In this episode, Dr. Peter Dalmaris and Marcus Schappi talk with Stephen Hohm.
Steve is the Associate Pastor of LIFE Foursquare Church in Decatur, Illinois, USA.
He also teaches part-time at Decatur Christian School in Forsyth, Illinois. Steve has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mission Education from North Central University in Minneapolis, Minnesota (1984). He has over 30 years of teaching experience in various settings, including teaching various math and computer-related subjects.
Since 2012, Steve has operated a light-and-sound Christmas display with over 40,000 lights on more than 300 networked circuits syncopated with Christmas music and broadcast on a low-power transmitter for people to enjoy. The show runs every night in December and is a special holiday event for hundreds of families in the community.
The private school where Steve teaches is expanding its curriculum to include STEM subjects, including Micro-controllers, Robotics, and Programming. Steve is creating the curriculum for the “Arduino Masters” class by gleaning from various sources and materials.
Steve is a teacher who loves to learn.
This is Stemiverse Podcast episode 28.
Stemiverse podcast is brought to you by Tech Explorations, a leading provider of educational resources for Makers, STEM students, and teachers. Go to techexplorations.com to see a complete list of our books and courses covering the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and electronics.
Show Notes
- [00:00] Introduction – Introducing Stephen Hohm
- [03:43] Stephen talks about his family and their connection to teaching
- [05:26] Stephen talks about his background and his first steps in education
- [10:00] What is Arduino?
- [11:00] How did Stephen learn Arduino: Breaking down learning into tiny steps
- [11:55] Stephen’s first Arduino kit
- [12:37] From a light show Christmas gadget to teaching Arduino
- [13:53] Curriculum setup at the school where Stephen teaches (US)
- [16:21] Why is it important to invest time and effort into teaching electronics, even in a bound-free curriculum?
- [17:38] How colleges assess students of a free curriculum
- [20:25] The profile of the student in Stephen’s classes
- [23:44] Kits Stephen uses for teaching: Elegoo
- [25:42] Arduino Step-by-Step
- [28:02] Arduino Step-by-Step latest updates
- [29:27] Other Arduino resources: kit manuals
- [31:28] What a student can learn from a burning chip
- [34:39] The students become teachers – C3 B4 ME
- [35:39] Why Stephen chose Arduino and is building resilience through trial and error worth it?
- [37:40] SparkFun Electronics, SparkFun Inventor’s Kit Guidebook – CanaKit
- [39:35] Stephen’s teaching philosophy and principles of education: Seeing the student as an individual and being a learner that teaches
- [42:45] Every teacher should be a lifelong learner: Thinking Better, by David Lewis & James Greene
- [44:50] Book recommendations by Stephen: The Art of Learning: A Journey in the Pursuit of Excellence, by Josh Waitzkin
- [48:31] STEM education’s strength: to combine different disciplines
- [48:53] Why the US uses a mains electricity voltage of 120 V
- [50:15] People who have influenced Stephen: Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek’s Captain Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard, and his father
- [54:04] Stephen’s contact information: Email: [email protected]
- [54:38] Christmas light show: https://vimeo.com/57493968