In pursuit of all things green and shiny ...

Amazing leprechaun trap by Jacob.  Wowsers!

The purpose of this collaborative learning task was to help the children to see how by combining the individual strengths of the individuals in a team great outcomes can be achieved.

All the groups have worked on scripts, detailing their interactions with a wily leprechaun, and designed their own menus, offering Gaelic fare, in order to charm the leprechaun out of his gold.
The kids have also designed traps, researched the history of leprechauns, and created a spreadsheet showing how they would spend the pot of gold should they secure it.

All of these activities were designed to promote critical and creative thinking skills.   Those children who excel at maths worked out the capacity of the pot and then worked out how many gold coins it was likely to contain.  They researched the weight of an average gold coin and then worked out the current value of gold in order to calculate how much money they would have to spend.

The menus are beautifully crafted.  The creative children experimented with a variety of fonts and formatting when finishing the carefully researched dietary needs of an Irish faerie.  The history of the leprechaun has been presented in Google Slides and the traps were designed in Google Draw but constructed using hard materials.

Because of the range of activities, and the varying skills required for successful task completion, there was something for every type of learner.



Jared, Karthiga and Samuel presenting their leprechaun script. The audience loved it and it was laughter all round.  Well done guys.

The moment of truth ....

Such focus and task commitment, Jacob

Karthiga - sweet taste of success after finding her inner design engineer

Jasmine's wallet has a clear cover for an iPhone.  Her attention to detail is evident in the card pockets

Nadia proudly displays her prototype and the final product

Brayden's nifty catch idea worked a treat!

Joseph holds a prototype and  his wallet.  Well done, Joseph!

Wallets - our designers are hard at work!

The wallets have to house at least three plastic cards

Rulers and scissors a must.  Those without creative and critical thinking need not apply

Joseph shares a prototype.  Happy, he's ready to move on

Skylar and Cailan - the road to success is paved with 'nearly theres'

Nadia works alongside her plan and prototype.  She's nearly there!

Design Thinking and Innovation

Fiona holding her first prototype.  The inside of this wallet is quite intricate

Yesterday the kids were focused on meeting the brief but now some of the more creative thinkers are stepping up and reaching out beyond it.  It is amazing the way some children see the problems they encounter as opportunities to apply innovative solutions and embrace the challenge. Coin holders, security clasps, and clever compartments for hiding shopping lists and private 'stuff' are now being added by the creative and divergent thinkers  - all with the intention of making their wallet stand out. They were never told to do any of these things; the only expectation was that they meet the brief.  

      Tomorrow some of the kids will start off their final version.  Some kids are still playing with prototypes and responding to the 'competition' by continuing to innovate and improve, improve, improve.

            Some of the kids don't want their designs outed by an appearance in this blog.  Sounds like classic R&D behaviour to me! ;-)

Allie is exceeding the brief.  She is including additional features so hers stands out against the other design

Brayden has included a clever clasp in his design, delivering beyond the requirement

BaiLin is thinking outside the box with his second design 

Design, failing fast and focusing on the real reason we learn mathematics

How often does it seem that maths is taught in isolation and for seemingly little purpose? Probably more often than it should be. (As adults we might 'get it' but kids don't necessarily understand that maths exists out there in the real world and is all around us all of the time)   Maths is a beautiful language but sings most loudly and clearly when we breathe life into it by applying it to solve real life problems.  Today the maths was the real deal and everyone was excited.

           In Room 2 we have been applying our measurement knowledge through the design of a wallet that can carry an iPhone, cash and cards.   The kids have been given the dimensions of a smart-phone, a credit card and a ten dollar note in order to build prototype i of their wallets. Their final design should be user-friendly, show accurate measurement (in terms of functionality) and look good. 

              Today we discussed the concept of  'failing fast'.  So what does it mean to 'fail fast'? In short it is an acknowledgement that in the process of failing we are one step closer to achieving a more successful outcome; through innovation and improvement a better end product results; through risk taking and not being limited by a fear of failure we can uncover novel design solutions. In short you try something out, and if it doesn't work, you fix it.  We encourage this approach in writing - in fact good editing and reshaping is seen as essential, so by extension, why don't we encourage improvement in design (applied mathematics)?  

            Today some kids realised their first prototypes were too tight, too big or too ugly. Not one kid got upset.  With a positive mindset the kids only see the progress they are making and how much closer they are to achieving their aim.

             Tomorrow the children will continue to refine their designs and start prototype ii.  

Watch this space!

Allie has her measurements recorded and has decided on her initial design

Cailan carefully considers the design brief and ensures his measurements are accurate

Brayden has an innovative design.  The ability to think 'outside the box' is termed divergent thinking.  Divergent thinkers
are able to come up with multiple solutions to a problem with relative ease.

Ishika is working on prototype i.  Newsprint is used initially because it is inexpensive but gives an indication of how well the final product might meet the brief

Failing fast means that problems can be quickly identified and resolved

Brayden works methodically when approaching the brief.  He is careful to ensure all requirements are addressed in his design

Oh humble whiteboard... How do I love thee? Let me count the ways ...

If there's a piece of learning equipment that is the most useful and most utilised in Room 2 it has to be the humble whiteboard.  

       They are used daily in Mathematics and are a brilliant tool.  The kids can write down their strategies without fear of having their 'mistakes' forever captured in their books.  A lot of kids don't want to see their 'nearly theres', and so whiteboards are brilliant for application and practise of new skills and learning.  They allow a kind of risk-taking that comes with knowing that mistakes can be erased quickly and that there will be no record.   Likewise the poster-like qualities of the board (large lettering, bold colour)  allow the kids to flash (the act of flicking their hidden board around to show me their answers) their successes proudly when working on the mat.   

                 Another great thing about whiteboards is that they give children permission to be messy - with a whiteboard they can focus on the important thinking stuff without being bogged down by the neatness (a potential constraint) that is generally expected in book work.  They allow a kind of freedom that often results in bolder and more creative thinking.

                The photos attached were taken over the last two days, and show work from Reading and Mathematics.  Whiteboards are also used during Spelling and also for doodling while I read to the class.  (I wonder how many people know that research shows that doodling improves listening comprehension?!)  

All hail the mighty whiteboard!

               

Yay Nessa.  You go girl!

Yup, that'll be the scenario where the mad cat woman decides to build an enclosure for her hundred cats.

Cailan writes a definition for the term 'seed bank'.  Rock on, Cailan

Unpacking tricky vocab proves no problem for Jared

Carol discovers that if you want to swim Cook Strait you've got to be committed.

Have you heard the one about the kids who got to design their own camp?

What collaboration looks like in Room 2

Well, the kids had a great time, got the opportunity to get their creative juices flowing and worked effectively in teams.

Bad joke ... but seriously good learning experience.  

At face value the level of thinking for this project might not seem very complicated, but consider these questions ...

What kind of activities should school camps provide?

How much space does a horse arena require?  

Where would you put the camp toilets, and how close should these facilities be to the sleeping area?

How do you most effectively show a lot of information on a single map?

How do you show the physical space between zones?

How do you best negotiate in a group environment to ensure your ideas are included in plans?

How do you market your camp to schools?

More thinking than you first thought, right?

In Room 2 we are not intimidated by these kinds of thinking tasks. We take it all in our stride because that's just the way we roll.  

A big thank you to Mrs Turner who supported Mrs Wallace in the development of this idea.  You rock, Mrs Turner.

Is there a doctor on board?

Yes, there's 27!   Sadly, they're not medical doctors.

Samuel is now Dr. Samuel.
Allie is now Dr. Allie.
Jake is now Dr. Jake.

The kids in Room 2 have all been awarded (imaginary) doctorates in the field of Zoology - with first class honours, I suspect.

The Brief: As zoologists with a global conscience, we are focused on developing captive breeding programmes to help identified threatened species.  We need to choose five animals that are vulnerable; research their breeding habits (recording the number of babies they are likely to have with each pregnancy), and then create a spreadsheet that shows the projected number of births (and therefore benefit of the programme) after seven, twelve and thirty three years.

This learning experience incorporates many skills and is complex in its demands.  Mrs Wallace calls this sort of learning Thinking Skills.  Mrs Wallace loves Thinking Skills.  Mrs Wallace loves pizza, but loves Thinking Skills more.

So what are the kids learning?

1. The kids are being encouraged to see that can be agents of change in the world.
2. The kids are learning to think critically, e.g. that some animals are endangered as a consequence of their sluggish breeding habits. This fact will affect the success of their breeding programme.  Another threatened animal could be significantly boosted by human intervention because the birth rate is affected by conditions that can be altered and controlled.  The children need to think carefully about the animals they include in their breeding programme.
3.  The children are being asked to use mathematical reasoning, e.g. BaiLin asked how to record data on an animal that has between 1 - 4 babies per breeding season.  Mrs Wallace suggested BaiLin (strong in mathematics) put 2.5 per year, and then asked him to consider how this was possible.  Mrs Wallace talked to BaiLin about using the average, calculated over a two year period.  BaiLin loved the fact Mrs Wallace challenged his existing belief that it's impossible to have a half baby.
4.  The children are learning to use technology; more importantly they are learning that they can tell computers how to think, and that they can do work for us, e.g. when inputting formulas into Google Sheets.  The kids loved it when Mrs Wallace changed one number on her sheet, and then by simply pushing 'enter' the spreadsheet data completely changed.  Mrs Wallace pointed out she was not a magician, but had simply made the computer her slave.


Here is Mrs Wallace's spreadsheet.  As you can see it's incomplete.  Can anyone remind me about the formula I need to use?!  Email me your answer.

Btw, the dictzy dog is SERIOUSLY on the brink of extinction! ;-)