KCI STEAM PROGRAM
STEAM Identity
Day Five Summer
First Follow-Up
Second Follow-Up
Third Follow-Up
Fourth Follow-Up
Genius Hour
Reflection
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SECTIONS:
ABOUT ME
Hi everyone! I'm Jacquelyn Popkoff, a Bay Area native with a diverse background that's fueled my passion for science, technology, and helping others. Growing up in San Mateo, I attended a first of it's kind bilingual Spanish-English program that has definitely shaped my love for communication, diverse cultures and understanding different perspectives. My interest in science began early, and I even had the opportunity to explore observational astronomy as a student lecturer, tutor and telescope operator at City College of San Francisco and volunteer at the world renowned Morrison Planetarium at the California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco.
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While my studies took me in the direction of astrophysics and data science, which definitely honed my analytical skills, I also discovered a love for tinkering with technology. This led me to explore web management, IT operations, and marketing, eventually landing me in the world of business consulting.
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However, throughout my career I haven't forgotten my passion for giving back. Whether it was helping environmental non-profits in board member roles, like the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center since 2019, or consulting for organizations like the California Society of Environmental Analysts, working with non-profits has always been a fulfilling part of my journey.
Now, as a KCI STEAM Leadership certificate student at Foothill College, I'm excited to combine my technical background with my love of science, social equity and community engagement to fully take advantage of this innovative program. The undergraduate program at CCSF where I tutored, operated telescopes and led the astronomy club as president really instilled a love of hands-on learning and sparking curiosity in others. I believe the STEAM approach offers a powerful way to tackle challenges and create positive change. I'm eager to absorb and contribute my skills and perspectives to this inspiring program in any way I can.
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I'm confident that my diverse experiences, combined with my ongoing education in the KCI STEAM program, will allow me to grow my educational toolbox, and continue to be a valuable asset to my colleagues and clients.*
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AI Citation: 70% of this content was created by the Gemini AI App with use of my professional bio.
STEAM IDENTITY
These are handmade from scratch felted educational toys I use to teach my toddler about animal habitats, climate change and the environment. I hope to exemplify that it is never too early to teach STEM concepts, complex ideas, the challenges our world faces, and to introduce problem solving. Fiberarts has always been a hobby, from knitting, crochet, sewing, felting and tatting.
My love for science was always present in my life, the door was never opened for me in science due to my gender, learning difference and physical disability. Unfortunately, my opportunity to pursue college was brutally taken from me (#metoo) but my passion for education, the sciences and the natural world has never faded. I hope I can facilitate a love or natural and science in my son, as well as in the environmental science curriculum CLERC is creating for the students and citizens of Lake County.
These toys also reflect the growing issue of microplastic risks to children and babies. The majority of toys on the market are plastic, outgas and breakdown over time. These are made of 100% natural alpaca and wool fiber that I was given in Lake County and some that I purchased from a local spinning store in Napa and at fiber fairs around northern California. Everything used is 100% sourced within Northrend california.
KCI Con
Document your experiences and takeaways from the KCI Con event.
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Points/Requirements
Outline the key points and requirements of the program.
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Orientation - Reflect on the orientation session and initial expectations.
Exercise: Cultural Empathy Map - Get To Know You & Our Cohort
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At first I was apprehensive as I was not happy that we were encouraged to use free AI products. These "free" AI products often harvest user data to simply operate them. As the child of a CISSP officer that was deeply involved in the invention of SSL certificates, I am very concerned about data privacy and data harvesting, IP ownership and the monetization of user data by companies like Google. However, I am not familiar with Google classroom and some additional Google services that my organization will likely utilize in the future. I am concerned how AI directed and saturated the content is with what looks like AI promotional content from big tech companies.
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KCI STEAM Leadership- Survey 24 - made no sense to me.. the last "question" had no guidance on it.
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I do like the AI citations is part of the curriculum on some level. I am not encouraged by AI wide spread eargly adoption by many tech companies and feel like it is being implemented half hazarded, especially on search engines and social media, and now on children curriculum.
Day One Summer
Summarize the activities, learnings, and reflections from the first day of the summer session. - much more hands-ons that i expected but this is a very interesting and diverse group of educators. Super impressed by every single person. I've met.
Day Two Summer
Summarize the activities, learnings, and reflections from the second day of the summer session.
Very overwhelming feelings of guilt and doubt. I feel like I shared far too much, but I don't know how else to answer the questions being asked without addressing the trauma of what happened. Maybe I'm overly sensitive or overthinking it but this is very uncomfortable in many ways. The 2 minute sharing activity sent me over the edge. I almost didn't come back after lunch. Physically, in a class room, mostly sedentary for several hours. Mentally, addressing my own identity as student and why I failed college, the abuse and financial hardship.
Day Three Summer - Summarize the activities, learnings, and reflections from the third day of the summer session.
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After day 3 of coming home and immediately sobbing, I'm utterly sold on the methods, tools, and the STEAM program. Imposter syndrome, doubt, guilt. Waves of it. THIS program is exactly what I need right now, in this moment. The past three days has helped me more than years of therapy, 4 attempts of finishing my degree and 12 years. It's like this magical program appeared to me out of no where with just the right the questions to trigger me in the right way, around the exact people, resources, network to address the trigger, both professionally and personally. It was a truly mind opening experience that I would recommend to any teacher, or person that interacts with student curriculum
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Super grateful to be here and have so much gratitude for this program, the teachers, the participants, the methods, KCI, the whole shebang.
Day Four Summer
Summarize the activities, learnings, and reflections from the fourth day of the summer session. -
"Trust the process." I repeated this over and over to myself. This is magic, whatever it is. Really enjoyed the activities and resources presented, in the way they were presented. Very fun and while the fashion show element may not be totally applicable for my own personal curriculum building, I find it a very interesting opportunity to explore curriculum that explores eco fashion or recycled fashion, the fibershed, slow fashion, the mindful mending movement and how that can relate to indigenous traditions, patterns, materials etc.
Day Five Summer
Summarize the activities, learnings, and reflections from the fifth day of the summer session. - the last excursive, what we bring what extremely difficult, personal and beautiful to hear from others.
Questions I wished I asked other teachers:
What tools did you find the most useful during Covid? What kept you going?
What tools have you kept after Covid?
First Follow-Up
Document the first follow-up session, including activities and reflections.
Second Follow-Up
Document the second follow-up session, including activities and reflections.
Third Follow-Up
Document the third follow-up session, including activities and reflections.
Fourth Follow-Up
Document the fourth follow-up session, including activities and reflections.
Genius Hour
Describe your Genius Hour project, the process, and the outcomes.
Program Reflection
Reflect on your overall experience in the program, including personal growth and future goals. -
I want to so SPACE and MERIT now. So impressed by this program, I can't get enough. 10 out of 10, this should be required for every teacher in the state, new, veteran and everything in between. The integration of the arts into sciences starting as early as possible is how we as a culture can end this siloed segmentation of industry, research, science and arts.
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