BLOG POST 1

Wisdom Begins in wonder

Ancient Greece through Design and Technology

 

Teachers responsible for conducting this project:

Andrea Jamieson, Daniela Rondon, and Anne Hopwood

Mentor: Patsy

 

“Creation is the heart of creativity and is only meaningful when grounded in action - it’s not a feeling, a mindset, or an outcome. But it can be developed...” Sylvia Libow Martinez & Gary Stager.

 

 

“Ancient Greece through Design and Technology” comes from our belief that children learn by doing, by making… by tinkering. Knowledge is a consequence of experience and through design and technology we plan to offer our students the opportunity to develop skill, knowledge and understanding by exploring, solving problems, creating, designing and making  meaningful products that would serve a purpose within the Ancient Greek society if they were to live there. Taking a leaf out of “Makerspaces”, which is all about self-directed learning, the Y5 students at St. Andrew’s Olivos will have the opportunity to leave their traditional classroom settings behind and learn by doing, while solving problems that arise when working on their design.

 

Ancient Greece has played a key role in the development of the modern western culture. Their legacy is huge and ranges from philosophy and education to science and architecture. Working with Greek culture will provide our Year 5 students with important features that emerged at the time and influence our students’ lives today. Therefore, we think that using this learning style as the core approach to our Unit of Ancient Greece, will allow our students to actually experience life at the time, apply what they have learnt, and reach the enduring understandings we are aiming at.

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BLOG POST 2

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Year 5 students have taken control of their own learning as they took ownership of these projects they have not just designed but defined!

 

To begin, students had to frame their problem so they could better empathize with the Ancient Greece civilization. They walked around a “Gallery walk” and looked at different pictures about Ancient Greece, they asked themselves questions and recorded different observations.. Here is a short clip of their first encounter with Ancient Greece.

 

 

From this “Gallery walk” students realized that to be able to identify a need in the Ancient Greece world, they had to do some background research. Therefore, using different researched techniques, they collected information and worked as ethnographers to explore, discover and interpret the Ancient Greece culture. Once students knew more about it, they were able to identify problems or needs by themselves, that the Ancient Greek civilization had.  They figured out which questions to ask and what problems were worth solving.

 

The second part of the process was to imagine. Students had to brainstorm different ideas that could solve any need or problem that the Greeks could have had. During this part students had to defer judgment, be open to different ideas, listen actively and build on the ideas of others so as to be able to choose the best solution.

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Once the product was defined, the third phase was to make. The product that they wanted to take to Ancient Greek had to become tangible. Students had to develop a prototype, listen to feedback, make changes, redesign it and try it out again.

 

Year 5 students have taken control of their own learning as they took ownership of these projects they have not just designed but defined!

 

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BLOG POST 3

 

 

We Like, We Wonder... Next Steps

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Our students need to be able to think critically, problem-solve and collaborate in order to succeed in the future Through this Ancient Greece project we  have tried to provide creative time and space for our students to  explore questions, build prototypes, fail and retry, bounce ideas off one another and build something together.  While working on their products, Year 5 students have understood that people learn differently and that most problems have multiple solutions.

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BLOG POST 4

"Nothing important works the first time. The only way to get it right is to look carefully at what happened when it went wrong. To succeed you need the freedom to goof on the way." 

By Seymour Papert

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Please, visit our WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER wix to appreciate the full extent of this project. 

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This Ancient Greece project has exceeded all our expectations…

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We all know that Learning by making requires bending materials or the computer to one’s will so as to solve problems. However, what we witnessed went far beyond meeting the expected curriculum goals. During the last weeks, our 5th year classrooms have become interesting spaces for creative work where students have worked passionately and collaboratively in the making of different products.  All kinds of materials were available such as clay, paint, cloth, porcelain, stones, wire...you name it. However, the materials and tools used in the projects were just another resource, much less important than the intellectual processes involved. Students could be seen walking by holding either a brush in their hand or a computer, stones, wool, glue or thread and needles. Everything was useful, everything could be turned with a little imagination into their chosen products.

Students were able to demonstrate habits of mind including persistence, perseverance, curiosity, ­resourcefulness, literacy and social capital by engaging in real pursuits. And it makes us think how important it is for MAKING to permeate the entire school.

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During this project we were not encountered with as many “learning disabilities” as we usually do in our regular lessons. Each student brought their own abilities and creativity to their group and together they worked around solving problems… As  educators, the best we can do is to prepare children to solve problems that we adults might have not anticipated.

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”Wisdom Begins in Wonder” unit allowed students to take control of their own learning as they took ownership of projects they did not just design but define. The children learned to share ideas and work with others, to offer constructive criticism sensitively, and to praise the effort and achievements of their peers. They learnt perseverance by working on a project that made them want to stick to it.

Children liked making decisions for themselves and doing practical work. They loved creating products they could see, or touch for themselves. They feel proud to have done so. It brings learning to life. Head and hands working together; having to think about specific purposes and uses for their products is much more demanding than simply following instructions to make something. Children have to think, decide and plan, evaluate and improve and share solutions with a real audience. Which makes the results as rewarding for us teachers as they are for the kids.

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Families were invited to witness the presentation of students final productions/products. In this final display students presented their projects, explained the engineering design process they had been through and showed their understanding of the topic by enthusiastically sharing their work. This stage was a complete success! Finally, students reflected on the whole unit so as to recapture and revisit their learning experience.

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