BLADE: The Balloon Launch Assessment Directive for Engineers and the Use of the CubeSat Form Factor for an Introductory Systems Engineering Education

The Balloon Launch Assessment Directive for Engineers (BLADE) acts as a hybrid ideas lab and skills development program for undergraduates at Cal Poly Pomona. This program, targeted primarily at incoming first year and transfer students, takes the participants from zero knowledge of the engineering design process and walks them through a simplified yet rigorous pathway. This pathway is based on established Systems Engineering processes and is deployed by having students design a mock Cube Satellite with a unique scientific payload for flight in a high-altitude balloon. This program not only brings together a hands-on approach to merging good engineering processes with conducting new and innovative scientific research, but also illustrates the value of the systems engineering process to mission success for engineering students that would otherwise not be exposed to its principles until the graduate level. By constraining student designs to the 1U CubeSat form factor, it is intended that experiences gained by students taking part in this program may be directly applied to designs for fully-fledged orbital CubeSat missions the university is undertaking. This process is intended to allow for a foundational pathway into space mission development at the undergraduate level at significantly lower programmatic and technical costs

Challenges faced by young adult African students with Refugee Status in Ontario schools

This qualitative study explores the common challenges faced by African young adult refugee students in regard to their academic achievement in Ontario secondary schools. It also considers, using the participants' ideas and narratives, how educators and school administrators can help students overcome these challenges. Guided by narrative design, interviews were conducted with three African individuals who entered Canada with refugee status and were placed in Ontario high schools. During the interviews, participants described their experiences, highlights, and challenges, as well as posed ideas for improvements at the secondary school level. The research revealed five main themes: subsequent language learning, differing academic cultures and expectations, culturally relevant education, support, and discrimination. In particular, subsequent language learning, differing academic cultures and expectations, and support were aspects which impacted participants' schooling experiences in significant ways. Discussions surrounding these five main themes also focused on the participants' perceived importance and need for peer mentors and a school-wide effort in supporting African young adult refugee students. This study supports educational research into the experiences of involuntary immigrant students, particularly African refugee students. By exploring the experiences of this cohort of refugees at the secondary school level, this study advocates the need for educators and school administrators to consider varying educational, cultural, linguistic, and racial backgrounds when developing and implementing curriculum and programming at the secondary school level

Massachusetts High School Teachers’ Perceptions Of Transitions In Teaching And Assessment Related To The Next Generation Science Standards

The experiences and perceptions of high school science teachers with the transitions in teaching and assessment related to the adoption of the 2016 Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Framework based on the Next Generation Science Standards were studied in this interpretative phenomenological analysis. The Next Generation Science Standards incorporated both traditional disciplinary content ideas and the new science and engineering practices (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Teachers were required to develop new materials, and difficulty in developing new ways of teaching and assessing science (Friedrichsen and Barnett, 2018; Kawasaki and Sandoval, 2020; Wilde, 2018) was exacerbated by the delay in high-stakes testing until June 2022. The results of this study were captured in five main themes: Memorization and Rote Tasks vs Deeper Understanding, Teachers Value Collaboration and Reflection, The Role of the Standards and How They are Tested, Positive Perceptions Related to the Science and Engineering Practices, Preparing Emotionally Resilient, Scientifically Literate Citizens. All participants perceived the new standards for teaching and assessing science in Massachusetts to be an improvement over the 2006 STE Framework. The participants had overwhelmingly positive experiences teaching the 2016 STE Framework to their students and perceived their students to have had positive outcomes directly or indirectly related to the new standards. The design and impact of high-stakes exams should be considered by state-level testing authorities when implementing new science standards like the inclusion of the science and engineering practices. District and building-level administrators should focus on providing support to their high school science teachers transitioning their teaching and assessing to meet the requirements of standards based on NGSS

Varying the texture: a study of art, learning and multimedia

Art Explorer is an innovative multimedia system being designed and developed within the Institute of Educational Technology, at The Open University. Based on an analogy to dreams, Art Explorer is structured into several episodes. Each episode is designed to help beginning students of Art History foster personal constructs about paintings and develop a richer understanding of how their perceptions of paintings work. This discussion focuses on the pedagogic rationale motivating Art Explorer's development and is structured around two strands of a design story. First, it highlights the research behind the design. The reported research is about learners' problems - most specifically about the varying conceptual, perceptual and affective challenges learners face as they begin to study Art History. But, more broadly, it is about the problems faced by learners as they begin academic study and seek to engage with the knowledge and methods of discipline experts. Secondly, and it is argued, as a second pedagogic priority, the spotlight shifts to multimedia. The discussion tracks design decisions that aim both to exploit the potential of the medium and to match pre-identified learner needs. The ingredients of Art Explorer are described to illustrate some of the rich potential of the medium for negotiating understanding between teacher and learner

An exploration of design thinking across educational domains

To teach design effectively foundational design thinking needs to be understood. Treating the design process as a mysterious mental talent provides little scope for teaching the subject. This study explores the origin of designs and how experience impacts the sophistication of design ideas across educational domains. Secondary and tertiary students were given a common architectural brief and students’ outcomes were compared and contrasted to seek commonalities or differences in their approaches to solving design problems. Additionally, interviews were conducted with participants and a panel of design experts to further explore the students’ design practices. The results provide insight into design cognition from multiple viewpoints. We argue that designs come from various forms of copying; metaphors, analogies and icons are used as preconceptions by which a design problem is understood. Moreover, experience had a direct link to expertise which is evident across educational domains

How Design Plays Strategic Roles in Internet Service Innovation: Lessons from Korean Companies

In order to survive in the highly competitive internet business, companies have to provide differentiated services that can satisfy the rapidly changing users’ tastes and needs. Designers have been increasingly committed to achieving user satisfaction by generating and visualizing innovative solutions in new internet service development. The roles of internet service design have expanded from a narrow focus on aesthetics into a more strategic aspect. This paper investigates the methods of managing design in order to enhance companies’ competitiveness in internet business. The main research processes are to: (1) explore the current state of internet service design in Korea through in-depth interviews with professional designers and survey questionnaires to 30 digital design agencies and 60 clients; (2) compare how design is managed between in-house design groups and digital design agencies though the case studies of five Korean companies; and (3) develop a taxonomy characterizing four roles of designers in conjunction with the levels of their strategic contributions to internet service innovation: visualist, solution provider, concept generator, and service initiator. In addition, we demonstrate the growing contributions of the strategic use of design for innovating internet services, building robust brand equity, and increasing business performance. Keywords: Design Management; Internet Business; Internet Service Design; Digital Design; Digital Design Agency; In-House Design Group, Case Study</p