- Rebuild what I had constructed
- Write directions for how to rebuild the set up exactly as it was on the picture
- Tear down the creation
- Make sure the picture card was face down (so you could not see it, just the station number).
As I was planning for the weekly STEM time I have with my usual 4th grade class, I was feeling the need for something a bit different. And I was feeling a bit drained as Spring Break was right around the corner. So something new it was! This activity could be done with pretty much any building resources you have on hand, but these were the ones I used for this specific set up.For this activity, I wanted to focus on writing and following directions. Although when I do STEM/STEAM/STREAM activities, I try to leave things open-ended for the most part because I would not want to stifle anyone's creativity. Sometimes there is a need for some directions though - especially when safety and care/use of resources is involved! For this activity, I set up some scenarios for students using picture cards. I gave each pair of students a picture card in which they had to: It was so interesting to see the changes in how the students wrote their directions from the first write to the second. We took some time after the first write to talk about what didn't go well with the directions and what would make a better set of directions. The second set was definitely improved! This was a different kind of STEAM activity than what I have previously done with this group. It was a nice change of pace and next time I would let them build their own creations instead of using predetermined set-ups. I would also change up which materials I used for creation building - maybe use LEGOs, Creation Cubes, different wooden blocks, or pretty much anything from my STEAM building stash! I wasn't sure how long it would take for the writing directions part of the activity, but doing two rotations in about 45 minutes worked perfectly. It was a great way to wrap up our weekly STEM time before spring break!
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This was my first time trying out Learning Landscapes EDU with students and needless to say, I was a little excited! In working with this high school class, I only had one class period for the Learning Landscape EDU activity, so I had to condense what I would normally have done over a couple of days into a faster-paced activity. This was for our Tech Internship class in which students had already selected a "Pathway Topic" of their choice in which they would spend the trimester digging deep into, so I knew that the students would already be coming with some background knowledge about their topic. The goal with this Learning Landscape EDU was for the students to really dig a little deeper about the core concept of their Pathway Topic and how they could simplistically share that knowledge with someone else.
After a short introduction to what a Learning Landscape EDU was and how they were going to be using their Pathway topics to design a bench, I looked across the room and saw a bunch of blinking eyes and I might have heard some crickets. I shared an example I made of a bench that could allow someone to interactively create sentences and learn about sentence structure while doing so. This seemed to get their brain gears going a little bit. I explained that our goal was to look at the concept of a simple bench from a different angle - through the lens of Pathway Topic. I think this was a difficult task for some of the students because they are very linear thinkers and learners (much like programming, "if this, then that") and for this activity I was more or less asking them to throw that out the window and think of something that has never been created before. I think it took some time and conversation to get at the root of what their Pathway Topic was and how you could use that to make sitting on a bench fun and interactive (while learning something!) where you wouldn't want to pull your phone out because you were bored. Several times I had to reiterate that this didn't have to be something that could conceivably be done right now - I wanted them to think outside the box and follow their creativity. If they wanted to have their bench completely 3D printed, go for it (don't worry about if it would hold multiple people or if there was a 3D printer large enough to actually print it)! If they wanted to have interactive screens, go for it (not worrying at this point about electrical outlets, weather, etc.)! Once they realized that they had full creative control over the bench idea, they were off and designing. I wasn't able to go through the full design cycle that I would have normally done, but they were able to construct some interesting benches and I know if we did another Learning Landscape EDU, their designs would be even more interesting! Student Creations(As this was a rapid fire activity, many students did not have the chance to fully prototype their ideas. I encouraged them that this was totally ok and that if they could verbally explain their idea, it might help prompt design ideas from others.) Bench #1 - Pathway Topic: Coding
Bench #2 - Pathway Topic: Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA)Bench #3 - Pathway Topic: 3D PrintingThis bench would be in the shape of a bus and many of the actual parts of the bus bench would be 3D printed. Inside of the bus bench, you would be able to interact with gears, levers, and other items that have been 3D printed. There would also be facts about 3D printing that would be on the walls inside and outside the bench bus. Bench #4 - Pathway Topic: CodingBench #5 - Pathway Topic: Coding
Bench #6 - Pathway Topic: A+ CertificationThis bench would appear similar to traditional benches, but would be built of puzzle pieces. Each piece would have a common computer or technology problem printed on it as well as a solution. Bench #7 - Pathway Topic: Coding
Bench #8 - Pathway Topic: CodingThis bench would have a station in front of in which you could move different different colored pieces around on a strip and then the bricks behind the people on the bench would light up in the order you placed them in front of you. This would help reinforce sequencing and that in coding when you do something, something else will happen as a result. Bench #8 - Pathway Topic: CodingBench #9 - Pathway Topic: Coding
The 4th grade class that I have been working with this year recently spent a week at the museum in their Immerse program. The teacher was telling me about some of the activities they did through out the week and it sounds like the kids had an awesome week of authentic learning! One of the activities that she shared was that they were able to go through a maze and learn about different things as they went through the maze. So, for our STEM activity for the week we worked on creating mazes! The teacher started off by recapping their experience in the maze and different aspects of the maze (dead ends, routes that led you back to the beginning, etc.) and how that could translate to their paper plate mazes. For this activity, we used the following materials:
As the students were working, you could tell they were having to work through some frustration points (which makes me so happy because they persevered through it and each group finished a maze!). It was interesting to see how their creativity came out. Some had amazing decorations, while others came up with rules for their mazes (such as, can't touch any red Wikki Stix, must go through each dead end, must go under every arch). It was so great to see them make connections from their personal experiences and translate it into a fun, creative activity that they could share with others. Student MazesThis trimester, our high school is offering a new class, Tech Support Internship, where students apply to be part of the class, choose a learning pathway (self-discovery), and also learn about the various aspects of tech support. Our Tech Director, Dan Townsend, and District Media Specialist, Kelly McGee, and myself are going to work with the classroom teacher, Jeff Patin, to do some weekly Quickfires to get them thinking critically and incorporate some aspects of some of the pathways they might have selected. For this Quickfire, the constraints were pretty simple:
1st Way - Conductive Play-DoughThis was my first time trying conductive play-dough and it took a little bit of trial and error, but worked great! I try to do the activities that I share with students first because I am nerdy like that, but more so, it gives me great insight for problems that might occur and prompting questions I can ask. Plus, I had to see what kind of recognizable object I could create - you can totally tell it is a macaroon, right? :) For the play-dough, I used the recipes found at Teach Beside Me and they worked great (recipes below)! I doubled the given amounts for both and it turned out to be the perfect amount for the group of students. Conductive Play-Dough (I used lemon juice when I made it) 1 cup Water 1 1/2 cups Flour 1/4 cup Salt 3 Tbsp. Cream of Tartar (or 9 Tbsp Lemon Juice gives the same results) 1 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil Food Coloring, if desired Mix in a medium size pot and cook over medium heat stirring consistently. It will thicken into a dough as it cooks. Let it cool, then if it is still too gooey, knead in a bit more flour. Insulating Play-Dough 1 1/2 to 2 cups Flour 1/2 cup Sugar 3 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil 1/2 cup Water (use distilled for better results) Food Coloring, if desired Mix well. Start with less flour, but add more if dough is too sticky. Mine was really sticky so I added quite a bit more flour to get it to the right consistency. What is needed...
What they were given...To make something like...2nd Way - Pipe Cleaner CircuitsOh goodness - I don't even know where to begin. Other than if I personally never have to create a pipe cleaner circuit again, I am totally cool with that. This was a definite test of my patience and I couldn't tell you how many times I walked away and then came back to it. But I eventually got it to work and that is all that counts - right? Modeling perseverance is what this one was for me. What is needed...
What they were given...To make something like...3rd Way - Paper CircuitsI am not going to lie, I did not re-create this example of a paper circuit as I have done them a couple of times before (remember my gnome card from here?). For this one though, I do like to have an example on hand that I can pull out if necessary to help them work through their circuits. What is needed...
What they were given...To make something like...I didn't get that many pictures because I think the intentional lack of direction through some students for a loop and they had quiet a few questions. The conductive play-dough proved to be the most difficult station in learning how to work with the two kinds of play-dough to make the circuit (they did not realize that they were two different kinds of play-dough that needed to work together to make the circuit work). They seemed to enjoy the pipe cleaner circuit station (and made me question why I had so many problems with it!) as well as the paper circuit station. The interesting thing about the paper circuit station was that once they figured out how to make the basic circuit work, they started working on how many lights they could get to work on their existing circuit (they could get 2 to work consistently and sometimes a third!).
This was our first time working with this group of students and so we weren't sure quite what to expect with giving them little to no direction. It definitely test their skills in more ways than one! I saw a few of the signs turned around to the back, but they did not notice the websites I provided! ;) Each year, our senior class participates in a Senior Capstone project, culminating in an Senior Capstone Exhibition night. During the Capstone experience, students select a career/vocation of their interest and delve deep into what that might incorporate. They find a mentor, have hands experience in the field, write a research paper, and then have to give a presentation about their findings and experiences. It gives them great insight as well as some real world experience for life beyond high school. Each year, Kelly McGee and I do a "presentation" about research. As the students are already seniors, the things we are sharing are not necessarily new, but often a refresher or a different way to do something that they already know how to do. Kelly and I like to put our own little twist on things, so last year we decided to share information through a Breakout EDU game we created (themed like the game Clue). As always, there were things that we loved about the game and some things that needed a bit of tweaking if we were going to use it again. Day 1 - Breakout EDU GameThis year, we decided to use our Breakout EDU game again (with a few tweaks). It ran so much smoother this year with our changes and the students were totally into it! One thing about this game is that we set it up as small stations. We had 7 total stations, so we had 5 groups of students (always 2 less than the total number of stations). We do this so that they always have a place to rotate to once they complete a station. Inside the boxes we placed cards of either teachers in the building, items in the school, or places in the school. We drew cards at the beginning of the game (the "who dunnit" cards - "who dunnit" in terms of a staff member who took an item from the school and hid it somewhere else) and held on to those until the end. So far, I think this is my favorite way of running a Breakout EDU game as the students are totally into until the very end trying to figure out "who dunnit." It makes it fun that they are places, people, and items they would see at school so the conversation always carries beyond the class period. In between hours I also switch the cards around so I have different cards for the "who dunnit" possibilities. Some examples of the cards we used: Another thing that I love about doing a Breakout EDU game in small stations is that the students still have plenty of opportunities to move around, but are not spending time searching for clues and hints. Everything they need is provided on the table for them, and they need to figure out how to use it. I feel like I have more meaningful conversations with students about the content that I do with a large group Breakout game (don't get me wrong, I do love those kinds too!). The way we counted out the clue cards, it was possible that someone could receive all the clues to correct guess "who dunnit." But based on the wild cards we placed in the boxes, it also made it so a group would have to guess on an item or too. It creates such energy and excitement as the game progresses. Over the course of the 2 days of leading this game (16 groups), only 1 group was able to correctly guess "who dunnit." Many of the others were off by just 1 thing of their 3-part guess, but it didn't really matter to the kids - they had so much fun in the whole process! Day 2 - DebriefWe knew that just doing one day of a Breakout game would not necessarily be enough to present information and have them understand how the research tools function. So, for Day 2, we planned a little Research Debate. We had 4 different main topic areas that we broke apart into 8 groups. Each topic area had 2 different resources that students needed to present and defend. Groups were randomly assigned a topic area and resource and had 15 minutes to research all they could about that resource to be able debate why their resource/tool was the superior topic area tool (links to my resources below). We also placed a microphone into the equation in which they had to use when debating for a little bit of a different atmosphere. The debates progressed in intensity throughout the day and I think this was a GREAT way to do a game debrief of the resources we shared in the game, students to have a chance to delve deep into 1 particular resource, and practice speaking to an audience. At the end of the hour, the students could share 2 citation tools, 2 databases, 2 plagiarism checkers, and 2 research sources. At the end of the day, Kelly and I agreed this was one of the best Breakout games we have facilitated as well as an in-depth debrief. I know not everyone who does a Breakout game has an additional hour to do a debrief the way we did (as the game was kind of non-traditional as well), but highly recommend it! The students walked away with a better understanding of the information we were sharing, and hands-on practice with resources, tools, as well as presentation skills. I feel as though taking one day to do a Breakout game and then the next day doing a full hour debrief/debate really let us get deep with information as well as provide an engaging learning experience for the students. A win-win all around!
Last trimester, Kelly McGee and I worked with the 6th grade Science teacher in our middle school to do a STEAM activity during some scheduled 1/2 days. The students had so much fun and the teacher saw so many benefits that she asked us back for the end of the 2nd trimester! As St. Patrick's Day is not too far off, we decided to do a St. Patrick's Day themed activity. We rounded up LOTS of our STEM resources and wrote out a little storyline with embedded building concepts. The STEM resources we had available for students to build with were:
We intentionally wanted to give the students lots of choice their design as well as see what kinds of resources they liked building with. We found the most popular building resources were:
In ActionI love how learning can be messy. Some of the classes had messier learning than others, and that is totally okay with me as long as they were on task! You can tell the messier tables had a lot of building and rebuilding and trying different tools to see what would work best to execute the idea in their heads. I wish I had taken more pictures, but I often got caught up in conversation with the students and hearing about their building process. One of the groups not only completed the storyscape, but figured out how make their cart move by rigging it with magnets and using the same poles of the magnet to push the car. I wish I could have captured what they had shared - they were so proud and excited! Speaking of resources, it is always interesting to not only see what the most popular resources are, but how they are used during an activity. I think it is safe to say the students favored the green, yellow, and white Plus Plus pieces! :) |
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