"Winding Down"

Pella Externship

Days 25-28

 

I'm wrapping up some loose ends this week as the Externship winds down.  I have a meeting this afternoon a member of the data analysis team.  We are going over the regression equations that were generated to help give a little perspective to how useful they really are.  It's been few years since my last Statistics course and it's not exactly like riding a bike.  I've been putting together a list of questions for the meeting today.  The simulations have been returning numbers that are pretty close to the expected results, so I'm hoping that we have equations that will work.

 

In addition to my Data Analysis meeting, we have also been putting together a presentation for the lumber plant and engineering process managers.  I'm excited to hear their reaction to the program we have been developing.  

 

From a teacher perspective, this externship has taught me the value of project based learning.  I'm still struggling with how I can get my return on investment of the time it takes to students to work through one of these units.  I know from a student view that they are much more engaged when they get to apply the concepts.  It's my job to make sure it is content rich and challenging enough to justify the block of time that must be set aside.

 

I've really enjoyed my time here and feel that the project has some value.  Putting together the presentation this week has really given me a chance to look back over the 6 weeks and reflect on the challenges and successes.