A wintery mix of PBL, Presentations & Design Thinking

These past two months have drifted by like, well, the winter vortex that has consumed the east coast. I have felt challenged, creative and excited about what's cooking.

Design Thinking Science Fair: Last year I planted the bug of switching our science fair over from method to design thinking. My students who chose this course produced amazing projects that emphasized their individual talents as thinkers. This year, I decided to jump in feet first with all my fifth graders.
First, I did a lot of research and reading. At Educon I went to as many design thinking workshops as possible to gather resources. I found true grounding in the educators' tool kit from IDEO. This lead to me making the very thorough guide packet that you see pictured in this post.
Next, while introducing the packet to my students, we watched videos from designers on Kickstarter and Fast Company. I made sure to pause, rewind and repeat the videos for key design thinking ideas and principals. We talked about the importance of focusing on a real problem that creates a real solution for the user.
My students are very excited about their projects. Their heads are filled with wonders and questions. They are struggling with group members and finding solutions which is so important.
Due to snow days we are struggling to meet our deadline. My students and I have the goal of creating videos of their presentations that will be seen on i-Pads using a QR code placed on their posters. I have been "over" the tri-fold poster for a while and hope to officially cut the chord with this method. Stay tuned...

Ancient LEGO:At the beginning of January I started a PBL project with my sixth graders. This project incorporated LEGO building of the city of Catal Huyuk with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This project was about more than building with LEGO and being a team, it was also about my students using their resources to be correct on the details and historical accuracy. These were points that I made sure to emphasize to them over the course of the building and research phase which lasted about two weeks. By the time we were done their depth of knowledge and ability to describe and reason their construction was authentic of their learning. Multi-colored LEGO aside,the homes my students built were really incredible and I enjoyed the dissection of the thought process that lead to their constructed product. (They are doing the written requirement with their Language Arts teachers). Due to the snow days my students just finished their reflections for their work and I am looking forward to reading heir point of view.

Presentations: I presented twice at conferences in January and I am proud of the learning experiences offered by both. A huge thank you to the Science Leadership Academy and Educon team. My experience facilitating a discussion was incredibly memorable and educational. The next week I presented at Techspo for the NJASA and was pleased to hear so many administrators wanting to embrace PBL in their schools and teachers sharing their challenges. Even more so, I am grateful for the connections that happened at both of these conferences. Building one's PD circles is empowering and affirming that educators are doing important things and we are doing them together.