Sparking a Passion for STEM, Part 2: Q and A with TIDE Academy’s Ryan Stagg

|

Posted by Oculus VR

|

Sep 12, 2018

|

This summer, Oculus partnered with Ignited, an education nonprofit focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), to help bridge the gap between classroom engagement and real-world opportunities, like working in emerging technologies.

Today, we’re talking with TIDE Academy Physics Teacher Ryan Stagg, the first of four educators we’re interviewing this week, who joined Ignited’s Summer Fellowship Program to bring specialized skills and technical training back to his classroom in the fall.

Can you please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as an educator?

Ryan Stagg: Hi! My name is Ryan Stagg, and I have been a high school physics teacher for the last seven years. My Physics and Education degrees both come from UC Santa Cruz. I have a passion for mathematics and have also taught Earth Science. The majority of my teaching experience was at Half Moon Bay High School before moving locally to the Sequoia Union High School District serving this area.

What’s your typical day like as a teacher?

RS: My typical day as an educator involves teaching four periods of Physics and one period of AP Physics 2. A work day governed by bells and large groups of students necessitates a regularly fast-paced structure, so the days fly by. I spend my lunches and 30 minutes after school chatting with students, helping with their homework or concepts from class. I usually head home around 4:30 pm and spend time planning the next day’s lesson. I set a boundary to stop working (lesson planning and grading) by 7:00 pm, so I am sure to be happy and rested when I see my students the next day.

What interested you in the Ignited Summer Fellowship, and how did you get involved?

RS: I have had several colleagues go through the program and heard nothing but the best. It enticed me because I wanted to bring real business experiences to the classroom. I had some exposure to high-level academic science through experiences in college but, like most teachers, have had no experience with the private sector. I wanted an opportunity to grow personally and in relation to my capacity to prepare students for the real world.

Can you tell us about the first time you tried VR and what that was like?

RS: The first time I tried VR was probably two years ago. We were using an optics frame that you inserted a cell phone into. I was playing a bomb defusal game with my friend that focused on communication skills. I was hooked—we played for hours. I was blown away at the time, but that experience was totally outclassed the first time I tried 6DOF on Rift. I played SUPERHOT VR, and that was amazing, but I had to get back to work!

How do you think VR could change and influence the way people learn?

RS: I think immersion is a big component. Students' ability to work through technical or dangerous procedures using 6DOF has immediate applications in the context of performing dissections and mixing chemicals. We can let students simulate and experiment with questions like: “What happens if I mix these two random chemicals?” that we could never let them do in the actual classroom.

Tell us about the project you worked on while on the Oculus campus.

RS: I worked with the Reliability Engineering Team where I focused on drop testing. My study focused on characterizing how the peak accelerations experienced on impact varied as a function of mass. I used triaxial accelerometers capturing at a rate of 38,400 samples per second and learned the programming language R to manipulate, analyze, and visualize data from the impact events. I investigated several different variables besides mass that influence what accelerations and forces are experienced by a headset impacting a surface.

What did you learn over the summer?

RS: Wow, I have learned so much. Experiencing what a professional business environment is like—and how all the skills I acquired in my own schooling culminate to produce a product—has been eye-opening. I have learned so much about programming, which will empower and enable me to teach science and analyze data with students in ways I wouldn’t have been able to before the fellowship. I’ve had amazing opportunities to speak with other professionals throughout my time on campus about a variety of science, engineering, and business topics that I can’t fully enumerate here.

How did you prepare for the fellowship?

RS: I didn’t really know how to prepare before arriving on-site, but I was determined to keep an open mind. I resolved to persevere and continually challenge myself, get out of my comfort zone, and try to get the most out of this tremendous opportunity.

How will you leverage this experience back in the classroom?

RS: We prepare an Educational Transfer Plan (ETP) through Ignited where we develop a lesson or unit directly related to our placement in the fellowship. I will be doing accelerometer drop tests with my students next year just like I was doing in the lab. Beyond that, my experiences observing successful teams and being a part of a business enterprise will have a daily influence on how I structure group work with students and the types of collaborative talk and autonomy I will encourage my students to have.

How would you characterize your time at Oculus?

RS: My time was split between data collection in the lab and learning a brand new programming language to analyze the data I was collecting. I spent as much time as I could when I wasn’t working on my project assisting other people on the team and getting input from my Oculus mentors. They were always there to support me but encouraged me to figure out a lot of things myself, which made me much more capable in the end. I want to thank them so much for all the time and trust they invested in me.