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Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play
Projects, Passion, Peers, and Play
Article: Creating Creators
Article: Creating Creators
creating-creators_mitchel-resnick-academic.pdf
“By providing young people with opportunities to work on projects, based on their passions, in collaboration with peers, in a playful spirit, we can help them prepare for a world where creative thinking is more important than ever before.” – Mitch Resnick in Lifelong Kindergarten.
Motivation and Work that Matters
Motivation and Work that Matters
"…Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might..." Ecclesiastes v 10
As any classroom teacher can tell you, student learning is greatly dependent on motivation.
As Daniel Pink, in his book Drive (see video below) points out, motivation is dependent upon three factors- mastery, autonomy, and purpose.
While mastery depends heavily upon well-structured lessons and enthusiasm on the part of the teacher, autonomy and purpose depend upon the student's sense that they are in control of their learning, and that their individual work has meaning.
Incorporating art-making in science and engineering projects- the 'A' in STEAM- helps students to express this meaning, whether in graphic art, a musical composition, a Tik-Tok video, or an interactive Scratch story. And once the work is created, whether a drawing, an interactive story, or a video, it must be exhibited and celebrated, both to communicate what goes on in school to the larger community, and to communicate to the student that their work MATTERS.
How do you show to your students that their work matters?
To be of use
To be of use
By Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Marge Piercy, "To be of use" from Circles on the Water. Copyright © 1982 by Marge Piercy. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Work-That-Matters-Teachers-Guide-to-Project-based-Learning.pdfDrive: What motivates us
Drive: What motivates us
John Spencer: Why Every Classroom Should have a makerspace
http://www.spencerauthor.com/classroom-makerspace/
Exhibition: showing that work matters
Exhibition: showing that work matters
In the workplace, it is essential that employees feel valued. And the more you support and engage them, the more value they’ll provide to the company. Similarly, in schools that emphasize project-based learning, student project work is prominently displayed on both the physical and virtual walls(class website), communicating the message that the work of students is valued.
Below: Walls at High Tech High
In-class Discussion: How do you communicate to your students that they are valued and that their work matters?
In-class Discussion: How do you communicate to your students that they are valued and that their work matters?
Online Project Galleries
Online Project Galleries
NuVu Studios https://cambridge.nuvustudio.com/discover/projects
High Tech High https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects/
Dayton Regional STEM Academy https://daytonregionalstem2.padlet.org/jennreid1/SpringExhibition2020
Lemelson- MIT InventTeams https://lemelson.mit.edu/inventeams
Showing that Work Matters @ MIT:
Showing that Work Matters @ MIT:
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