STEM Clusters: Take Three

What do 5 years olds and CEOs have in common? In some cases, both have participated in the Marshmallow challenge!  This week in the STEM cluster How High, How Far, How Fast our 5 and 6 year old students were challenged to build the tallest structure possible using 10 pieces of spaghetti, one foot of masking tape, one foot of string and one marshmallow – the marshmallow, of course, had to remain sturdily on the top!

Students were focused, engaged, curious, frustrated, angry, and hopeful as they worked together to strategize and problem solve. Working together and collaborating was quite a challenge. As to be expected some students quietly gave their suggestions, “That is not possible; it will be too wobbly, let’s try this,” whereas, in another group, I heard a young fellow demand almost in tears, “Hold this; hold this here; do it now, and don’t let go!”

As I noted in an earlier post on STEM Clusters with the older students, what was  most difficult for them was collaborating together, and accepting or acting on the ideas of their classmates. Although frustrated, the older kids were more accepting of each other ideas and were clearly building upon each other’s knowledge in order to yield a unified result. With the little ones, those who were able to work together followed a more step-by-step approach. “I will do this; now you try your idea.” 

In one case, it was clear after the first 10 minutes that a particular youngster was simply unable to work within a group, so the facilitator gave him his materials and asked him to work through the challenge on his own. He was happy to do so; but when he realized help would be necessary, he very politely asked the little girl next to him to assist. Noticing this change I asked him “what was the problem the first time you tried to work together?” He said, “Well, I am the boy, and I told her what to do and she wouldn’t do it.” I responded, “What does being a boy have to do with it?” He said, “Boys are the ones who tell girls what to do, that is the way things always work.” Now, I know the family of this little boy, and I am more than certain that in his household, responsibilities are shared across genders.  So I thought, wow, our society still has a lot of work to do! First through modeling gender-neutral roles, and then by improving how the media, advertising and entertainment present those gender roles.

A lot happened during those 45 minutes, and most groups were satisfied with their hard work and accomplishments. Here are some of their reflections:

“I was thinking like an engineer; trying to imagine a blue print in my head.”

“I liked when we were working together and did not get mad at each other.”

“It was REALLY hard to get that marshmallow to stay on the top!”

Could it be that our students must learn to collaborate before they can fully experience and practice other challenging skills? In other words is collaboration a necessary step onto a ladder of 21^st century skills? Or are the 4 C’s spokes on wheel of integrated skills?  

STEM Clusters Take Two

For our second round of STEM Clusters, this time for our K-1 students, I have decided, instead of a “quick glimpse” approach, I would spend a full period in each of the 8 sessions. For our youngest students the choices are the following:

Bee Bot Robots

Not a Box

How High, How Far, How Fast

Take It Apart Party

Makey Makey

Legos

Last week I shared my time with our K/1 students participating in “Bee Bots.” Students programmed the little “Bee Bots” or mini Bees acting as a computerized robots, to spell a word through their movements, or move to a programmed destination like a waterfall or a volcano. Students needed to plan out each move, indicate how many spaces, as well as when to turn; they then inputted their plan into the Bee Bot, and watched to see if they were accurate. It was a trial and error process.  Students were also given time to experiment with the Bee Bot App. I wish I had been exposed to introductory programing as a 5 year old!

Not a Box was my destination this week. In this cluster session students were creating and designing anything they wanted from boxes. They were charged with using their imagination, sketching out a design, gathering materials and then coming up with a product. They had plastic saws and hinges to guide the construction; many worked in pairs to problem solve and collaborate. By the end of the session we had: a marble maze, a dressing table and closet, the San Francisco Bay Bridge, and a Shark with all of its parts!  Another afternoon of creativity, design thinking, and play! 

Inaugural Year of STEM Clusters in the Lower School

Clusters are a 60 minute, weekly period, when all of our Lower School students, in mixed-age groups, collaborate together on a project based on a shared interest. Recognizing the national and global STEM initiatives, this year we decided to plan our clusters to expose students to a variety of STEM skills.  Through a “petting zoo” STEM experimentation period, students were exposed to many STEM activities. Based on that experience they chose one of the following STEM activities:

Makey Makey

LittleBits 

Take It Apart Party 

Paper Instruments 

Scratch Programming

First LEGO League 

Cardboard Machines

Rube Goldberg 

How High, How Far, How Fast

During our weekly STEM Cluster time, I would wander from classroom to classroom observing and interacting with each group. At every stop I encountered engaged, curious and hard working students. There was such a desire to accomplish something; students were hyper focused. At times this led to communication difficulties and conflict among group members. I realized how different this type of collaboration was in comparison to your traditional cooperative groups for a subject based class session. It will take some time for teachers to feel comfortable facilitating these sessions and for students to learn together, share with one another, and ultimately arrive at solutions and outcomes in a unified manner. The journey is well worth it! Observing a “water in glasses” concert, understanding the 10 energy steps of Rube using everything from a domino, to foam, plastic and paper tubes, to chairs, tennis balls and different toys, to watching students take-a-part toasters and hard drives, my weekly “glimpse” of STEM Clusters spurred my own learning in new directions.

I want to take the time to thank our Instructional Coach Bree @BreeABerman for all of her planning for, researching, and experimenting with the STEM activities in order for this inaugural year of STEM Clusters in our Lower School to be successful. I also want to thank Sarah for her work in the planning, logistics, and implementation of this new venture.

What a Day in 2A!

Dear Second Grade A:

Thank you for welcoming me into your classroom for much of the day on Tuesday! I really enjoyed it and learned so much from you and of course from Mrs. Roberts too! These were some of the things that I enjoyed and that were very helpful to my learning day in 2A:

•  Directions are always reinforced in many different ways – this made it easier for me to follow along (I felt like a new student!). I especially liked how you would put your finger up when you heard a direction and then knew how many steps to follow.
• Organizing the bins per genres, topics and authors and then going “shopping” for your own books to put in your personal reading bin. How fun was that!
•  Lucas, thank you for explaining how I PICK a just right book! Megan and Evan thank you for demonstrating Read to Someone.

•  But my favorite part of the day was the Poetry lesson and learning to describe an everyday object through a “Scientist’s Eyes” and a “Poet’s Eyes” Can I please share my poem with you?

The Backpack

Black

Sometimes stuffed to the seams, with a weekend full of clothes.

Other times skinny as can be, wrinkled papers, homework, shoved right down to the bottom.

Like a cherished rag doll always at his side,

At times thrown over his shoulder, or quickly tossed right into the back seat!

Although a simple black backpack, a treasured reminder of Ricardo’s daily activities.

By Dr. Isabel

Shifting the Learning Process in The Lower School

The focus of our Lower School faculty meeting this week revolved around learning in the digital age; we used our “spring break read” Why School? By Will Richardson to frame our questions and guide the discussion. I was moved by the sense of optimism that filled the room as our teachers embraced the need to adapt our practice in order to facilitate student learning in a way that will better prepare them for the world they will enter as older students and adults. They seemed to agree that we must make school “different.” I left hopeful that positive change will be the result of these ongoing discussions; that we will reach our students in ways that will prepare them to collaborate, create, problem-solve and design a better future for themselves and the world. I see our Lower School team full of courageous and eager facilitators ready to learn along with their students.

These are some of the thoughts, concerns, and ideas that we pondered and shared as we initiated this discussion on learning in the digital age:

·            When passion is ignited in our students and they generate a unique question to investigate, all of a sudden it is time to stop and move on to another subject area.

·            Are school schedules outdated? What should we do about it? How do we create a balance and schedule that meets the students’ needs?

·            As teachers we should keep an open mind, try new things and let go of our need to see the finish line or follow a set path.

·            Let’s embrace the excitement of the students and follow their lead.

·            Should we focus on the skills and not on the content? Does the content really matter? How do we ensure that the skills are both sufficiently practiced and reinforced?

·            Can we consider “deeper” units, spread them out and when able and appropriate bring the “experts” and “specialists” to us to collaborate and facilitate learning.

·            Let’s keep learning and unlearning.

·            The medium is different. Let’s guide students to manage, understand, interpret, process and use the “abundance of information.” Mistakes will be made, but the benefits will surpass the challenges.

·            The meaning of “friend” has expanded for today’s learners. Friends are the experts, authors, virtual friends, classmates and collaborators we meet at school and beyond school walls.

Do these reflections and considerations sound difficult or daring? Not at all, they are realities that come up in conversations among colleagues and/or practices that happen in “small chunks” throughout our days, units and semesters. If we continue to share, discuss, and expand these practices together we will move along this learning continuum towards an “unknown” but surely exciting outcome….

As Will says, school is a valuable place where caring knowledgeable adults are present to support students as they discover their passions and engage in new ventures. We all have a very important role in the lives of students; it is just finding a balanced learning environment that will help prepare our students for their future.

What is your perspective on Shifting the Learning Process for our youngest students?