Creativity as expressed in HONR 296 final projects (spring and fall 2021 edition)

I previously wrote about the creative ways learners in my spring 2020 and fall 2020 Honors College courses (HONR 296) exhibited and documented their knowledge and understanding of the course's material. The course title is "Computer Science and Algorithms to Live By." The course final project, in summary, was to create a tangible artifact that recorded their responses to the course’s essential questions, as it related to their chosen major(s) and/or minor(s). In this post, I am showcasing the creativity of fourteen spring and fall 2021 learners who were willing for me to share their work.

I encourage you to read to the end of this post and click on all the images and links to experience the full breadth of how these students understood computer science and algorithms to impact their current and future lives. In the interest of brevity, I have not provided any commentary about them, but rather have provided a brief description and an image or link for you to investigate further. They are not listed in any particular order.

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Jacee Harwell wrote a children’s book expressing her understanding of algorithms. You may read about Courtney the counselor in this PDF of the book.

Reece Malchow created a model of a hamburger and related it to the course material. She explained in a supporting document:

For my final project, I decided to do a hamburger. I plan on being either an Englishprofessor or a GED instructor when I get older, so I wanted to do something fun associated with English. In elementary, when you learn about how to structure sentences, it’s taught by thinking about the structure of a hamburger. The top bun is the topic sentence, the lettuce, hamburger, cheese, etc is the evidence, and the bottom bun is the conclusion or closing sentence. 

Maddie Barber created an info-graphic describing her responses to the courses’ essential questions as they intersected with accounting.You may view the entire PDF. 

Susan Fleshman created a poster illustrating how the course material related to exercise science. Her description:

The purpose of this project was to visualize the ways in which physical therapists and their patients can be described as computers. This answers the essential question of "what is a computer", as well as touching on the other essential questions.

Emali Grose is working to convert a vacant building in Warsaw, Indiana into a “live, work, play” style of space. The goal is to create a positive environment for the community to gather at, as well as increase retention of community members.

Blake Chapman used his journalism skills to create a photo illustration of his understanding of the course material. He provided this description of it:

This photo illustration visualizes the most important concepts we discussed throughout the semester including sorting, loops, and game theory. In journalism, photo illustrations are used as descriptive feature images to make stories that involve complex subjects more digestible to readers.

Katelyn Mitchell created a set of presentation slides to convey her understanding of the course material as it relates to criminal justice. In an accompanying essay she wrote:

In criminal justice, professionals respect and uphold values of equal justice under the law, access to justice, honesty, integrity, accountability, public safety, openness, and partnership. Even though criminal justice is considered to be a hands-on field, technology plays an important role. From using 5G networks to communicate across land, air, space, and sea to using digital algorithms to reconstruct faces, technology has made substantial advancements in the field.. 

Jimmy Stueve developed an algorithm to write trombone music. He collected data from the class, fed that into his algorithm, and produced the music. His description follows:

This project seeks to answer the question, “can a simple algorithm write music?” A simple blues jazz solo was generated and performed. While the solo is surprisingly effective, it does not include a personal element that we expect in quality music.

Maarten Bergsma Recorded a quick-start tutorial video about using Grasshopper 3D. Towards the end of the video he addresses the course's essential questions.

Janardhen Jayavel developed a Python program to create a picture collage made from two separate images. This shows an idea of how photography could be related with computer science.

 

Katie Darlage created an animal caretaker checklist as an example of an algorithm. She structured it to look like a daily to-do list for a zookeeper at a fictional zoo, and she wrote about different events that happened throughout the day in various comments sections, relating those daily events in some way to the course's essential questions. For example, she had this comment on the "Enclosure Cleaning" page:

"I feel so bad for Nessie, cuz she gets startled by the glass scrubbers so easily. The amount of times I’ve seen one scrubbing its way into her field of vision before making her jump and swim off in a flurry… I’m sure she doesn’t enjoy the fact that they move on their own accord, and I don’t quite blame her. But hey, having a little robot scrub the glass instead of one of us spending time doing that is way safer and easier for all parties involved."

This story directly relates to the use of computers, as well as some social issues related to computers, since it discusses a motorized scrubber - a computer utilized for safer and more efficient cleaning - and mentions Nessie's aversion to more independent technology that many people also struggle with right now.

Alex Storz created a video about sun-tracking system for solar panels. She wrote:

Alternative energy sources are becoming critical elements of a sustainable future and are constantly advancing in efficiency and design with new data and technologies. The minor addition orienting motors to PV panels helps to maximize their energy production by up to 30% annually. As PVs and other renewable energy sources are becoming increasingly prevalent forms of architectural accessory, these new technologies allow for dynamic systems that push the boundaries of what facade and aperture can mean.

Justin Koren created an algorithm to help him better predict the March Madness bracket. He built a data base where of ten years of the March Madness tournament, and then built a simulation that would predict the winners of the brackets. The predictions are based off of their seed, their region, their historical records in the tournament, and how well they played during the current season.

 

Brooke Walter created a lesson plan as well as a game board. The project combines history and computer science together by using a board game. The board game encourages students to act as a computer and use these principles while also using their historical knowledge. Students will be able to look deeper at how computers work through the components of this board game as well as reflect upon what they have learned.

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So, there you have it. Fourteen different responses to the same prompt. Leaving an assignment open (as opposed to strictly defined) provides the learner an opportunity to explore their passions, and thus they are likely to engage with the assignment more fully. It also makes the evaluation of the assignment a lot more interesting, since the submissions are not cookie cutters of each other, and I often learn something new as well. Learner-centered teaching for the win.

What interesting assignments have you had? Describe it in a comment below.

Image credits: All images were provided by their creators.