Graduating with My Masters

Well, it's been a long road, but I'm finally done.

A month after Emmett was born, I presented my Creative Work Project to the Design and Industry Department.

It went very well, and I'm happy to report that I graduated with my MAIA in December 2009. But, this saturday I'll be attending the Commencement ceremony, and saying my final goodbye to San Francisco State University; I leave the excitement of the university to those 15 years younger than me... :)

You can see my project here. I must profusely thank Ms. Alicia McHale of Allen Elementary in San Bruno, California for welcoming me into her classroom and acting as an advisor to the project.

If you're wondering what the project entailed, I was responsible for conception, design and development. That included:
- logos

- layout

- coding

- editing blogger templates

- editing content

- creating animations (storyboards, accompanying audio, and timing adjustments)



It was alot of work - I was a one person educational web dev team!

Master's Creative Work - Milestone!

Thank goodness! The first round of edits on my project documentation booklet is done. Now I feel like I can push forward with finishing the animations and make it to graduation this December! What a long road!

Thank you Starbucks for providing me with the environment I needed to make that happen!

Now if I can figure out the jquery code for this effect...100 Abandoned Houses

Don't Drink the BTB

Diagram provided by Benjah-bmm27

Today the 5th grade class I'm observing as research for my masters degree was AWESOME!!! Thank you Ms. McHale's students!

We did a hands-on experiment where they used Bromothymol Blue (BTB) to observe the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in water and how that level changed over time - a nice elodea plant was good enough to take in the CO2 and return O2 to the water.

Bromothymol Blue pH indicator dye in an acidic, neutral, and alkaline solution (left to right) provided by bfesser.

The kids are amazing. Super excited. All of them (with the exception of a few) stayed on target with the steps of the lab. It's awesome to be able to volunteer and help them out with the steps of the lab and offer advice and answer questions.


I can definitely see how and why science education gets the short end of the time stick. It takes dedication to want to set-up, execute and take down experiments. BUT, the enthusiasm and engagement of students demonstrates to me that science can succeed in the classroom. The right resources need to be provided to elementary teachers.

Thank you Wikipedia for the photos. Wikimedia Commons RULES!

Science is Cool!

I've been sitting in on a 5th grade class at Allen Elementary to observe how science it currently taught. It's been very educational and will greatly help in crafting my master's degree final project.

I'm excited at working to solve a problem in California schools; the lack of science education they get per week. According to a report earlier in the year, students are lucky to get 1 hour of science education a week. 1 hour!?!


The United States of America needs more engineers, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and many many other types of science/math people. It keeps us economically competative. It also benefits society by increasing the number of individuals who can successfully listen to, analyze and draw conclusions from the enormous amount of media we're bombarded with daily.

I believe that most Americans need these skills in order to:

• protect themselves from being taken advantage of (i.e. consumer debt)
• challenge their governing bodies/institutions (i.e. civil rights infringment sanctioned by legislation such as the Patriot Act) and


• help advance humanity in a positive direction through better decision making (i.e. choosing to use mass transit instead of driving, paying more for "green" products instead of products that use destructive chemicals and manufacturing processes).

While my project focuses on a specific aspect of science education, increasing it, I hope that it has far reaching effects upon society and people.

iDo: Bench Round 2

Well, now with the wedding crazies gone, I'm able to focus on iDo: Industrial Design Outreach.

Last year we rolled out a Community Bench Curriculum. It was so successful that the principal and teacher asked us back to offer the project to the next class of Thurgood Marshall students.

So far, so good. As compared to last year, the students are having a hard time grasping the concept of "community". Many of them think of sports, video games, family, marriage and pets. It's interesting to think about what community really is. How is it defined? What makes up a community...

For myself, I can say my family, my friends (which are like a family - we do Sunday dinners together), the crew of folks that I go to Burningman with, the crew of folks that I go snow skiing with, and my outdoor camping crew are all the communities that I strongly identify with. But, how would I represent that in the medium of a bench? Each community is unified by a similar point of view towards life, how we interact with others, and a belief in what our purpose is on earth. How in the world would I visually represent that??!!

It's no wonder kids have a hard time putting visuals to such a personal and sometimes shifting concept that is shaped by so many variables...


One student proposed a bench on the bench... interesting, but why a bench on a bench. She said it was because benches help to create community by providing a place for people to gather at, talk at and meet other people. Seems like a pretty good idea!

Gaming As A Tool for Learning

Here is an interesting interview with Arizona State University professor James Paul Gee about the value and purpose of gaming as a mechanism to teach and encourage inquiry.

Life After the Last Semester of Coursework in Grad School

WOOOOOOOO-HOOOOOOOOOOO!
*happy dance*

Not so happy dance to the fact that my 1st on my creative work project (Asst. Prof. Paul Catanese) - who I'd be working most closely with - has decided to leave the university. Super bummer for me, but good for him. He's joining the graduate division of Columbia College in Chicago, which sounds like a great fit and I'm sure he'll kick butt there!


On the flip side, my 2nd, Associate Prof. Jane Veeder, who's got tons of experience has agreed to step into the role of 1st. I'm excited and relieved that she's willing to do this, and I know that my CW will be great with her in that role!

So now, I get to go work on my human subjects protocol, approach another professor to see if they'd like to become my new 2nd, and finish planning my wedding!

Yay to summer!!

Printing in the Bay Area (Oak-town)

I've been working with a new printer (new to me) to produce 1,000 full color brochures for iDo (Industrial Design Outreach). PSPrint seems to be a good organization. I've done two proofs, rejected both because of designer error (NOT printer error) and they've been OK with this - they said they give you 3 proofs before cutting you off. Everything is done through the website - upload of files, digital proofs, pricing, etc. - nice and easy.

Hopefully on Monday, all will be correct and we'll go to print.

Designers Block

I am using the Arabian proverb, "The whisper of a pretty girl can be heard further than the roar of a lion" as the base for my final project in DAI525 - Advanced Graphic Design. I'm feeling uninspired although it's a great quote.

How do I apply that quote to my neighborhood - the Upper Haight? I keep envisioning long flowing hippie girl whirling around in circles at a protest... but that seems so cliche.

*sigh*

iDo - Industrial Design Outreach: Award Ceremony for the Community Bench Project

Hello All!

If you get a chance, please come to iDo's award ceremony for Community Bench created by a small and fortunate bunch of students at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School.



When: April 3, 2008 8:50 ~ 9:50 AM
Where: Thurgood Marshall,
45 Conkling St, San Francisco,
CA 94124 Second Floor in the iDO studio (Please sign in at the front desk)

Running My First Professional Print Job

I'm using BPS in San Francisco. I'm really impressed with the quality of the printing and the professional attitude of the staff; they're proactive in calling me about the job, and when I call they know the precise status of it.

Here's a digital file of what the brochure looks like:

Reflections ITEC830: Eugene Lee Presentation 4.1.08

Eugene Lee spoke to our class this evening about his company, Socialtext.

During his presentation, he touched upon the idea that students/kids younger than most of our classes median age (let's say 30) are digital natives. As digital natives, they are immersed in technology, they are used to flexible software, they are used to control and the ability to customize their technology. His point that made me realize that corporate America will change from what it was when I first began my career due to the fluency of these kids as they mature into the workforce. I've been trained in a static computing environment (in terms of software) and I'm used to it, so the thought that the software I use will change it's nature and the way I interact with it had not crossed my mind until he pointed it out.

When I consider this point in conjunction with some web applications and software that I know is being developed for the enterprise, or when I look at iGoogle, I can now see the value of this sort of dynamic interface within software. I do wonder though how this would impact productivity of workers, if the changes in productivity will be immediate or longer term.

Some other interesting tid-bits he discussed were:

• groupware (what is meant by this?)
• Twhirl
• Things like Facebook are interesting because it lessens the importance of a resume. The activities that you do (and the expression/documentation of them online) are more telling of who you are than what you stick on a resume. Everyone gets "Googled", so things are learned about you beyond what's in the resume.
• Howard Rheingold and Smartmobs - collaboration to cause social and political change
• Wikis provide transparency within an organization - quality of feedback can be evaluated by all and forces the quality of participation to increase.