Author Archives: simichc

Final Blog Report

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Hi everyone,

This is the last blog post for WGSS 320 and I am very excited to share all I have learned. First off, I have never created and successfully ran a blog before. I always thought blogging was something for creative thinkers and people who love writing and I found that I actually really enjoy it. It was a surprise to me that this class included such extensive blogging work. It was a nice surprise because I found to really benefit from reading over my posts and being able to edit and get feedback from my peers about my projects.

Another important think I learned was all the information about women in technology. I know it sounds ironic because that is the name of this course, but I actually feel like I have mastered enough current information to teach my own class on this. I was very thankful to have learned the skills of citations in APA formatting. Never have I had a teacher require that and I am glad to now have experience in citing with it. Another skill I enjoyed learning was how to hyperlink my sources in my writing. It is so handy to have the information readily available when referring back to the original source.

I am very thankful to my friend who recommended this class. I usually do not take online courses simply because I am an in-person learner. I think that this class changed my opinion and made me realize that I do learn just fine with online classes and I know I will be able to take more in the future.

I hope you all enjoyed my first blogging experience and I look forwards to showing you all more about what I learn in the future.

Happy Summer,

M. Simich

Final Rigamajig Project Update: June 1, 2015

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Hello everyone,

I just submitted my project and I am very satisfied with my final work. I got to learn so much about the Rigamajig product. LIke I said in an earlier post, I knew nothing about it. It was really reassuring to find out that this product was designed and created by inventor and engineer Cas Holman. She is such an interesting and inspiring woman to research. I learned about her work with nonprofit organizations and how she manages to keep her head up and be just as successful as every other engineer out there.

I did not struggle with locating any librarians or sources. I got a lot of experience from the previous project that I understand how everything works now. Overall, I am very impressed with how much I learned while researching. I learned more about the gender gap, sexism, false stereotypes, and a children’s toy that encouraged elementary school engineers. I think it is incredible how far everyone has come with inventions.

My favorite source to learn about new inventions and ideas is through TED Talks. I encourage everyone to watch them. Everyday there are more videos posted about fascinating people changing the world one step at a time. I learned a lot and hope you guys enjoy my project.

Thanks,

M. Simich

Gender Lens Project Update: Rigamajig

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It is nearing the end of this second project and so far I have learned so much about this product and myself. I have learned that the more research the better. I have many a few sources for each section of this project and I still feel like I could keep researching.

So far, I have an outline of what I am planning to talk about for each part of the paper. I start off with talking about the Rigamajig product and how its users benefit from this product. I then go into sexism in children toys and games. I think that Rigamajig does a wonderful job of making a product that is appealing to both girls and boys. It provides a creative game for kids to enjoy and experiment with.

With that said, I think that many toy companies struggle to market their products to both girls and boys. I also think that society puts down companies who try and fail. I am still researching more about sexism in children toy products.

Some struggles I faced during this product was finding problems with the Rigamajig toy. I still defend it and think the only improvements the company could make would be to market their product more. I had never heard of it before this project. I also do not have enough material written to post for the rough draft. I am going to continue writing and fill out my outline more so that I am able to post more of my rough draft later this week.

Thanks!

M. Simich

Gender Lens Project Part 2: Topic Choice and Update

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I chose to do my gender lens project on the Rigamajig child toy. I had never heard of this toy before so I decided to do a lot of research to figure out the background to making such a diverse and beneficial toy.

So far, I have found a lot of information on this toy, as well as information on sexism in the child toy industry. I think research is the best way to educate myself about these problems in the stereotypical toy for girls and boys.

This toy is a new type of product designed for both girls and boys. It helps them explore their creativity and build any type of product they can with the tools given with the Rigamajig product.

I have not been able to contact any librarians because I am going to keep researching and find a more specific topic for each section of this project paper. I think the librarians will be very helpful because they offered a lot of help for the previous project.

Overall, my research is progressing and I have a very good start for this second gender lens project and look forward to learning more about this product and how our society is turning away from sexism is child toys.

Thanks,

M. Simich

Research Aftermath

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It has been about three weeks since the beginning of this project and about one week left of research and editing to do. Overall, the most difficult part to master was working with the APA writing format. I have never had a teacher require that specific citation and learning it was a process. Although it did take some time, I benefited from the process. I am a stronger writer for it and will now be ready for future experiences writing with the APA style.

The part I struggled with most was finding enough past information on Krista Donaldson. It took lots of research and work to not only find any sources, but reliable ones. Most information out there is about Donaldson’s current creation of her new prosthetic limb. I found this very helpful when writing about the cultures and what tools, materials, and methods were used during the same time in Canada and America.

I highly recommend more research to my fellow classmates. I find it way more interesting and reliable when pulling from many sources instead of just a few. It took work to find enough sources to support my claim but overall, I was able to accomplish this. I did not expect to learn so much about another county’s culture when doing this project. I went into it more focused on Krista Donaldson and her invention when I actually found that I learned more about Canada and my own country.

I still have lots of editing and adding to do, but so far I have a very good start to the rest of my paper. I think peer reviewing will be extremely helpful, especially being in an online class. I look forward to reading my classmates’ projects and hope to learn even more about women, their inventions, and cultures.

Thanks,

M. Simich

Up To Date Librarian Experience

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It has been about one week since I chose to write my cultural research paper on Krista Donaldson. I’ve been researching more about her life and the responsibilities of successfully starting and running a non-profit prosthetic limbs company. The most useful sources I found before connecting with librarians were JSTOR and EBSCO. Both databases gave clear and specific information pertaining to my topic. My high school provided these databases so I had prior experience and was comfortable using them already.

When I first chose this topic, I knew nothing about the medical field or prosthetic limbs in particular. I took it upon myself to widen my search from Krista Donaldson to the medial industry. I found a few problems with the way I was wording my search engine questions. I took my concerns to Answerland.org, where many volunteers responded with helpful tools to improve my research.

One thing I struggled with was contacting actual librarians. All of my questions were answered by library volunteers, which ended up being just as helpful. Before this assignment, I had never known about this online website that had library experts waiting to answer questions. A few of the questions I included were,

“What is the best way to narrow down the sources provided from a search engine question?”

“What are the best databases for specific information rather than general?”

“What is the best way to save the information I get from a database?”

Being able to chat with library volunteers was overall very helpful. The majority of the time I was able to get a response with links to various scholarly websites that helped with my search about Krista Donaldson and her invention at D-Rev.

Thanks,

M. Simich

Cultural Research Project Topic

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Krista Donaldson’s D-Rev

Krista Donaldson, a 40-year-old social-good engineer from Nova Scotia, invented ReMotion, the newest generation of prosthetic limbs. Donaldson attended Stanford where she earned her Ph.D. in medical engineering design and Vanderbilt University where she received a B.E. in mechanical engineering . She is currently the CEO of D-Rev, a non-profit product development organization designed to improve the health and foster the lives of those living on less than $4 a day. D-Rev strives on affordability, safety, and convenience.

Donaldson has many other accomplishments. She guided the reconstruction of Iraq’s electricity sector through The United States American Association for the Advancement of Science. This earned Donaldson an engineering position with the company KickStart, in Kenya, for the following four years. Donaldson grew up with an entrepreneurial state of mind. Her success stems from her parents teaching her to live a selfless life. She devoted herself to those in need.  She taught at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya and South Africa’s University of Cape Town where she shared her focus on engineering a better and healthier world.

I first read about Krista Donaldson on “The inventors, trailblazers and performers of TEDWomen 2013, “Invented Here.”” I found her life goals inspiring and learned more about her through her company’s website d-rev.org and LinkedIn.

Donaldson is currently living in San Francisco, California where she runs D-Rev. She is active on LinkedIn and TEDtalks.com. I will be looking for all opportunities to get into contact with her to learn more about her mission as a non-profit CEO. However, it might be difficult to get time for an interview with her busy schedule as a CEO. I am following her on LinkedIn and hopefully she connects back with me as the term continues.

 

Extra Credit Google News Experience

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In order to add a RSS feed to my blog, I began with logging into my Google email. I then went onto Google News where I customized my news topics as well as my sources. After completing my preferences, I went onto the Google categories and clicked on Women in Engineering. After, I scrolled down to the RSS link where I copied the link and later posted it into my blog. I posted it into the RSS new entry feed where I then published it for the public. My overall experience was pretty good. I found it a little overwhelming when narrowing down my preferences because there were so many options. I also think that it is important to share these topics and learn more about them, which I am excited to do in class.

Chandler Simich