Phase VI: ImagineIT Update Report & Reflection
Since the conception of my ImagineIT project, I have always envisioned the transformation of my students’ mindset as a yearlong journey. From the end of this past summer, I have been working hard to convert part of the library to the school’s first Makerspace. In August, I rearranged the space and ordered the materials and equipment.
In September, I introduced students to the design thinking process through various design challenges. The classroom is made up of 37 students from fifth through eighth grade. We meet every day for 45 minutes. Many of these students have seen each other in the school, but they don’t have any connection or classroom experience with each other. In this class, I had to build the relationships and camaraderie so students would be more comfortable in working with each other. In our first project, I had students create product designs from a random word bank of ideas. The students flourished on their product designs and had great success telling a story of why this product needed to be built.
After our product designs, we continually engaged in various team building skills to get the students to know one another. I used what we learned from the Improv class this past summer and had the students participate in many of the activities. After Improv, we did a quick-fire challenge where the students had to build the tallest tower using only 20 pieces of spaghetti, 15 mini marshmallows, and 1 regular marshmallow within 20 minutes. The only requirement we imposed was the regular marshmallow had to be on top of their tower. The students came up with various designs and prototypes and at the end reflected on their quick-fire on our dreamMakers blog site (http://bit.ly/goudydreammakers).
The next time we met as a group, we gave them another quick-fire. The challenge was to build the tallest tower that they can that will support the weight of a marshmallow but this time they will do it with weaker building materials. Each group began with 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 yard of string, 1 yard of tape, and 1 regular sized marshmallow (the marshmallow must be at the top). As the students did this challenge, we had the students choose partners with students they have never worked with in any of the previous challenges and each group member should be of a different grade level. While I was watching my students complete this challenge, the creativity of how they supported their tower was truly amazing and inspiring. After this design challenges, my students blogged about their thoughts. My goal is to have the students privately blog after the completion of each activity.
The students then tackled another design challenge with Household Objects. The challenge was for the students to create a house using the following materials: 2 sheets of paper, 2 band-aids, 2 paper clips, and 2 sticks of gum.
Over the summer, we forged a partnership with Northwestern and will be implementing part of their FUSE studio challenges. FUSE is a new kind of interest-driven learning experience developed by researches and educators in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. The program engages pre-teens and teens in science, technology, engineering, arts/design, and mathematics (STEAM) topics while fostering the development of important 21st century skills.
Through FUSE, we challenged our students to create their own dream home using Google SketchUp. The process of using Google SketchUp was both time-consuming and arduous. While the students were doing this, it truly made this class more transformative. I was no longer the teacher, and the students learned to teach themselves on how to use the program. Teamwork and collaboration was at the forefront of this challenge. Students learned through videos, Internet searches of their issues, and mostly through their peers. The Dream Home project took a lot longer than I had anticipated, but the work the students produced was awe-inspiring. Each house was unique amongst one another and you could see the pride that each student took in designing their own house. The house had to have these minimum requirements:
- 4 Windows
- 1 door
- Preferably a gable (not flat) roof
- Color or texture on all the walls and roof
- At least a bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, and living room
- Walls that are at least 6 inches think
- Doors between all the rooms
- Windows that look into the rooms
- Furnished house with at least 20 items
- Students would create a video walkthrough of their house
- Next semester, we will take those videos and create scripts as if they were selling their house
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In November, I took 142 students to visit the Robots Revolution Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Students, grades 5-8, had a chance to observe a variety of amazing displays including robots that mirrored one’s facial expressions and a robotic arm that sorted candy by colors. My main goal for this field trip was to expose students to the idea that if you can dream it, you can make it. The entire ‘Robots Revolution’ exhibit exemplifies this type of thinking. The students documented their experience on our dreamMaker’s blog site.
For the past three weeks since our field trip, my students have accomplished an abundant amount of challenges. Here’s an abbreviated list of challenges my students have either completed or in the progress of tinkering:
- Dream Home 2: Gut Rehab – Take on the role of an architect while they work with a client to give an old building a new life.
- Eye Candy – Designing their own glasses and printing them on our 3D printer
- Jewelry Designer – Design their own jewelry and print it out in 3D.
- Keychain Customizer – Design and 3D print a keychain with their name or custom message
- Print My Ride – Design their own model car and then print it out in 3D complete with rolling wheels
- Ringtones – Mix their own custom ringtones using Soundation.com
- Coaster Boss – Building the fastest roller coaster
As I reflect on these past four months, I am proud of what my students have accomplished thus far. I feel my students’ mindsets are slowly transforming right before my eyes. Through my reflection, I have been thinking about the book we read, What Should I Do? Confronting Dilemmas of Teaching in Urban Schools, by Anna Richert. I honestly was not a big fan of this book, but taking a further step back, I can see why this book was given to us to read. To me, this book represents that in all teaching we will most likely encounter a dilemma that isn’t easily solved and whatever choice we choose can also be debated. Even though my students are growing, their natural tendencies are to complain and revert to the mindset that some of these challenges are impossible and that I’m being unreasonable. As much as I encourage students and show them the path, I’ve come to the realization that my students have to see the path or mindset for them to make it more authentic than if I tell them this is the way we need to think. I need to encourage my students to continually fail in a safe and nurturing environment and provide stability when they need it most.
Through my focus group, I’ve learned to stop and listen more than push down my agendas of how one should learn. My focus group provided me quality feedback on how I can best support my students in their mindset and through their design challenges. I plan on continually having monthly focus groups to help the students talk about their successes and failures to the class.
Even though my colleagues’ lives are busy with school responsibilities, family responsibilities, and outside pressures, I feel we work well as a team. It’s always nice to send and hear a quick Twitter or text messages to see how everyone is doing at their schools. Over the course of this project, I have learned new technology tools and teaching strategies on how to implement the Maker’s mindset within a school. We have shared successes, failures, and trials with one another. Even though, I feel I am well versed in technology, I am always looking for ways to improve or be more successful. It’s nice to see their perspective of technology and how they implement it in their classrooms as STEM or Science teachers.
As I look back on my ImagineIT, I am seeing a lot of work being produced but I need to improve on the documentation workflow for both my students and myself for round two. As the winter break is approaching, I am hoping my students and myself can catch up on our blog post as well as find more time to be reflective of our work and of our mindset. As the next stage of my ImagineIT starts, I am excited to continually see the transformation of my student’s mindset and the level of engagement with the challenges and with each other.
Through my focus group, I’ve learned to stop and listen more than push down my agendas of how one should learn. My focus group provided me quality feedback on how I can best support my students in their mindset and through their design challenges. I plan on continually having monthly focus groups to help the students talk about their successes and failures to the class.
Even though my colleagues’ lives are busy with school responsibilities, family responsibilities, and outside pressures, I feel we work well as a team. It’s always nice to send and hear a quick Twitter or text messages to see how everyone is doing at their schools. Over the course of this project, I have learned new technology tools and teaching strategies on how to implement the Maker’s mindset within a school. We have shared successes, failures, and trials with one another. Even though, I feel I am well versed in technology, I am always looking for ways to improve or be more successful. It’s nice to see their perspective of technology and how they implement it in their classrooms as STEM or Science teachers.
As I look back on my ImagineIT, I am seeing a lot of work being produced but I need to improve on the documentation workflow for both my students and myself for round two. As the winter break is approaching, I am hoping my students and myself can catch up on our blog post as well as find more time to be reflective of our work and of our mindset. As the next stage of my ImagineIT starts, I am excited to continually see the transformation of my student’s mindset and the level of engagement with the challenges and with each other.