Verified by 
This is the sixth (and final installment) in a series.
For many, today marks the start of a new school year. It is a time when teachers adjust their instruction to be even better than the year before and when students hope each class will be exciting and relevant. One avenue for such success is experiential learning, a form of active instruction where students explore real-world challenges in a hands-on way and reflect on the experiences. Such active learning has repeatedly been found to be superior to lecture-based instruction (Deslauriers et al., 2019). When a rich research experience leads to (and informs) a multifaceted action project, you get what recent Laguna Beach High School (LBHS) graduate Logan Teeple calls, “a real and full learning experience.” In other words, you get what both teachers and students most want a classroom to render.
In Part I of this series, I interviewed Jun Shen, the passionate teacher and edtech coordinator who runs LBHS’s Authentic Exploratory Research (AER) Program. AER is an independent research course inspired by Palo Alto Unified School District’s Advanced Authentic Research program. The program pairs students with adult mentors (such as LBUSD staff, industry experts, and academics) who assist the teens in research and/or projects aligned with their own big questions in fields of their choice. Shen’s explanation of how the AER program works, combined with students’ input through the rest of this interview series (from Aryana Mohajerian, Carter McKinzie, Carter Ghere, and Nicholai Grombchevsky), lets us glimpse some of the different ways students can use the program to pursue individual passions, as well as how other educators can implement such a program.
Teeple was the fifth student to give us an account of his experience in AER, where he tackled an ambitious engineering project. Because Teeple undertook a research project within the AER program the previous year, he offers insight on how the program can propel students in both research and application and how the former can enhance students’ success in the latter. Teeple’s answers follow each question below.
Jenny Grant Rankin: In short, what was your project about?
Logan Teeple: My project was an action project where I designed and built a fully 3D printed remote control airplane. I was guided by an aerospace engineer from Boeing's Advanced Concepts team. My project followed the well-known process of aircraft design but applied it through the relatively new method of 3D printed manufacturing.
JGR: How did your action project differ from the research projects other students were doing?
LT: My action project was different from the academic research projects because I collected data and research in order to create something instead of collecting data for pure research. Having done both academic research and action projects, I think it is great that they can both be used for different passions and purposes. Last year I did a research project on the future of commercial aircraft design, which inspired me to do this action project. Personally, I love to create and build, so the action project was the perfect application of my passions to a real and full learning experience.
JGR: What was the biggest thing you learned about your future in engineering?
LT: The biggest thing AER taught me about my future was what engineering entails. It has excited me for a future in aerospace engineering by showing me what it will be like. Learning how to solve problems and realizing that every step in the process has 10 more steps inside has been really eye-opening and helped me make my decision for where to go to college. I think the biggest thing has been learning to not underestimate challenges yet still choosing to pursue them. This year's project was a very daunting task, and I really did not understand how hard it would be. However, I am so glad I decided to go after it.
JGR: What was the biggest thing you learned about communicating?
LT: The biggest thing I have learned about communicating is just to do it. Simple as that. I used to try to curate the perfect email response or way to summarize something; now I just say it. It's so much better to communicate frequently compared to rarely and perfectly. It's also been great to learn how to communicate with a mentor and for both of us to recognize the different external obligations we have.
JGR: What was your favorite part about AER?
LT: My favorite part about AER is how it has allowed me to love working and find a field that doesn't feel like work. After I finished doing my normal homework, I would look forward to working on designing my plane. To me, it was just fun. Definitely calculations and work involved, but I loved it. This experience has made me so excited for my future as an engineer and being able to explore that passion in high school to such a depth is just incredible! AER is the only way I would've been able to have that experience. For example, when I visited the college that I'm going to next year, I was talking to the Design Build Fly team, which makes a plane for a college competition, and we were discussing various design challenges and processes that we had both encountered with our respective designs. Without AER, I would not have been exposed to that stuff prior to college and I wouldn't have known my passion for aerospace engineering.
*****
It is clear Teeple has found a lifelong passion. To learn more about his project—as well as the grit, perseverance, and growth mindset he applied throughout it—see his Talk at TEDxLaguna Beach.
References
Deslauriers, L., McCarty, L. S., Miller, K., Callaghan, K., & Kestin, G. (2019, September 24). Measuring actual learning versus feeling of learning in response to being actively engaged in the classroom. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(39), 19251–19257.
