proposal.md

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# Brief Summary
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In this talk I discuss the role of Jupyter in student-centered learning in new
modes of post-COVID teaching. The Jupyter community embodies and enables the
goals of student-centered learning. The Jupyter code is built by a cooperative
community of programmers around the world.  The educational applications include
problem-based approaches, project-based inquiry, and building community. I use
Jupyter notebooks to build resources for mechanical engineering students.
I deployed these notebooks on a Jupyterhub server and distributed examples in
Github. Students were able to focus on problem-solving and engineering design
methodology in a free open-source software environment.  There are three main
strengths of Jupyter in the classroom: it is built for experimentation and is
versatile, the Jupyter community builds resources and documentation together,
and it provides a great way to build problem-based and project-based learning
activities in hybrid-blended and distance learning courses. The benefits of
building a Jupyter community in the classroom is that students are given the
chance to experiment and build models, they are brought into the Jupyter
community of free open-source software developers, and they experience an
overall student-centered learning environment. 

Outline
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# Overview
* Student-centered learning is the preferred method of teaching
* Student-centered learning includes projects, problems, asking questions, etc. 
* Main goal is to develop method of thinking and solution
* Jupyter enables new ways to create student-centered learning:
    * Its open and versatile, I can use JupyterHub, send raw code, print out pdfs, etc. 
    * Open resources available e.g. Barba and  Clementi's awesome [Engineers Code](https://github.com/engineersCode/EngComp.git)
    * The community is built upon communication and learning
    * [Dewey](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/852/852-h/852-h.htm) claimed
     learning is building community through communication
* Its everything I want in a learning resource

# Engineers need student-centered learning to succeed

## Recognizing Engineering students' experience
* Both PBL and PjBL have shown to be effective in
higher education\cite{carlile1998,morrison2004}.  Students
search, solve, create, and share approaches\cite{awang2008} using math models
and measurements. 
* 11-out-of-26 engineering majors tinkered with projects as children. Kruz and
* 10-out-of-26 engineering majors want a job. Kruz and
* The most important ABET
outcomes ranked by practicing engineers, employers, and recent graduates are
1-problem solving and 2-communication\cite{passow2017,evans1993}.

## Compare Kant transcendentalism vs with Dewey's Pragmatism
* Kant: Nature has fundamental laws that we strive to learn, but are ignorant of
 true meaning due to physical abilities
* Kant: would consider a string theory ultimate knowledge as preferred to
 best-fit approximations from experience
* Dewey: Method of thinking and solution is the most important part of knowledge
Definition of thinking:
Thinking is the accurate and deliberate instituting of connections between what
is done and its consequences
* Dewey: learning needs to be associated with a "genuine experience" e.g.
 writing code, making figures, writing a report, describing an observed
 phenomena

* Dewey's preference for thought over knowledge is directly in line with the
 engineering design process
* Engineers build with the tools in hand and approximate models to make better
 connections and control consequences

## Compare teacher-centered learning vs student-centered learning
* Assume knowledge exists and students need to _gain_ it:
    * Teacher-centered learning 
    * lecture
    * give assignments
    * criticize and evaluate
* Community develops in an adversarial way: students-vs-teacher or not at all

* Assume the _thinking process_ is more important than the actual knowledge:
* Student-centered learning 
    * Project-based/Problem-based assignments
    * encourage collaboration 
    * Work involves experimentation and tinkering
    * most importantly _thinking_

## How does Jupyter fit into student-centered learning?
* "Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a
preparation for life; education is life itself." - John Dewey
* [Chomsky on
 Dewey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZFuOZ0yTNM) if we teach students using a Dewey, student-centered approach it
 would lead to an industrialist democracy 
* People would be motivated to question, learn, and grow continually
* Leading to open innovations in a democratic 
* Jupyter and Python are free open source software built by an industrialist
 democratic$^{+}$ group
* What better way to build student-centered materials than with a community that
 exemplifies the final goal of our student community?!

$^{+}$ Democratic in the sense that anyone can join the community and
contribute, but of course there are leaders in certain FOSS developments



# My journey of design with Jupyter in Education
* Reflecting upon journey of design
* I recognized a need and began experimenting 
* Became overwhelmed by information and found help
* Built my JupyterHub server and Github course materials
* Now I needed to quantify student engagement, success, etc. 
* The materials lower the threshold to get students coding, so I can
focus on their engineering design process

# Building the journey of design into my [Computational Mechanics](https://github.uconn.edu/pages/rcc02007/Computational_Mechanics/)
## Example for Linear Algebra
* Students want to apply Linear Algebra to Engineering solutions 
* Familiar engineering situations and models are put transformed into matrices
 in Numpy 
* Students must interpret and seek help on deciphering these new approaches in
 three interactive Jupyter notebooks with short answers and medium HW problems
* The final solution is often in the form of an array of data. What does
it mean?
* Students must print out data, plot values, and try new ways to get their model 
* Finally, students are given a finite element analysis project (just the
 solution)
* They apply their knowledge and create a GitHub repository with a solution

## How did Jupyter ~~enable~~ enhance this experience
* Spring 2020 course 
* Hybrid class met in computer lab Tue/Thu for 30-min Jan-Mar
* Students worked together on examples and homework problems
* Myself and TA fielded debugging questions
* COVID-19 quarantine in Mar ended lab sessions: convert to distance
* Class logged into conference and chatted on Hangouts
* We used GitHub issue tracker for questions, debugging, and communication

# Conclusions
* Engineers need student-centered learning to experience engineering design
* Jupyter enables new ways to create student-centered learning:
    * Its open and versatile
    * Open resources allow change and distribution 
    * I used open source tools to build a mini open source community in the classroom
* Its everything I want in a learning resource

Affiliation
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Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269

Past Experience
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JupyterCon Pop-up Boston. [Flipping the Classroom with Jupyter](https://youtu.be/SZPTpx0VbIs)

Requests
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