Portland Wiz Kids  
 
In the summer of 2008 I had an exciting opportunity to be a teacher for science and engineering based courses. Portland Wiz Kids is a new company in the Portland area that strives to offer young students active learning programs that encourage innovative thinking and creative design. The following list is the courses that I taught or assisted teaching. Playful Inventors Students learned to program and build with the Picocricket robotics kit, combining art with robotic components like sensors, sounds, lights, and resistors. Activities allowed students to find their imagination while using technology. My goal as an instructor was to teach the students the basic programming and functions of the components, then letting them explore the Picocricket and it’s possibilities. Picocricket website: http://picocricket.com/ Lego NXT Robotics Using my experience as a robotics team member and mentor to instruct students on basic robotic programming and mechanical design. This course had students work in teams and complete as many table course challenges from previous FIRST Lego competitions in just one week. Lego Mindstorm NXT website: http://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Overview/default.aspx First Lego League website: http://www.firstlegoleague.org/default.aspx?pid=70 Computer Animation with Scratch This course allows students to develop their computer skills to design animated shows, movies, art, and interactive games. The programming language is easy enough for students as young as eight years old to use. Using a click and drop design with icons organized by color and “puzzle piece” shapes, students quickly learn the process of design in making their programs. Scratch website: http://scratch.mit.edu/ Gateway to Engineering Specifically designed for girls to promote math and science at a younger age, this course is designed to teach the various disciplines of engineering through hands on activities. The girls learned how their favorite lip gloss involves chemical engineering by mixing the correct quantities of color and scents, while the importance of energy by making solar powered cards. I found this course to be the most enjoyable because I was able to use material I learned in college engineering courses to teach the girls beyond the curriculum. The students learned how to apply the engineering design process to engineer shoes and how a life cycle assessment is used to make the process of a product, like making paper, more efficient by calculating the mass and energy at each stage. Please visit the following website to learn more about Portland Wiz Kids, http://www.portlandwizkids.comhttp://picocricket.comhttp://mindstorms.lego.com/eng/Overview/default.aspxhttp://www.firstlegoleague.org/default.aspx?pid=70http://scratch.mit.eduhttp://www.portlandwizkids.comshapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1shapeimage_1_link_2shapeimage_1_link_3shapeimage_1_link_4
Summer Instructor