I haven't blogged in a while for a number of reasons, but this is one I needed to type out to remember. 

Over the past few years, I have been fortunate to work alongside a number of teachers on a variety of 3D Printing projects: keychains, nameplates, irregular dice, objects that would've helped during the Industrial Revolution, and more. Early last fall, Mr. Robinson asked about doing a project with his students, and we landed on the idea of bubble wands. Drawn from the vision of Ashley Toews and Patricia Vandenberg, we created a plan to have students design their own bubble wands in Desmos and Tinkercad. 

Then we thought about it more, and realized that there was so much more potential.

Mr. Robinson, the department chair and Integrated Math 2-Honors teacher at the school, wanted to make it a collaborative project. So, with the approval of our admin and theirs, we met with a neighboring elementary school to talk about the possibility of this being a collaboration with their students. 

I was there as the "expert" in 3D printing, along with Mr. Robinson, and we had a phenomenal discussion with the elementary teaching team regarding what would take place, how the logistics would play out, and more. We agreed that this would be exciting for the kids, but had no idea how it would really play out.

The elementary groups, grades 4 through 6, were partnered up with high school "engineers" who would take their Google Drawings (with geometric figures, as part of their content standards), put them into Desmos, then bring them to life with Tinkercad and the 3D printer. Completed in December, the products were sent to the printer soon thereafter, and the printer stayed busy through the first two weeks of January. 2 models were printed for each group so that they could share, and many were printed in different sizes, just to make it fun.

On the day of, we had nearly 200 elementary students appear in the cafeteria, ready to meet their engineers and learn about the process.

The school's principal, teachers, film crew, and students were all listening intently to the high school engineers as they described their process, some potential design flaws/hurdles that they had to work through, and the final products they had in their hands. 

IT WAS A SUCCESS!!!

From there, we headed outside because, well, you can't just hand a kid a wand​ and say that it works; THEY NEEDED TO EXPERIENCE IT!

Ahead of time, Mr. Robinson created the bubble solution in a 5 gallon bucket. Once the passing period had ended and no more high schoolers were wandering around the quad, I went out to fill tins with the solution and have them ready for the groups.

​The leaders took their groups out to the tins, set them up, and...

Yeah. So. There's that.

The looks on their faces: priceless!

One side benefit that we were hoping for, and got back in spades, was the connection between the elementary and high school students. The high schoolers were prepped with "look, you have to realize that it might be really intimidating for some kids to be on a high school campus." The elementary school kids came in wide-eyed and excited, and there were zero issues. The only problem? How do we keep doing this?!

As we were closing it down for the day, I walked alongside a group and smiled as I heard their interaction:

Elementary Student: "This was so much fun. I can't wait for high school."
High School Student: "Not every day is like this, but I'm sure happy you are here."
ES: "No, that's ok. I just thought it would be scary, but it's not."
HSS: "Keep working hard and you can do some pretty awesome things here."

Y'know, that made my week. A kid who looks forward to what is to come and a kid showing appreciation for what she has, all while encouraging the next wave of world-changers.

Happy "Bubbles" Fishing

I wanted to reflect on a recent lesson I was asked to come in and support: implementing stations in a secondary classroom. The setting is in a class of students who have failed at least one year of high school math and are trying to regain the foundational skills necessary to move on. I already shared how the stations were set up, so I'll leave that part out. The part to reflect on now is the "how did it go" portion.

​Lessons Learned:

• Even with a 52 minute period, we didn't have time to get through 4 stations of 11 minutes each. I knew it was lofty, but thought I could make it work. Being that this was the first time they had done students for quite a while, it took a little bit of explaining, and that chewed into the clock. Maybe we shorten the stations to 9 minutes instead of 11, or lower the expectation to students completing 3 stations instead of 4.
• The kids didn't panic. When they were in the stations, they worked. When they were told to rotate stations, they got up and moved. 
• The students were respectful the entire time. One of us was facilitating conversations, and the other was in "station 1" to check student work and provide support. Granted, some didn't work very hard, but there wasn't a revolt because of the new format.
• The content was over some of their heads. We both think that, based on feedback from students, the content was a bit too rigorous. Maybe it's because this was a new format and a challenging concept.
• The organization of the groups really matters. Considering that the stations were set up in a way for our advanced learners to see a certain 4 stations and our struggling learners to see their own version of 4 stations (and everyone in between), the design and flow of the groups needed work. It's not that it was a catastrophe, but if we're looking for a place to improve, this is certainly somewhere to focus.
• What you do now matters; It's what you do afterward that counts.

Now that the students have each gone through 3+ stations and have done some work in different formats, the next few days are going to be pivotal in how successful the stations were. The teacher, Mrs. Stewart, and I talked about using the stations as a launching point for future lessons. "Hey, remember when we did the stations? X, Y, and Z, you were at station 1 and you seemed to understand those problems. Can you tell us the answer, and we can come together as a class to make sure we all understand?" Little did group 1 know that they were being set up for success, with the teacher checking their work beforehand to ensure that it was correct, then turning them into the experts. After all, not everyone got to station 1, and this puts them ahead of many of their classmates. Spoiler alert: Group 1 is a low-performing group.

The 7 stations that were set up for that day were filled with more work than anyone could finish in a 52-minute period, so it provides the teacher--and her class--a foundation on which they can build the rest of the unit as they go through the problems and activities together. 

Mrs. Stewart's reflection from the activity is right where I'm at as well.​

I personally loved the aspects of all of it, and I am excited to try stations again. Thanks for all your work on this and I look forward to the next time you are in my classroom.  They really did great in class today after yesterday.  They started to raise their hands and wanted to answer.  

I'm not saying that stations are the solution to the woes of secondary education when kids don't understand a concept. What I am saying, I think, is that being willing to take a risk and try something new has the potential to turn into something much greater than a one day lesson that was a bit more than ok. From here, we don't know where the momentum takes us, but I'm ready to continue working with Mrs. Stewart and her group of learners as we continue to figure it out!

Happy "Station Celebration" Fishing