Leaders in Technology: Connecting Opportunities

Starting the second semester of my senior year, I received the opportunity to participate in the district's Ambassadors program, a course that allows high school students to assist faculty and interact with students at other Loveland campuses. Having a fortunate placement in the robotics and STEM classroom at Loveland Middle School, I was able to closely tie in my work with the Leaders in Technology to Ambassadors, which has brought a significant expansion in my collaborative realm.

Applying the leadership skills I have learned from the Innovation Lab to my placement, I have taken part in a variety of hands-on experiences (to see images of these moments, check out the "Hands-on Hardware" page), such as the building and deconstruction of robots, creation of 3-D models with Autodesk Inventor, and set-up of 3-D printers. My favorite part of this program, however, is being able to serve the Loveland community with my passion for technology. Below, you are able to view a gallery that contains highlights throughout the semester, along with captions of my reflections.

Building Collaboration: Student Interaction

• As the semester in my placement progressed, I received the opportunity to closely observe various types of student building projects, along with some special classroom events. Below are images of laser-engraved items, one of the most intriguing assignments, along with a complete robot build. On the far right, a box containing a piece of professional measuring equipment can be seen, the result of a guest speaker in this field visiting the school.

Expanding Innovation: The Virtual Cop 2.0 Project

• As mentioned in my weekly journals for the past few months, I received the opportunity to collaborate with two middle school Innovation Lab students, offering assistance to the resource officer at that campus. Having the need of rebuilding an old incident tracking program by the name of Virtual Cop, we were able to create for him a Google Form and Google Sheet combination with the same format as the original software. Delivering the new system to him through a Google Docs instruction manual, we were able to incorporate Virtual Cop 2.0 to the district, allowing for the organization of student conduct to continue. Below, you are able to view images of our work completed on the various Google Suite platforms.

Technology Takeaways: Final Program Experience (May 2019)

• For the last month in my placement classroom, I was able to take time to reflect on the experiences and learning opportunities that the combination of the Ambassadors and Leaders in Technology programs has offered me. In becoming familiar with MakerBot's desktop software and building from Autodesk Inventor, I was inspired to expand my knowledge of other programs, leading me to begin my studies for the Google for Education Certification exam. Even though I was not able to take the test this school year, I am hopeful to do so soon. By learning tips and tricks from the G Suite lessons, I am now able to use each Google program to its fullest extent, helping me out with projects such as Virtual Cop 2.0.