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Announcing DPEA Single Senior Capstone Project

Information Sheet for the Class of 2016

June 26, 2015

Dear Class of 2016 Students and Parents: Starting in the 2015-2016 school year, the DPEA is unifying the senior-level curriculum with one Mechatronics capstone project. FIRST Robotics Team 1717 has been retired. This change has been carefully considered and has the full support of the DPEA, Dos Pueblos High School, the Santa Barbara Unified School District, and the Santa Barbara County Education Office. The Press Release that will be shared with local news outlets today regarding this announcement is copied below. We are doing our utmost to be transparent in our communication with you and hope that you know we are acting in good faith on behalf of all DPEA students. We ask you to take time to reflect on the reasons for this change, to consider the many benefits of this unified capstone project, and to join us as we embark on this new phase of the DPEA. Please join us for a meeting on the evening of June 30, 2015 at 6:30 pm in the DPHS cafeteria to hear from those who will be instrumental in facilitating this change.

Timing of this Curricular Change

The timing of this change is not ideal and it came about unexpectedly. During Spring Quarter, after the robotics season had come to completion and the Mechatronics project was approaching completion, thoughts of the DPEA staff were trending toward the idea of eventually moving away from FIRST Robotics as a capstone project in a few years. In May, perspectives shifted. After participating in the Bay Area Maker Faire on the 18th and then completing the project on the 28th, it became clear to the DPEA, Dos Pueblos High School, Santa Barbara Unified School District, and the Santa Barbara County Education Office that unifying the senior Class of 2016 around a single capstone Mechatronics project was in the best educational interests of the students. We have worked quickly and are sharing this information with you at the earliest opportunity. The DPHS administrative and counseling staff are well aware of the scheduling challenges many of you are facing in light of this change. Assistant Principal Bill Woodard and Counselor Scott Guttentag have already been reviewing each student’s schedule to evaluate how all students can be accommodated. This is going to be a transition year and we will need to work together to navigate it and to make this transition as smooth as possible.

We recognize that the retirement of FIRST Robotics Team 1717 is a loss, and that for some of you it is a significant loss of a dream that you have looked forward to fulfilling for years. This was not discounted at any point. In fact, it was weighed heavily throughout the decision-making process and still weighs heavily on all of the DPEA staff. Learning objectives and outcomes simply must be prioritized over other considerations by an educational institution, and retaining the FIRST Robotics program as a capstone project cannot be justified when the Mechatronics project offers students a substantially more enriching educational experience. It is understandable that students and parents will feel a range of emotions in response to this news. We hope that you will have compassion for the different reactions that your classmates and their parents may be experiencing and that you are circumspect as you express your opinions and feelings. Efforts to support one another and come together as a community will be the most beneficial and productive as this decision will not be reversed.

Evolution of the DPEA Senior Capstone Project

You and your students have directly participated in the growth of the DPEA over the past three years and have been the second cohort to complete the “Art of Engineering” interdisciplinary curriculum. As hundreds of students matriculated through the “Art of Engineering” curriculum in the lower grades, it became a growing concern that the educational opportunities available through participation in FIRST Robotics would not fully utilize the skills and abilities that DPEA students were prepared to apply during their senior year. Prior to offering the “Art of Engineering” curriculum in the Elings Center, the robot was the only serious engineering project students undertook during their involvement with the DPEA and these concerns did not exist. In order to take advantage of the full capacity of the Elings Center facility and the skills students acquired during grades 9-11 in the program, the DPEA seized the opportunity to develop and introduce a new Mechatronics senior capstone project. This project was created specifically as the culmination of the “Art of Engineering” curriculum with integrated and interdisciplinary educational goals for all participants. It was designed to give students the opportunity to apply their cumulative educational experience in engineering, physics, design, and computer programming. Running both the Mechatronics project and FIRST Robotics last year was experimental. The primary variables were the students. The Class of 2015 was the first cohort to complete the “Art of Engineering” curriculum and they were better prepared than any previous class for their senior project. The goal was to track the educational opportunities, experiences, and outcomes for students participating in both projects. The intent was to evaluate the efficacy of both projects upon their completion and continue with this two-project model for a few years until appropriate next steps, if any, became discernible.

It was never anticipated that taking a different path would become necessary at this point, which is why in January and February the DPEA asked you to choose between Mechatronics and FIRST Robotics as you planned for your senior year. At that time, running both senior capstone projects was the plan for next year. After running both projects side by side, however, we now know that it is not educationally appropriate to continue forward with that plan. The educational experiences and opportunities available through the FIRST Robotics program -- while incredibly unique and valuable -- do not appropriately meet DPEA seniors where they are in terms of their readiness to engage in an integrated and sophisticated project from concept to fabrication. The fact is that after completing the “Art of Engineering” curriculum, DPEA seniors are prepared to tackle a project equivalent in complexity to 15 robots, which is precisely what the Mechatronics project was designed to offer them. As the second cohort to complete the “Art of Engineering” interdisciplinary curriculum, the Class of 2016 will be even more prepared than the Class of 2015 and we are looking forward to seeing what they can do as they work on a unified Mechatronics project over the course of an entire school year.

Rationale

The Mechatronics project was created specifically as the culmination of the “Art of Engineering” curriculum and its educational outcomes reflect the unique mission of the DPEA. While the maiden voyage of the Mechatronics project had its share of ups and downs last year, the fundamental structure of the project and its extended timeframe allowed for educational experiences and opportunities that have never been possible within the framework of the FIRST Robotics program. Some of the primary benefits include the following:

1. The Mechatronics Project fully engages all students in the design process. One of the main goals of the “Art of Engineering” curriculum is to prepare students to undertake engineering design work as seniors. There is a fundamental scarcity issue inherent in working on one robot. There simply is not enough design work to distribute equitably within a 6-week timeframe, especially when teams of 6-7 students are assigned to a single mechanism. Before the DPEA offered “The Art of Engineering” curriculum, the robotics experience was very different. Since none of the students had ever machined or used CAD, etc, any experiences they had during build season were novel and educational -- no matter how specialized or niche -- and there was not a sense of hierarchy in terms of the work. For example, many previous seniors spent their robotics season machining spacers for the robot. For today’s DPEA students, however, the nodes they fabricate during freshman year for their mobiles are more sophisticated than the spacers required for the robot. Imagine what it would be like to spend an entire robotics season making parts that were less sophisticated than the nodes you made as a freshman. There is a mismatch between the current students’ educational preparation in the DPEA and their educational opportunities for growth within the FIRST Robotics program.