3D Printing Collaboration - Connecting with Other Schools!

3D Printing Collaboration - Elementary School & Middle School

WOW! We just finished collaborating with some 8th graders on a 3D printing project...and I was blown away by the process!

If you are at an elementary school, check out the courses offered at your local middle school and reach out to the teachers to see if you can collaborate! Or vice versa...

At the middle school level, our district offers Creative Arts options for students. These include: World Culture, Industrial Technology, and Career Connections.

We were fortunate to have our Industrial Technology teacher reach out to us to form a partnership. Four of his eighth grade students worked with four of our 5th graders to plan, design, and create 3D printed projects!

Our PHENOMENAL local library then hosted an event where people shared their projects with the community. What a great way to celebrate their hard-work and creativity!



What did our students learn from this process:

• Communication Skills: Students communicated using Google HangOuts and Google Docs. This gave students a chance to practice communicating in different ways...and to do something similar to what engineers who are working together across the world do!

• Technical Skills: Students worked with Tinkercad (a free online software program that can be used to 

 

Thingiverse.com is a great site that allows you to upload and download projects that you can then tweak.

• Habits of Mind: Designing a 3D project is hard. Really hard. It requires a lot of trial and error...and collaboration! Want to do more with Habits of Mind? Check this out!

Check out the "finished" projects. We still have some tweaks to do!

Part of a Desk Organizer
We need to re-print one of the pieces. 

3D Globe Puzzle
We still need to problem-solve on how to make it so the pieces fit on the globe.

How Students Turned MISTAKES into MASTERPIECES!

How students may respond to a "mistake" prior to this activity:

How students will respond to a "mistake" after this activity: 

Showing students that making mistakes is okay one thing, but embracing them and seeing them as opportunities is something that takes practice!

Here's how our students changed their mindset: 

Download the Beautiful Oops activity here. There is a primary and intermediate version. Below shows the intermediate version. 

• We squiggled a random scribble on paper...
• We read Beautiful Oops 

• We reflected on the message through some close reading. 
• We looked at things differently. 

• 5. ...Then got a second opinion (cough..peer feedback...cough). 

 

• After...we got CREATIVE! We added details to make our "mistakes" beautiful. We shared our masterpieces with peers and received MORE feedback! 
• FINALLY, we reflected on the experience. 

BAM. In one 45 minute lesson, students practice the following Genius Hour skills: peer feedback, planning, AND reflection...with a little sprinkle of creativity.

Students had a blast turning these doodles into masterpieces. It made some students really shine. Here are some "after" photos of examples of what students came up with!

This one is unreal. If you look at it like this, it's a wolf...

But cover up the other side, and it's a bird! So creative!! 

Building a Library of Books and Ideas!

Building a Library of Books and Ideas...for Genius Hour!!!

Before diving into a Genius Hour project, we spent some time discussing a growth mindset, practicing brainstorming, problem-solving, and collaborating. We had students practice peer feedback, make their learning visible in different ways, and reflect in a variety of ways. 

Our book discussions and activities with have helped us practice these skills and expose us to new ideas!

                         

               Activity                                               Activity                                                 Activity              

               Activity                                                                                                               Activity

(and more!) 

Picking A Topic for Genius Hour

In one of our previous posts, we had students complete an A Lot, Some, Little chart after picking a topic. This year, we spent some more time playing around with different ideas before getting to that lesson. 

Students Considered Their Passions...

We had students list out their favorite activities and their passions. We had students use each other as resources when brainstorming different topics. This was a good way to build community within the classroom.

Students Considered Their Heartaches...

And...this was an even better way to build community within the classroom. Students can easily make connections when they hear that someone else plays soccer or another person likes to play Minecraft. But when you hear another student is afraid of talking in front of the class or another person gets worried about making a mistake...that...that is how you build community. Often, it's the things that cause us sadness, heartache, or anger that cause us to take action and do something differently. We had students think more about problems in their schools and communities that they wanted to tackle. We also had students follow their hearts and consider what makes their hearts swell, as well as what makes their hearts ache. Check them all out here! Not only did we find that our classroom became a little closer, but it also sparked some new topics for Genius Hour that may not have come about without these activities!

We want to send a big SHOUT OUT to the monthly Genius Hour Chat for introducing us to this idea! It meets on Twitter (#geniushour) the first Thursday of every month at 8pm central time. Find us there! #20percentgenius

Get Your Students in the Right Mindset

What skills do your students need to be successful in the 21st Century?

How about persistence, a growth mindset, creativity, and hard-working? Those sound like skills that we want students to practice during Genius Hour! Oh wait, those are just a few of the fantastic examples that students came up with after reading Rosie Revere, Engineer.

Why this book?

This wonderful book written by Andrea Beaty chronicles young Rosie's attempts at making gadgets and gizmos to help her friends and family. She's worried about what people think about her ideas. She doesn't get it right the first time. Or the second. Or the third. She gets knocked down but gets right back up! Hey, that sounds a lot like she has a growth mindset! (Check out how we introduced growth mindset here!) 

Start by reading the book as a class and practicing some creativity.

We had students begin by being creative by imagining different uses for a towel, just like Rosie and engineers! We had some wacky ideas...some creative ones...and some plain ol' PUNNY ones (a decoration for a baby shower...see what he did there?!)!

Dig a little deeper.

What characteristics did Rosie have? Why are these important? How did she feel throughout the book? What do engineers do? How do they help people? Why is this important?

Not only did we learn about engineers, STEM, and reinforce the idea of a growth mindset, but we sparked a new interest for several students by exploring engineers!

Listen to the author and engineers!

Northern Illinois University has a great website (that they are keep adding to) that includes videos and activities for different books. If you haven't had a chance, check it out here! 

Act like an engineer!

The next step involves students collaborating, brainstorming, and problem-solving! (Hey-sounds like some more practice with 21st Century Skills!) Students worked in small groups to brainstorm problems they have noticed in the classroom, school, and community. After picking one of the problems to try to tackle, they brainstormed many different solutions and created a plan for it. 

Not only are they identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, but we had some friends who are considering this for GENIUS HOUR!  

 

Get the entire lesson here!

How to Introduce Growth Mindset to your Intermediate Students

#GrowthMindset lesson in a nutshell. pic.twitter.com/2UtFrY1TMB

— 20 Percent Genius (@20percentgenius) August 31, 2015

 For the first time ever, we decided to teach a lesson on Growth Mindset to our students! Here's how we went about it!

Read The Most Magnificent Thing

Simply do a read aloud and discuss her character traits, or if you have time try this AMAZING reading lesson that promotes creativity and incorporates planning and peer feedback! (Yay for getting those Genius Hour elements in!) 

Read About how the Brain Works

We used this article to teach students that the brain is like a muscle that needs to be worked! We had the class read the article aloud, then had students answer comprehension questions with a group. 

Make Connections Between the two and Create an Anchor Chart

We asked students to share character traits (and provide evidence) of the main character in the story. We then asked students to share the gist of the Brain is Like a Muscle article. We set that a mindset is like a belief, and that the character in The Most Magnificent Thing believes in the Growth Mindset, and the author of the other article does as well. Based on this, we asked students to define what a Growth Mindset is. 

We provided examples of something someone with a fixed mindset might say and how to change your wording to shift to a growth mindset. Students then provided their own examples of both fixed and growth mindset phrases.

To conclude the lesson, we directed students' attention to the posters hanging in the room. We said that students can use these as a reference and add to it throughout the year. 

Ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, that's it! 

Genius Hour 20 Day Challenge - Day 14: Research and Problem-Solving Mini-Lesson

Day 14: Research and Problem-Solving Mini-Lesson

And today is where it all gets easier. Seriously. By today, most students should be done with creating their plan, and all of the preparation that has been done will allow for some independence.

BUT FIRST....Let me teach a mini lesson!

By this point, most students have had some time to work independently and start their research...and had some time to fail. If they haven't, maybe let them fail for a little while so they (and you) can see what they need help with. This mini lesson is a chance for you to have a discussion with  the class about what challenges students have had, then brainstorm ways to overcome them. We made a T-Chart just like this:

Problems I Encounter	Ways to Solve the Problem
I don’t know what website to use or can’t find a good website.	Try searching different terms.

If you purchase your Google Site Genius Hour Mega Bundle, the problem-solving mini lesson example is on there (as well as other mini lessons), but it is strongly recommended to have an open conversation like this with your class. If you address a lot of these issues up front, you can coast for a while and just keep your eyes peeled for some yellow or red cups!

This might be a good time to refer to Growth Mindset as well. Having a "problem" isn't always fun for these kiddos. Teach them the Growth Mindset language to help them with this process. 

Friendly Reminder...

Although at this point, you're probably strutting around the classroom with the wind blowing in your hair, or doing a happy dance and winking at the teacher across the hall....

Remember that they're still learning. Take a look at their documentation page and see if they are paraphrasing rather than copying. Check to see if they are using reliable websites. Check to see if they are getting a sufficient amount of work done in a session. Review their Reflection pages as well. It's a good opportunity to answer questions or help find go-to people. 

When reviewing one student's notes, I noticed that she added a chart in her documentation page. I then crowned her the Organization Queen. If I came across any disorganized notes, I suggested they get help from the Organization Queen. 

Sometimes after reviewing their documentation, notes, and reflections, I notice some big red flags. I take note and end up conferring with them first thing next Genius Hour session.