Watching people interact with our technology just might be our favorite thing about what we do! What’s great about our installation at STARBASE One is that new students are constantly using the Magic Door.
Take a look at how we helped STARBASE seamlessly add this piece of technology into their curriculum.
Transcription:
RS: Rick Simms, Director – STARBASE One
MM: Mark Muzzin, Deputy Director – STARBASE One
RS: “I am Rick Simms and I am the Director at STARBASE One at Selfridge Air National Guard Base
“We’re an educational program, where we serve groups of students. Classrooms of students come out here for a 25-hour experience, and it is all hands-on technology, getting away from the traditional classroom experience.
“So we like to make it story-based, as a way to kind-of hook the students into what they are going to be learning.
“The magic door provided a perfect opportunity to create that story.”
MM: “My name is Mark Muzzin, and my role here at Starbase One is Deputy Director. I instruct classes, I train University Students, I train staff.
“When we are at work, we are constantly looking to improve. We have 2000 students approximately every year, and were always looking to make the program better, and how to use technology to draw students in, and this [BW Magic Door] has been a perfect tool for that.
“Students are very apprehensive about getting into math and we use this as a way to draw them in and we eliminate all their fears because we’ve got them hooked, and it’s fantastic for that.”
RS: “The Magic Door fits into our Mars Robotics curriculum, and it is engineers working at a Mars Robotics Laboratory. They can’t figure out why one of the Mars rovers is no longer functioning, so they are soliciting the help of the students. The students actually perform some calculations, take some measurements, program the robots, and then go into our Mars simulation room to see if it works.”
MM: “The Magic Door for us, I think, one of the biggest advantages in how it fits our overall process. We try to have a really novel, immersive environment for students and a lot of kids come in here and they have a pre-conceived notion of what they are capable of. When they use something like the Magic Door, they come in there, their eyes light up, and it really pulls them into that environment. All these kids can do it, and we are just trying to get them to realize that on their own. And so, when they see that, they are really involved in it, and it sets the stage for us to work with them with the math lesson.”
RS: “Everybody has said that they notice a difference with that curriculum. The kids really enjoy that aspect of it, and it brought a story to that lesson for them. So they weren’t just necessarily working with the robots, but they had a specific mission and the Magic Door provided that for them.”
View the full case study here.
