Is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Really the Best Option to Save the Earth?

The Challenge:

Before I went through the Hybrid program, I had previously learned that humans learn best through hands-on "play time". This previous learning helped me with this upcoming challenge. After reading through research such as Lifelong Kindergarten, Learning from Creative Teachers, and Stanford's Design Thinking, I was challenged to create a hands-on learning experience for my fifth-grade students. The purpose of this activity was to design a lesson that pushed me to include all five phases of the Design Thinking Process (Plattner, n.d.). A wise mentor once told me that "The secret of the universe is you learn the work by doing the work", therefore, I needed to go through all the five phases myself while planning before asking my students to embark on the same journey. When creating the lesson, I had to ask myself three questions similar to Berger's (2014) A More Beautiful Question: How do I approach my maker challenge? What do I create with my opportunity? and How do I build my idea? To think about this, I created a Maker Journal to document my thinking process through the five phases. After completing the Maker Journal, I decided my plan was to iterate a previously made project-based learning unit surrounding the Earth's four spheres (lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere).

                    Terrar, D. (2018). What is Design Thinking?. Agile Thinking. http://www.theagileelephant.com/what-is-design-thinking/

After thinking through this challenge, I came to the conclusion that this is not solely about my students learning a Common Core standard. The maker space challenge is meant for my students to gain 21st Century Skills, such as critical thinking, collaboration with others, presenting, and technological literacy that will not just aid them in classroom learning, but also in their adult lives.

My MAET Makers Lesson Plan

The Process:

When thinking about how children (in my case, elementary-aged students) learn best when planning my MAET Makers Lesson Plan, I can't help but go back to the "secret of the universe" that my mentor told me. This strategy of learning by doing is referenced in three of the texts I have read within the Hybrid program. The first and foremost is Lifelong Kindergarten. In this text, Resnick (2014) goes into how the model that most kindergarten classrooms have of play-based learning experiences develops critical thinkers. This plays (no pun intended) into the maker space lesson because my students are playing with the household materials to create their prototype and playing with the TinkerCad software in order to gain an understanding of how the software works. None of these experiences were teacher-directed and both of them lead to students' creative problem-solving. Also, in Learning from Creative Teachers, the authors go on to explain that when real-world scenarios are infused into lessons, students are grounded in "real-world" critical thinking skills (Henriksen & Mishra, 2013). One of my goals as an educator is to prepare my students for their next steps in life, and ultimately adulthood. It would be doing them a disservice if I did not incorporate "real-world" learning into my classroom bubble.

A visual representation of my TPACK planning during the MAET Makers challenge including context, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge, technology knowledge, and their overlaps.

One of the main frameworks of the MAET program is TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). After learning this framework, I knew I needed to incorporate this into my lesson planning sequence. After I determined my lesson content, the technology I was using, and my pedagogy strategies, I also wanted to determine the overlap areas. At this stage in the students' science unit, I decided that the best pedagogical strategy for both content and technology was a hands-off, student-driven method. This allowed students to have the freedom to use the research that they deemed important for their solution to shine through in their 3D prototype model. This was also part of my one evolution of this lesson plan (so far) was to incorporate more peer support into the technology content area. Students would lean on each other for answers, not use the teacher as a "Google". This inevitably teaches perseverance and collaboration. However, I thought it was best to give the students the basic amount of background knowledge they would need in order to engage in the concept of three-dimensional printing. I thought it would be best in this part to incorporate audio-visual elements in the form of videos to introduce this to students. If I did not think of the overlaps in technology, pedagogy, and content, I would be doing my students, and myself, a disservice by not tapping into the art that is teaching.

The Product:

After quite a while of playing with TinkerCad myself, I was able to create a prototype similar to what my students could make. Even though I am not the best 3D print designer, I am proud of my work. After realizing how much pride I have in my accomplishments, it makes me ecstatic to see my students (hopefully) have the same pride in their work in the near future.

This example prototype is what I will be sharing with my students to give them inspiration for their projects.

References:

Berger, W. (2014). A More Beautiful Question. Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Henriksen, D., Mishra, P. (2013). Learning from Creative Teachers. Educational Leadership. 70(5). http://hybrid.msuedtechsandbox.com/MAETel1-2019/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Creative-Teachers-Henriksen-Mishra2013.pdf

Mishra, P. & Koehler, M. (2006). Technological pedagogical content knowledge: A framework for teacher knowledge. Teachers College Record. 108(6), 1017-1054. 

Plattner, H. (n.d.). An Introduction to Design Thinking Process Guide. Institute Design at Stanford. https://web.stanford.edu/~mshanks/MichaelShanks/files/509554.pdf

Resnick, M. (2018). Lifelong Kindergarten. Cultures of Creativity.  https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/CulturesCreativityEssay.pdf

Thoughtful Learning. (2022). What are 21st century skills? https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/FAQ/what-are-21st-century-skills

Image Credits:

Terrar, D. (2018). What is Design Thinking?. Agile Thinking. http://www.theagileelephant.com/what-is-design-thinking/