Legendary Myths

For this post, I used the following article: How to Spark Creativity When You're in a Rut This article confirmed that people are naturally creative and inventive. A fine example of this is watching children play with toys. Children have active imaginations that help their minds run wild with creative stories while they play with their toys. While adults don't typically play with toys, the principle of creative thinking still holds true. Creativity leads to differing perspectives, new questions, fresh ideas. However, this article also taught me how getting stuck into a specific rhythm or rut in your everyday life can greatly hinder your creativity. Being in a rut destroys creativity since you are not actively thinking of new ideas or ways to improve. You are essentially stuck doing the same thing over and over each day, for hours on end. This is a complete and utter detriment to the creativity that is present in each and every single person. I'm curious to learn more abo...

For this post, I used the following article: Practice Makes Possible: What We What We Learn By Studying Amazing Kids This article confirmed that you can better yourself at a particular skill by practicing it continually. Many musicians and artists become good by practicing for hours on end. Through continued practice and rigorous training, you can improve upon your current skill level tremendously. This article also taught me how deliberate practice is distinctly different from simply going through the motions of your skill. Deliberate practice brings out your inherent weaknesses and helps you improve upon them through rigorous training. Simply going through the motions wastes time and results in little to no return in terms of improvement. I am curious to learn more about I can utilize deliberate practice to hone my skills. By focusing my time and energy on my weaknesses, I am able to improve upon my current skill level and become even better. Deliberate practice helps pave the wa...

For this post, I used the following article: What Do We Lose By Measuring 'Average' In Education? This article confirmed how equal opportunities help to create opportunities for all types of people that have all the required qualifications. Most people would think of equal opportunity as providing people with equal access to amenities or ensuring that people have access to the same experiences. This is the most widely understood definition of what equal opportunity means to most people, especially employers. However, this article also taught me how accounting for individualism can enable better equal opportunities for all people. In the jet fighter example used in this article, an adjustable cockpit opens the door to people of different body types that possess the necessary skills to operate a fighter jet. In this case, by catering to a broader range of people, we can provide better opportunities for them to grow and succeed. I am curious to learn more about how individuali...

For this post, I used the following article: Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes This article confirmed that students can learn significantly from their mistakes. Often times, I'll look back at previous assignments and tests for feedback on mistakes I made. From studying these mistakes, I know what not to do in the future and continue to learn the material further. I like to study my mistakes as it helps me improve my process and my overall state of knowledge about the material. This article also taught me how important it is to teach children to embrace mistakes as they are a natural part of learning. Children naturally feel emotional about their mistakes. For example, missing a math problem makes them feel stupid. However, it is important to teach them to look at their mistakes as learning opportunities. Learning from your mistakes helps you become a better student and gives you the means to continue to learn outside of your formal education. I am curious to learn more abou...

For this post, I used the following article: Students' View of Intelligence Can Help Grades This article confirmed that all students and children can continue to learn through extensive schooling. Personally, I have been through 16 years of formal education and don't expect to stop learning anytime soon after graduation when I start my career. This article taught me how teaching students that their intelligence can be developed through continued learning can positively impact their academic performance in school. This ties back into the growth mindset proposed by Carol Dweck. By telling students that their intelligence is not fixed but can be improved, it greatly increased their opportunity to learn in school. This is evident by their grades as shown in Dweck's experiment with the class of 7th graders. The students with the growth mindset had their grades increase while those with a fixed mindset saw a decrease in their grades. I am curious to learn more about how I can...

For this post, I used the following article: The Magical Benefits of the 'Quitter's Mindset' This article confirmed that staying in one place for too long inhibits further learning to an extent. By being accustomed to one thing for an extended period of time, you start to get comfortable. You learn to work in a particular rhythm, and it is rather difficult to creatively branch out and learn. This article taught me how quitting is not necessarily a bad thing. By quitting one environment for another, you are able to start over with a fresh slate in a sense. It presents you with a challenge that stimulates your mind and encourages you to learn more about your new situation. I am curious to learn more about the Quitter's Method and how I might apply that to my own life. I could quit school and that would steer me in a completely different direction than if I went ahead a graduated. By quitting, I could open up more doors for opportunity but close others in the process. ...

For this post, I used the following article: The Importance of Teaching Students not to Fear This article confirmed that questions show that students are striving to learn. By needing to ask questions, it solidifies that students are actively thinking about the subject. Questions are a natural way to learn; it helps combat confusion and enables students to learn more about certain topics. This article also taught me how questions can be fearful to ask, especially for new students on the first day of classes. Personally, I have had some experience with a professor who berated students for asking questions in class and not doing the research for themselves. However, this definitely did not encourage those students to keep learning and had quite the opposite effect; those students were quiet for the rest of the semester and seldom interacted in class activities. I am curious to learn more about how positive encouragement can help students to ask more of their questions. In my Capstone...

For this post, I used the following article: The Emotional Weight of Being Graded, for Better or Worse This article confirmed to me that students can get emotional from their grades. They can get excited about getting an A+ or devastated by a D-. Like other students, I have also suffered from the same emotional stress from my grades. We feel so obligated to uphold our precious GPA that we sacrifice sleep in order to finish assignments or study for tests. However, this article has taught me that there is a distinctive difference between studying to learn and working for a grade. Like the article stated, a student could make full points on all class exams, proving that they know the material. However, that feat still would not guarantee an A as their grade per class regulations. I am curious to learn more about this distinction between genuine learning and working for a grade. I plan to investigate this in my coursework this semester and think about how studying affects my best inter...

For this post, I used the following article: The Difference Between Praise and Feedback This article confirmed to me that praise is a reward for accomplishing a certain task. Praising someone helps them to realize that what they have accomplished is worthwhile or good. I have already had personal experience with praising by telling someone "good job" or something along those lines. However, this article taught me more about process praise and how it encourages a growth mindset. Praising the process and not the end result teaches others that they can accomplish the same achievements through effort and perseverance. I am curious to continue learning more about process praise. I never fully realized what a difference praising someone's process made rather than praising their accomplishment. I plan to act on this curiosity by beginning to praise others based on their thought process rather than their results. By doing so, I am enabling them to continue to work through the...

Open Door Cat - Courtesy of Growth Mindset & Feedback Cats I picked this first cat meme in particular because it emphasizes how welcoming new things with open arms can result in beautiful things. By being open to new ideas, we can encourage people to be creative and think of even more solutions to complex problems. This is especially important in engineering, where there are often no set solution paths and different ideas can arise from brainstorming sessions. It is important not to disregard an idea that conflicts with your own, and be open to other ideas to encourage creativity. Always Look Up For Ideas Cat - Courtesy of Growth Mindset & Feedback Cats I chose this second cat meme because it goes hand in hand with my discussion found above. A simple change of view can vastly affect your perspective on issues or problems and drastically impact your plan of action. Seeing different perspectives can often change what kind of solution can be implemented to solve a pa...

F ailure I s L earned E xperience - Courtesy of Canva I have created this acronym to motivate myself and others to branch out and try new things. Fear of failure is something that resonates within each and every one of us. However, it's up to us to break out of our comfort and try something new in order to continue to grow and develop. If we think of each of our failures as a learning experience, we can learn from our mistakes and continue to develop as individuals with more knowledge than if we never tried at all. I'll try to keep this acronym in mind throughout this semester so I can branch out and continue to develop new experiences and skills.

Inspirational Quote about Fruit? - Courtesy of Canva This is one of my favorite quotes that I recently heard. The mantra that juice is temporary and sauce is forever is one that can be applied to a wide variety of topics. Juice can be small issues like pulling an all-nighter to study for a test or having to work on an assignment over the weekend. Sauce is the big picture, like graduation or getting a full-time job. The idea is that small issues are short-term inconveniences and expire soon, similar to orange juice. Meanwhile, big picture goals are long-lasting and stick around, similar to barbecue sauce. How long does a bottle of barbecue sauce even last?

For this post, I used the following article: Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn This article confirmed that mistakes are a natural consequence of learning. I already knew from prior experiences with working on vehicles that I was bound to make mistakes at first, especially since I had little to no knowledge in the beginning. My Principles of Engineering Design class also discussed how people are bound to make mistakes, but they can learn from their mistakes and continue to grow and develop. This article also taught me that not all mistakes are created equal. Some mistakes, such as sloppy mistakes or high-stakes mistakes, are undesirable because of how the outcomes could be negatively impacted. On the other hand, stretch mistakes and aha-moment mistakes can be leveraged in order to learn from that particular experience and act as a learning exercise. I am now curious to explore stretch mistakes since they will be an indication that I am challenging myse...

For this post, I used the following article: A Growth Mindset Fuels Creativity in Youth This particular article confirmed that a growth mindset helps people continue to learn and try new things to succeed. From my Principles of Engineering Design class last semester, I had already learned about the importance of maintaining a growth mindset in order to further grow and develop as an engineer in my future career. This article also enlightened me with information that I did not previously consider. For example, the article states how being open to new ideas brings about different perspectives that can help solve problems that require nonrigid ideological thinking. Instead of being so fixed on one perspective, I'm going to try my best to consider other aspects of the problem, and consider other ideas that may arise in order to solve future problems in my career. I'm now curious to explore about being open to new ideas. Since I am in my Capstone class this semester and working ...

I have personally not heard of Carol Dweck before, but I have had previous experience with the growth mindset before. In my Principles of Engineering Design class last semester, we were taught about how we could utilize our past learnings and experiences to tackle new challenges that we may encounter in our future careers. I learned how to reflect on my past learnings and knowledge, as shown below humorously, in order to solve new complex problems from any situations that may arise in the future. Reflection Meme - Courtesy of Growth Mindset & Feedback Cats Blog I see myself towards the high end of the spectrum of growth-fixed mindset in my schoolwork. I not only go through the motions of solving engineering problems, but also think about how that problem-solving method can be utilized in future aspects of my life. For example, from engineering coursework, I learned how important it is to fully understand all the different aspects and constraints of a problem before spending ...