First Design Club Meeting!

I think that we really lucked out with our meeting today! We very easily could have ended up with no one really interested in what we have to offer, just there to waste time. But that is not the case! We have a few girls who are really interested in sustainable planning and design. I'm pretty sure that we're also going to learn a lot from them! They are very well educated on the basics of sustainability. I am very excited to get to work with them and watch their interest become a greater passion as the semester goes on. Yes, there were a few kids there who weren't very into the Carbon Calculator, but they even seemed to perk up to the ideas that we were emitting after a little while, we just needed to pull them away from the computer games. So, after day number one, my excitement for this process has grown immensely and my faith that we'll really make an impact in a few lives has been rejuvenated!
Chelsea Sillars
8 March 2008

Afterschool Program, Day One

Following a successful in-class program at the end of February, my first day at the Casey Design Club meeting (Thursday) was an interesting change. Being optional, rather than required, this meeting involved much more interested and enthusiastic students than before. We were able to get to know the students a little bit through the icebreaker name game, and then got to work closely with individual students as we moved into our first activity. Working in the computer lab was an interesting experience to say the least, fighting with lack of internet access on some computers, and computer games that some of the boys found intriguing in other situations. The boy with whom I worked certainly took some encouragement to settle down and focus, but once he focused in on what he was supposed to be doing, learning certainly seemed to have occurred. While it did not at first appear to be as exciting as a computer, the activity packet we brought out definitely gave the students something to do that not only was informative, but actually ended up being interesting once the students delved into it. I learned that while the computer provides a good medium through which to teach about sustainable design, it was potentially more distracting than not, and it may be better to find a different way to keep the attention of our Design Club members.

~Austin Rice~

First Day of After School Design Club

Wednesday was the first day of the after school program and despite our best efforts, there seemed to be a lot of distraction within the group. I cannot account for the other Casey students other than the group that I was trying to keep on task, but video games on the computers were a much more popular application than the Carbon Calculator that we used. I don’t think that there was much we could do to keep them focused besides reminding the kids to stay on task many times. We kept doing this, but the kids remained distracted throughout the day. The “name game” started our day off and while most of the students did well, towards the end of the game the mood shifted and the kids began to get silly. I think that the reason for all this distraction was due to our regiment for the day. There was not a whole lot of opportunity for physical activity in the first session. The kids had just gotten out of school and it seemed like they were all pretty hyper. I think that the next sessions could be improved by allowing everyone to take a few laps or something before we start so we can focus on the task at hand. I think that the Carbon Calculator was a good idea, but it was much too easy for the kids to run a video game at the same time as they completed the program. The layout of the computer lab made it hard to keep an eye on everyone and include them in the recording process. Overall, I thought it was a bit of a hectic day, but we did well staying organized and collecting the data we needed.

-Brett

First Day of Design Club

The first day of the after school program at Casey displayed the difficulty and excitement of starting a new program. Walking in I was not positive of how the day would play out, how many students would be involved, or the reaction of the students to the program. At first we had four students officially signed up, in comparison to the ten CU students. As time passed more students began to show up and we were finally settled into the library to begin. The name game provided a positive way to begin building familiarity and gave the students a chance to settle down a bit from all their built- up energy. There were of course some students who were not voluntarily there and would rather have socialized than listen, but as time went on the students became more involved and interested in what we had to teach.
The ecological footprint was a great way to get the students interested in both our program and the environment. I was surprised by the prior knowledge and understanding these 6th grade students had about sustainability, their impact on the earth, and how they as individuals can be "green" in everyday life. Overall, the first activity with the Casey middle school students was a success and will hopefully cause them to return, with more students, week after week.

Design Club:Carbon Calculator

The first day of design club went really well. The icebreaking activity kept all of the kids involved and paying attention and was a lot of fun for them. Overall I think that the activity went really well. Most of the students were a little too excited by the computers and their video games. However the girl that I was working with had many great ideas and was faster on the computer than I was at her age. She had seen "The Inconvenient Truth" and was very knowledgeable about global warming. Although the activities and games online went very well think that the website was almost too simplistic for my partner.

-Kaley

Week One-Carbon Calculator

Today was the first day to work with the students that volunteered for the Design Club. I was a little nervous on how many kids we would actually get to join and how many would really be interested in the subject. There were about seven students who showed up, two girls and five boys. After doing an ice breaker activity, we moved the kids into the computer lab to complete a Carbon Calculator activity to measure their ecological footprint. The boys seemed more excited to just be using the computers and took a lot of convincing and one on one work to get them to complete the activity. I worked with one girl in particular who surprised me in many ways. She knew a lot more about green processes than I did even in my early years of high school. My partner and I mentioned that she should be the one teaching the class. She was such an outgoing individual and kept us going with the activities wanting to take more and more quizzes and questionnaires and had a lot to say. I think that overall today’s activities were a success despite the fact that the CU students out numbered the Design Club kids. There is hope that some of the kids will bring their friends to the next few weeks and we will have a larger group to work with.

Brittany

after school week 1

Our first day of the after school program went well. Though I was worried that kids might not show up, I was pleasantly surprised to see seven kids in attendance. For our first activity, we met in the computer lab to administer a carbon footprint calculator. This setting allowed for an even mixture of engagement as well as distraction. Our three girls were attentive and eager to participate, while most of the guys were rowdy and enthralled with their video games. However, I believe that once we began to administer the carbon calculator exercise, the kids started to focus. One of the boys even raised his hand to share what he had learned about carbon dioxide! Not only was I impressed, but it also made me confident that these kids will continue to expand their knowledge of sustainability. My only worry is that my footprint will be larger than theirs! (Jon Bortles 3-6-08)

Casey: Day 2

The second day at Casey Middle School went really well. I think that the project worked well. The kids really enjoyed looking at their pictures. We had a hard time getting the kids to write about what they liked and disliked about Casey. One girl however worked diligently and finished the project mainly all by herself. It was really cool to see the kids get more involved in the process when we took out the arial shots of the Platt site. One boy who sat their and said nothing the entire time, suddenly began asking many questions about the new school, creating a really cool plan in the end. Most the kids were very concerned with why they had to move to Platt, and what was going to happen to Casey.

I thought it was really interesting how much more mature the girls were than the boys. While the boys wrestled on the ground, the girls sat silently doing extra drawings of site possibilities. I think that some of the drawings will provide the LA students with some good ideas of what students would want to see on the site. However many of the students didn't put a lot of thought into the project and were just doing it because they were asked to. Many of the students put the relocatable's on the roof of the school, some even in the parking lot with hopes that cars would hit the relocatable. We tried to guide them as best as we could, but some just were not interested and it was almost impossible to grab their interest.

-Kaley