New STEM Course Engineers‘a Totally Different Way of Learning’

Mayfield’s first-ever engineering design course challenges students to solve the kind of real-world problems that professional engineers grapple with, using real-world design processes and solutions. In this class, creativity and collaboration are just as important as calculations and critical thinking.

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Engineering teacher Christina Lara ’14 wastes no time in calling her Zoom class to order. “Let’s start diving into the next lesson...if everyone can just make sure they have their engineering notebooks out.” Her Engineering Design and Analysis class is the first of its kind at Mayfield, and the challenges it tackles couldn’t be more timely. Today’s lesson? Engineering a better face mask. “We’re going to start looking into a new unit with a new problem—which is really cool in a sense,” says Ms. Lara. “We can see what the engineering aspects are that we can use for the scenario that we’re all living in currently...almost a year under quarantine.”

Unit 1 covered the principles of engineering. Unit 2 dealt with the design process of creating something new. Unit 3 is on reverse engineering—improving on something that already exists. And only five minutes into class, Ms. Lara wants to see some attempts. She sends the students away to watch the CDC’s no-sew mask tutorial, and they then create a mask as instructed. Their task is to report their likes and dislikes of the finished product, ultimately looking for ways to optimize the design.

Ms. Lara allots minimal instruction time for maximum retention. When she sends her students off into Zoom breakout rooms, she watches the progress of every team on a live Google Doc. She insists on assigning a timekeeper and a scribe, roles that will change over time, so everyone has a chance to engage in different roles in this collaborative course. “Engineering isn’t a solo experience, but rather a culmination of people’s different views, ways of thinking, and ideas,” Ms. Lara explains.

These teams will change periodically, too, but the initial group dynamic is very deliberate. Ms. Lara had students complete a personality assessment at the beginning of the year, so the first pairings were created with people who tended to have the same kind of work ethic. It was a somewhat “homogenic” group by design. But she always intended them to switch this up later, saying, “If you have a group that is more heterogenic, you have more opportunities to brainstorm ideas...no one is thinking the same way!”

Now, the students who made the CDC-designed face coverings are returning to their Zoom classroom, and some model their designs for Ms. Lara. She then sends them off in small groups—in new team configurations— to discuss the pros and cons they encountered in their builds. When they come back to class, the students are bursting with ways to improve on the CDC mask, while keeping the most accessible elements.

The engineering notebook is an essential tool for tracking ideas and iterations.

“We do a lot of group work, and we do not have the typical tests and quizzes. Instead we do projects. This is a totally different way of learning,” says Sheryl Cheng ’23. “The teacher supports us by giving us the basic information and understanding we need to complete a project, but we as students have to figure out what works or not. I am a visual and tactile learner, so I feel like I understand concepts better this way.”

This highly hands-on course, conducted in conjunction with the University of Texas-Austin, also gives students the chance to earn college credits. As one of a handful of schools in the L.A. area—and the only one in Pasadena— using UT’s innovative “Engineer Your World” curriculum, Mayfield saw a lot of excitement about rolling out the program this year. Ms. Lara was scheduled to attend a three-week professional development session in Texas with high school teachers from around the nation. Then the pandemic hit. Then Ms. Lara’s training went remote. Then her teaching did, too. So what’s most impressive is how seamlessly this class operates online. It’s hard to avoid kitschy taglines like “Tomorrowland’s Classroom” or “Thoroughly Modern Mechanics” because the fact is this entire course seems remarkably suited for remote learning.

Ms. Lara teaches over Zoom using presentations prepared in PowerPoint. She directs her students to web-based resources. They upload pictures of their design drafts in Google Classroom for extra credit. When they brainstorm as a class, they use Jamboard, an interactive online whiteboard. And even in a densely packed class, she finds ways to schedule designated screen breaks.

Although the gears of Ms. Lara’s online class appear to mesh perfectly, she would far prefer to be teaching in person. “I feel like the most exciting part with the normal curriculum is the little gadgets and things that you get to play with!” she says. In remote learning, this class relies on common household items. During their last project, the students created their own “camera obscura” using a cardboard box, a pair of scissors and a box cutter. Again, this minimalism is by design. It is hard to safely oversee the electric work or soldering that might take place in a traditional classroom while students are working from home. (See page 21 for more at-home projects.)

Ms. Lara is clear that this class is only a primer. It teaches the students how to think like an engineer and to adopt some of the most important tools (like the engineering notebook) and the techniques (like focusing on the process rather than the outcome). “I told them it’s okay to fail…whether or not their project works—who cares?—engineers fail all the time,” says Ms. Lara. “You don’t really learn a lot when you just get it right the first try.”

I told them it’s okay to fail…Whether or not their project works—who cares?— engineers fail all the time. You don’t really learn a lot when you just get it right the first try.

— CHRISTINA LARA ’14, ENGINEERING TEACHER

Ms. Lara has made no secret about her passion to have more female representation in STEM fields, and she hopes to inspire girls to gain confidence in her challenging courses. From the mouths of her students, it seems she is hitting the target with utmost precision.

“After the career fair a few years ago, I switched my interest from medical to engineering...and when Mayfield announced that they were going to offer this course this year, I was ecstatic,” says Keala Sunada ’21. And having a Mayfield alum helming the course helped Keala envision her own career path more clearly. “This class has solidified my desire to work in the engineering field, especially after hearing about Ms. Lara’s experiences in college,” says Keala, who is headed to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo this fall to study biomedical engineering.

Another STEM-focused student, Rebecca Lara ’21, describes how she was drawn to taking this elective as well. “I am on the robotics team so I naturally thought that I would be a good fit for the class and really enjoy it.” Rebecca is also in the unique situation of being the instructor’s younger sister, and during quarantine, they are living under the same roof. When asked if this dynamic is ever challenging, she laughs off the question. “I can hear her teaching across the hall during class,” says Rebecca. “I find it very funny!” The Lara sisters will be parted this fall when Rebecca leaves for Ann Arbor to study mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan.

Karissa Ho ’21, who has been heavily involved in the arts at Mayfield and will attend UC Berkeley as a pre-business major in the fall, is using this engineering course as a way to marry her diverse interests. “I’ve long thought of [STEM] as very objective—but our discussions prove that there is still so much room for diversity of thought and creativity and compassion in such mathematical and scientific fields.”

The way that Ms. Lara approaches the discipline seems to bring out both individual ingenuity and a generous sense of collaboration. “Having different ways of approaching a certain problem and finding different solutions to them is what makes engineering such a diverse subject,” she explains. “It would be boring if everyone thought the same. Engineering allows unlimited creativity.”

A deep love of her alma mater continues to motivate much of the way Ms. Lara engages with this class. She remarks on how this job has felt like the perfect fit, being able to teach a subject she is passionate about, serving as a mentor in a place that was formative for her, and getting the rare opportunity to come to know her beloved teachers as colleagues. “The thing about Mayfield is that the teachers are just loving, and they care about the job,” she says with unmistakable sincerity. There is no other place she would rather be.

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No lab? No problem!

Students learn to improvise and iterate at home

Although she’s really looking forward to the camaraderie (and gadgets!) that come with being back in a science lab, teacher Christina Lara ’14 is proud of the way her students embraced complex hands-on engineering projects at home—often with little more than cardboard boxes and a hot glue gun. Here, she walks us through some of her favorite assignments.

1. Wearable Camera Obscura

OBJECTIVE: Introduction to the general engineering design process

MATERIALS: Cardboard box, box cutter, ruler, heavy-duty and/ or transparent tape (plus optional embellishments)

They were able to conceptualize a product using various brainstorming methods, interview a potential customer (from UT Austin!), and iterate and test out their final products to capture images. The results were amazing and seeing the variation and creativity among my students was inspiring to me as an engineer.

2. Non-Medical Fabric Face Masks

OBJECTIVE: Reverse engineer an existing product (CDC face mask) for improvement

MATERIALS: Old t-shirts or towels, scissors, rubber bands, elastic hair ties, hot glue

“It truly was great to be able to allow the girls to see the relevance and the applications of engineering as they were living it.”

3. Scale-Model Buildings in Simulated Typhoons

OBJECTIVE: Apply complex data analysis and engineering ethics

MATERIALS: Pre-cut balsa wood, binder clips, quarters, cereal boxes, corrugated cardboard, ruler, box cutter, hot glue

“This project really allowed the students to get experience with data analysis using motion-tracking software, applied physics, and also be exposed to the gray areas engineering gets intertwined with —such as the cost of a human life and the ethics of it. The reallife applications were endless.”