Spring class schedules have been determined! My academic plate for the upcoming term:

  • Pedagogy, and Assessment ("how to design a good class"), for which I may use the POSSE curriculum as my term project.
  • Theories of Development and Engineering Thinking ("how engineers think and how people learn to think"), the class most likely to make my head hurt with unfamiliarity next semester.
  • German for Reading Knowledge II ("how to use a dictionary to read a book in German even if you don't speak the language") which I'm using as "language-learning for the mostly-deaf" to the great amusement of the German department.
  • Art and Design Research Methods ("putting rigor into creative stuff") with Shannon McMullen of Electronic and Time-Based Art, who also taught my art class this semester. Awesome. And I won't be the only Engineering Education student this time - Canek is joining me!
  • An independent study that's basically implementing an Open Access policy at Olin College, my undergraduate alma mater - which means I get to learn about open licensing and copyright and work closely with both Purdue and Olin librarians during the spring term... yay for quality time with Amy and Dee!
  • Transcript analysis of "change agents" with my research group, which will be my first introduction to formal academic research. Ah, cognitive apprenticeship, how I love thee.

Of course, that's my academic plate. (It used to be heavier. Then multiple people gasped in horror and talked me out of taking 7 classes at once.) And then there's the nonacademic plate...

Crawling through the end of the semester. Trying not to be a hermit. I think I really just need to get up steam for that last big final push - two more deliverables to go, and then... I'm getting in my car and heading west.