creating digital interactive engineering notebooks in a ...€¦ · marshmallow challenge goal:...
TRANSCRIPT
Creating Digital Interactive Engineering Notebooks in a
First Grade Classroom
Brandon Lee Dever Elementary School, Boston, MA
Kristen Wendell University of Massachusetts Boston
Note: To download the StoryKit app, search in the App store for “iPhone only” apps. StoryKit appears as an iPhone-only app, but it does download onto iPads.
Setting the Stage: The Marshmallow Challenge
Goal: Build a tall tower that supports a marshmallow at its highest point.
Assessing the Marshmallow Challenge
How would you support and evaluate these “students” as they work on the challenge?
Assessing Engineering Design
What was your experience of trying to support and evaluate students while they engineered?
Our Dilemma
Easy to Assess: Did students build a tower that could hold the marshmallow?
Harder to Assess: What ideas and processes did students use to construct their tower?
With many students in the primary grade classroom, it is…
But$this$is$the$kind$of$assessment$we$need$in$order$to$support$student$learning.$But$how$to$do$it$with$25+$students$engineering$at$the$same$9me?$
Limitations of Paper & Pencil
Limitations of Paper & Pencil
Our Solution
To download the StoryKit app, search in the App store for “iPhone only” apps. StoryKit appears as an iPhone-only app, but it does download onto iPads.
Our Context
• Dual language English/Spanish elementary school
• Most students speak Spanish at home • Engineering as a weekly 40-min “specials”
class • Engineering teacher travels to
students’ homeroom • Tried digital notebooks with 1st grade in
May and June of 2013 • Teams of three 1st graders each
Our Research
We familiarized ourselves with… • Science notebook guidelines • Design journals used with older students • Various iPad apps for students’ digital
documentation
Chose Story Kit because: • It’s free • It’s not glitzy; it has limited functions • It uploads to the cloud
The Bridge Design Project
Find$a$Problem$and$Brainstorm$(1$day)$
Research$(3$days)$$
Design$(1$day)$
Build$and$Test$(1$day)$
The Bridge Design Project
Find$a$Problem$and$Brainstorm$(1$day)$
Research$(3$days)$$
Design$(1$day)$
Build$and$Test$(1$day)$
Day$1$Read$Across&the&Stream&(Ginsburg).$What$is$the$hen$and$chicks’$problem?$$Sketch,$photograph,$and$dictate$possible$solu9ons.$
Days$2,$3,$&$4$Build/photo/dictate,$then$test/photo/dictate$$bridges$made$of$different$materials.$$Day$2:$Straws$Day$3:$Index$cards$Day$4:$Cards$&$LEGOs$
Day$5$Draw,$$photograph,$and$dictate$a$BIG$design$diagram$for$the$final$bridge.$$Gallery$walk$of$bridge$designs.$
Day$6$Build/photo/dictate,$then$test/photo/dictate$$the$final$bridge.$
Day 1: Finding the Problem & Brainstorming
On#Day#1,#we:#• Read$the$story$• Talked$about$the$problem$and$ways$to$solve$it$
• Discussed$“brainstorming”$• Modeled$using$the$iPad$to$record$engineering$design$ideas$
Discovered$room$to$improve$our$$modeling$for$the$children$!$No9ce$the$storytelling$“genre”$in$the$first$team’s$voice$recordings$
Day 1: Finding the Problem & Brainstorming
“I have two baby chicks on mine that are trying to cross the bridge so they can play in the grass and eat the food with their mother, because their mother already went on the other side, because they want to play with their mother and, there's, they can't go swim, and they were trying to go, trying to go over the bridge, and they hold hands because they wanna be safe, and they wanna, and they want to be very, very safe.”
Day 1: Finding the Problem & Brainstorming
“I wrote that there's a chick, and he wants to go over, he wants to pass the bridge (say it loud!), and he wants to go across there because he wants to see someone. I think that. And he wants to go back home, and he wants to have fun at home, and he loves his-.”
Day 1: Finding the Problem & Brainstorming$
Contrast$the$previous$notebook$pages$with$the$following,$which$includes$more$engineering$design$details$…$
Day 1: Finding the Problem & Brainstorming$
“Uh, this is, this is my idea. Um, I put in a bridge that, that when you, when the chicken goes on the bridge, they go past, and then, and then, they, they pull it up and the bridge comes up, and the other animals fall in the water. (Louder!)”
Day 2: Research on Straw Bridges
Some children interpreted the digital documentation task as we’d intended it….
“Okay, we made a bridge. We worked, did good teamwork, and we're doing good. (Wait a minute! Let's make it one minute! Let's make it nine minutes.) Okay, so, we did good, it's pretty good. You should take a look at it, and I'll see you in 99, I'll see you in 99 years, okay?”
Other children interpreted the digital documentation task a bit differently. Like this…
Day 2: Research on Straw Bridges
Day 2: Research on Straw Bridges$
“Um, and, four, and four, and four straws, and there's the –”
Or this….
Giving Feedback to Students “An engineer would tell us, what they were thinking to come up with their design, and what ideas they have to make it better. An engineer would also take a picture of what happened to the bridge after they tested it.”
Giving Feedback to Students “I see that you guys taped the straws right down to the desk to help them stay up, and I thought that was a great idea. One thing I'm curious ….You sort of have the straws next to each other, but separate. How could we have put those straws together so they become stronger?”
Day 3: Research on Index-Card Bridges “I think the, I think the, I think the, the bridge is gonna work because we put tape on the bottom of the bridge so it could hold up, and, and so it could not let the hens fall in the stream.”
“We were right because… we were putting the tape on, under the bridge, and then it worked, and then we were, we were, going to test it and then it worked…. We had to put the tape along the bottom so it can hold up. But when we put the tape on the bottom, if we didn't put the tape on the bottom, it wouldn't, it wouldn't work because if it would, because we tested it and then it didn't work. Then we tested it, and then it worked. And then we were happy, because it worked.”
Day 4: Research on LEGO-and-Card Bridges “Good morning, my name is ____, and I made a bridge with paper and (inaudible).” “(Okay, talk, talk!) Okay, mine has a lot of LEGOson my structure, on my thing, on my house, bridge. And I put a big LEGO under it so it can hold up all the LEGOs. It can hold up a lot. I put some black ones on the side, some black ones on the other side, and then, I put paper, I put paper on two sides again. And then I, I, so people can walk under it.” “My bridge can hold a lot of LEGOs, okay? It can hold these orange things. Okay? Okay!” “My name’s ___, and I made this bridge. It can hold a lot of LEGOs. Like one hundred-”
Day 4: Research on LEGO-and-Card Bridges
Day 5: Designing the Final Bridge • Look at engineers’ design drawings. • Label key bridge parts. • Ask children to create design drawings. • Gallery walk of children’s designs.
Day 5: Designing the Final Bridge • Look at engineers’ design drawings. • Label key bridge parts. • Ask children to create design drawings. • Gallery walk of children’s designs.
Day 6: Building and Testing the Final Bridge
“What we did was we put, we put two, two things at the end, and that big buildings at the end, and then, and, and we put a big piece of the bridge on top of both sides, and it's big now. And we put something in the middle so it won't, it will stand up, and it's not breaking. And we put cards on top of it, so when the, so when the people or the chickens walk over it, it is, it is um, it's okay, and they won't get drowned.”
Scaffolding the Process
Scaffolding the Process
Our Lessons Learned
What went well…
What didn’t go well…
Tweaks for next time…
Connections to Science in the Early Grades
• Claim, evidence, and reasoning as the focus of students’ digital documentation
• What is a science activity where you could use this Storykit digital documentation tool?
Demonstra9on$of$Story$Kit$
Day$3:$Research$on$IndexaCard$Bridges$
