I previously wrote about the creative ways learners in my spring 2020, fall 2020, spring and fall 2021, spring 2022, and
summer/fall 2022 and spring 2023 Honors College courses (HONR 296. now HONR 176) 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
nineteen summer 2023, fall 2023, and spring 2024 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
thumbnail 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 listed in random order.
Evan Davis, being an architecture major, created a physical model to connect the ideas of this course to what he learned throughout his first-year studio. This is an example of a study model, which is a 3-D model made using simple materials to help visualize a more complicated idea. Through turning the antenna coming out the top of the computer, the words on the screen shift, revealing answers to all the course's essential questions.
Mang Lian
created a slide show that connected architecture to algorithms. It helped him
understand what a computer is and how you can see it through architecture as
well.
Margaret Manning created a slide show that presented an algorithm of
swallowing, and explained how algorithms and computers are related to the job
of a speech-language pathologist.
Jenna Mathes
created an algorithm that describes the steps needed to diagnose and treat an
articulation disorder in a child. This is an extremely long process, but by
breaking it down into a multi-step algorithm, she hopes to have simplified it,
making it more digestible.
Clara Daugherty created a drawing that was meant to tie in many
aspects talked about in class. As a hospitality major, she found it a little
difficult but if you sit and look at it long enough, all questions of the
course essential questions will be answered.
Abigail Denault, being a journalism major, responded to the course's
essential questions in the format of a 12-page booklet, complete with a table
of contents and cover.
Amelia Dorsey recorded
a video
answering questions about how algorithms are related to our lives.
Eli Germain created
an infographic
that describes ways in which algorithmic thinking can be applied to the
strategies of modern board games. It describes four strategies based on
algorithms and applies their structures to two popular board games--Catan and
Ticket to Ride.
Sarah Olsen
wrote a
magazine article. In it she stated "Though simple in theory, algorithms and the computers
that use them are often far from basic, and while many algorithms are
observable in nature, many more are manufactured by humans in order to
solve a specific problem."
Megan Pax
created a set of art activity and project lesson plans designed for the
middle school level that are based on the course's essential question. All
components of lesson plans are included, such as objectives, standards,
sequences, materials, references, and assessments.
Keegan Fontaine created a
brief podcast
in which three students discuss the course's essential questions, and how
their lives relate to them.
Afton Vanek
researched how algorithms will impact the future of art museums,
especially with the popularity of artificial intelligence in the 21st
century, and presented her responses in the format of
an infographic.
Maurianna Manuel created a presentation that compared the
widespread use of computer technology to the growing field of nursing and
how the two work harmoniously together.
Grace Provenzano explored the application of algorithms, math,
and technology in an abstract and artistic manner in
this video. Using the natural world as inspiration, it analyzes the impact
increasing technological advances have made on our daily lives and
environment.
Lindsey Thole
applied an algorithmic approach to architectural design consisting of a
repeating process of extrusion and subdivision.
Brooke Williams
drew this picture of a brain, stating that a "brain is a computer that
all of us have inside of us."
Lucas Moody created a
remake of a song called "Can’t Stop Partying" by Weezer ft. Lil Wayne. It wraps up everything that he learned in the course through the lyrics.
Feona Dabson found it amazing and relaxing to make a song. In the lyrics, she highlights the way algorithms occur outside of the electronic world. The need to be efficient, limitations of memory, benefits of relaxation, strategic efforts, emotional side to our actions, all that jazz. She took this class and put it into a funky tune, stating that "
her lyric video is very rudimentary and made to foster laughter."
So, there you have it. nineteen 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 and other media were provided by their creators.
