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lawsonshawpa |
| EDUCATOR |
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| Lawson Shaw |
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 About Me |
In 2000 we were able to acquire a grant with 3 Rivers Connect to get government surplus computers, where we formed the Home Teaching Technology Program (HTTP) that allowed us to teach students how to refurbish computers, load in Microsoft Operating System and Microsoft Office, train them how to use them and take them home. I was able to put the curriculum together in two weeks time and implement it. This was one of the most successful programs because it allowed an interaction between Hosanna House and the Wilkinsburg School District. This was the first approach that gave students a learning system outside of the normal school environment and a direct way of getting technology into their hands.
In 2001 I became involved with Carnegie Mellon University’s National Robotics Institute and started modifying their curriculum to withstand the inner-city schools and in 2002 started teaching this to middle school students. Every year I have adapted the curriculum further to include CAD and economics, because as I tell students, “You can’t just walk into an AutoZone and grab parts off the shelf and start building a race car, you have to show them what it is and then pay for the parts you need.” The students are given a credit limit and a task to solve with a robot. They design the robot, submit the plan and by the parts to build the robot. When the robot completes the task they are given their limit back, plus bonus credit to by other parts for the next section of the project. If they did not succeed, they can elect to sell some of their parts back at a reduced rate and try to solve the next problem with what they have.
In 2003 when I first went to Penn State’s Nano Fabrication Facility, I was impressed that they would let 20 high school students into their $20 million dollar facility and actually show the students what they did. I watched the students catch fire learning how to suit up and then go into a clean room environment. They hung onto every word of the scientist and did the classroom experiments and I realized that I would have to bring this back and replicate it in a high school classroom. I started writing the curriculum and talking to the people at Penn State to get feed back and for every year since have bringing students to them and arguing that I could replicate and environment without spending $20 million. I broke most of the processes down to the silk-screening process and could do the same experiments on a larger scale like the Computer Museum did in Boston with their walk-through-computer.
We have been using Smartboard technology for the past 5 years and have been letting students work with robots, nano-technology and refurbish and build their own computers; I have been able to track the students that have discovered all the students that have been touched by the program, have switched from a sports minded theme to Science. They are not only playing video games, they are now designing systems and games. Of the nine students that have gone through my ICDL course and robotics courses, four are in engineering in college and one is studying nano-technology. For one solid year I had the entire seventh grade class go through HTTP and take computers home. I still have students coming in today saying their computers still work and when they stop, they just open them and repair them.
When going through the FastTrac® course on teach entrepreneurship it was drummed into our heads that it is their company not ours. When talking to the student it’s not, “I want you to do this”, but, “How can we make your company better?” In robotics I give the students the problem and guide them through the process of solving the problem, but I do not solve it for them. I will give them tools to keep them on track and teach them how to use those tools. It is actually fun to have a student tell me they are going to make a robot to suck all of the plastic out of the ocean to cut back on pollution and I ask them how big the robot will have to be. When they say “Whale size”, I ask, “How big is the ocean?” and “How long will it take the whale robot to clean up the ocean?” Suddenly they are on the net trying to get the volume of water in the ocean, the size of the larges whale and doing calculations on acceleration under water. I just guide them through the learning process.
• FastTrac™ Certification to teach FastTrac™ Entrepreneural program, 2006
• Licensed to teach International Computer Drivers License (ICDL) and certified in ICDL, 2005
• Licensed to give DiSC™ behavioral personality assessment, 2004
• NanoFabrication Certification, Penn State University, 2003-2006
• Robotics Certification, National Robotics Institute, 2001--2006
• Fund Accounting, Community College of Allegheny County, 1999
• Developing Community/Interagency Linkages, Community College of Allegheny County, 1999
• Voter Registration Training, Community College of Allegheny County, 1999
• Application Development Systems Programming, MSI Data Corporation, 1982
• Writing Clear User Documents a Career Development Program, Management Development Foundation, 1981
• Business Management Certificate, Institute for Management, Robert Morris College, 1982
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| User Joined: November 19, 2006 |
| Last Login: August 20, 2008
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