View the SMORE Applying Higher Order Thinking Skills in the Junior School.
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Category Archives: Bloom’s
Global Day of Design
CREATE – CONNECT – COLLABORATE
In the JS Library Makerspace, we aim to develop students love of learning through hands-on learning by challenging the thinking 
process.
It is “a holistic approach that links the disciplines so that the learning becomes connected, focused, meaningful, and relevant to learners” (Smith & Karr-Kidwell, 2000, p. 22).
To celebrate our first week of our newly renovated library (which includes the Makerspace) the students were offered the opportunity to participate in the Global Day of Design (26th April #GDD16). Over three days, we offered three design challenges based on literature.
As a part of the Design Process, the students worked in groups to complete the challenge and then reflected on the learning (all in 30 minutes!).
The students were also exposed to the engineering design process which includes identifying a problem, developing ideas and solutions, and sharing these solutions with others.
The Challenges
|
Huff n Puff Designing a bridge for the Billy Goats Gruff |
Shake it Up
Designing an earthquake proof building |
The Sky is the Limit
Paper plane designs (Stealth: longest flight time in air) |
| Materials
toothpicks, masking tape and 3 marshmallows |
Materials
playing cards and ½ metre of masking tape |
Materials
paper |
| Contstraints
Billy Goats have to be attached to a marshmallow. Have to use all the toothpicks |
Contstraints
Have to use all the playing cards. |
Contstraints
1 A4 piece of paper |
Some of the students’ thoughts:
- Need to keep it stable and safe and so we used two cards per wall
- We thought of strategies to keep the building up
- All the parts have a function
- Triangles have more stability than other things
- Thought about the ways to stabilise and use all the cards
- To use the triangle method not the cube
The ICT Mentors for 2016 were introduced to the Design Thinking concept and were available as support for the groups. They exhibited a wonderful enthusiasm and attitude to their role. Well done.
ASK A LIBRARIAN and EFFECTIVE QUESTIONS
SEARCH – ASK – LEARN – CONNECT
ASK
Term 2 is focused on asking questions and what it means to ask questions.
Sometimes the question is more important than the answer.
What does this mean?
Students have been asked to ask me their questions (about anything) and I will endeavor to find an answer. Part of this process will be also demonstrating my research to find this answer (or answers).
STUDENT QUESTIONING
As a PYP school we encourage students to ask their questions and to direct their own inquiry.
One concept based on student questions is the PASSION PROJECT and GENIUS HOUR.
TEACHER QUESTIONING
Jamie Mackenzie has many books and blog posts about types of questions and how to formulate the right questions. This is the link to his QUESTIONING TOOLKIT.
This approach to developing effective questions is often coined as ungoogleable and it is essential that we support students “move beyond the cut and paste“.
DIGGO LINKS QUESTIONING
Read more about PASSION PROJECTS
Kathy Schrock’s BLOOMIN APPS
Using Bloom’s with ipads and android devices – check out BLOOMIN’ APPS
Kathy Schrock is a well respected educator who is constantly producing fantastic resources for teachers to use in their classrooms.
Check out these resources to use with the iPads (and android). These are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Flipstack Webtool Mashup – Blooms, MI and more
Webtool Mashup – Integrating Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy, Gardner’s Multiple intelligences and Webtools
This tool has great application for the classroom and Professional Learning.
Some of its features include the ability to save the work as a PDF and to embed the results.
An example of this tool being used for Professional Learning is below.This FlipSnack was created by Kirsten Lange as a way to present key words (using wordle) for each year level using the Australian Curriculum and Mathematics learning area. It is an excellent example of blending two Web2.0 tools.
Wonderful!