Watt Workshops, the prelude

“I’m about to venture on the biggest project of my teaching career so far: teaching dry environmental engineering to a bunch of bored middle school students in Cupertino, CA. It’s going to be so much fun!”

Said nobody except me.

Outside the fake sarcasm, I’m extremely excited to teach my first Watt Workshops camp on environmental technology and engineering solutions this week. With just a few hours to go to the kickoff, I thought I’d put down my thoughts as to what I expect, how I think it’ll go, and which parts will be the most enjoyable for both student and teacher.

The debate is going to be a powerful part of the camp. I have two reasons why I think so: a) I’m a former middle school debater who now competes in Extemporaneous Speaking on the national circuit, so I know what it’s like to participate in and win a high-level argumentative competition, but b) I held a similar debate activity at a Public Speaking class I was asked to teach once as a substitute, and it was a hit. While I personally really enjoy putting forth my own ideas and hitting up against an opposition, I’ve come to realize that it’s extremely natural to enjoy doing so, especially between the ages of 11 and 15. During the Public Speaking class I taught, I gave the kids a really simple question about voting age, and they were so passionate about it that they continued arguing even after the class was over. So moving to a topic that they actually care about, like climate change, will only grip them even more! Of course, with a class of 7 people, I’m expecting a bit of resistance somewhere, but I think it’ll be a great experience on the whole.
The lectures are not math lectures, but inspirational talks. Coming from a background of competitive math, I’ve sat in enough lectures which were just about teaching a specific concept or method to solve a problem. Those are the lectures where you memorize theorems, rack your brains to remember the second case of Lemma 8 as you solve problem 5 of the problem set, and ask questions to an instructor who looks at you like you’ve lost it. The lectures I’ve written in Watt Workshops are not those lectures. I’m going into detail about topics such as desalination, industrial engineering, and hydropower, but I’ve incorporated a lot of case studies into the deck. They’re supposed to serve an inspirational purpose: when the students are finding a solution to the Scenario Challenge, they should be able to remember, “hey, this reminds me of those sponge cities they put up in China, but I can adapt it. Let me cook.” In a twist of vocabulary, I want these students to use osmosis (not reverse osmosis) to understand what’s going on, so that they can actually come up with solutions instead of regurgitating Theorem 5.2 onto a piece of paper.
The last lecture on Next Steps is going to pack the biggest punch. These kids, after all, are hungry students from the Bay Area. They’ve come to Watt Workshops to learn something that will set them apart from the rest of students, be it in college admissions or internships or whatever else they may encounter. And the last lesson gives them the way to do it. I bring two years worth of high-level science fair experience, ranging all the way from the local Silicon Valley level all the way to the international level. And I’m going to impart that knowledge to these students and tell them where they can exercise it. 3M Junior Challenge, Thermo J. Fisher, etc.: I’ll teach them all they need to know to take an environmental project to the very top of science competitions. And when they come out, they’re going inspired, hopefully by me, or perhaps by what they see on the slides, to go out there and build a winning project. I think the competitive Bay Area culture is the perfect place to deploy Watt Workshops: I can convey the hidden environmental message through the wonderful (and rather appealing to Bay Area kids/parents) lens of middle/high school science fairs.