Crowding Out Creativity and Innovation- Wave Table

This entry is about the idea of not giving students “stuff” or directions to allow space in which they can innovate. Less direction or help is more. Don’t crowd the students out of their creativity and innovation.

On Friday, I told my students we would use wave tables to study Reflection, Refraction and Diffraction. Although the information is presented in text, many youtube videos and online, you need to pretend that you are the first ones to study this to maintain the hard work of brain growing. If no one has done this before, how can I give you a procedure? Tell me something about waves. They have 3 days to do what woud normally take only 1.

Day 1 is for assembling the table, playing, trying to figure out what supplies are needed and create a plan. Day 2 is to conduct the lab. Day 3 is wrap up, clean up and organize the wright up.

The really interesting day was today,…day 2. Some groups forgot protractors and rulers. They were surprised when I did not have supplies for them as backup. I am willing to let them fail small. There is some responsibility on their part. But it extends beyond a life lesson.

When their light did not work, I did not try to solve it. I sympathized and asked how they were going to fix it? “you mean you don’t have a back up?”

“Nope…I do not.” This is important. Rather than have a solution presented to them, they figured it out. They improvised a cell phone with LED light. The result was a doubling of the viewing surface, better clarity for data collection and most importantly, real satisfaction and pride in solving the problem on their own.

Another group asked about amplitude. “Can we measure amplitude?”-student
“Sure” and I started to walk away.
“No, how do we measure amplitude?”-student?
“I do not know and I have no machine”, while I was thinking of about three ways to do it.
About 15 minutes later a very excited student runs up and says,”We figured it out. You couldn’t and we did!!” he then explained their innovative solution. Although I could have told them earlier, and they would have had a procedure to collect data better, it would not have been theirs. They created, innovated and were excited.

Too often, we as teachers want to help, we want to find, and we want to provide..particularly if the students are excited. I wonder if we crowd the students too much and do not leave enough space for students to be creative and innovate. Of course the art of teaching is knowing when the space is too large and they quit.

How to become a CFO in. 30 min or less.

Watching Barry Bisson talk about the financials of a start up business using the business canvas and his financial model. He is so good to give them what they need, making it easy to understand without superfluous info. Shad Valley UNB 2012 rocks!!!

Emotion for Engagement

So its the end of the year and keeping kids on task is tough. So I finish every last 3 weeks with projects. The student choose. Some are doing water quality, others are making VandeGraaff machines, some are creating a solar panel charger for Iphones using many calculators.

But these two sweetheart girls do not have an idea of what to do. Earlier I had presented the idea of putting an electric guitar together thinking that someone (I had a group of boys intersted in music in mind) would bite. No one did. So I resuggested that these two girls do it because one of them plays fiddle and it was atleast musical. They reluctantly agreed. Then the fun starts.

At 8 am on Monday, my son’s electric guitar worked perfectly, just slightly out of tune. By 8:30 am, it was in many minute pieces. My pair looked at it bewildered.

All of a sudden, the pair came in upset. They heard from random students who watched us disassemble the guitar, that it worked perfectly before hand. This added pressure the the pair. They were under the impression that we started with junk and if they were not successful, then it was still junk. But knowing that something was destroyed specifically for this purpose, but some pressure on. Then the fun really began…

I told them an almost true story. My twin boys have been preparing a duet (piano/guitar) of Bruno Mars “Just the way you are”, to play at the final middle school variety show to profess their “interest” in a couple fo girls. Then I told my physics girls that the guitar that they were working on was my son’s guitar. Then I played the song on repeat for the entire class to hear while they worked. 

I also told them that I was not particularly impressed with the choice of girls that my boys had chosen (untrue), and that I would not be upset if the guitar never got fixed. This really jumped the inspiration. It was now their mission to ensure that middle school puppy love flourishes.

 

Mount St.Vincent Univ. Dept of Ed.

Thanks to Krista Ritchie for inviting me to speak with your BEd. class. It was fun to look at how I use emotion to increase engagement in the class. I had never really thought about it before. Using the bell for suspense, creating arguments related to the content, telling stories.

I have a new one to add. Two of my students are putting together an electric guitar as part of the circuits portion of the physics 12 class. The students thought I had a guitar in pieces and needed them together. The reality is that at 8 am, the guitar was in perfect working condition and by 8:20 it was completely in pieces with individual wires removed etc… This showed my confidence in them. I was willing to destroy something knowing that it would get fixed.

Then I told them that it was my son’s guitar (true). I told the girls who were putting it together that my twin sons were preparing for the end of school year variety show and that they were getting ready to sing publicly to a couple of girls. Just to add to the ambiance, I played the song on repeat. The perception is that the future of middle school romance depends on the re-assembly of the guitar. They are working hard. This tactic would probably not work with a group of guys.

Thanks for making me think Krista and class!!

Smartboards (IWB’s) are NOT TPR’s (Traditional Pedagogy Replicators)

Smartboards (IWB’s) are NOT TPR’s ( Traditional Pedagogy Replicators). If this is how you see them, you are not using the right! If you are not using them right, then the IWB’s are a waste of time and money. More importantly, they are a waste of kids’ brain growth. However, use them correctly, and they are a very powerful tool for 21st century learning, in particular influencing group dynamics for critical thinking, collaboration and communication.

http://edcompassblog.smarttech.com/archives/6556

Insulin Sculpture: Art, Science and Trades

My students spent portions of two semesters combining art, science and trades to create a large sculpture of Insulin. Thanks to the ArtSmart grant for providing necessary funds. Thank you to our artist, Joss Richer, and our tech teacher Renee Levine. Great work guys. Still waiting for your full sized interpretive poster with patent economics, history, and chemistry. More color for purpose.
Here are two videos. Follow the link at the top menu to RHS Science blog and see more of the insulin project as it happened.

A great day of meeting superstar

A great day to meet some great people.

Minister Carr, a FANTASTIC surprise. I love how excited he was to see Sir Ken, but I also love how happy he was to talk.Who knew he and his brother both wrestled.

Sir Ken Robinson… A great talk, very funny, and very gracious. He signed my book. I gave him my card. Turns out I re-met him with all the other NB people. After hours of meet and greet, he was still talking, smiling and asking questions.”Do you love what you do?” There is a right and wrong answer.

Bill Strickland. Wow. I love how he has no time to wait. The sense of urgency and the real solutions. There seems to be lots of talkers and thinkers. Bill seems is a doer.

Mario and Brian Gray are always great. How is it that they can bring their “A” game EVERY TIME.

I hope they will look at the insulin project..art and science and trades together.

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