Goal Post: December Edition
December SDA!!!!! This is the special SDA where we get to work with another E=mc2 participant and figure out how our topics relate; it encourages us to think out of the box and helps us learn more about our own way of thinking in the process. The two advisers let us know who our partners were at the end of November, and since then, we have been meeting up with our partners and brainstorming furiously, especially since most of us were paired with someone who was doing a very different topic than the one we are currently researching. The ultimate goal is to be able to find a connection and present this connection to several different classes and administrators after winter break (which sounds a little terrifying).
My partner is Tima. Her project is focused on women in computer science, and currently, she is teaching a coding class to elementary school children in hopes that it will encourage them to take coding in the future. And as you can see, her project is very different from mine. She is adorable and kind, but we disagree on a few things, like the best method to convince people and the right approach to take (more about this was in an earlier journal). Yet in the end, we came up with a collection of ideas of where we want to take this project:
1. Why do we need diversity? What does it add to the workplace and daily life? I am trying to argue that we shouldn't fear immigrants and should instead accept them, and Tima is trying to argue that women should be included in a field in which they are usually not encouraged. But why is that beneficial? Why do we need immigrants? Why do we need women in computer science?
2. This may sound a little basic, but is there a connection between the computer science industry and immigration? Does the tech society need immigrants to function?
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/02/how-trumps-immigration-rules-will-hurt-the-us-tech-sector/515202/
3. What holds women from some countries back from coming to the United States, while other countries send more women? Is it the same reason that many women don't enter the computer science industry?
But this SDA isn't the only thing I am hoping to do during December. Although my plans have been a little thrown off due to school and XC skiing, I still hope to be able to do the "find your voice" project where students will be able to share their family's immigration story or cultural tradition. The basic information with the paper slips would be distributed out to homerooms, and the students would have a chance to take that piece of paper home and ask their families about their cultural background. Especially due to it being the holiday season, I figure that family and traditions are on students' minds at this time of the year, so it shouldn't be that hard to just ask one day. Hopefully, at the end of it all, I will have a large collection of stories from students within Guilderland that will show how all of us came form different places and backgrounds, yet we still manage to coexist and be friends with one another; it will make a pretty impressive display as well.
Questions for myself: What is my next step? Who else do I want to interview? How can I feel like I'm actually having an impact on my community, rather than just doing endless research within Guilderland? How can I gain my original scope back? Will I be able to gain my original scope back with everything that has happened this year?
