The goal of my internship with the Advanced Self-Powered Systems of Integrated Sensors and Technologies Center at NC State is to use the engineering design process to develop new concepts in wearable devices that address a world health problem. Achieving this goal will require me to utilize 21st century skills, employ cross-curricular thinking, and adopt a cross-cultural approach. My first hand experience in each of these domains will help me grow as an educator.
As an educator I want to help my students develop critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills while providing them with a mechanism to creatively demonstrate mastery of those skills. At my school, Vernon Malone College and Career Academy, we accomplish this through the use of Project-Based Learning. Projects, by design, require students to use information from more than one curriculum. Projects also require students to take into consideration cultural differences and issues. We aim to prepare them for the real world where most challenges require an understanding of more than one topic and an ability to see the challenge through the eyes of others.
My internship experiences this summer will help me see the project process from my students’ perspective. Successful completion of our working prototype will require us to bring together information from multiple scholastic endeavors (physics, chemistry, biology, social studies, and more). Because our product has to work in many different countries, we have to think cross-culturally. Health problems extend across borders and require approaches in each region that are sensitive to culture. For our team to succeed we must successfully employ the 21st Century skills we nurture in our students.