CF-EDUC-RELATED

Students race robots, write code at hands-on summer camp

Anonymous — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 22:53:49 +0000

Students race robots, write code at hands-on summer camp Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/17/2018 - 16:53

Molly Phannenstiel

Students at Casa de la Esperanza in Longmont, babyֱ��app, race their robot while trying to keep it inside the lines. (Credit: Molly Phannenstiel)

After three weeks of hard work, nine aspiring young scientists sat eagerly around a table and watched robots they created complete a racecourse. The students, aged 11 to 15 years old, had spent many hours assembling, computer coding and programming their robots to steer around a tabletop course drawn onto paper.

This hands-on learning experience is part of the Institute for Modeling Plasma, Atmospheres, and Cosmic Dust (IMPACT) Junior Aerospace Engineering Camp, a summer program offered by CU Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP).

Now in its fifth year, the NASA-supported program is held at Casa de la Esperanza, a housing community and learning center in Longmont, babyֱ��app, designed to support agricultural migrant workers and their families. The IMPACT camp is one of several educational services that the facility offers to residents.

Over the course of the program, students started with basic robotics kits and progressed to more advanced technology. At the same time, they went from dragging and dropping pre-written code to writing their own code and building their own robots, learning how to assemble and solder the tiny pieces.

LASP education and public outreach specialist Bryan Costanza says this camp introduces students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) careers.

“The intent in general is to bring these education opportunities to underserved communities and bring resources to them that would not be available otherwise,” Costanza said.

Burning rubber

LASP's Brian Costanza leans in to give a student pointers on writing computer code. (Credit: Molly Phannenstiel)

Past curriculums focused on designing rockets, but this year’s projects focused on robotics. The students created their own functioning robots and wrote code that allowed them to complete specific functions, like going around the two-dimensional racecourse.

The rolling robots used a sensor to scan for a black line drawn on white paper and followed that line as they raced. The students also coded in real-time to control how fast or slow their robots went.

Tom Mason, manager for outreach and communications at LASP, believes this unique program will put students at an advantage in the STEM fields by teaching them valuable technology skills at a young age.

“We’re connecting NASA, the university and the work that we do to a community program that has real and tangible benefits for these students,” Mason said.

Costanza said the students learned teamwork as they worked in groups. If a robot wasn’t functioning properly, for example, they had to collaborate to modify their coding.

Mason likened the skills to those used at LASP, where researchers communicate with robots in space through coding and programming similar to what the students learned in the camp.

“When we send commands to the spacecraft, we’re doing the same thing that these students are doing on their computers,” Mason said.

Thinking on their feet

The IMPACT camp also gave the students a crash course in problem solving. The students went through a trial-and-error process when computer coding the robot to follow the line correctly.

“They must identify the problem, identify the solutions and then test out those solutions to see if they work,” Mason said. “It’s all part of the engineering process.”

Camp participant Nelly Jimenez wants to be a doctor when she grows up. The 11-year-old thinks the camp will help her achieve that goal by familiarizing her with complex technology.

“I like that I get to learn new activities,” Jimenez said. “I had never used a robot before.”

Although the program is in its final year of funding, it will continue as an after-school program this fall. That way, the students will have the opportunity to improve their computer coding skills and keep building functioning robots from unassembled kits.

Costanza and Mason plan to continue working with the students and to continue to build their love of working with robots and STEM fields in general.

“The goal is to set them free into the world of robotics,” Costanza said.

A STEM camp this summer, held at Casa de la Esperanza, a housing community and learning center for migrant workers and their families, gave K-12 students a crash course in robotics.

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Students in Focus: 'The Yuccans' bring nature education to Mesa Verde

Anonymous — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 22:37:26 +0000

Students in Focus: 'The Yuccans' bring nature education to Mesa Verde Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/10/2018 - 16:37

Daniel Strain

As visitors streamed into Mesa Verde National Park in June, one of the first things they may have seen, alongside sweepings vistas and scrub brush, was a team of nine students from CU Boulder.

The students had made the seven-plus hour trip to Montezuma County, babyֱ��app, to teach park goers about the plants and animals that call the region home. For three weeks, the undergraduates staffed tables dedicated to various aspects of the local ecology—from the bees, butterflies and moths that pollinate flowers to the yucca plants that ancestral Pueblo peoples processed to make twine.

Top: Rychen Ly shows a young visitor to Mesa Verde an animal skull. Middle: Ngozi Nwankwo (center) and Jhossep Torres Anariba (right), dressed in a bee costume, educate visitors about pollinators. Bottom: Rebecca Coon poses for a photo near the park. (Credits: Rebecca Coon)

These educators weren’t alone at the park, either. Throughout the summer, teams of students worked with scientists from CU Boulder to map the park’s diverse life, including populations of single-celled algae, rodents and even carrion beetles. The effort was part of a growing collaboration between the national park and the CU Boulder Museum of Natural History. Rebecca Coon, who oversaw the student educators, explained that Mesa Verde is famous for its 800-year-old dwellings built into the sides of cliff faces. But the park is also making a push to help RVers and campers better appreciate the plants and animals they may run into during their stay—something that CU Boulder knows a lot about.

“We worked to help visitors to the park better connect to the natural environment and to have that sense of connection rooted in their actual experiences in the park,” said Coon, an exhibit and program manager at the Museum of Natural History.

Rychen Ly, a member of Coon’s team, said that visitors jumped at the chance to talk flowers and bugs with passionate students. “They were all interested in what we had to say—not just the kids, but the adults as well,” said Ly, who will start her sophomore year in the fall.

All about yucca

Ly decided to travel to Mesa Verde after spending her freshman year working on similar education projects at the museum’s main campus in Boulder. Like many of the other students, her favorite lesson at the park was a Jenga game that taught visitors about the intricate connections that make up local ecosystems.

The students, for example, might ask park visitors to pull several blocks from the Jenga tower to simulate a severe drought hitting the area. Pull out too many and the entire ecosystem might come crashing down.

“It shows them that if you pull something out of an ecosystem, the ecosystem gets destabilized,” said Ly, who studies in CU Boulder’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology.

Many of the learning activities, however, revolved around yucca. This spiky plant, which is related to agave, grows everywhere in the park. It was also central to lives of ancestral Pueblo peoples who used it to make everything from clothes to soup and shampoo. The students embraced that importance wholeheartedly, naming their team “The Yuccans” and even writing a rap song about the useful plant.

“We were always talking about yucca because it’s such an interesting plant,” Ly said.

Jhossep Torres Anairiba, a rising junior at CU Boulder, joined Ly at the park. He studies mechanical engineering but said that he thinks his time at the park will be helpful for his future career.

“In engineering, one thing we need to learn more about is how to have more communication,” Torres Anairiba said. “It was good for me to have an impact on people.”

Who's your pollinator?

Ngozi Nwankwo learned a lot during her time in Mesa Verde, too. The student, who will be a junior and studies in the Technology, Arts and Media Program, has volunteered at museums since she was a high schooler in Denver. But until recently, she hadn’t spent much time in nature.

At first, she said she was nervous about being around all of the bees and moths in the park. After three weeks, however, she became a lot more comfortable around insects. And she and her fellow students got pretty good at identifying local life, too.

“We had this game where we’d point out the different plants and name them,” said Nwankwo, who is also majoring in computer science. “It was really fun to be able to look at a plant and say, ‘I know who your pollinator is.’”

Those sentiments are what Rebecca Coon likes to hear. The professional educator explained that she wanted her student employees to gain just as much from their time at Mesa Verde as the visitors they taught—and to also attune themselves to the rhythms of the natural world.

“I think good educators are great observers,” Coon said. “If we are trying to educate the public and get the public excited about connecting to nature, we are not going to do a good job if we are not personally connected to nature.”

In June, nine students from CU Boulder gave visitors to Mesa Verde National Park an education in yucca plants and other facets of babyֱ��app ecology.

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Drones, beaver dams help community college students get involved in research

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Jul 2018 14:00:00 +0000

Drones, beaver dams help community college students get involved in research Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/31/2018 - 08:00

Molly Phannenstiel

Jessica Ghent has had an eventful summer.

As part of a nine-week research internship at CU Boulder, the Front Range Community College student is studying the topography of babyֱ��app’s Mount Princeton to find the ideal placement for ground control points, which are physical markers that drones can follow to create a digital map of the area.

If you go

What: RECCS student presentations
When: The Student Poster Session will take place Thursday, August 2 from 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the Center Green at NCAR/UCAR (3080 Center Green Drive).

The Student Science Talks will be held Friday, August 3 from 1 to 3:10 p.m. in the CIRES auditorium.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Ghent will use the drone images to make a 3D digital elevation model of the area to understand how to help prevent debris flows, which are fast-moving masses of rock that can destroy towns and homes in a matter of minutes.

She wants to find out how debris flows start and how to improve early-warning systems in the future.

Ghent is one of 11 students participating in the Research Experience for Community College Students (RECCS) program hosted by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).

Now entering its fifth year, RECCS gives babyֱ��app community college students hands-on research opportunities as they look ahead in their careers.

“The RECCS program is amazing, and it’s so beneficial,” Ghent said. “We all go into something lacking confidence and feel like we don’t know enough, but it’s cool to be around a lot of different people with science backgrounds and learn more about things that you wouldn’t have necessarily come into contact with.”

Sean Will, a student at the Community College of Denver, is studying beaver habitats by looking at water properties and soil permeability to study how this might affect droughts. The research will help reveal whether beaver dams can efficiently manage a limited water supply.

“The research experience is very valuable, not just if I continue on with the research career track, but even if I go back into business or something, I can take a lot of the skills from the RECCS program,” Will said.

Community College of Denver student Sean Will doing field work.

RECCS Director Anne Gold and Program Manager Renee Curry Minaya say the program teaches community college students valuable skills that will help them in their careers.

“Being part of a professional research group gives a lot of skills: multitasking, organization, professionalism, interpersonal professional communication skills and how to set goals realistically and work towards them,” Gold said.

Students are assigned a research question to answer on their own while they work alongside their babyֱ��app mentors to answer big picture research questions. At the end of the program, they present their findings to their peers, their mentors and the general public.

With RECCS funded for two more years via the National Science Foundation, Gold and Curry plan to continue expanding the program’s reach.

“We are trying to reach more rural community colleges, because for them, the lack of access to resources is even stronger than Front Range community colleges,” Gold said.

Their efforts are already beginning to push past the Front Range. Susannah Rozak, a member of this year’s RECCS class from Pikes Peak Community College in babyֱ��app Springs, has always been passionate about research and the program has been a perfect way to expand her knowledge.

“There’s so much about the world that we don’t know yet and so being able to take part in finding things out and discovering things and sharing those discoveries is really fun,” said Rozak, who is studying student engagement in climate change. “I feel like RECCS has helped me grow a lot and be more confident.”

Ghent hopes to transfer to CU Boulder in the fall, possibly continuing her research into debris flows under her babyֱ��app mentors.

“I’ve gained experience in really tangible ways that I’ll be able to take to my future career,” Ghent said.

A summer research internship at CIRES gives babyֱ��app community college students hands-on research opportunities as they look ahead in their careers.

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Pushing Boundaries: Using theater to communicate climate change, one child at a time

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 14:49:08 +0000

Pushing Boundaries: Using theater to communicate climate change, one child at a time Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/24/2018 - 08:49

Kenna Bruner

Beth Osnes likes to have fun. When she created Shine, a musical performance about how energy, climate and humans are interrelated, she did what came naturally and made it joyful.

Set against a hand-drawn backdrop representing 300 million years of earth’s geologic history, youngsters dressed in colorful costumes symbolizing plants and insects sing and gambol around the stage.

Under the direction of Osnes, associate professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance, youth from local communities are performers in the humorous and dynamic story.

“I really like having fun,” she said. “We used artistic, creative, participatory activities to tell the story of energy and what actions we can take to get from the old story of fossil fuels to the new story of our cities resilience.”

Using theater as a platform for change, Osnes created an artistic project she hopes will inspire climate action. And she did it in a fun way.

“It’s good for youth to have a voice and to start learning these tools to become effective climate communicators,” said Osnes, who also teaches in environmental studies at CU Boulder. “What does it do for us to hear these messages from youth is what I’m super interested in.”

Shine is divided into two acts.

The first act is scripted, composed and choreographed to show how use of fossil fuel affects our climate. It begins with humanity’s transition from living in balance with nature to the excessive use of fossil fuels. It ends with Foss (fossil fuels) looking up at his older sister, the sun, and asking, “What now?”

The second act is authored by local youths. From the results of fossil fuels’ actions, participants are invited to create a new story for their city, one based on local solutions to the damaging environmental impact that threatens their city’s resilience.

The goal is to use performance as an entertaining way for youth to contribute to their community’s future. Shine has been performed in numerous cities, from Boulder and Chicago to London and Malope, South Africa.

Osnes challenged the idea that people don’t act on climate change issues because of a lack of information. She says people don’t act because they think it does not relate to them or because the issue feels so overwhelming they don’t know where to begin. The play demonstrates how performance can be a self-motivated tool for youth to contribute to their community’s energy resilience.

Osnes is co-founder and co-director of Inside the Greenhouse, an endowed initiative at CU Boulder to celebrate creative climate communication through film, theater, dance and music. She received a bachelor’s in theology from Marquette University and her master’s and PhD in theater from CU Boulder.

The youngest of 10 children, Osnes has been putting on plays for her siblings and friends since she was 9, so it was natural for her to use performance as a narrative framework for this story.

“In the work that I do, what I’m led by is the idea of being science-informed,” she said. “Ensuring that we’re portraying the most recent and accurate science. There’s a certain amount of urgency around this. It’s too important for us not to do this work.”

Engaging with youth and communities is at the core of Osnes’ research and creative work. She has several years of experience as an applied theater practitioner, theater scholar and performer.

Her work is primarily focused on women’s and children’s rights. Osnes hopes that through performance they find their own voices. She created a national organization called Mothers Acting Up, an international group dedicated to worldwide child advocacy through political and community action.

She helped start Navajo Women’s Energy Project. It was on the Navajo Nation that she began conducting clean-energy climate work with youth and women. She uses performance as a tool for young women to empower their voices through SPEAK WORLD, which consults with organizations on how to use art and project-based learning to help young women make their voices heard. Her work on women's empowerment is featured in the award-winning documentary, Mother: Caring for 7 Billion, an award-winning film about the controversies surrounding a world of 7 billion.

“My projects are about telling a story,” she said. “You have to make the issue local, because if it’s not local, it feels too big and people disengage. What happens when an audience watches the children of their community? What does that call forth in us? I have a suspicion that it brings forth from us our best selves, the part of ourselves that wants to leave a better legacy.”

As a way to engage youth in the climate change conversation, Beth Osnes created "Shine," a musical performance about how energy, climate and humans are interrelated.

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Scientists ID more than 1,200 genes linked to educational attainment

Anonymous — Mon, 23 Jul 2018 06:00:00 +0000

Scientists ID more than 1,200 genes linked to educational attainment Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/23/2018 - 00:00

Lisa Marshall

An international research team including CU Boulder scientists has identified more than 1,200 genetic variants associated with how much schooling an individual completes and developed a “polygenic score” predictive of more than 11 percent of the variation in educational attainment between individuals.

With more than 1.1 million participants from 15 countries, the study, published today in the journal Nature Genetics, is among the largest human genetics studies to date.

The authors say the findings shed new light on the role genetics play in influencing complex human behaviors.

“It moves us in a clearer direction in understanding the genetic architecture of complex behavior traits like educational attainment,” said co-first author Robbee Wedow, a graduate student in CU Boulder’s Department of Sociology and researcher with the Institute for Behavioral Genetics.

Key takeaways

More than 1,271 gene variants are associated with educational attainment, according to a new study.
The researchers developed a "polygenic score" that was predictive of 11-13 percent of the variation in the years of schooling that individuals completed.
Drawing on data from more than 1.1 million participants, the research is one of the largest human genetics studies ever published.

For the quantitative meta-analysis, led by the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, Wedow worked with dozens of researchers over two years to analyze genetic information and questionnaires assessing number of school years completed from participants age 30 and older of European descent.

The information was derived from 71 datasets, including very large datasets from the UK Biobank and the personal genomics company 23andMe.

A smaller, previous study had found that 74 gene variants, including many involved in brain development, were moderately predictive of educational attainment. By using a far larger sample size for the current study, researchers were able to identify 1,271 associated gene variants, including those involved with neuron-to-neuron communication and neurotransmitter secretion.

The researchers stressed that individual gene variants have little predictive value.

“It would be completely misleading to characterize our results as identifying genes for education,” said corresponding author Daniel Benjamin, an associate professor at the Center for Economic and Social Research at University of Southern California.

Combined, the 1,271 variants explain about 4 percent of the variation in educational attainment across individuals.

But when scientists included the effects of all of the variants they measured across the genome to develop a new polygenic score, they found that the score was predictive of 11-13 percent of variation in years of completed schooling. That makes the score's predictive power for educational attainment equivalent to that of demographic factors, like household income or maternal education.

“That is a large effect for a polygenic score, especially for a behavioral outcome,” said Wedow.

Wedow stresses that, while useful for research, the polygenic score is by no means deterministic.

“Having a low polygenic score absolutely does not mean that someone won’t achieve a high level of education,” he said, noting that ambition, family situation, sociobabyֱ��app status and other factors play a bigger role than genes. “As with many other outcomes, it is a complex interplay between environment and genetics that matters.”

He notes that the meta-analysis looked only at participants of European descent. More research that includes individuals of diverse backgrounds is needed, and additional gene variants associated with academic achievement will inevitably be discovered, he said.

But the findings are useful for social and medical scientists who can now use them to explore how the effects of genetic variants vary across different environmental conditions and to paint a clearer picture of the interplay between genetics and the environment in shaping educational attainment and related outcomes.

“The most exciting part of this study is the polygenic score. Its level of predictive power for a behavioral outcome is truly remarkable,” said Wedow.

A supplemental Frequently Asked Questions page about the study may be accessed at the following web address: https://www.thessgac.org/faqs

An international research team including CU Boulder scientists has identified more than 1,200 genetic variants associated with how much schooling an individual completes.

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Study finds challenges addressing sex discrimination in schools in #MeToo era

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 16:43:47 +0000

Study finds challenges addressing sex discrimination in schools in #MeToo era Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/06/2018 - 10:43

Andrew Sorensen

Administrators and Title IX coordinators in K-12 districts often feel under-supported and under-prepared for Title IX-related duties and spend very little time on those duties, according to a new study from CU Boulder.

Stock photo of a classroom.

The study interviewed Title IX coordinators from eight K-12 schools districts across California and babyֱ��app. Coordinators are responsible for ensuring school districts conform with federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. That includes addressing sexual harassment, ensuring equal access to athletic opportunities, and supporting transgender students.

The researchers requested interviews with dozens of school district Title IX coordinators in California and babyֱ��app.

“We were quite surprised by how hard it was to identify Title IX coordinators in each school district and how little time they spent on this aspect of their jobs,” said Elizabeth Meyer, author of the study and associate professor in the Educational Foundations, Policy, and Practice Program in CU Boulder’s School of Education

Recently published in the Educational Policy Analysis Archives journal, Title IX Coordinators As Street-Level Bureaucrats In U.S. Schools: Challenges Addressing Sex Discrimination In The #MeToo Era was co-authored by Andrea Somoza-Norton, Natalie Lovgren and Andrew Rubin of California Polytechnic State University and Mary Quantz, a CU Boulder doctoral student.

The interviews found several structural issues with Title IX coordinator roles which could lead to issues in implementing the law, including inadequate resources, ambiguous or conflicting goals and duties, and a lack of training and education for newly appointed coordinators.

Several respondents found out about their Title IX duties after being in the role for six to 12 months. Their Title IX duties are also regularly part of a much larger job such as HR director, superintendent or athletics director.

Coordinators in the study said their districts rarely, if ever, offered professional development around Title IX. Some participants said they typically Google or ask people within their network when they wonder how to handle Title IX-related issues.

Key takeaways

People responsible for Title IX implementation often lack resources and training, study finds.
Staff who are supposed to support students experiencing sexual harassment or discrimination are difficult to identify and access.
Researchers recommend more funding for training and professional development.

The study also found a public information issue. Title IX coordinators were often difficult to find on the public-facing district websites, and the information on those sites was often found to be incorrect once the district was contacted.

“The fact that these administrators were so difficult to find is a significant concern. Students and families who want the district to address a case of discrimination or harassment would be hard pressed to locate the appropriate person to help them respond to their concerns,” said Meyer.

Researchers worry the lack of defined Title IX responsibilities make administrations too reactive and focused merely on protecting schools from lawsuits, instead of proactive measures like babyֱ��app and staff development and school climate initiatives.

The researchers recommend increasing educational supports for coordinators, providing more time and priority to prevention and education efforts, and developing a national database of Title IX coordinators.

“If schools are serious about reducing discrimination and supporting all students, including addressing sexual harassment in the #MeToo era, they need to provide time and resources to Title IX coordinators to enable them to be leaders for educational efforts and other proactive measures in their schools,” Meyer said. “We should also note that since our study concluded, the Office for Civil Rights has rescinded two key policy guidance documents on Title IX which impacts some of the most vulnerable students in schools: transgender students and survivors of sexual assault.”

These changes reduce the clarity of civil rights protections in public schools, the researchers say, and exacerbate the challenges documented in the study for people working to address gender equity in schools.

People responsible for Title IX implementation often lack resources and training, according to new CU Boulder study.

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Rain Game brings science learning to children in the hospital

Anonymous — Mon, 21 May 2018 19:24:58 +0000

Rain Game brings science learning to children in the hospital Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 05/21/2018 - 13:24

Daniel Strain

Brian Jernigan, director of summer STEM programs for CU Science Discovery, is working to bring science learning to students who can’t come to class in person: young patients in pediatric hospitals.

That goal was on display May 17 in Mark Appling’s class at Ryan Elementary School in Lafayette, babyֱ��app. There, third-grader Jaejune Lee played with an unusual toy. A little bigger than an iPad, the game was designed by Jernigan and a team of mechanical engineering students at CU Boulder for kids at Children’s Hospital of babyֱ��app in Aurora. It’s a Plinko-style toy that uses rolling beads and twisting dials to teach young learners about how water cycles from rivers to clouds and back again.

Jaejune Lee plays with a prototype of the Rain Game. (Credit: Jade Cody/Boulder Valley School District)

And it got Jaejune’s vote: “I thought it was pretty cool,” he said, because of “how we learned how the water cycle works.”

Jaejune and his classmates aren’t patients themselves. But over the past year, pupils at Ryan Elementary worked with the CU Boulder group to help develop this toy—brainstorming ideas and product testing early versions. Jernigan came to class that morning to show the final result of that hard work.

He said that the project convinced him that engineering such resources can be empowering for kids both in and out of the hospital.

“These kids are talking about their experiences. They’re getting it out in the open,” Jernigan said. “You’ve heard of art therapy, and you’ve heard of music therapy. We’re looking at design therapy.”

And it’s been a success. In April, Jernigan delivered the first prototype of the toy, dubbed the “Rain Game,” to Children’s Hospital at a ceremony that included an appearance by Miss babyֱ��app. He’s also partnering with staff at the hospital to hold a workshop where patients can practice designing their own educational and therapeutic toys.

The need for such resources is huge, added Jernigan, who also volunteers at the hospital in his free time. “I see how bored these kids are,” he said. “Anything you bring that is special or engaging is really going to lift their spirits and lift their parents’ spirits.”

But that’s no easy feat. To keep kids safe, Children’s Hospital follows strict rules for the toys patients can play with: no sharp edges, easy to disinfect, no bright colors or flashing lights that could trigger seizures. That makes designing even a simple educational toy an engineering challenge.

To meet that challenge, Jernigan tapped a group of students in the senior design course in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. He gave those students a unique charge: “I told them, ‘I want the kids to drive your excitement,’” he said. “I want you to spend time with them and really understand the client.”

CU Boulder mechanical engineering student Rachel Sharpe helps students at Ryan Elementary to make their own board game. (Credit: Jade Cody/Boulder Valley School District)

The work was supported, in part, by a CU Boulder Outreach Award with assistance from the university’s Idea Forge and Design Center babyֱ��app.

The students jumped at the chance, paying several visits to Ryan Elementary and a preschool in Broomfield called Bal Swan Children’s Center. And, Jernigan said, these young focus groups were full of good ideas. An early version of the toy, for example, used silver beads to represent water. One student at Bal Swan had a different idea: why not switch to blue beads?

These visits also showed Jernigan the therapeutic value of the design process. Many of the young students had friends or relatives who had been in the hospital—designing a toy helped them to work through their feelings on those struggles. Others were just happy that adults were listening to their ideas and taking them seriously.

Mark Appling, a science teacher at Ryan Elementary, said that his students enjoyed that responsibility. “If you give kids a real problem and a real stake in problem solving,” he said, “they tend to do great things.”

It’s those great things that drew CU Boulder student Rachel Sharpe to working with Jernigan. She’s a junior studying mechanical engineering and two years ago, helped him to hold a science fair, complete with hands-on activities, in the main lobby of Children’s Hospital.

Sharpe joined Jernigan in the visit to Ryan Elementary and spent the morning working with students in Appling’s class, which encourages students to explore their own science and engineering projects. She helped a group of children to cut out figures for a custom board game and chatted with Jaejune Lee and another classmate as they built a cardboard train that transports puzzles.

When it comes to working with kids, “what’s exciting is how creative they are,” Sharpe said. “They’re fearless in how they solve problems.”

CU Boulder’s Brian Jernigan is working to bring science learning to students who can’t come to class in person: young patients in pediatric hospitals.

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