This is still under construction…

I want to talk about how students at laptops contributing to SPAN Wall did not have the same conversations as small groups of students at SMARTBoards contributing to the wall. SMALL groups around SMART boards had emotional conversations about how they do not think they could go over the top, etc… I also want to talk about how having the whole brainstorm on one wall was immersive and impactful. As a whole class, the SPAN WALL allowed for a very different conversation. The grouping of images and organization of the wall allowed them to talk about the connections between different aspects. How did the architecture of the wall contribute to the flooding and the filth, how did that contribute to vermine like rats and how they used sick rats as biological warfare.

This is a great example of how at first glance SMARTBoards and SPAN wall are the same, but in reality they are not. They are different tools for different purposes.

I need to expand these ideas and add pics.   

A major question around the passion projects in the earlier posts are how does one assess the learning when they are all learning such different things?

The answer comes in the form of a digital portfolio, in our case, Nureva Troove.

The portfolio contains multiple aspects of studying history and for being a student. Armand and I both believe that it is not enough just to study our subject area. There is an important but subtle difference. We believe that we are to teach kids how to be good students, and good people who have skills and that we are to use our subject area to do this. More important that a physics formula or a history fact, is the ability to time manage, to communicate, to think critically and not just memorize something or believe something because the teacher or a textbook said so. We must show it is important to us, but spending time and energy on it and providing a grade value to it. Troove helps with this.

Few assignments for the kids give them a chance to do a  video self-reflection. Although they have complete freedom, there are some broad guiding questions to help them along. Out of this came some very insightful comments about how students think they learn and their perception of the situation they think they find themselves. In some cases Armand was able to point out that there were times during the day that were bits of time that could be better used. Although we all need a break and lunch is important, talking with friends for 45 min rather than 1 hr at noon probably accomplishes the same mental wellness and social connections and yet provides some additional time to get some check on the to do list.

In some cases, it was eye opening to hear what kids lives were like at home. They were stressed about meeting a deadline. Although they were working hard and were excited about the project, they had to work 30 hours a week to contribute to the household income. Armand was able to encourage this student and discuss some options to negotiate a flexible deadline. Up until this point in time, that was not a typical thing that a student could do, negotiate with reason for a new deadline.

The video submissions in Troove helped to point out to some students that they were not good time managers and the number one way to decrease the stress of a large todo list was not to fret, panic and procrastinate, but rather start checking things off the list. Find some of the low hanging fruit and shorten the list. As the semester went on, I am thinking of a specific handful of kids who would say that they learned lots of history but they learned even more about how to manage time, stress and study.

Troove also had a more academic side, where students could submit aspects of their passion project and comment on them. They could do a self evaluation against a rubric. In particular, students gave them selves a low mark on the “wow factor”, often confusing flashy but superficial with depth. They did not equate multiple conversations with world experts in their respective fields with something that had lights, and animation and sparkle. If I were to combine the thoughts of many students into one, it might sound something like this…”I do not have anything special in my presentation, I just had multiple emails with people all over the world who do this kind of stuff as a living and then put them together to make my own idea that could be launched Canada wide.”

Some fantastic learning, but how do you put this on a test. Maybe a test mark is not the important thing.

A few days before the start of a new semester, the semester that my own sons are taking French Immersion Modern History, Armand asks the question, “How might we make a connection between what kids love in their own life and Modern History?”

As a teacher, I am excited about any kind of thoughtful innovation. As a parent, I wonder about the education of my own sons. This question is very intriguing to me.

Armand already had an idea of Passion Projects. Give kids a chance to talk about themselves and their passions and find some connections to Modern History. How will we make it a valuable experience? Students will value what we value. They will know what we value by what where spend our class time and what grades we assign to it. (This hurts a bit, but tends to be true for a certain, and significant portion of the population)

How do we balance passion projects with the mandated curriculum? In a middle school, there is seems to be more flexibility in content, where as in high school, it seems to be content heavy. Remember, Armand was an award winning Middle School Teacher and is now has completed a single semester of  high school.

He dedicated on average, 1 day a week (after Googles 80-20). As a teacher, I got to watch what happened during class time. As a parent I got an inside look into what was happening at home. It was a rough start for the first month and a half, because of the passion projects and because of the wonderful but new way in which content was “delivered”, but that deserves its own post.

If students are going to embody the project, they needed to have some control. Armand used tech to do small group collaborations and then a whole class collaboration where they defined the critical parts of the project, co-created a rubric and decided on the relative values of each category. This was empowering to kids. It also gave the a chance to talk out loud what is meant by “wow factor”, to talk about the difference between superficial and depth, about using perhaps unreliable internet resources, and using the internet to make contact with actual real live people or official historical archives.

With 2 weeks left to go, my sons, and most of the rest of class is freaking out. They have been working on it little by little all semester because Armand had created check in points all along the calendar. Now it is time to kick it into high gear and take all of the diffuse research and learning and turn it into a “no time limit” presentation. They are researching, creating, trying to find something with a wow factor.

The long weekend before it is due, they asked me to cancel a canoe trip so that they can work on their project. They were VERY invested. We can go canoeing next weekend after it is submitted.

I am usually skeptical of Powerpoints. The night before, both sons call me down to show off their Powerpoints. They were well done, not the normal “cue-cards-everything-you-will-possibly-need-shown-on-the-slide-so-you-can-read”. A picture and maybe a word to support what they were saying. One made a connection to the medical field while another talked about architecture. However, they were not just talks. One 3D printed a scull and is going to put butter in it. Then he is going to re-create how they would have done a trepanation through the eye socket to deal with brain issues. The other 3D printed the vision of the Nazi Germany main plaza and compared it to other influential architectural pieces such as the Pantheon, the Eifel tower and L’Arc de Triumphe.

The amount of information and more importantly the connections that they were making from different parts of history and to the present were amazing. I did well as a student in history, but I never made these kinds of connections , with such detail and insight. Very higher order thinking, and that is just from my own sons.

One girl is looking at a yoga and a connection to the Syrian refugees that just arrived. Another is talking about how Baseball had an influence on the war and vice versa. Still another is looking to redesigning the bolt action of a ross rifle so that fewer soldiers would have been injured or died from a faulty design.

They reached outside of the classroom. The UN Human rights commission retweeted some of the work. The Canadian Human rights commission contacted our school principal and left a message that contained only Armand’s name and a return number. So the principal called Armand into his office and asked, “Why is the Human Rights Commission calling us and how are you attached to it?” He was pleasantly surprised and impressed when they discussed that it was about a school project and not something that happened in class.

The Ross Rifle project made contact with the armed forces base who had some rifles in their library and would let him take a look if he could travel an hour to the base. A world class 3D game design company gave him a 3D model of the rifle in full detail.

The Baseball project communicated with the head researcher for the Major League Baseball and were having intelligent back and forth conversations.

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau heard about these projects, he became interested in them. Particularly the Syrian Refugee and Yoga project. They may go nation wide shortly.

Although he won the Prime Minster’s Award for work he did in Middle School, I suspect he is well on his way to winning another one for his high school work.

Not often you get to share the stage with @JustinTrudeau! I stood up there for all my colleagues…so much charisma! pic.twitter.com/vW3UnfDsIl

— Armand Doucet (@DoucetArmand) May 13, 2016

Armand won the Prime Minister’s Award for teaching for his work that he did while at middle school. It has been interesting watching him take all the cool things about middle school and adapting it to high school. I wonder if the students know that their high school projects are about to explode onto the world scene?

That makes two Prime Minister’s Award Winners at one school… How many more do we need to break the record? More importantly, how can we use this to change school??

Thank you Robert Martellacci, for featuring our podcast in the recent issue of MINDSHARE Learning @MindShareNews @MindShareLearn, Canada’s Ed Tech Magazine. It was an honour to be selected to represent the Atlantic Region in the SPOTLight. Thank you so much for your continued support.

http://mindsharelearning.ca/2016/05/03/ian-Fogarty/

MindShare Learning Board Meeting

Here is the paper that was presented at the ISEC IEEE STE(a)M Conference held at Princeton U over Spring Break.

Please Click…

ISEC 2016 Engineering Brightness Paper Final draft V2

Almost exactly one year ago, two individuals were extremely generous and took time to write a letter of proposal. PLEASE CLICK !!

Room 2042 April 2, 2015

Since then, SMART Technologies donated 7 Interactive Flat Panels and 2 KAPP Boards. Nureva installed a 20ft SPAN Interactive Wall system.

My vision from a decade ago is almost complete. All I need now if for students to have their own connected devices and upgraded computers that will run today’s software.

Thank you to all of you who have contributed over the years.

Click on each pic to get a readable image

RHS Engineering Brightness students attended the IEEE Integrated STEM conference at Princeton University in New Jersey. The theme of the conference is around how we can merge the arts and sciences together FOR PURPOSE. When you say for Purpose, that has many different definitions for many different people.

The first lesson happened in the hotel lobby. We gathered for a dress rehearsal. What were the three stories? It is not just about making lights for students who cannot study after sunset.

There is also the collaboration between an elementary school in the UK, a middle school in the US and a high school in Canada. There is the idea of using Philanthropy for motivation for learning. Different audience members would want to hear different stories. We practiced handing out business cards and how to tag team delegates. Two students could chat with one group while the other two students await to engage another group when they arrive. The learning is not about science, but about communications.

The second lesson came from watching the presentation before mine. Each talk was scheduled for 15 min. Mine was about to begin and the previous group was still going strong. Five minutes into my time, they handed the mic over to the last member of their group who then rambled for an additional 7 minutes about little. It was frustrating to the audience, disrespectful of the other speakers and interfered with the whole day’s schedule. My students found it surprising that they had not practiced to know the time. Their teachers cut them off when time is up. Now it makes sense why. My talk was practiced at 14 min and the actual talk took only 12 min.

The third lesson came from the placement of their poster. They were at the Friendship Center early and had their choice of poster placement. Location, location, location. They chose the board directly beside one of the exhibitors, right at the Y in the hall. As participants came down the hall from the meal and bathrooms on the way to the stairs, their poster was the first one in line. They received a bunch of traffic. Although they were tasked with getting rid of all of their business cards, there were fewer delegates than expected, although quality was important. They had great discussions.

The fourth lesson came from a PhD candidate in communications. Their poster told a story with few words and lots of pics, large font with high contrast. They were praised for their poster as compared to a lab report on a large piece of paper. There is a time and place for both styles. If you are in front of the poster, so many words are not necessary.

Many of the delegates sought me out of the masses to congratulate me on my students. They told an engaging story in a logical manner with competence and confidence. It was so wonderful to see different personalities take hold. One student who turns bright red in answering a question in class all of a sudden came to life, was animated, good pacing, looked people in the eye, and spoke as opposed to reciting. Some ot the other students already had that ability. It was also interesting to see that some who are vocal in the small peer group took a quieter behind the scene role in the crowd.

At the end of the day, it was VERY empowering for them. They saw how the many different disciplines are required. I cannot just be a science, or engineering or arts person. All talents are needed. They also figured out that they can compete with the world’s best. Small town New Brunswick Education belongs at prestigious Ivey League schools, despite what they sometimes hear from the media and their friends.

RHS Engineering Brightness students attended the IEEE Integrated STEM conference at Princeton University in New Jersey. The theme of the conference is around how we can merge the arts and sciences together FOR PURPOSE. When you say for Purpose, that has many different definitions for many different people. I find it interesting that we write it as an acronym with S.T.E.M as opposed to a single word like STEM, STEAM or ESHTEAM. I wonder if the periods between the letters are part of our subconscious that wants to keep each piece in their own silo. Is the “A” in STEAM just an add on to STEM or is it an integral part that makes something fundamentally different?

Is STEM by itself move us towards Einstein’s quote?

It is a fine line between throwing pieces together and saying that the different disciplines are integrated and having the pieces being dependant on each other. A bunch of athletes who are working out in a gymnasium does not make a team. I was discouraged when one presentation was celebrating how they integrated the arts and STEM. They talked about a book that students had made, but then added a couple of cheezy LED’s to the book. This frustrated me to think that I came all the way to Princeton and that was the level of integration that was presented. My unhappiness was short lived. I was VERY much ENCOURAGED when the same presentation showed the next iteration. It was a teaching tool for the blood flow of a heart. Students had to choose a disease to explore. This group chose a heart defect. The created a nice model of the heart, complete with different colour paint for oxygenated and deoxygenated blood. They also used LED’s to show the flow of blood in the healthy and defective heart. NICE!! The art and science came together for purpose to create a useful tool. The art and science are interdependent. There is synergy. Each is not as good without the other. I was so happy that is was at least one level higher than the bottom of the spectrum of integrating STEM and the ARTS.

Lucinda and Rob have rightly identified that there does not seem to be any kind of formal way of assessing the quality of the intersection between arts and sciences. They are trying to collect exemplars and distill the best practices. Lucinda hopes to produce a matrix that would help educators move from low level integration to high levels.

It was obvious that many of the delegates looked at S.T.E.M and S.T.E.(a) M. I think the periods between the letters are barriers between the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math and arts. Many teach these disciplines, but do so in isolated silos. It also shows that the “a” is lower case, again showing that the arts have a diminutive role to play. Running a STEM themed school and throwing a music or graphics arts class in there does not make for high level integration. Many think that they are at the top of the game, when in reality there are many more multiple levels that they have not yet considered.

These words are words not acronyms. You should not be able to tell the difference between one and the other. They should flow together. If you take a letter away, you should get something different. I was able to sit beside John Price, the VP of INTEL Ed, during the award ceremony for Preston Middle School getting the “middle school of the world” award. I found it interesting that Jon, who was one of the evaluators, was surprised when one of the teachers was identified as an English teacher. Jon said, ” I thought he was a science guy. Now that I think about it, he was always talking about language”. The language and the science were so integrated that it was difficult to distinguish what class it was. This is what we must aspire to. It should not be “S.T.E.(a).M. but rather “STEAM”. Each piece should have synergy, more than the sum of the parts.

I wonder if Lucinda’s matrix will help open the eyes of educators and help them move from low level integration of the disciplines to high level. Over supper, I had the pleasure of chatting with Lucinda about the RHS projects like Xenotransplant, Saxby Gale, and Engineering Brightness. She suggested that we would compete with the highest end of the spectrum. These projects take STEAM to a whole new level.

At a Program Director’s for SHAD International (www.shad.ca) meeting a few years ago, we were talking about how STEM is incomplete, and even though STEAM was starting to catch on, it was still missing something. Paul, from SHAD Waterloo, came up with the word “ESHTEAM” purposefully pronounced similar to ESTEEM, to include Entrepreneurship, Humanities and Esteem. The projects that we have in our back pocket bring all of these disciplines together naturally for real purpose. Any real problem is going to have multiple facets that need to be addressed. The Xeno, Saxy and Engineering Brightness projects all fit this bill.

I wonder what will happen when Lucinda’s matrix is done. The theoretical framework of the matrix will need to have some practical examples along the spectrum. The advantage to having only a few sources of examples is that one does not need to worry about offending anyone when one project is at the bottom of the spectrum and others are at the top. Between Chris and I at RHS, Tracey and John at Preston and a few other friends and SHAD, we should be able to populate the book quite nicely.

Hopefully, we can move away from S.T.E.M and towards ESHTEAM and “… awaken joy in creativity expression and knowledge.”