Community Portal

MOONSHOT ACADEMY

MOONSHOT ACADEMY

Echo Xu

- High School Instructional Coach Interdisciplinary Projects Specialist, Sociology Teacher, Incubator Track Coordinator

Honors Specialization in Sociology, Western University, Canada.

Master in International Educational Development, University of Pennsylvania, United States.

Prior to Moonshot, Echo worked in positions as a project manager, event planner, and community operation specialist in different types of organizations.

Echo teaches 3 different courses about social problems. Onboarding Project Course: His/Her Stories is a project-based class offered to Grade 9/10 students to explore the impact of gender roles and gender inequalities in our daily lives. Incubator Track is one of the honor courses at Moonshot where students will research a social problem then propose, and execute an action in response to it. Understanding Social Controversies is an advanced course designed to help students see controversial topics in society through the lens of sociology. Aside from teaching, she helps teachers design and facilitate interdisciplinary projects aiming to enhance students' collaborative abilities and citizenship awareness. She is also leading a Professional Learning Community (PLC) on integrating Sustainable Development Goals in school.

Echo's research interest includes gender equality, education development, and migration. Before starting teaching at Moonshot, Echo had led students to run large events like projects school open day, graduation ceremony, and orientation week at Moonshot.

Curriculums1

SOSC6001: Controversies in Society

Do heated debates about social issues leave you frustrated? Do you wish youcould understand the "why" behind different viewpoints? This course delves into the most controversial topics shaping our world today. You will employ sociological theories and research methods to analyze the causes and impacts of these topics from different perspectives.

Tentative topics include:

When more people stay single for a longer period of life, is marriage still necessary in modern society?

From Snow White to the remake of The Little Mermaid and Barbie, can the media industry stand at the frontline of fighting racial and gender inequality?

From meritocracy to the "involution(Nei Juan)" and the "lying flat (Tang Ping)" movement, where should the middle class go?

To what extent should environmental protection be weighted against economic development?

Does migration help bridge connections among countries or exacerbate the global divide?

From drug trade, to prostitution, to surrogacy, why do some countries see them as taboos while others legalize them?

Projects5

STEM for Girls

Disciplines/Subjects: sociology, education，design thinkings Key Themes: girls，gender equality, STEM/Math，pedagogy, learning interest The Incubator Track in MSA is a year-long, interdisciplinary program that empowers students to develop and launch social impact projects. Students will first define and understand a social problem, and then initiate an action to promote changes around that problem. Along with a variety of social science research and problem-solving methods, learners will also enhance their project management, leadership, and communication skills. The problem we want to solve is that middle school girls cannot maintain their interest in math through school courses. We have done several surveys, which include 50 students and 10 teachers to investigate high school students and middle school students about whether they are good at math or not and their score of interest towards math on a scale of 1-10. Girls have shown a distinct interest in math in middle school and the interest score of math for middle school girls is slightly higher than high school girls, which indicates that girls can not persist in interest in math. The reasons behind this question, include multiple factors, such as parents, teachers, grades, and environment. Our goal is to design a complete action that is effective for middle school girls to maintain their interest in math. The action would be developed based on the interests and hobbies of middle school girls. Our action design will be based on one of the factors that will affect the interest we find.

Sustainable lifestyle for youth

Disciplines/Subjects: sociology, environmental studies, design thinkings Key Themes: teenager, sustainable lifestyle, citywalk The Incubator Track in MSA is a year-long, interdisciplinary program that empowers students to develop and launch social impact projects. Students will first define and understand a social problem, and then initiate an action to promote changes around that problem. Along with a variety of social science research and problem-solving methods, learners will also enhance their project management, leadership, and communication skills. People’s exploits of natural resources and destruction of the environment are causing drastic climate change. However climate change sounds like such a big problem, and individuals can hardly relate to it (Markman, 2018). Specific and personal changes need to be made by individuals to combat climate change. Discover the power of sustainable lifestyles with me. I’m dedicated to inspiring and supporting teenagers in embracing eco-friendly choices every day. Let’s team up to build a greener, more sustainable world for everyone.

Entering the world of elderly

Disciplines/Subjects: sociology, design thinkings Key Themes: elderly, teenager, empathy The Incubator Track in MSA is a year-long, interdisciplinary program that empowers students to develop and launch social impact projects. Students will first define and understand a social problem, and then initiate an action to promote changes around that problem. Along with a variety of social science research and problem-solving methods, learners will also enhance their project management, leadership, and communication skills. The rapidly developing technology is convenient for citizens’ lives, but trouble has been brought to the elderly at the same time. Due to their dissatisfaction with social and emotional needs, the elderly suffer from loneliness and a series of severe consequences brought by loneliness. Loneliness may cause a variety of dangers that can threaten the health of the elderly. We discovered that providing support for the elderly to express and communicate with others reduces their sense of loneliness. We decided to aim at reducing the loneliness of the elderly by building a connection between them.

SDG community challenge

Disciplines/Subjects: Social Sciences，design thinking Key Themes: Sustainability, Marginalized Groups, Community Action Have you ever heard about sustainable development or Sustainble Development Goals? Why are they important? Are they close/relevant to our lives? When more government, organizations, businesses, schools are adpoting SDG in their own daily operation, shall we and can we get more MSAers on board? Your goal in this comprehensive project is to develop a SDG-related campaign to raise community' members's awareness about your chosen topic. This year, we have a specific focus on the interplay of environmental and social problems. You will join the month-long "From Moon to Earth" campaign initiated by the social sciences department, the Blue, and the Green Houses.

People on the move

Disciplines/Subjects: Education, Sociology Key Themes: migrant population, charity, city exploration According to the seventh census, there will be 504 million people separated from households in 2021, including 385 million floating people, an increase of 9 million over 2020. In 2020, the number of children of China's migrant population is about 130 million, more than 40 percent of the total number of children in China, including 71.09 million migrant children, an average of one out of every four children. Behind such a series of shocking figures and the knowledge, we have learned on paper in the past, countless floating people are constantly facing various difficulties while still striving to live. How is the migrant population enjoying basic public services such as housing and education? What other challenges do they face and how do they deal with them? What role do public welfare organizations and other organizations play in supporting a better life for migrants? This project will focus on migrant women workers and migrant children. Through a series of field studies and visits, participants will have the opportunity to see the living conditions of migrant people and understand the challenges and difficulties they face. At the same time, participants can also learn how various organizations such as public welfare organizations provide services to them in many different scenarios. Pay attention to and respect the floating population, starting from our side.