Learning more formally about the different learning theories that exist and the different ways of developing a course activity/curriculum that promotes student engagement with the material has given me a better understanding and appreciation of many of my previous teachers. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to experience many different learning environments throughout my formative educational years. Specifically, for most of my high school education, I attended a predominantly science, math, and robotics specialized program. This gave me an environment that allowed the teachers to better mould the projects and assessments to topics of interest. Additionally, for one semester in my last year of high school, I had the opportunity to go to school at a science centre in Toronto, Ontario (the Ontario Science Centre Science School). This opportunity not only provided a unique classroom environment but the opportunity to study with peers who shared similar interests as me and a selection of amazing and passionate teachers.

One of the best learning experiences that I had was while studying at the Ontario Science Centre Science School. It was a group project, and we were tasked with designing and building a prototype of an interactive exhibit for visitors. My group decided to build a small exhibit on lasers (titled, “Lasers in Action”). Our exhibit consisted of a small laser obstacle course that visitors could navigate through, a collection of facts about lasers and their uses, and a small interactive contraption that allowed visitors to “learn by doing” about lasers and their reflections. One of the reasons why I enjoyed this project was that it provided us with the opportunity to learn outside of the classroom and interact with visitors as we gathered continuous feedback throughout the process. I also enjoyed this project because it allowed us to make something and prototype. Looking back on this experience, it’s not surprising that I ended up studying engineering.

It’s interesting learning more formally about the learning theories and strategies that educators use to motivate and teach students. It’s also interesting to me that while we didn’t have this formal education about the different motivation strategies at the time of creating our exhibit, we still inadvertently used many of the strategies mentioned throughout this week’s readings. Our exhibit was intentionally designed to allow visitors to actively engage with it. The laser obstacle course was intended to be reminiscent of spy movies, providing a more engaging lure to draw visitors in, and in the meantime also teaching them about the other less-known applications of lasers. Knowing what I do now, it would be interesting to re-attempt this project. While there are many aspects that I would keep, I would further implement some of the things that I learned in the readings to improve upon the exhibit that my group designed, like identifying specific learning outcomes.