Innovation Showcases (Asynchronous Session)
Responding to Civic Education Inequities and Access: Impacts of Inclusive School Participatory Budgeting on Student Empowerment and Participation View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Tara Bartlett
Social and economic inequities are often associated with access to civic participation, and educational systems tend to reproduce those inequities. Our presentation discusses the expansion and major impacts of inclusive School Participatory Budgeting (SPB) on student empowerment and civic equity. Stemming from Participatory Budgeting (PB), a democratic process of deliberation and decision-making over budget allocations that is currently implemented in over 7,000 cities around the world, SPB is a more recent phenomenon that has grown internationally and throughout North America with Arizona at the forefront of these efforts in the United States. SPB started in one Phoenix, Arizona high school in 2013 and has since expanded to four cities throughout Arizona, involving over 50,000 students in historically minoritized, underserved public schools. SPB educates students to “learn democracy by doing” through an emancipatory process that builds stronger school communities, improves multidimensional relationships, and amplifies student voice. In an inclusive SPB model, thoughtful efforts are made in implementing inclusive practices at every stage of the process: representation in the steering committee, process design, idea collection, proposal development, the campus-wide vote and evaluation. With our inclusive SPB toolkit, we present our findings on challenges in overcoming the traditional understanding of disabilities in schools and how the SPB experience can positively impact and provide counternarratives through empowering experiences, an increased focus on action civics learning and an overall sense of belonging in school -all of which can have a positive impact in increased levels of civic participation later in life.
Traditional and Virtual Bilingual Simulations with Nursing and Spanish for Professional Students: Lessons Learned View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Susan Blankenship, Beatriz Potter
The usage of virtual simulation to facilitate experiential learning in education continues to grow since implementation can be done totally online. For healthcare and language programs, the integration of virtual bilingual simulation provides an excellent environment for students to develop cultural awareness and communication skills. Incorporating these skills into nursing and health care curriculums will help meet the demands of a growing diverse population. Additionally, Spanish for professionals curriculums can integrate the simulations to meet language learning competency requirements. Faculty from both programs were engaged in the design of the virtual environment and low-stakes bilingual leaning activities for students from both programs. This presentation shares the lessons learned during the design, development, and implementation of the innovative collaboration between the nursing and Spanish for professional programs where students from both programs participated in virtual simulations to address health care inequalities and the importance of overcoming language barriers. Furthermore, recommendations for replicating these virtual simulations will be included as part of the innovative experience.
What's Old is New: A Sustainable Redesign of Everyday Things View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Kohar Scott
Students in my Sustainable Design course were tasked to leverage the power of AI (generative design) in order to reduce material use, light-weight and strength-optimize parts by using Autodesk Fusion 360. When designers enter the industry in the built world, we are often faced with limitations to production, manufacturing and supply chain that work against some of the most sustainable material and circular design options out there. For this reason, the approach I took was to empower students with immediate tools to approach their design-work with any company. Unfortunately, when it comes to consumer products, most of the time these products will end up being some form of a plastic and eventually end up in land-fill. If we are able to reduce the raw materials used by even a small amount, it can result in an exponential decrease in the environmental impact over its life cycle; first by reducing raw material used and then by reducing it’s environmental footprint in landfill. Fusion 360's generative design feature leverages AI to remove material where it can and add material where necessary in order to achieve performance requirements. This can help reduce waste and create stronger products that are less likely to break down or need replacement; thus helping design more sustainable products.
Virtual Reality For Chemical Engineering Unit Operations View Digital Media
Innovation Showcase Swee Kun Yap, Sachin Vinayak Jangam, Suraj Vasudevan
Experiential learning is dubbed as a highly effective way to enhance learning. Virtual reality (VR) is thus a helpful tool in providing a safe, memorable, and interactive learning environment. A class of 49 fluid mechanics students participated in starting up a pump, one of the most used equipment in the chemical industry, in VR. They experience the process in VR to familiarize themselves with the safety training and the standard operating procedure (SOP) in guided mode. Students subsequently observe their peers (in groups of 4 to 5) complete the same training. The training first brings each user through the personal protection equipment (PPE) selection, before guiding them through a series of steps to conduct the pre-checks, line-up, pump priming and final pump startup, whilst simultaneously giving visual cues on the use of VR controllers. Following this, students then individually complete the VR assessment for pump startup, which requires students to complete the same series of steps, without any cues given in VR to test their recollection rate. While most students miss out a few minor steps such as the checking of lubrication oil, all the students scored full marks in the PPE selection, and over 80% of the students were able to complete all the critical steps that are required to startup a pump safely. In the survey conducted, students reported that the VR experience has been enjoyable and enriching. This reinforces the positive impact VR has on learning and retention.
