Focus Workshops

Focus Workshops were intended to provide participants with experiential learning opportunities that are focused on development of specific skills, knowledge, and tools relevant to participants’ interests and motivations. Focus Workshops allowed for “deep dives” into a diverse set of (multi/inter-)disciplinary content while also engaging participants in creating artifacts for design and implementation of equitable learning opportunities for all students, including development of empathy and compassion. For example, a Focus Workshop on Biomimicry may introduce participants to the ways in which nature serves as “model, mentor and measure” (Beynus, 1997), as well as offer a skills-based framework for design and implementation of learning opportunities for students to engage with the biomimicry design process. Participants in such a Focus Workshop may come away with relevant skills and knowledge, as well as materials and tools, necessary for creating biomimicry-related experiences – whether full course or a modular learning opportunity – that integrate engineering and the natural sciences. Focus Workshops were offered in 90-minute “bursts” of experiential learning over four days spanning the Virtual Summer Institute experience.

View the workshop schedule for the week: Program At a Glance

 

Workshops, Monday June 8, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT

Widget Title
Biomimicry: Engaging Students in Design Inspired by Nature

Olin Facilitators: Jean Huang, Associate Professor of Biology, and Benjamin Linder, Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering 

Biomimicry: Engaging Students in Design Inspired by Nature

We can learn from nature! From studying a leaf to make a better solar cell to emulating natural processes to develop living buildings, the discipline of Biomimicry views nature as “model, mentor and measure” (Benyus, 1997). From this workshop, participants will develop understanding of the field of biomimicry and its strengths and challenges for scaffolding design and innovation practices. We will present background and key examples from the field and provide a skills-based framework for engaging students in the biomimicry design process that includes an emphasis on sustainability and creating conditions conducive to life. Participants will leave with our framework materials and knowledge of pedagogical strategies to teach biomimicry in their classrooms that provides a model for integrating engineering and the natural sciences.

Goals: 

  • Develop understanding of biomimicry including strengths/challenges for integrated practice
  • Experience a biomimicry design framework including process patterns and associated skills
  • Learn about teaching strategies, modules, and tools including options for your classrooms
  • Provide a model for integrating engineering and the natural sciences

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:  At the end of this workshop, participants will:

  • Develop an understanding of the field of biomimicry
  • Acquire pedagogical strategies and materials to teach biomimicry
  • Be introduced to a framework for scaffolding biomimicry design projects and receive associated templates that can be used in the classroom
  • Receive worked examples associated using the tools provided

Monday, June 8, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Designing Activities for Student Engagement in Quantitative Engi

Olin Facilitators:  Jeff Dusek,  Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Kelsey Houston-Edwards, Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Sam Michalka, Assistant Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Engineering, and Emily Tow, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Designing Activities for Student Engagement in Quantitative Engineering Courses

We will introduce design principles employed in designing engaging activities in the interdisciplinary course Quantitative Engineering Analysis. Participants will engage in small groups with an in-class activity from the course and discuss the role of design principles in the student experience. Each participant will be encouraged to choose a design principle that resonates with them and think through how it could be applied toward enhancing student engagement in one of their courses or programs.

Goals:  

  • Share how a set of emergent design principles guides our approach to engaging students in quantitative engineering courses;
  • Make space for discussion of how quantitative courses can engage students deeply

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:  

  • Understand one or more design principles for engaging students in quantitative engineering courses; 
  • Apply one or more design principles to improve student engagement in participant’s home institution

Monday, June 8, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Imaginative User Design

Olin Facilitators:  Allison Basore '20, Julia Benton '22, Mason Grabowski '22, Vicky McDermott '20

Imaginative User Design

Join us for an imaginative user design workshop run and designed entirely by Olin students to get a glimpse into the project experience for students in a typical Olin class. We will give you the opportunity to design and prototype a solution for a particular user group. You should at least make sure you have paper and writing utensils but any other craft materials you can find might be beneficial. You will quickly prototype your solution and then explain it to a group of others who will help you to consider your design's usefulness and ability to address your user's needs.

Goals: 

  • Our workshop goals are to help participants understand the Olin student experience, 
  • understand user design practices, and 
  • understand basic prototyping practices

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • Understanding Olin design classes
  • Seeing Olin students in action as co-creators
  • Drawing Prototyping
  • Design Practices

Monday, June 8, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

 

Workshops, Tuesday June 9, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT

Widget Title
Projects with Purpose: Telling Stories About Why You Care

Olin Facilitators: Jon Adler, Professor of Psychology, and Gillian Epstein, Writing Initiatives Specialist

Projects with Purpose: Telling Stories About Why You Care

Olin is increasingly focused on understanding and sharing how personal and institutional values can inspire and motivate our work. This workshop offers creative, scaffolded ways for participants to access and distill why they care about their current project. Participants will leave with an integrated story about their personal stakes in their individual or team project, as well as with prompts and tools to help colleagues and students do the same.

Goals: 

  • Learn to leverage storytelling to explore, refine, and communicate the values that drive your work.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools: 

  • Theme Template: Uncover common themes in personal stories;
  • Risk Map: Find the right degree of vulnerability for your story;
  • Story Map: Map personal stories to professional objectives;
  • Storytelling Tips: Learn how to tell better stories;
  • Story Pitch MadLib: Organize and pitch stories that integrate personal narrative with professional projects.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Let’s get Interdisciplinary! Why and How to develop courses at

Olin Facilitators: Jean Huang, Associate Professor of Biology, and Rob Martello, Professor of the History of Science and Technology

Let’s Get Interdisciplinary! Why and How to Develop Courses at the Interface of Science and Society

Are you curious about interdisciplinary integration in courses and want to learn about how to get started? In this workshop we will discuss the benefits of interdisciplinary integration and some strategies for applying it in course and curriculum design. Participants will learn about example approaches used at Olin College and at other institutions, and we will draw upon larger research efforts in this area. We will review best practices and apply several frameworks and creative tools in small groups, emphasizing a goal-driven approach to interdisciplinary course design.

Goals: 

  • At the end of this workshop you will be able to describe the benefits of interdisciplinary learning and implement approaches for developing goals, activities, and assessments that support interdisciplinary integration in courses.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools: 

  • Understand what is meant by “interdisciplinary integration” and appreciate the benefits of this approach.
  • Awareness of several best practices (existing interdisciplinary courses and course elements)
  • Familiarity with a design tool that allows educators to identify interdisciplinary goals and connect them to activities and assessments

Tuesday, June 9, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mid-Level Engineering Courses

Olin Facilitators: Diana Dabby, Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering and Music, Siddhartan Govindasamy, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Chris Lee, Professor of Mechanical Engineering

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Mid-Level Engineering Courses

In this workshop, we’ll present the process that was used to create a course that emphasizes quantitative analysis in the context of the engineering design process. This course is required for both electrical and computer engineering and mechanical engineering majors. Its content lies within the broad area of linear systems and controls and then splits into two major-specific topics, rigid body dynamics and signals.
From the experience and outcomes from the first offering (in the 2020 spring semester), we’ll discuss trades-offs of technical content with material building intrinsic motivation, personal development, and self-directed-learning skills; how the course fits within a “stream” of quantitative-analysis focused courses; and touch on the challenges of integration into an online format.

Goals:

  • Present a process framework for creating multi-disciplinary, student-centered, engineering-content-focused courses.
  • Review the design, development, delivery, and lessons learned from such a course.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • Familiarity with a framework for considering the balance between subject-matter content and holistic development in quantitative engineering courses.
  • Participants will work with, and have access to, class materials developed for a new multidisciplinary, mid-level engineering course taught at Olin.

Tuesday, June 9, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

 

Workshops, Wednesday June 10, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT

Widget Title
Meaningful Integration of Theory, Implementation, and Imp

Olin Facilitators:  Sam Michalka, Assistant Professor of Computational Neuroscience, and Engineering and Paul Ruvolo, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Meaningful Integration of Theory, Implementation, and Impact in Data Analysis Courses: Experiments and Lessons Learned

The unbridled optimism toward machine learning and data analysis from the early 2010's has crumbled under the weight of numerous high profile scandals involving data-driven algorithms gone awry (e.g., Cambridge Analytica, racial and gender Bias in face recognition systems, etc.). It has become clear that to prepare students to utilize the extremely powerful toolkit of data-driven algorithms in an effective manner, we must provide them with tools for reasoning about the impacts that systems they build will have on the real world (and on real people). However, meaningfully integrating learning the technical details of these tools with a deep consideration of real world impact can be difficult to achieve in practice. In this workshop, we will discuss techniques, frameworks, and specific activities from several Olin courses that each aim to bring together technical learning with consideration of the impact of systems on the world. 

Goals: 

  • Explore the value of including deep technical content and ethical context in the same learning experience.
  • Experience examples of course content from the student perspective and reflect on these experiences as an educator.
  • Share ideas and support each other in the challenge of meaningful integration of the technical and contextual.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • We'll share specific course materials with you (e.g., links to readings, problem sets, software code).
  • We'll also provide student reactions / evaluations of these experiences.
  • We'll provide some general frameworks and processes for integrating technical content with consideration of real-world consequences.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Universal Design for Learning: How can inclusive teaching

Olin Facilitators:  Sarah Spence Adams, Professor of Mathematics and Electrical & Computer Engineering, Alisha Sarang-Sieminski, Associate Dean and Professor of Bioengineering, and Adva Waranyuwat, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs

Universal Design for Learning: How can inclusive teaching methods challenge and support all students?

In this workshop, participants will learn about universal design for learning (UDL) and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) framework, which provides practical guidance for applying UDL in learning environments. Participants will see examples of how to apply UDL through a case study in Discrete Mathematics, with a focus on how good pedagogical approaches can meet UDL goals even without intending to. Participants will have an opportunity to work on incorporating UDL concepts into an experience, course, or curriculum through a scaffolded exercise.

Goals: 

  • Participants will understand the basic principles of UDL
  • Participants will see a case study in UDL and feel empowered to take similar actions in their own courses or curricula
  • Participants will consider specific UDL-inspired changes to a specific experience/course/curriculum in order to better challenge and support all students
     

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • Participants will understand and have the opportunity to question how UDL principles are applied in a variety of aspects of a Discrete Mathematics course
  • Participants will identify 1-3 specific pedagogical, ideological, content, and/or materials in their classrooms that would benefit from a redesign using UDL principles (e.g., a classroom might benefit from redesigning homework assignments, how course goals are presented to students, or how major assessments are conducted).
  • Participants will create a plan for implementing 1-3 specific UDL tools/approaches in an aspect of their experience/course/curriculum (e.g, a participant might redesign one homework assignment using the UDL principle to “optimize individual choice and autonomy” by making the assignment more flexible).

Wednesday, June 10, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Sustainable Design: Equipping Students to Engage for Change

Olin Facilitators: Benjamin Linder, Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering, and Tess Edmonds, Argosy Design Research Fellow and Lecturer

Sustainable Design: Equipping Students to Engage for Change

As educators, we all have an imperative to enable our students to work towards and bring forth a more flourishing world. We are seeking to identify and support educators who wish to develop a new or expanded sustainable design offering such as a project, module, or course. Participants will be introduced to and given access to a set of sustainable design resources to support these efforts with potential additional advising. These materials are based on 15 years of development with significant impact on student pathways, and include project-based approaches to equipping students with mindsets, principles, and practices for sustainable design, from eco-design practices for product-service-system to generative organizational design. Emphasis will be placed on the accessibility and motivational aspects of the learning experience as well as hybrid in-person and online or all-online delivery that better support students and educators involved in these experiences.

Goals: 

  • Identify a group of educators to teach a new project, module, or course in sustainable design.
  • Encourage educators to consider accessible pedagogy and hybrid learning experiences.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools: 

  • Access to a sustainable design curriculum after the workshop for educators who sign up for support.
  • A model and structure for a hybrid or fully online learning experience.

Wednesday, June 10, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Learning and Identity Development as Exploration, Participation,

Olin Facilitators: Jon Adler, Professor of Psychology, Scott Hersey, Director of SCOPE Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Benjamin Linder, Professor of Design and Mechanical Engineering 

Learning and Identity as Exploration, Participation, and Pathways

Students are not just in school to learn; they are also doing the real work of constructing an emerging adult identity. As educators we care about student learning and identity development, although we often only explicitly concern ourselves with the former. Yet the two are inextricably linked, and thus we have an inherent interest in how our pedagogies are enabling or hindering for both. This workshop will examine the dynamic connections between learning and identity development, drawing on perspectives from personality psychology (narrative and status models) and social learning theory (communities of practice). In doing so, the workshop is grounded in approaches that challenge the role of normative classroom pedagogies. Participants will discuss communities of practice common to educators and students and consider pedagogical strategies to foster exploration, participation, and pathways to support student identity development.

Goals: 

  • Introduce and motivate identity development as a key aspect of curriculum and program design.

  • Provide models for thinking about and fostering identity development with students.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • Awareness of models for framing identity development and learning.

  • A vocabulary for talking about identity development.

  • Ideas for pedagogical strategies to foster identity development.

  • Sources for further pursuit of student identity development and communities of practice.

Thursday, June 11, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Activate Change Through Entrepreneurial Mindset: Tools, T

Olin Facilitators:  Caitrin Lynch, Professor of Anthropology, Joanne Pratt, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, and Jason Woodard, Associate Dean and Associate Professor of Engineering and Entrepreneurship

Activate Change Through Entrepreneurial Mindset: Tools, Tips, and Techniques for Your Students, Your Project, and You

This workshop will provide you with tools to make change in your own institutional context and personal life! The workshop introduces frameworks from Products and Markets (P&M), the required foundational entrepreneurship class at Olin. The course focuses on identifying stakeholders (including customers), discovering what they value, and effecting change through quick iterations of experimentation and learning.

Goals:

  • Provide tools and approaches that participants can use on their curricular or institutional change projects

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools:

  • Value Proposition ideation, creation and exploration, Test Cards, Learning Cards

Thursday, June 11, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

Widget Title
Using Computation to Teach Everything Else

Olin Facilitator:  Allen Downey, Professor of Computer Science

Using Computation to Teach Everything Else

In this workshop we explore eight ways to use computation in the STEM curriculum and beyond. We present examples from Olin and other colleges; participants report on their current activities and design new experiences, classes, and curriculums. We'll discuss the challenges of implementing computation-based activities and suggest practices for overcoming them.

Goals: 

  • In this workshop we explore eight ways to use computation in the STEM curriculum and beyond.
  • We present examples from Olin and other colleges; participants report on their current activities and design new experiences, classes, and curriculums.
  • We'll discuss the challenges of implementing computation-based activities and suggest practices for overcoming them.

Take-away Skills, Knowledge, and Tools: 

  • Knowledge of a framework for using computation as a pedagogic wedge.
  • Skills for designing examples and exercises within this framework.

Thursday, June 11, 2020   |   11:00 AM - 12:30 PM   |   [Program At a Glance]

 

Workshops, Thursday June 11, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EDT