Sophia Seo
Media Scholars Practicum - CPSS240
About Me
Hi! I'm Sophia Seo, a sophomore Electrical Engineering student here at UMD. I am studying hard to hopefully work as a robotics engineer one day. Being in the Scholars program has helped me to expand my horizons, make worthwhile connections, and overall feel more confident to conquer college! When I'm not building circuits or cramming for exams, I am still an all-around nerd playing video games and binging Netflix shows! Here's a little look into the service opportunity I undertook for my practicum. Scroll or click the titles above to explore more!
My Service Learning Experiences
CPSS240: Robotics Service Learning
CPSS240 had two fundamental aspects to its course objectives: service and learning.
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The learning element took place in the classroom and through online readings and discussions. We covered current issues in STEM education, including inequality in gender representation, high-stakes standardized testing, and underlying agendas of stakeholders in STEM.
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For our service portion, we went off-campus to visit different schools in the area to assist with their robotics programs. My group visited Hollywood Elementary School every Thursday, teaching them engineering principles through LEGO Mindstorms kits. The students were tasked with mini-challenges each week, involving planning, building, and coding. All the sessions would come together in the end for their Grand Challenge: Sumo Wrestling bots! As their mentors, we had to draft lesson plans and reflect on their progress through team video diaries.
Example LEGO Mindstorms EV3 Bot
Week 2 Lesson Plan
Online Math Tutoring
Unfortunately, the CPSS240 service learning experience was cut short by the campus closure. On the bright side, a new volunteer opportunity presented itself to carry on the service goal of the class. In addition to continuing discussion of STEM education issues, I began online math tutoring through Zoom for students at College Park Academy. I mainly help students review their lessons through example problems and answer any questions they have. I look forward to keep working with them past our semester's end until the end of their school year!
Lessons and Personal Growth
From my time working with the robotics kids at Hollywood ES, I learned and/or strengthened many important values.
Patience
Elementary school students can be talkative, disorganized, and distracted. It's important to stay calm, keep them engaged by assigning roles for the day, and answer any questions that may be entirely new to them.
Time Management
We only had about an hour each week to work with the students and accomplish the goals for the day. It took a lot of practice to manage our time efficiently, keeping the students on task and covering the material I set out for the day.
Preparedness
The amount of work we accomplished each week was constantly changing and typically did not reflect our lessons plans. We had to be flexible and adapt to unforeseen situations, prepared for the worst case scenario.
Interest
As an engineering student, it can be easy to overlook the level of the students' interest and familiarity with the material. I made an effort to understand what they knew and liked in order to create activities that appealed to their sense of STEM curiosity.
Overall, these lessons were really put to the test each and every day working alongside the students. Every Thursday was a new opportunity to try and improve on last week's meeting. I think this experience helped to confirm how far I've come as an engineering student. I am now able to pass on my own knowledge and enthusiasm for robotics and STEM. This realization is best summarized by my students' drawings of how they planned to construct their battle bot. It is a reminder of our shared excitement about the robotics project, in which I am on my way to becoming the instructor/inspirer just as so many mentors were to me when I was their age.
Moving Forward...
It is said that the best way to learn something is to teach it. My practicum experience was exactly that. By guiding the students through their own project, I reinforced my own knowledge in designing, constructing, and programming. Though LEGO Mindstorms may not be to the extent of coding in C or Python, it employs the same basic engineering principles. As I reminded the students to plan ahead, methodically find errors step by step, and respectfully work together, I found my own skills in these areas being tested. Considering I plan to work in the field of robotics in the future, this experience was extremely beneficial to solidifying my own knowledge and interest in the area. I plan to continue teaching others what I've learned in school. Though math tutoring is not as specific to my career as a robotics project is, I can never be too familiar with such fundamental math skills.
For the remainder of my time at UMD, I plan to join more campus organizations. I am already a part of a couple first-year societies, but I am aiming to join either the Robotics Team or Terps Racing, or perhaps both! I want to also take advantage of campus resources and make more connections with my peers and faculty mentors. Over the summers, I want to find internship opportunities to further my workplace experience. I am planning to enroll in the Masters/Bachelors Program offered by the ECE department to get a headstart on my Masters degree. Hopefully, this will enable me to apply to graduate school shortly after graduation. Though I am not sure exactly what kind of job I want to pursue, I know with confidence that it will be in the field of robotics!