Triple Helix

The very exciting thing about our software is the opportunity for a conversation it presents for specific math and computer science concepts. During my time in Ghana, there were many opportunities for these conversations. The joy of sharing knowledge is a great ‘high’, but so is seeing those concepts successfully reinforced by software one has helped to develop.

The Culturally Situated Design Tool ‘Cornrow Curves’ uses the mathematical concepts of rotation, dilation, translation, and reflection as the student works to create a cornrow braid on the screen. In addition, the student ‘bumps into’ the concepts of Cartesian Coordinate Plane, x and y axis, and what percentage means during their work. As I have mentioned before, I felt certain that our students at the Ayeduasse school had leaned these concepts completely, but finding the words to describe them was difficult for them. Thus began the quest to find appropriate terms in Tui (their native language) to help them out…

Ntwaho = Rotation

Ntwaso = Traslation

Ketowa / Keseye = Dilation (roughly bigger / smaller)

Adane = Reflection

Nkabom = Iterate

When we began our work with the Kente Cloth simulation, it immediately occurred to me that we had an opportunity for a conversation that repeated and reinforced the geometry concepts taught through Cornrows. In addition we added appropriate computer science terms such as likening a computer program to a cooking recipe or ‘Atosodee’.

There were so many exciting aspects of our trip to Ghana and working with these students, finding ways to bridge gaps in understanding certainly were wonderful highlights in a great adventure.

Our time at the Ayeduasi school today was very interesting. We used the Kente Cloth weaving simulation with the students for the first time (ever). These kids have picked up programming much faster than I ever thought possible, and where Cornrow Curves was highly programmable, Kente is a little less so, which I now realize the students found very disappointing. We have quickly come to the conclusion that a Kente Cloth redesign is in order, and in fact it might just be easiest and less time consuming to adapt the Cornrow Curves software for Kente. The current software is an adaptation of the Navajo Rug Weaving software crossed with the virtual bead loom, but programming with shapes is more complicated than necessary and probably programming with just a small circle, representative of a stitch would be much easier. Working with the Hackett kids, I thought hiding some of the complexity of say, making a triangle, behind one instruction would make the process more successful, but with our Ghanian students,it has not only been unnecessary but has needlessly complicated the process.

This afternoon we are supposed to get to a market so I should be able to buy them the 10 mice they need for their netbooks as well as 2 keyboards for the machines that have stuck key problems. It’s kind of amazing how fast the time has gone, already we are planning all the things that have to get done before we start out on the journey back to Accra Wednesday morning.

Well, after yesterday there really is only one direction to go and that is up! Dan and I arrived at the school with Marcelle, Silas and Isaac and got set up for the students. We started the machines and brought up the Cornrow Curves programmable software and waited patiently. When the students arrived, we said good morning, which in tree is “ma-chi”, and they quickly set about working. That is something that I had noticed about these students – they have a determination to learn and achieve, and there is very little fooling around. Of course there is some – they are middle schoolers after all, but quite literally there is an ocean separating the behavior of the Ayeduasi students and the Hackett Middle School students. The experience today was much different than yesterday (thank goodness). It was very clear that most of the students had understood the programming concepts that we had talked about yesterday and had only been hampered by the software. Today they were putting those concepts to good use in making their braids.

My plan was to work with the software for half an hour, conduct the post test for half an hour and then do something fun to celebrate their hard work. The students were so intent on their programming that 30 minutes quickly became 45 and then 60. We had to stop or we wouldn’t get any pictures of the marvelous music they learned how to make using the Rhythm Wheels software on Monday. The post test went well and in my observations most students had answered significantly more questions, including the sample programming question (which is very gratifying). Once the tests were collected they went right into rhythm wheels and most created very exciting music for us to share using the speakers that Marcelle had brought along. Here again there were technical issues as I alone was able to hold the wire ‘just right’ to make the music come out of the speakers without crackling. Lydia (one of the students) created a nice tribal song and shared it with us. The most exciting part of the whole experience is the connections that I have made with many of the students. Lydia, I think is one of those students.