Studio D goes to Catawba Trail Elementary

Today, students from Studio D9 took a trip to Catwaba Trail Elementary school to work with their Quest 4th graders on a design challenge. I met Mrs. Thompson at a professional development I did on design thinking and she and I made plans for our students to collaborate. We liked the idea of it benefiting both my students as well as hers.

I planned for students to redesign the report card, which is a challenge that I had previously given to D9 early on in the semester. I wanted the material of the challenge to be understandable for the 4th graders, but still challenging enough to require them to work through our design process.

Charles, Kayshon, Emma, and Chelsea all came with me to Catawba Trail and led their own project groups.  I must take a minute and applaud these students for their great work today. They were wonderful leaders and led by example, working with their group and modeling all our techniques while teaching the 4th graders, as well. They were professional and the students in QuEST noticed, and commended them for their work.

When we arrived, the 4th graders had already brainstormed what they thought should be included in a report card. They were very thorough, and the students and I were all really impressed with how well thought out their list was. The students were all inclusive with things like grades, progress, attendance, social behaviors, and communication all included in their list.

Next, our students each joined a group and were then given a student for whom they would design a report card. Each group was given a current report card and interview, complete with picture, from  their student. Each interview contained information such as their likes and dislikes, educational goals, strengths, weaknesses, and what they would like to see on their report cards. The QuEST students read through those interviews and highlighted information they thought might help them create their new designs, and this completed the Gather Stage of their project. 

               

To move on to Glean, each group had to decide which information they highlighted, along with information they had compiled onto class lists before we arrived, was the most important to include in their new design. Everyone wrote down their ideas and after we had some time to read over our entire group's input, we chose a few things to focus on. After each group had some 'non-negotiables', we began a silent prototyping time. Students were quick to identify this as the Generate stage, because they were coming up with their first ideas/drafts of a new report card for their student. 

 

We reminded students that during the Generate stage, wild ideas are good things, not to worry about whether or not they thought they could bring their idea to life, not to criticize other people's ideas, and to be open-minded. After a great production stage, students had some good ideas that incorporated information they had gathered about their user. We talked quickly about how to critique someone else's work, and reminded the students to always be kind, specific, and helpful whenever they are giving their input on someone else's work. 

To make their feedback more honest, we made it anonymous by allowing students to write their comments on post-it notes and place the post-it on the draft. We each took turns writing our feedback about each design on the post-its and took some more time later to make clarifications on feedback, ask questions about comments that had been made, and decide as a group which parts of our individual design would we pull into our first group effort.

              

             

These guys were feedback wizards! Their feedback was to the point, specific, kind, and helpful. I was really impressed by how well they were not only able to give criticism, but also how well they received it. 

Wrapping up the Generate stage, we found we were out of time. Students in Mrs. Thompson's class were going to move on to the Gauge and Go stages without us for now, but we made a point to say that we'd love to see their final designs. I had such a great experience working with those bright 4th graders. They are students I'd be proud to have in Studio D any day! My students also had a great time, and loved getting to share their love for the design process with other, albeit younger, designers. Thanks so much to Catawba Trail Elementary, Mrs. Thompson, and the QuEST students for having us today. You guys are awesome!

11.5.13 Beginnings

Today students began two new chapters of their design challenge. Students are creating a storyboard to showcase their educational tool this week.  The storyboard (due Friday) will be turned into a student created Voice Thread.  This draft needs to include a minimum of 7 panels with an image, the scene (tell me what I'm seeing), the script (write out exactly what you plan to say) & the message you are trying to convey to the user of your educational tool.
At the same time, students are getting familiar with Voice Thread (the tool we'll use to peer evaluate the educational tools) by making at least 3 comments  & 1 drawing of the slides I've shared with them.
Comments & storyboard are due by Friday.

The Voice Thread presentations they'll create from their storyboards next week.  The presentation must include a minimum of 7 slides- 1 that introduce their education tool, & 6 featuring parts of their educational tool they are either really proud of or want feedback on.  These are due at the beginning of the news show Thursday, so we can have a virtual gallery walk.  The plan is to link all the voice thread presentations to my environmental studies page for both teachers, students & parents to look at.  Teachers & students can comment on the slides in order to help create better end products.

With Mrs. A, students took their second vocabulary quiz. Despite the fact that she said it almost every day, some of our students STILL forgot that the quiz was cumulative and could/would include words from their previous quizzes. The jury's still out as to how the class did.

With me (Coach K) students who had passed all of their safety tests started tool demonstrations in the project room today. Students who had not yet passed all of their safety tests had to go in Mrs. A's room and continue those tests until they passed. We had a few last minute additions to the demo as people passed a test or two today, but for the most part the majority of each group had passed as of this morning.

Today we did demonstrations on some of the tools we use most frequently. Students had to make a cut with the miter saw, had to drill a pilot hole for a screw, make a cut with a circular saw while using saw horses, and sand with the grain using one of the handheld sanders. Students were generally excited about working with the tools for the first time, and even some of them who were apprehensive at first were making cuts and holes on their own by the end of the period. Students still need some work with the table saw, Dremel, and a few other tools in the room but they are (mostly) ready to start construction on their designs. We'll spend some time tomorrow making sure the prototypes are as complete as they can be so I can make a Lowe's run to ensure we have all the materials the prototypes call for. Here are a few shots of some of our students with the tools.

10.25.13 Prototyping Take 2.

Today students worked primarily on their prototypes and revised design plans. We began class as a whole group and broke out into our five design deliverables: French Drain, Octangular Table/Benches, Storage Chair, Storage Chest, and Pallet Garden. Octangular Table and Storage Chair groups had yet to add their design to the Bird's Eye View, and spent the first part of the class completing that task. Now that we have an idea of how much square footage each piece of the puzzle will take up things are starting to come together visually. After that was checked off their list, students worked on their new versions of their prototypes that were now done to a realistic scale. Students are responsible for prototyping their design EXACTLY how they see it in the OLS, and for completing as many prototypes as they want realistic components. At one point we ran out of some crucial prototyping materials (i.e. popsicle sticks and graph paper) so after a quick Walmart run we were able to begin again. It was great to see so many of the groups working so hard to get these new prototypes built. They were taking such careful measures to accurately measure all their materials to ensure the scale was as realistic as possible. I hated to break the momentum but while I was gone, Mrs. Soblo showed the film Born to be Wild, and related it back to the Educational Tool students are currently working on. It was a quick 40 minute showing and by the time the movie was finishing up I was back with the supplies.

A few weeks ago, Jordan and Breanne accompanied Mrs. Auspelmyer to an Outdoor Learning Symposium in Savannah, Georgia. They spent the day in some awesome sessions on Outdoor Learning Spaces and brought back a ton of information to share with the class. They spoke briefly the Monday after they returned, but had some great visuals and information still to share. Today was a good day for that sharing. They spoke about what they learned, how to make outdoor learning spaces more used, about aversions to outdoor learning spaces by both teachers and students, and even got to experience some tools for outdoor learning spaces. Here's their presentation complete with some cool pictures.

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After we heard from J and B, we continued on with prototyping. A few groups still had some struggles with communication in their new larger groups, but after a long productive conversation they were able to put creative differences to work instead of at odds against each other. Groups that didn't have these issues are obviously further ahead, and here are some shots of our groups showing off their new, to small scale, prototypes.

Tyler, Alexis, Taiyah, and Da'Naria- Pallet Garden Planters

Charles with his group's storage chairs

10.24.13 Busy, Busy, Busy

Today's lesson is brought to you by the word Busy.

We're flying a man down today with Coach West being out, so our groups are working in rotation 3. The Pallet Garden group is their own rotation. The French Drain group and the Storage Chair are in another group, and finally the Storage Chest and Octangular Table are in a group. Groups worked with me on completing their Bird's Eye View of the Space and together we put together a tentative floor plan for our Outdoor Learning Space.

Here's what we are up to (as of now):

You can't see the grid lines on the graph paper but the entire space is 30' x 30'. The designs represented are of the square footage each item would take up in the space. The left side of the design is primarily pallet gardens that students plan to fill with native plants that will attract native wildlife. The storage chests are on the right side of the space and are multifunctional and can serve as seating too. What we don't have pictured yet is our Octangular Table and Benches, and our Storage Chairs. Those two design teams were having a difficult time converting their imagined measurements into real life square feet. Being the non-math expert that I am, I sought out a math expert in our own Student Activities Director Mrs. Janet Frick. She and a few of our students had a chat about how to find square footage of a square, and how to find the circumference of a circle when we know the diameter. Check her out working her math magic!

Students were then able to calculate their measurements and give an accurate representation of how much space their design would need. It was great to have some help. Math was never my thing....

Some groups, like our Storage Chest, Octangular Table, and one other group were able to begin their new and revised prototypes. They have to create one prototype for every object they plan on putting in the space, and it must be done exactly to a predetermined scale. This will probably take us to the end of tomorrow.

Our Octangular Table group debating on their table top
design.

One of the table top design possibilities.

The same group working on their new bench prototype.

In Mrs. Soblo's class, students are creating an educational tool that can be used in the outdoor learning space to identify some of the organisms that can be found on campus.  Each student finds 13 unique species that we've seen here or are very common in the area.  The task then is to research the organisms they select to create a tool for identification, listing what the organism looks like, how it's different from similar species & other interesting facts.  Students need to include citations of the resources they use in their research & for images they add.

Many students are creating field guides (paper & online versions), but a few students are creating games.  Students can work in teams in order to create a larger field guide- for example: 2 students need 26 species, 3 students need 39 species.

Timeline for completion is 12/3 for the finished product.

With Mrs. A, students have been practicing their citation skills. From Mrs. A herself: Following prior direct instruction on plagiarism and how to avoid it (including how to use direct quotes and how to paraphrase information), students have recently taken notes more specifically on how to properly give credit to sources at the end of a paper or research project. The focus has been on electronic source material, since most students are using primarily these types of sources. Students had to learn how to identify what type of electronic source they were viewing, where to find information like title, author, publisher, date, etc. on each website, how to create citations in MLA style, and how to format the final works cited page. After an introduction to these concepts and skills, students used their notes to create a works cited page (using 5 arbitrary website sources of various types). This assignment was then awarded a score, based on the accuracy of each individual citation as well as overall formatting, and students were given individual feedback about where they made errors.

Based on the results of this assignment, it was clear that most students had not mastered these concepts and skills; therefore, after a brief reteaching of the content, students were asked to try again, with a new set of 5 arbitrary website sources of various types. This new assignment will result in a new works cited page that, after feedback and reteaching, is expected to be more accurate than the first attempt. Students will be allowed to replace their initial grade with their new (presumably higher) grade. It is expected that at this point many students will have mastered some of the basic skills involved, but it is also expected that due to the available variety of electronic sources alone, students will need continuous practice with this throughout the year to expose them to all the possibilities (and differences in citations) of source material. It is clear, through observations and discussions with students, that most are aware that the most important and difficult step when crediting sources seems to be determining what type of electronic source they are using. The next lesson, in addition to continued practice creating works cited pages, will involve examining sources for bias and evaluating sources for validity, usefulness, etc. Meanwhile, we will continue to work on effectively incorporating source material into writing.

Here's the assignment from Mrs. A if you were planning to BINGO her citation practice.



So....we're busy. Just in case you wanted to know. Busy days in the Studio are all we see in our future. Make sure you keep up with all the action right here!

10.22.13 Ed Tool/Prototype Revisions

Today students met for the first time in their large groups. It was a somewhat productive day. Most groups finished their bird's eye view of the space that included their design, and some began revising their new prototypes to scale. Some groups had a harder time meshing in their new environment, and spent some time figuring out what their new dynamic would be. Students had to realize that the design doesn't have an owner, and students have to relinquish any idea of ownership over the design so that the new group can have input. It's hard to look at a design for weeks and then listen to someone make suggestions as to how to make it better, but we have to be open to changes for the benefit of the space.

With Mrs. Soblo, students worked on their Educational Tool. Students now are each responsible for 13 organisms in their Educational Tool. Some groups are making field guides and some groups are making games. Students are still working on researching and narrowing down the organisms they want to include, so they should have research to work on daily. 

10.22.13 Revision Begins

Now that we've narrowed down your prototype designs into the five that we as a class would like to bring to life, we have some major revisions to do. Just because a design was voted on doesn't mean that it's flawless. Now we have to pull out the microscope and find ALL the flaws so that we can revise them in our new groups. From our humble beginnings as 11 groups we transform into 5 mega groups. Each (new) group is now working on one of the five designs that you voted on as a class.

Today students took a serious look at the pallets in our tool room, and made some decisions about whether or not recycled materials would work for their purpose. What they imagined pallet wood to be, and what it really was did not match up. Students took some time to design a bird's eye view of the space and where they envisioned their deliverables going. Our next challenge is to take a close look at our prototypes with fresh eyes to see where we can make them better.

Here's a few of our winning prototypes: 

Our D9 Storage Chest

Storage Chair (Seat lifts up for student storage)

Storage Bench

Possible Pattern for the top of our Octangular Table.
Seats 16 and this thing is gonna rock!

With Mrs. Soblo students reattempted their dichotomous key quizzes using shapes instead of leaves. With Mrs. Auspelmyer students took notes on common citation mistakes in hopes that they won't make the same mistakes in the future, and with Coach West students began a study on culture in preparation for a future design challenge :)