When I started my new teaching job, the ROP chair told me that a Federal ROP Oversight Observer would be visiting my class. She add, "But don't worry. I'll prep you on all the questions."
So I prepared all my robotics students that the Feds were coming on Friday. We made the robotic track tape in red, white, and blue, and the students were actively trying to get their Boe Bot programmed to properly run the course without touching the tape. The students also knew to be on their best behavior.
Friday came and no one had prepped me on the questions, so I wondered if the Feds were coming after all. Then while I was wandering around with my laptop in hand taking roll, I turned around and there they were. The observer was a woman of my age---a 1980's technical professional. She immediately asked me a few questions about how I've set up my program.
I explained, "Well, the first day of this class I had to move the student computers from another classroom to this one. Most of the computers had been very beaten up, so each student had to rebuild their own computer with extra boards that we had lying around. The keyboards were ruined, so one student's dad donated keyboards from Sac State.
Most of the students were able to get their computers running again, and that was their first grade. Then they had to get the old Parallax Boe Bots working again, so we learned how to trouble shoot to find which part didn't work by trading out parts one part at a time. Finally, they programmed the robots using PBASIC and are getting graded on if their robot can follow the track.
She was very impressed. Then she asked, "How many girls do you have in the program?" Now when I arrived at this high school I was very disturbed by how few girls were in my classes, so I took a moment to answer. Then I explained, "I have one girl in this class and a few in the other classes. However, when a few girls saw that a female was teaching the ROP classes, they transferred in to my classes. They were met with some resistance, but I separated them from the boys causing the resistance and started training the girls on basic woodworking skills. Some of the boys also needed to learn these skills, so they came over with me. Then some of the advanced boys started helping the girls learn their skills, as well."
"At my last school a girl came into my class kicking and screaming and told me that she didn't want to be there, but had no other place to go. By the time that I left that school, she loved engineering. She even wrote me a letter saying that she wanted to be just like me!"
The federal observer smiled at that and we agreed that boys didn't come born knowing how to use tools, some one showed them how to use them, so boys and girls both had the capability to be good with tools. I mentioned, "My dad gave me a lot of great tools for my dowry, but it backfired on him, because I ended up being the one who used the tools!" and we all laughed. I added, "I always tell my classes when they asked if they should call me Miss or Mrs. that I have never gone by either. I've always gone by Ms., because I'm not defined by my marital status, but by my own accomplishments." We also bonded over shared experiences in the technical industry in the 1980s.
I'll never forget being a speaker at San Jose State's ASME meeting in the latter 1980's. The young men were so disappointed that I was a woman. There wasn't a single female engineering student in the room either. Then I gave a speech about being a manufacturing engineer in order to become a better design engineer. In manufacturing an engineer sees all the design mistakes and design strategies. Armed with that knowledge, one can become a great design engineer! By the end of the speech, I'd won them over and hopefully left an impression about women being competent engineers.
Apparently, I left a great impression on this federal ROP observer, because my principal came in to my next classes to personally tell me that our high school ROP program passed and was saved!
P.S. To my blog readers: If you want to support a struggling math/engineering teacher and author, please buy my first book, "The Romance of Kilimanjaro," soon to be followed by my second book at: https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781613464960 Thank You!
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