engineering (as well as Entrepreneurship and Business), at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis.
AnnMarie is an exceptional brand of educator. In addition to teaching college courses such as Engineering Graphics, Machine Design, Dynamics (with Circus Lab), and Toy Design, she is the co-founder and co-director of the Center for Engineering Education (CEE), which conducts research and course development for P-12 educators. Earlier in her career she worked on underwater robotics at MIT, Caltech, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, and founded the Caltech Robotics Outreach Group (CROG).
The Playful Learning Lab
AnnMarie also founded the Playful Learning Lab, a research group and active learning lab open to “educators, artists, and makers who want to discuss, share, and try out new ways of bringing joy and learning to our students.” Asserting that play is an essential part of learning, the group explores ways to infuse playfulness into an educational environment. The diverse set of collaborators includes educators, chefs, dancers, and students of all ages – anyone with a fresh approach to whimsy, joy, and learning.
The lab’s first whimsical project was dubbed Squishy Circuits, a method for using homemade playdough and sculpting it into electrical circuits. Kids as young as pre-school have both the interest and the dexterity to manipulate the dough and create a circuit, as AnnMarie demonstrated in her TED presentation in March, 2011.
“We don’t usually think of our kitchen as an electrical engineering lab, or of little kids as circuit designers,” she commented. “But maybe we should.”
Code+Chords
Another of AnnMarie’s projects, Code+Chords, empowers women and girls to explore and grow within the STEM fields, as they blend computer science with music. Initially developed for female undergraduates, Code+Chords participants develop an open code source library that generates real-time visual displays based on vocal inputs. The students are currently working with the professional singing ensemble, Cantus, creating “living” digital displays for their upcoming shows.
This spring, some Code+Chords college students are bringing the opportunity to high school girls, at no charge. Over the course of five 3-hour Saturday sessions, students age 13-18 will learn how to use electrical circuits and computer code to create and respond to music.
The college students supporting the project find inspiration in their role as mentors. “Now I’m taking on that role of inspiring young girls to get excited about this stuff [engineering] and know that they can do it,” one student commented.
In the minority as a female STEM professor, AnnMarie adds, “Representation matters. Representation also requires more than just showing up. Letting our students put their newfound knowledge to use in personally meaningful ways has been, in my experience, a way of empowering a diverse group of undergraduates.”
It’s All About Engagement
The concept of experiential learning is central to AnnMarie’s projects, and to her educational philosophy. “For me, as a learner, the things I remember are the things I do – much more than the ones I just watch or read about,” she told us. “I’ve always learned best from the activities in which I was fully engaged. I continue to see that concept reinforced in my teaching career, and in my conversations with other educators.
“Look at how young kids learn,” she continued, “and you’ll start to grasp the fundamentals of learning. When you watch pre-schoolers, it’s all about engagement. They’re asking questions, touching things, playing with things, and trying them out. I don’t think we should squelch that impulse in older kids. They shouldn’t feel silly asking questions. They should be encouraged to get in there and experiment, touch, and play.”
She’s noticed that when students own and execute assignments for themselves, they’re engaged and invested. “My students take more time with their homework – of their own volition – when they’re fully engaged, because it’s simply fun. For example, I’ve come in over the weekend and found kids in the lab, analyzing their own data. They want to see how their experiments are turning out.”
There Is No “One, True Path”
AnnMarie also stresses the importance of bringing diverse approaches, interests, and points of view into educational endeavors. “I urge my students to explore personal interests that may not seem aligned with their stated or ‘ideal’ future goals,” she told us. “Those successful innovators I mentioned earlier – they weren’t necessarily following a pre-set path. New ideas come from exploring a wide array of fields and disciplines. They also come from life experiences – and often from seemingly unrelated topics.”
When asked what message she had for students who may be intimidated by taking on Engineering, she referred to her recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education, entitled, “You Don’t Need to Be Superwoman to Succeed in STEM.” In the article she says, “The myth of needing to be a straight-A student to deserve your spot in a STEM major is one we need to shatter. It encourages everyone in STEM to hide circumstances and results that they see as "failures," such as less-than-perfect grades, paper rejections, or being turned down for internships… My own students are aware of the struggles I had in undergraduate and graduate courses.”
AnnMarie emphasized that students should know it’s OK to try things without knowing the final outcome. “We don’t have all the answers, and we won’t advance science, engineering or the human race by looking for those answers in a textbook,” she said. “We have to keep turning over rocks and peeking around new corners.”
We at Envision applaud AnnMarie’s approach to learning-by-doing, and to exploring one’s personal interests. Our Engineering and other career programs offer students the opportunity to pursue their passions and try out a variety of possible career paths, through hands-on, immersive labs and activities.
We were introduced to AnnMarie through Brett Coup, who is also at St. Thomas University. Learn how Brett is helping his school move toward the classroom of the future, in our recent article.
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