Jade McDaniel Internship at the GRILL

Our very own Jade McDaniel, who teaches Technical Reading & Writing and English at DRSS, worked with the Gaming Research Integration Learning Laboratory (GRILL) over the summer. The GRILL falls under the Air Force Research Laboratory's (AFRL) 711th Human Performance Wing. Under the direction of Dr. Winston "Wink" Bennett, its mission is to use game-based, off-the-shelf technology to help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the U.S. Air Force. It is located near the base at the Wright Brothers Institute.

Jade McDaniel, Technical Reading and Writing/English Teacher at DRSS, discusses her internship experience at the GRILL.

Jade's involvement with the GRILL was facilitated by one of our board members, Jennifer Winner, who works closely with the organization. Jade was working through the Wright Scholars Program, which provides internships for high school students to work with mentors from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). Specifically, Jade worked closely with the Full Throttle Karting team to take one of their problem-based learning topics and create a unit lesson plan and support document that other teachers could use. Her role was to conduct a technical writing workshop for the GRILL students and provide them with feedback on their "deliverables."

Jade truly enjoyed the experience, explaining that "the neatest thing was that I've been doing project-based learning at our school for a while now, but I still learned a lot from the other educators in terms of thinking about these problems in another way." Jade used many resources from places like the Buck Institute for Education, Edutopia, and the Creative Teaching and Learning blog to help prepare for the unique experience.

Something she gained from the experience that she hopes to use in her own classroom is a better understanding of technical reports, which she plans to apply to her own classroom by having her students create Career Exploration Reports to better understand the industries and job prospects for the careers her students hope to enter. 

Find out more about the GRILL at http://www.gamingresearchintegrationforlearninglab.com/