Following in the footsteps of our "Inspire" Project Based Learning professional development workshop at Mark Day School this summer, David St. Martin and I have teamed up with Joyce Chen to create a year-long project that allows students to personalize their learning while engaging in real-world planning and presentation of information.  Students will be imagining an 11-day trip to China that parallels the trip some of our students take in the spring to our partner school in Beijing.

Our driving question is: "What do you need to know to be able to go to China?"  Students will be determining the supplementary vocabulary needed to prepare for such a trip -- everything from asking how to get directions to a train station to commenting on a painting at a museum -- and then using the vocabulary to design and make several products including a three-dimensional interactive diorama and a guide book to present later.

During the first two classes, students researched famous landmarks and interesting places to visit using books from our library and a local public library as well as Internet resources.  They created a list of facts about the locations and began to craft an 11-day itinerary that is personally meaningful to them.  Each group will be presenting their versions of the itinerary soon and we will be combining ideas to create an ideal trip.  Stay tuned for more!
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— Tatian Greenleaf

Our first grade teachers, Geneva Conway and Lisa Becker, have been teaching about bubbles for years as part of their colors & rainbows and matter units.  In the recent past, students experimented with changing the percentage of soap in a bubble solution and then used store bought wands to test and record their results.  Last year, Geneva and Lisa approached David St. Martin, our Tinkerer, to brainstorm ways to involve design and tinkering in this project.  David suggested that students could invent their own bubble wands using a variety of materials and tools in the Open Lab and could focus on designing, building, and testing (which are aspects of Design Thinking) their creations.  All three teachers collaborated to redesign the project and have continued to make small changes to evolve it further.  

Students sketched their ideas and then explored the available materials in the Lab.  They were given a tour of the tools and several faculty and staff were present to help with cutting, sawing, drilling, or gluing of materials.  Once students had built their first wands, they were able to go outside and test them using bubble solution.  Some designs worked while others needed revising.  For many students, a quick test was followed by additional designing and building in the Lab before heading back outside to test again.  This cycle of quick iteration and testing is something we teach often in the Lab.

Geneva recently sent out an overview to other teachers who were going to assist on the building and testing day.  I think her words are a great example of how Project Based Learning and a "maker mindset" infuse how we work with students and what we ask students to learn, do, and reflect upon:

We are looking forward to having you join us for our tinkering activity.  Here are some points to know:

• ​You will be assisting the students while they are creating their bubble wands.  You will help them with using some of the tools or supervising them while they are using the simpler, non-electric tools.  Adults will use the glue gun for kids who want to glue parts together.  You may need to offer an extra pair of hands as kids manipulate the parts of their project.  
• Encourage a "growth mindset" and perseverance should a child become frustrated. (Not expecting that, but you never know!) Let them struggle a bit with figuring things out; trial-and-error is part of the process!

This is a great article about what the Maker movement can offer to businesses in terms of not only applicable tech skills but also and especially a "maker mindset" that includes design sensibilities, creative problem-solving, and perseverance.  These are the "soft" and "hard" skills that we actively promote through our design and tinkering program.  The article mentions tools and strategies that we currently use with students: 3D printers, Arduinos, design thinking (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test), hands-on experimentation, and recycled fashion.

​— Tatian Greenleaf