Project Title: Modalities of Learning – How to become my most productive lifelong learning self.
Essential Question(s):
How can learning through different mediums, like hands-on settings with others or individualized learning done online, lead to more productive learning?
For my Senior Project, I will… learn through three different modalities to discover what type of learning suits me best – this will enable me to become my most productive lifelong learning self. Those three mediums will be a hands-on analog mentorship approach to learning, a digital more individual approach, and a hybrid of both analog/digital and individual/mentorship experience.
Overview: Describe your topic and project to the committee.
I have always been curious about what type of learner I am and what type of learning piques my interest. Realizing that once I am out of a formal schooling setting, it is entirely up to me to continue lifelong learning inspired my senior project. I realized that I ought to discover what modalities of learning excite me most so that I set myself up for success when it is no longer required of me that I learn. I have established three different “learning experiences” that are crucial for answering my essential question. These three experiences are three different types of learning, one of them is a hands-on mentorship at a sailing community center, another is a digital individual project teaching myself to code in python, and my final one is a hybrid of both hands-on/digital and individual/mentorship which is music-making/production. I hope to spend my project immersed in all three of my projects equally. I plan to spend 10 hours each week on each component. That means 10 hours at my sailing center mentorship, 10 hours teaching myself how to code, and 10 hours creating and producing music by myself and with my father as a partial mentor. While I won’t have a strict schedule for doing x amount of hours coding today, I will have an hour goal for the week and make sure that I hit that goal. My project is not a product-oriented one, but very much a process-oriented project. As such, I will be reflecting often on the process of learning in each different environment. I will do coding and music production at my house and the hours at my sailing mentorship will take place at their boathouse on the west side highway and 26th st. I plan to do weekly reflections that analyze what the learning experience was like for me that week. Noticing what environments/experiences are better suited for me and which I prefer. Again like I said, my project is very much not a product-oriented one, but rather a process-oriented project. I hope to learn about myself as a learner and ultimately have the tools to set myself up for success as a lifelong learner. My project is the perfect experience that addresses my problem because it allows me to experience 3 different styles of learning and then reflect on them. I know I will have had a successful project when I have 6 reflections that analyze my experiences and help discover what type of learner I am. This project will allow me to learn about myself and my learning habits.
How will you measure your success?
I will measure my success by the quality and quantity of my daily journaling reflections and longer biweekly in-depth reflections. In order to understand what type of learning suits me best, I need to adequately document and reflect on what each experience was like – therefore I will rely heavily on my reflections as a measure of my success. I also hope to produce some pretty cool final products (even though that is not the end goal.) I’m excited about the prospect of making and producing a song and programming/writing my own python code.
Key Learning Goals:
Explore the three modalities of learning outlined in my senior project
Accomplish thoughtful and in-depth reflections of each learning method (what works, what doesn’t work, what did I prefer)
Complete some degree of a product for each component (music-making, coding, sailing)
Share my findings through meaningful documentation
Resource List
I have connected and already interviewed with the sailing center. Both the director of youth sailing and the director of academics have approved my internship. I also plan to read the book, “Automate the boring stuff with python” as my guide and mentor for teaching myself to code. I also have many music production books as well as learning books like Dewey’s learning theory academic essays, and the book, “How we learn” by Benedict Carey – all provided by Allison.
Daily Plan & Schedule
On top of the rough outline listed below, I also plan to continue to participate in the band when available and the tennis team. (if possible).
Week 1:
Begin internship at HRCS shadow my mentor and complete roughly 8-12 hours in the first week.
Start outlining my song (figuring out chords, melodies, instrumentation) Spend 8-12 hours in the first week as well.
Begin reading my “automate the boring stuff” python coding resource and read a chapter and accomplish my first program that will hopefully execute. (this may go into the next week.)
Complete daily reflections.
Week 2:
Continue internship/mentorship at HRCS if the work is productive and highly beneficial to my project then I may up the work hours to 12 hours a week, if not then I may lower it to 8 hours a week.
Begin recording initial instrumentation, getting down a bass line, and possibly chords. Run my song outline by my “mentor” my father.
Read another chapter of my coding book, and rely on youtube sources to realistically be able to execute one program code (I don’t want to be overly ambitious)
At the end of this week complete my first biweekly modality of learning blog post.
Week 3:
Continue internship/mentorship @HRCS – make sure to document accordingly, this means photos, videos, and daily reflections.
Begin to outline my melody for my song, what works, what harmonies should I play, what instrument will play the melody, etc.
Read another chapter, and do more research from my youtube resources, be able to execute another code.
Daily Journal.
Week 4:
Continue internship/mentorship @HRCS – at this point set up a meeting with your advisors to let them know what is working and what isn’t working.
Record melody and harmony parts of melody for my song. This also includes other embellishments for the chorus etc.
Be able to execute another python program.
Complete my second biweekly in-depth learning reflection. Include photos and detailed experiences.
Week 5:
Continue internship/mentorship @HRCS – make sure to document accordingly, this means photos, videos, and daily reflections. – also make sure mentorship is running how I desired.
Start to edit my song together, by this point I hope to have an extreme rough cut of the song, which means all sections outline and mostly recorded. Now I should begin the editing and production process.
Use this week to have an in-depth learning opportunity where I learn about other more ambitious python code (don’t actually have to write this ambitious code.)
Week 6:
Wrap up the final week of mentorship @HRCS. Get all final photos and other supplemental materials I will need in order to create a proper reflection on the modalities of learning.
Continue editing and piecing together my song. – Like I said, the finalized product isn’t actually crucial for my project, but rather a reflection on the process of learning in this way.
Wrap up the final week of teaching myself to code independently in python. This will look different depending on how much progress I make. I may want to edit previous programs or go onto more complex code.
Finish my final biweekly in-depth reflection on the learning process – including photos and reflection.
Documentation Plan:
I plan to document my project through daily debriefs and biweekly blog posts reflecting on my experience so far. After each day I will complete a journal entry that details what the day was like, how I spent my time, what worked, what didn’t work, what observations I have for that modality of learning, and what I plan to do next. These daily reflections are essential in having a substantive documentation process that I can look back on when the time comes to present my findings of learning methods.
Material Needs
I don’t require any material needs besides possible funding for transportation. – not sure if the school actually covers that or if my internship will.
Backup Plan
The great thing about my project is that there are three different components that get at answering my essential question. Only one of them has the slimmest chance of falling through (if another deadly virus starts spreading) but thankfully the other two components of my project I can complete from the comfort of my home. (I already have all the materials and everything.)