Attack (not really) of the Wall Walkers… and small children!
Today, the Olin community was a bit larger than normal when 70 4th grade students from Hillside Elementary School in Needham became “Guest Judges” for our Design Nature class (that’s the first-year design component of ICB, our Integrated Course Block, and students use nature as the inspiration/guide for their design projects).
The Design Nature students showed off their toy prototypes this morning in the first floor hallway of the Academic Center. The Olin students were challenged to develop bio-inspired wall walkers for elementary-aged children; the cool part was that the Hillside 4th graders got to evaluate the toys and experience a little bit of Olin!
It was *so* much fun! I almost felt like a kid again! As I wandered back and forth along the AC first floor, it was amazing to see how engaged and excited the Hillside students were - they took their assignments very seriously as they carried their clipboards and moved from team to team, asking questions and rating each design on an evaluation sheet. Rather than just doing a standard presentation, this was a great way for the Design Nature students to explain their designs and see if they appealed/made sense to their target audience.
And now… the requisite pictures! And yes, the team names are rather, er, creative…
Hard-core evaluating goin’ on!
Ryan, Luis, Victoria and Jeff (Team Two Step Program) and their Caterpillar, Senior Meef Quesarito!
Nikki, Marti, Garrett and Heena (Team Hot Glitter Concept)
Daniel, Brian, Ashley and Giulia (Team Nizhegorodov)
Erika, Annie, Amy and Evan (Team Mega Blab) show off their wall walker to Asst. Professor Oscar Mur-Miranda
Ilari, Ben, Julie, Nina and Yifan (Team Walker, Texas Ranger) demo their walker for Asst. Professor Ozgur Eris - “it walked up a 58 degree incline, w00t w00t!” (a direct quote from Ben ‘10)
Evan, Tatiana, Pam and Jenn (Team Verti-Go)
Alyshia, Sarah, Greg and Roland (Team Las Tres Ardillas) get ready to demo their Fire Snail for Oscar - “our fire snail climbed an incline of 42 degrees! woot!” (direct quote from Sarah ‘10)
Andrew ‘07 and Asst. Professor Ben Linder test out another design
Avinash, Matt, Leah, Eric and Chujiao (Team Sky Walkers) demo their Flying Squirrel design for Assoc. Professor Allen Downey - “Our walker was modeled after a flying squirrel (see the parachute on it’s back?). He DID walk up a VERTICAL wall and did GLIDE down to a safe landing on the floor. In fact, I believe we repeated this over thirty times!” (Direct quote from Leah ‘10)
Morgan ‘10 (Team COW - Crawls on Walls) explains her team’s design to one of the young evaluators
Casey, Amanda, Ben and Andrew (Team Snakes on a Vertical Plane)
Members of Team “Willing2FallMakingAttempts2Elevate” show off their fuzzy wall walker; seen here are Andy, Brittany and Sarah (Wellesley ‘09)
…. very sleepy… that’s all for now.
Keep working on those applications!
Allison
allison.bahme@olin.edu
781-292-2203
IM: OlinAdmission
http://www.olin.edu/
Note how Prof. Townsend (pictured at right) is staring down her competition!
Affectionately known as the “Man Hall,” these guys not only donated themselves to the auction, they were quite the bidders as well!
The upperclassmen watch as the bids rise… $200… $300…
First-years contemplate their next move, as senior Molly pushes the bidding to $500…
The guys (literally) put their heads together to figure out how high they can go…
Prof. John Geddes chuckling after he made a bid on a donation by Bennett (’09)
Study Away Coordinator and Hall Director David Soo bidding by proxy for Alison Black, Asst. Dean of Student Life (she was busy helping to run the auction)
Nikki ‘10, Brian ‘10, Herbert ‘09 and Ike ‘09 take in all the action
Roland ‘10 looks quite pleased from his birds-eye view from the balcony
Alex ‘10, Assoc. Professor Brian Storey, Professor Gil Pratt, Asst. Professor Mark Chang, Visiting Professor Dave Miller and Jo ‘07 enjoy lunch during the auction.
Professors Zhenya Zastavker, Debbie Chachra, Alisha Sieminski and John Geddes
Asst. Director of Admission/Financial Aid Patty Blanchette (the bow-headed ghost) and Oscar, Zhenya and Debbie (all profs) applaud Visiting Professor Dave Miller’s “Hopper Accident” costume
Kate ‘09 with Debbie, Oscar and Zhenya
Oscar with Sarah ‘10 (I cannot tell you how much I love her costume, especially the udders!)
The Pigtail Crew - Emma Goodman ‘06, Alison Black (Asst. Dean of Student Life) and me
After a long day of Halloweening, Emma and her husky slippers take a break
Alice in Wonderland
The Fanta Girls!
Tetris
The crowd, from above
The T (Get it?!? The Red, Green, Blue and Orange lines)
X-Men
Soooo, contrary to popular belief… Olin has trees, pretty pretty trees!
Welcome
Dinnertime - the scalloped potatoes, butternut squash soup and apple pie were my favorite dishes of the evening! And I was adopted by Tiana’s mom (c/o 2008) for the evening.
I volunteered (really!) to help usher on Opening Night for the Franklin W. Olin Players (FWOP) presentation of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare - Abridged”. It was practically a full house in the Auditorium.
So audience participation is key to “CoWoWSA” - Ben ‘09 and Andrew ‘07 recruited President Rick Miller (the guy in the tie) to join them on stage as Ophelia’s Ego
Ben’s mom “volunteered” (read: dragged from the audience) to be Ophelia… she did a great job!
More audience participation - the first few rows became Ophelia’s Id - “Maybe… Maybe not… Maybe… Maybe not…”
Olin Soccer fans!
Marco ‘10 shows off his ball skills
Bennet ‘09 is one of our rockstars on the field (photo by Sarah ‘10)
Keoni ‘07 and Mary ‘10
Team meeting during halftime.
Brittany ‘08 (photo by Sarah ‘10)
Brad ‘08 (photo by Sarah ‘10)
Post-win! 2-0
Teresa (she works with me in Admission) and Bennett ‘09 welcome new students and their families.
Orientation registration (with Student Life Staff working hard… or is it hardly working?!?)
Freshmen group having lunch on the “O” during Orientation. (Photo courtesy of Erik ‘10)
Big Sibb, Tiana ‘08, during the Scavenger Hunt in Boston… yes, that is a large balloon hat on her head! The Sibbs program builds bridges - hence the double “b” - between freshmen and upper class students. Volunteer upper class Sibbs adopt a freshman to help him or her adjust to the unique culture, quirks and inside secrets of Olin. (Photo courtesy of Roland ‘10)
This was awesome! All the Big Sibbs were waiting to welcome the freshmen back after their Scavenger Hunt. (Photo courtesy of Roland ‘10) At some colleges or universities, this would simply be a Hall Meeting… at Olin, this is the entire freshman class! (Photo courtesy of Erik ‘10)
At some colleges or universities, this would simply be a Hall Meeting… at Olin, this is the entire freshman class! (Photo courtesy of Erik ‘10)
So some of the freshmen decided that a Roomba would be a great feature to add to West Hall; the collection box was open and available for anyone to add their donation (gotta love the Honor Code!). I think the new West Hall mascot/mini-maid arrived yesterday… (Photo courtesy of Erik ‘10)
A couple views from above…
Pam ‘10 checks out the SWE (Society of Women Engineers) table
CORe is Olin’s very active student government
Mini Baja
Derek ‘10 explores the Outing Club
Face-painting at the Open table
A member of the Butterfingers Club (juggling)
Midnight Riders (unicycling club)
Suggestions for our Honor Board
This is typical at Olin - casual conversations between faculty and students happens ALL THE TIME! (Pictured L-R: David ‘07, Juliana ‘07, Profs Allen Downey and Brian Storey)
Not to worry… she’s not dangerous - FWOP (the Franklin W. Olin Players) took the opportunity to promote theatre at Olin while painting props for their fall production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)”
Katherine ‘10 chats with Avery ‘08 about the Olin Disc Club (Ultimate Frisbee is one of two club sports at Olin
Jon ‘08 is showing off his rugged side with a beard and new “tattoo” (it ain’t real, folks!)
Assistant Director of Admission and Financial Aid, Patty Blanchette, takes a break and practices her West Coast Swing with Gui ‘08
