STEAMED and Delicious!

Since this past weekend ended the Lunar New Year, I celebrated with Chinese.

Steaming is a centuries old method of cooking, that integrates water and heat to cook food to perfection.  The use of bamboo to create a steamer is an ingenious way to utilize the plentiful natural resource of bamboo.  Ask anyone who has planted a stand of bamboo how quickly it grows and takes over.  Technology that still works perfectly today!

How does this possibly relate to my capstone project?

This week I worked diligently to pull the intervention elements of my curriculum into one easy to navigate site.  I choose using a Google site as we are becoming a very Google centric school; offering an easy way for my class to share the information.  There will be a link to this site on my teacher webpage.

The basics; like the method of cooking demonstrated above, are focused on the elements of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) within the field of Family & Consumer Science.  Using some very basic tools, I feel that I can introduce the students to the connection their core subjects have to life.  The basic site offers the opportunity to add more content; as it becomes more relevant to the curriculum and the needs of the students.

A benefit of this site; it is very much like the steamer, it can be multi-layered, offering lots of product in one very easy to handle container.  As I completed the site, I immediately thought of additional tabs and pages that could be added, increasing the amount of material available to the students.

I must say, I have managed to get out of my fog of the previous week, and am moving forward towards a delicious end product.

Power

I feel quite empowered today... it could be from my singular focus on STEAM and its relationship to everything that I teach.  

Today I had the honor of being present at the Board of Director's meeting for Tinius Olsen Testing Machines: my family's business that has been STEAMING along since 1880.  A business that has helped shape the consumer manufacturing business in all areas of life; from the strength of concrete, the strength of re-bar, to how thin plastics can get; we even make a machine to test the strength of a stuffed animal's eye?  As I participated in the meeting I could not help but note that when I am teaching life skills to my 8th grade class I am helping them learn how to make life choices that have been simultaneously affected by some great engineering ideas that came out of our companies products.  So much more is available to them to make wise decisions with than when G-GPop Olsen began the business.  The connection to FCS is Strong!  Wonder if we can manufacture a machine to test that strength!

Now back to the research paper - I was inspired during the meeting to finish up the few points - formatting the table of contents and writing the abstract. Having the opportunity to share my paper with my cousins, getting their feedback and support, gave me the push I needed to write what I thought would be difficult - an abstract that was concise.  It's great to have family support!  To paraphrase my cuz - The boardroom table seems to have become the new dining room table - a place of support!  The day certainly helped confirm to me the importance a family has on the development of productive citizens, and why Family & Consumer Science continues to be viable in our educational environment.  It certainly did not hurt when my cousins overwhelmingly supported my supposition of the connection of FACS to STEM... this is a STEM business, looking at all times for a workforce that can think creatively to solve the problems of tomorrow.

Spent about two hours working on the two.  I feel so much more comfortable with the aspects of Word that I was not familiar with.  Practice certainly helps as I worked to get it together during the week.  Thanks to Karl for helping me with changing the Header, and Carolyn for the pointers on Word..

Revisions may be needed, but I am sure I will manage those.

Power surge

As we come towards the end of this semester I feel I can finally start checking off all the commitments that I have made. 

NJEA presentations - check

FCCLA Fall leadership competition - check

Pre-assessments - check

Post-assessment - 1 down, 2 to go

Writing the paper - almost a check

This week I spent two hours writing my methods and procedures with minimal revisions.  I also spent two hours writing my reflection of the needs assessment.  I am feeling comfortable with my subject.

All that is left now is to: 

1. Finish the Literature review - goal is to have it done prior to Turkey day!

2.  Begin Cover page and table of contents.  This should be a challenge, isn't this why we hire editors?

I continue to advocate for FCS as a piece of STEM/STEAM education.  By taking an administrator to the FCCLA Fall Conference I was able to show her what FCS really encompasses.  Her eyes were opened and I think that there can only be positive results, time will tell. 

The success the students experienced as they brought home gold medals from competition gives me joy and thanks!

Change takes time, but STEAM, like water can change the geography of our environment.