Innovative Thinking

Being a Physics major at Sonoma State, I always knew that I had a love for teaching science to older students. Thanks to the help and mentorship of Dr. Cominsky, I was able to spend an entire year creating a new club at Petaluma High School called “Dream, Make, Innovate.” Our goal in starting this project was to allow students, such as myself, that have a passion for teaching to have hands-on experience working with students in which we are allowed to create new things and explore limitations of designs in a project. Being able to work with the students at Petaluma High School has greatly opened my eyes to the potential students have in creating and designing projects that have previously have been thought to be too complex.

From the classes offered here such as The Watershed Year (Science 120) and Dream, Make, Innovate (Science 220), I was inspired to take my new knowledge of making and couple it with teaching. Once I was in the high school setting, all of the science techniques that I had been taught were used while mentoring the students.

Together, we have created a Bluetooth chicken coop door, Associated Student Body dance lights using all physics, and an Augmented Reality 3-D Sandbox. The students and I have learned so much from each other and we have been able to see others grow. With all the highs and lows that we have encountered, everyone has persisted and been dedicated to making the projects the best they can be. Once it was all completed, Mr. Brazil and the students that worked alongside me were invited to Sonoma State’s Science Symposium. I believe that they had successfully achieved college level work and earned the right to brag about the 3-D sandbox with me. I now know that I truly want to teach at a high school level and love to see young minds grow in the way that they think.