Today begins week three and also a different externship. We worked with Carey Promes today. He works in the City Engineers office under Randy Krauel. Carey will pretty much be our boss for the final weeks of this summer externship. We started today with a briefing about all the previously data collected for the city, and we started to develop a plan of how best to start collecting the new data. We learned how to use a gps/survey pole. We were issued "official reflective vests" to wear while working on our retro-fitted golf cart. (We have to have a special bracket attached to the golf cart in order to keep the gps pole vertical and collect part of the necessary data for the city.) It has been a pretty busy day.
Tomorrow, the real work starts....We can not wait. We will actually be out on the city streets measuring and collecting data about all the sidewalk ramps in Carroll. We have several piece of data to collect at every ramp including slope, width, whether there is an indicator mat in the sidewalk, ramp dimensions, landing dimensions, etc. All the data will be going into an excel document for the city to get organized and prioritize necessary fixes.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday June 25, 2010
Not a real exciting day. We did the updates we needed to from the feedback from Sherry at DNR. We also updated the other pages in the workbook to reflect the new "look".
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday June 24, 2010
We worked on fixing our excel workbook and learned how to lock out cells that should not be changed by a parks employee. We also updated our procedure documents.
Yesterday at our meeting with DNR, Jane Mild, the volunteer coordinator, talked to us about GIS. So, we spent some time playing with that on the DNR website and are thinking about incorporating some of that with our City of Carroll project. We are not sure if it will work, but we will keep looking into it and talk to the City on Monday.
Yesterday at our meeting with DNR, Jane Mild, the volunteer coordinator, talked to us about GIS. So, we spent some time playing with that on the DNR website and are thinking about incorporating some of that with our City of Carroll project. We are not sure if it will work, but we will keep looking into it and talk to the City on Monday.
Wednesday June 23, 2010
We traveled to Des Moines today and met with the people from the DNR and showed them our project in person. I think it will work! After talking face to face, we all decided to do a bit of rearranging, but nothing too major. It was a good feeling leaving the Wallace Building today.
Our target goal to pilot the project to 4-5 state parks is the last two weeks of our externship. I sincerely hope that when we take this too the parks, we have made this user friendly enough that when they start to use it they really like what we have done.
Our target goal to pilot the project to 4-5 state parks is the last two weeks of our externship. I sincerely hope that when we take this too the parks, we have made this user friendly enough that when they start to use it they really like what we have done.
Tuesday June 22, 2010
Today we are getting ready to present to the DNR on Wednesday. We have made a few adjustments in response to their emails. We hope what we have will look like what they are wanting.
We also met with the City of Carroll to talk about part 2 of our externship. As we talked with Randy Kruell about the project the city wants done. It seems interesting and math, especially Algebra I, can be incorporated into this part.
The city has asked us to look at every street corner in the city of Carroll and determine if the ramp is compliant with the current disabilities acts. We begin next Monday!
We also met with the City of Carroll to talk about part 2 of our externship. As we talked with Randy Kruell about the project the city wants done. It seems interesting and math, especially Algebra I, can be incorporated into this part.
The city has asked us to look at every street corner in the city of Carroll and determine if the ramp is compliant with the current disabilities acts. We begin next Monday!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday June 21, 2010
Today, we worked on fixing some of the tax problems with our excel workbook. In doing so, we had to go and do some research with the Department of Revune tax website. It was interesting reading through some of the tax laws and trying to apply them to our circumstances.
We also spent time with our procedure document and are working on cleaning it up.
We also spent time with our procedure document and are working on cleaning it up.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Friday June 18, 2010
After working all this week on our excel workbook, I think it is in a presentable form. Today, we wrote a first draft of a procedure plan to take to the pilot parks this summer. I am feeling like we are really getting something real done, and we will soon be ready to take this to the parks.
This week I have gone through a tremendous change of heart as well. At the beginning of the week, I was very frustrated about the project that was handed to us, but now, I am really excited. Through out this week I felt like I was lost, did not know what to do, I knew the math, but I did not know the expectation of our supervisor, etc. Then I finally realized this is truly what the "real world" is like. You are handed a project and expected to complete it. No one is standing over your shoulder telling you this is step one, step two, etc. You just complete it.
As a teacher, I will definitely take this idea back to the classroom. As teachers, we cannot just tell students the answers. We cannot just give them the steps needed to complete whatever project we give to them. We, as teachers, need to hand off the work to our students and just let them figure things out on their own. For my externship, this project is MINE! In a classroom, the learning is THE STUDENTS! As teachers, we need to hand off the reigns, so to speak, and let the students do the work and the math will be come theirs.
This week I have gone through a tremendous change of heart as well. At the beginning of the week, I was very frustrated about the project that was handed to us, but now, I am really excited. Through out this week I felt like I was lost, did not know what to do, I knew the math, but I did not know the expectation of our supervisor, etc. Then I finally realized this is truly what the "real world" is like. You are handed a project and expected to complete it. No one is standing over your shoulder telling you this is step one, step two, etc. You just complete it.
As a teacher, I will definitely take this idea back to the classroom. As teachers, we cannot just tell students the answers. We cannot just give them the steps needed to complete whatever project we give to them. We, as teachers, need to hand off the work to our students and just let them figure things out on their own. For my externship, this project is MINE! In a classroom, the learning is THE STUDENTS! As teachers, we need to hand off the reigns, so to speak, and let the students do the work and the math will be come theirs.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday June 17, 2010
Today, we worked on cleaning up our excel project. We wanted everything to look pretty much the same, yet still give the DNR the information they are looking for. We were also looking at how the reports will print and we tried to get the final printed project onto the least amount of paper possible. Tomorrow, we plan on working on a procedure document on how to use the excel.
The excitement is building know that we are going to be creating a DNR report, writing a procedure to go with the report, and also taking it to the some pilot offices. It's kind of cool to think our externship could impact all the state parks and turn into a standardized practice at all parks.
The excitement is building know that we are going to be creating a DNR report, writing a procedure to go with the report, and also taking it to the some pilot offices. It's kind of cool to think our externship could impact all the state parks and turn into a standardized practice at all parks.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Wednesday June 16, 2010
Yesterday, we sent our excel workbook to our supervisor in Des Moines to get her feedback and to make sure that what we are doing is what she is really wanting. We did not get a response from Marsha, but we did get some good feed back from Sherry, and we have a few adjustments to make, but that was to be expected. We also decided to make an appointment with a Park Manager, Andy, at Ledges state park to take what we have done so far and ask his opinion of the project and to get some of our other questions answered. This way, we were also able to start getting out to the parks and seeing what really goes on in the money collection portion of a state park.
We showed Andy our "work in progress" an asked his opinion, and we got the impression that what we have so far is a good thing. He liked the idea of inputting data in daily and having the values automatically update their weekly report. This was a good feeling.
We plan on going forward tomorrow with a implementation training plan/procedure to take out to the parks in the very near future as some parks will become pilot parks to this new process.
We'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that our assumptions are correct that what we have so far is a good thing. . . .
We showed Andy our "work in progress" an asked his opinion, and we got the impression that what we have so far is a good thing. He liked the idea of inputting data in daily and having the values automatically update their weekly report. This was a good feeling.
We plan on going forward tomorrow with a implementation training plan/procedure to take out to the parks in the very near future as some parks will become pilot parks to this new process.
We'll see what tomorrow brings and hope that our assumptions are correct that what we have so far is a good thing. . . .
Tuesday June 15, 2010
Today, myself and colleague worked on creating the excel workbook we hope to take out to the park rangers in our eventual pilot area. We took the current documents that the rangers are using and tried to make something easy/user friendly that Rangers would be able to quickly input data and have the computer automatically update weekly(monthly) totals. We feel quite confused about if our product is really what it should be. Without having face to face contact with a supervisor, we are not getting immediate feedback. We did make a call to a Ranger at Dolliver State park to try and gather some other information in hopes that what we are doing is correct.
Monday June 14, 2010
Today, myself and my fellow math teacher met with the DNR for an initial meeting. We traveled to Des Moines and met with Marsha Peterson, who works in the budget and fiance department of the state DNR; Sherry Arnzten, who works in the Conservation and Recreational Division of the State Parks Bureau; and Amy who is an intern this summer working as a liaison between the DNR and an outside accounting firm.
In our initial meeting we were given a task of creating an excel document for individual state parks to use for cash remittance to the state DNR. We also need to create an implementation/training plan for the parks so all parks are doing the same thing. We know the excel some how needs to include a break down of 4 different taxes (state sales tax, local option tax, state hotel/motel tax, and county/city hotel/motel tax). We will not be working in the Des Moines office on this project, but we will be relying on email contact with our supervisor and possible phone conversations as well.
We are not sure how this is all going to work out . . . .
In our initial meeting we were given a task of creating an excel document for individual state parks to use for cash remittance to the state DNR. We also need to create an implementation/training plan for the parks so all parks are doing the same thing. We know the excel some how needs to include a break down of 4 different taxes (state sales tax, local option tax, state hotel/motel tax, and county/city hotel/motel tax). We will not be working in the Des Moines office on this project, but we will be relying on email contact with our supervisor and possible phone conversations as well.
We are not sure how this is all going to work out . . . .
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