The mission of Growga is to equip educators and youth development professionals with yoga., mindfulness, and social-emotional learning tools to share with children where they learn, play, live and lead.
The Growga Collective is an expert mentor team made up of Growga-certified social workers, educators, and trauma-informed leaders that lead intentional discussions around the impact of and research behind the elements of their content. My job is to assist wherever I can, including document creation, analyzing survey data, and research administering. Due to COVID-19, I cannot meet face to face with the staff; however, our regular Zoom meetings and electronic messaging help to complete tasks on time. I have found Emily and the entire staff professional and engaging to work with Go Growga!
The Growga internship enabled me to learn the valuable skills of data analytics. In 2020 participants could not attend regular meetings due to restrictions on COVID-19. The idea of going to one of your favorite places to unwind and see familiar aces was no longer an option. As schools reopened, the staff came up with an idea to find out how everyone was doing after participating in yoga activities. After meeting on how to check participants’ social-emotional health, The administration team formed an idea to get an opinion on the current SEL of participants.
Empathy
I used the design thinking process to assist the staff in designing surveys for participants or guardians. Surveys were designed to understand how students were readjusting to the total disruption of their daily routines, including socializing with friends.
Define
One of the issues with operating under the new COVID protocols was wording the surveys and determining what information would help move some of the Growga initiatives forward. How do we better understand what participants need now, and can we do anything to help.
Ideate
Creating a digital survey is the best method; however, the task was to survey from scratch for paper and pencil usage. The idea consists of four surveys to cover several different levels of participants. Each survey has 17-20 questions and gives a snapshot of participants’ current social-emotional status.
Prototype
The product design took some time to be approved and edited for any grammar and spelling errors. The team eliminated some questions that sounded redundant, while others did not line up with the program’s overall goals. The approved questions had clear, direct, and targeted the social-emotional ideas that participants could be facing at this time.
Test
Testing was the most exciting part because you get to see the result handed to the team, who will give the survey to someone else to administer the survey. Sound like a lot; however, the process of putting the idea together was only the beginning. After students complete the survey, data must be collected and analyzed for response percentages. Testing will be conducted on all surveys with data tables to determine if participants feel after spending so much time in socially distant environments.
- Final Learning Analytic Model for the Growga Project
Brian Barrett 