Triple Helix

Science Club or ‘Finding the Path to College’

GK-12 3Helix Fellow Bill Babbitt with teacher Linda Carey, organized a Science Club at Hackett Middle School that met during lunch period. The Club’s first task was to disassemble and then build a computer. But the underlying and maybe even more important task performed was what was happening alongside these activities: the conversations – the banter between Mr. Babbitt and the engaged students who asked questions about computers, science  and college. In this setting, students not only learned about computer components, but also gained valuable insight into their opportunities for the future. And what will happen to the computer the Science Club built? It will be used as a network server running educational software that the students can use in the classroom.

With all the components in the case, it is time for the moment of truth – will it fly or crash and burn? When we were finishing the disk drive installation, I asked the students to contemplate what operating system they wanted to install, and I encouraged them to search for a Linux. With the intensity of getting the DVD drive repositioned and the HD in the box, it doesn’t surprise me that they didn’t quite catch everything about looking at and deciding on a Linux. I went into Hackett prepared with a Fedora, OpenSuse, and Ubuntu installation disk. I also happened to have both Solaris and OpenSolaris installation disks, but I digress…

It quickly became apparent that in all the rushing of the previous week, the kids had forgotten to review the operating system choices with one student quickly suggesting that I decide. I was kind of disappointed because operating system investigation could have opened up more discussion topics in computer science – but alas, this is how far we got. Noticing that Fedora was on the top of my DVD stack and remembering that I have never had a problem with Fedora 14, that’s what we went with.

The students decided who got to push the power button, and on it went. With a great deal of relief (we weren’t always very good at grounding ourselves while working in the case), the bios screen displayed on the monitor to a collective hooray! Another student popped out the DVD tray and in went Fedora 14. With a restart, up came the Fedora install menu. I explained each of the install screens and before long, the installation progress bar could be seen making its way across the screen.

It took all of the rest of lunch and 1/2 of the next period to finish the installation. When it finished and restarted, the Fedora log in screen appeared and Elliott, who happened to still be in the classroom for 7th period was able to login and click around looking at the gnome desktop.

The very exciting last component is ready to be installed and presented an interesting problem to overcome. The power cord connectors needed to go from the DVD drive to the hard drive, but with the DVD drive installed in a 5 inch slot way up at the top and the hard drive going into the top most 3 1/2 inch slot, it became apparent the connectors didn’t reach to both. It was very interesting watching the 10 students discover the problem and ponder a solution. It only took them a minute before they seemed to collectively realize that the DVD drive would need to be removed and installed in a slot lower down that still accommodated a 5 inch drive. With a flash, they began implementing the plan, taking the screws out of the DVD drive, repositioning it and quickly getting the screws put into the hard drive. This is the most work these students have accomplished in a lunch period during this entire project. In fact, I have to say the sense of urgency with which they moved in accomplishing both tasks was just beautiful to watch.

images courtesy of tigerdirect.com, our vendor for this project.