3rd Grade Chicago neighborhoods & 3D design: Part 2

The next step in the third grade neighborhood study and 3D design challenge was reflection. Students had their notes from the see/think/wonder thinking activity looking at the history and architecture of the three neighborhoods they studied. Students also went on a field trip visiting the three neighborhoods to look at the details, architecture and to learn more about the history and culture of the different areas. Students were able to take pictures throughout the field trip. When students returned after their field trip we introduced the next step of the project. Students learned that they were going to use the 3D design software Tinkercad to create and print an object that was connected to something they learned or saw during their neighborhood study. Students spent time looking at their notes and pictures to identify something that they really connected to in one of the neighborhoods they visited. Students then wrote up a reflection on their inspirations. Students thought about the what but also the why. They wrote down why they were focusing on this inspiration and how that was connected to the neighborhood culture and the history that they learned about.

Third graders were introduced to Tinkercad 3D design software, www.tinkercad.com . Tinkercad is a free software program that is a great way to introduce students to get them started in the designing and printing process. The first step was to have students look at the different shapes that are available for them to design with. We had the students sketch out their ideas first, think about what shapes they could use to make their inspiration. Third graders were also shown how to change and rearrange the different shapes, make them larger or smaller, cut and reshape them and layer and build with the shapes. Then the students started designing. Some of their designs worked but many of the third graders needed to think and rethink their designs to make it work in the Tinkercad program. Students also had to get comfortable with the 3D design process. They needed to change the angles and rearrange the views so they could see their designs from all angles to make sure that their 3D design was complete. 3D design can be frustrating and take many iterations to create a final print. This project was a challenge for many of the third graders as they learned the program.

After students sent their final prints to the library’s 3D printers. The final step of the process was for students to create a Google Drawing poster with information about their project for the all class share out. Third graders included a picture of their inspiration, a screenshot of their Tinkercad design and a writeup of their explanation of their projects. Students included what they were inspired by, why they choose the project, and what connection the object had to the history and culture of the neighborhood.

Third graders did a great job on this project. They were excited to make deeper connections to the neighborhoods and city that they live in by learning more about the history and people that inhabit it. Students also really embraced the challenge of thinking about a building, sculpture, or historical event that they connected with to design a 3D object inspiration. They took on the challenge of learning the 3D design software. It was interesting to watch the students as they struggled to figure out how to make their designs work and the challenge of taking on learning a new skill. It was a struggle sometimes to take a step back and let the students figure out how to fix their designs on their own but it was worth it see the excitement and pride on their faces as they finished their designs and sent them to be printed.

3rd grade Chicago Neighborhoods & 3D design Part 1

At the end of the school year third grade students study the city of Chicago, its history, neighborhoods and immigrants and people. Students spend time learning about the different immigrants that moved to Chicago, the Great Fire and architecture of the city. To end the school year we also wanted to do an extension project in the library project time that connected to this central topic. Third grade had not been introduced to Tinkercad 3D design software and the 3D printers. I decided to combine these areas for our last collaborative project of the school year.

To start the project students focused on the three neighborhoods that they talk about during their immigration study, Bronzeville, Pilsen and Chinatown. Bronzeville is a traditionally African-American neighborhood that was settled during the Great Migration. Pilsen has been a neighborhood of immigrant working population for over 140 years, the last 40 years it has mainly been home to Mexican immigrants. Chinatown was founded in the early 1900’s for the thousands of Chinese Americans that migrated to Chicago from California with the building of the transcontinental railroad. In each of the deeper studies of these neighborhoods we focused on different aspects of the neighborhoods that highlighted the cultures and histories of these distinct areas.

Our first neighborhood of focus was Bronzeville. The focus of this study was looking at the Great Migration and individuals that it brought to the neighborhood. Students learned that the Great Migration was a movement of more than six million African-Americans from the racist south to the North where there were more jobs and opportunities. They still faced prejudice and discrimination but it was not as overt as the Jim Crow laws of the south. Students then looked at images from Jacob Lawrence’s painting series about the Great Migration. Next students learned more about African-Americans who moved to the Bronzeville neighborhood during this period of time. They learned about Bessie Coleman, Louis Armstrong, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Ida B. Wells. Students read articles about these individuals and looked at archived images of the people and connections to some of the places in Bronzeville.

The next neighborhood we looked at was Pilsen. The Pilsen neighborhood has been a haven for working class immigrants for more than 150 years. The neighborhood started out with Irish and German immigrants working in the stockyard and railways of Chicago. Then came the Eastern European immigrants, Czech immigrants gave it the name Pilsen. For the last forty years the neighborhood has been home to Mexican immigrants. Over the last several decades community leaders have commissioned artist to create murals in the Pilsen neighborhood that reflect the issues that are important to the people of the neighborhood. Students spent some time looking at the murals and learning more about the meaning behind the paintings. Many of the murals deal with the challenges facing undocumented immigrants in the United States. Students read an article that talked about the challenges facing this community and what that means for the Pilsen community.

The final neighborhood that we looked at was Chinatown. Students learned about the history behind the area. Third graders learned that many Chinese immigrated to the United States in the 1850-60’s coming to California. Many made their way East working on the transcontinental railroad. In the 1870’s there was an economic crisis and the United States government passed a law called the Chinese Exclusion Act that prevented immigration from China. The goal of this act was a racist law that wanted to prevent Chinese from coming to the United States and keeping the available jobs for white Americans or European immigrants. An additional effect of this law was that Chinese Americans living in California were the victims of hate crimes and horrible treatment. Many Chinese left California to move East in the hopes of finding a friendlier area. Chicago was a more welcoming environment for the Chinese but not a perfect one, they still experienced prejudice and racism here as well. Third graders learned that in 1902, leaders in the Chinese community in Chicago started to lease and acquire land in the neighborhood that is now Chinatown. The community leaders wanted the neighborhood to be a place that was welcoming to Chinese Americans and Chinese immigrants. They also wanted the area to reflect important elements of Chinese architecture, design and culture.

In each of these dives into the neighborhood students listened to articles or music, read background information about people, places or major events, and spent time looking at paintings and current and historic photographs. Students used many of our digital research resources for this study. Third graders followed the see/think/wonder thinking routines at each of these stations to keep take note of what they saw in the images and photographs, facts and information they connected with and what they were still wondering about. This thinking routine would help them as they went on a trolley tour of the neighborhoods they learned about and connected the information they were learning in their classroom curriculum about immigration and Chicago.

Next step: Neighborhood inspirations & 3D design

Kindergarten: literacy, coding & music, Oh My!

Working with kindergarten students I am always looking for ways to connect books and literacy with technology and maker skills. I want students to dive deeper into the books that we are reading and also connect this with deeper creation and technology skills that we can build on as they move up in grades. For the past few weeks my kindergarten students worked on a project that connected the book Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears by Corey Rosen Schwartz with music and coding.

We started this project by reading the book Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears. The book is a very funny retelling of the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Students then talked about the important events that happened at the beginning, middle and end of the story and who were the main characters in the book. We also talked about what was the same and what was different about the Goldi Rocks version of the book and the original version of the story. Next I introduced the project to the students. I told them we would be planning and creating a dramatic musical retelling of the story. Students were assigned to a musical instrument that was in the book: guitar, piano, drums and cymbals. I shared with students that we would be building a computer to make our musical instruments. They were all excited to see how this was going to happen!

I shared with students the Makey Makey. This is an innovation kit that allows you to make your own keyboard that can then connect to everyday objects and your computer to create an interactive keyboard. The first step was to have the students create the sound and connect it to coding on the Scratch code website. We had spent sometime this winter sharing coding apps and robots with students so they were familiar with the idea of creating coding that instructs the robot on what to do. I showed students the Scratch program and each was able to record their musical instrument sound. Each sound connected to a key on the keyboard, in turn that key corresponded to a key on the Makey Makey board.

The next step was to connect the code and the fruit to the Makey Makey for each instrument. We used different fruits for our instruments. Students learned how the fruit connects to the Makey Makey board with an alligator clip, then the board is connected to them as well as through the earth key to connect the circuit. Each piece of fruit connected to an instruction that the students had created in the Scratch code they created for each of their sounds.

The final step was the dramatic musical retelling of Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears. Students “played” their instruments when it was mentioned in the story and there was a huge jam session at the end for the worldwide tour of the band Goldi Rocks and the Three Bears!

Students had a great time with this project. Each week kindergarteners retold the story of Goldi Rocks, recalling important elements of the story and focusing on the sequence of the book, an important early literacy skill. Students also made connections with what they had learned about how coding works and created their own code and connected it to the keyboard to create an interactive computer keyboard. This will allow us to continue to build on these early technology and coding skills as the students advance in grades to more complex computing skills. As a great bonus it was so much fun! The students had a great time finding music and making interactive musical fruit!

Design Thinking, Literature & First Grade Part 3

First Grade Fairy Tale Design Thinking Project: Prototype & Share Out

First grade students moved into the final step of this multi-month project with the prototype and share out stage of the design thinking process. During the previous step, Ideate, students worked in their small groups to come up with different solutions for the problem that they had decided to focus on. Students then determined what was the solution that they were going to focus on or combine their different ideas into one idea. Next first graders started building and creating their prototypes. For prototyping students had access to lots of different materials from cardboard and construction paper to pipe cleaners and playdoh. Student worked in their groups using their collaborator quality norms to make sure everyone was working together and had a voice in the prototyping.

As an added element to the prototyping stage the students were able to design and print an element of their prototype with the library’s 3D printers. First graders had been asking to be able to print something with the library’s printers and this was a perfect opportunity for students to learn how to use Tinkercad, a 3D printing software, and make a 3D object that was connected to a project they were working on. Students collaborated with their groups to decide what each of them was going to design and print that would fit into their prototype. First graders were introduced to the Tinkercad program with a short tutorial on how to 3D design using different shapes. Then they dived into the program figuring out how to manipulate the shapes to create the object. First graders did a great job designing, reworking and rethinking their ideas to create an object for their prototype.

The final step in the project was for the whole first grade to come together and share their prototypes. An all grade share out was hosted in the library where students were able to share their prototypes and see the work of their classmates. Students created signs that explained what the problem was they were trying to solve and a brief description of their prototype. Students were excited to not only share their solutions but see the problems that classmates in other classes worked on see the solutions that were developed. A final reflection was held were first graders shared what they noticed about the prototypes and the whole design thinking process they had engaged in.

This project has become one of my favorites. Students become so engaged in this process. They are excited to dive into different versions of stories and are always making observations that are new each year. The connection to literature is something that my classroom teachers really love about this work and notice the benefits that this project has on their reading and writing work in the classroom. First graders are so engaged in the building process, they are self-reliant and collaborative as they turn their ideas into prototypes. Students are so willing to take their ideas and redesign and rework their plans to create a prototype. First graders are so invested in the idea of creating a solution that will help someone else. I am hoping that I can continue to build on this work with these students as they advance through the grades and continue to engage them in fictional and real world issues using the design thinking process.

Design Thinking, Literature & First Grade Part 2

First Grade Fairy Tale Design Thinking: Define and Ideate

My first grade students had spent several weeks diving into fairy tales. Students studied several different versions of the stories to gain as much empathy and understanding about the characters and the elements of the stories. We document all of our thoughts and thinking on a large board throughout the process. The next step was to take some time to look at our thinking and recalling different elements of the stories to define the issues that the characters were dealing with so they could design a solution.

Students spent time talking through and organizing our notes and thinking to better define the challenges of the characters. Students worked in small groups and we talked about it and sorted the ideas into different categories to help better narrow down the challenges. For the different stories the students noticed and defined many different challenges.

Students in the Goldilocks and the Three Bears group defined the challenges as entertainment, security and manners. Students felt that if Goldilocks has more things to do she would not have broken into the three bear’s house. They also felt if the three bear’s had better security at their house then Goldilocks would not have been able to break into the house. The final challenge that the students identified was manners, they felt that if Goldilocks and the three bears had better manners then they would all have been able to be friends.

The Three Little Pigs class defined three challenges that the characters faced including manners, a food source for the wolf, and security for the pigs. Students felt that if the pigs and wolf had better manners they would have been able to be friends. First graders defined access to food as an issue they believed that the wolf had a right to eat food and if he had an alternative food source then the wolf and the pigs could live in harmony. The final challenge the students defined was security for the pigs, students felt that if the pigs had been security at their houses they would be protected from the wolf.

First graders in the Little Red Riding Hood group defined five challenges for the characters including a safer route for Little Red, an alternative food source for the wolf, friendship and community for Little Red, meditation for the wolf and the wolf and Little Red needed better listening skills. Students felt that Little Red needed a safer route to get from her house to grandma’s house. They also decided that if the wolf had another food source he would leave Little Red alone. They also decided the if Little Red and the wolf had a chance to be friends and live in the community together they could live in peace. Students also felt that if the wolf was calmer and practiced meditation he would not try to eat Little Red and her grandmother. Finally they felt that Little Red needed to work on her listening skills because if she had listened to her mother and stayed on the path she would have arrived at grandma’s house safely.

The next stage was the Ideate step. Students were organized in small groups and picked a challenge that they wanted to focus on to solve. Students were reminded of our collaborator qualities that we defined at the beginning of the school year so that they would work as a team. First graders were given time to sketch out, draw, and write out ideas to solve their challenge. The next step was for students to share out their ideas with their group, talk about their plans, merge their ideas and find a solution to focus on as a group.

First graders did a wonderful, focused job defining the challenges that the characters were facing in the stories. Students recalled details from all the different versions of the stories that we read and were thoughtful about defining and determining the challenges that the characters faced based on their understandings. They did a great job ideating their solutions and working as collaborators to combine their ideas to focus on one solution to prototype.

Next step; Prototyping!

Design Thinking, Literature & First Grade Part 1

I have tried to incorporate the design thinking process into my work in the library with my students as a vehicle for them to dive deeper into literature as well as embark on a collaborative design process. This year with my first grade students each of my three class tackled a different fairy tale to explore. One class looked at Goldilocks and the Three Bears, another explored The Three Little Pigs and the final group looked at Little Red Riding Hood.

We started the design thinking step of empathy by exploring different versions of the stories to help students better understanding the elements of the story and the issues that the characters were dealing with. Students spent time reading different versions of the books and talking about what were the main elements of the book including characters, setting, problem and solution. We compared and contrasted the different stories, each week students recalled and retold the version of the story they had heard the week before and then compared and contrasted and tracked the different elements of the stories.

As a continuation of the empathy stage, students focused on the setting and how that affects the elements of the story and the lives of the characters. Students worked in small groups to thinking deeper about how changing the setting would change the characters, materials, problem and solution in the stories. Groups were assigned different settings including space, a desert, mountains and a city. Students drew pictures and mapped out the new stories based on the change in setting. In addition to helping students develop a deeper empathy for the characters so they could better define their challenges this step helped them develop a deeper understanding of the elements of the story and how they are all connected.

For the final step in the empathy and understanding stage we focused on reading version of the story that highlighted the personality traits of the characters. This was a way to not only better understand and empathize with the characters so students could define and design a solution but to also highlight the elements of characterization in the books. After the reading students brainstormed and shared words that would describe the personalities of the main characters and how that helped or hindered their ability to solve the problem in the story.

Throughout this first process all of our notes, brainstorming and illustrations were documented on our share out board so that students could revisit, reference and recall important elements from different stories, brainstorming sessions and discussions.

Next: Define and Ideate!

The Brooklyn Bridge: Literature, Research and Collaboration

Over the course of several weeks the second grade classes embarked on a design project inspired by the studies they had been doing in their classes about the late-1800s and the book Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing by April Jones Prince. In their classrooms students were spending time learning about the different aspects of life in the late 1800s including innovations, social justice and literature. In the library we read the book Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The book shares the story of the bridge and the fear people had at the time of the suspension bridge. PT Barnum, the great showman, arranged a stunt to prove the bridge was sturdy. He walked 21 elephants from his circus show across the bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn to prove to people that the bridge was safe. Students read the story and reflected on what they learned about the bridge and connections to what they had learned about that time period.

Next, students engaged in the See/Think/Wonder thinking routine (Project Zero Making Thinking Visible: Thinking Routines https://tinyurl.com/l7kwhbm). As a class, students shared what they saw in the book including pictures and the story, what they thought about what they saw in the book and what they wondered about. The next step was to look at archived images from the New York Public Library Digital Collections. The pictures and drawings were from the building of the bridge. The images were posted around the library. Students spent time in small groups looking at each of the images and using the See/Think/Wonder thinking routine. The wonder questions from both of these thinking routine sessions became the foundation for our research into how the Brooklyn Bridge was built and how suspension bridges work.

The next step was to learn more about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. Students learned about how the bridge was built on caissons. We learned about how the workers went into the caissons to level out the mud. They also learned about how many workers became sick with decompression sickness, including one of the engineers designing the bridge. Students learned that laws were passed after the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to protect the workers that were working in these dangerous conditions. Students all learned how the towers were built and the cables connected on the bridge to make the suspension bridge stable. We used Google Earth to explore the Brooklyn Bridge as well as the Golden Gate Bridge and noticed details of suspension bridges.

The final step was for students to work in small groups to design and built their own bridge inspired by what they learned about suspension bridges. They had to design bridges that could hold 21 small plastic elephants. Students were given a variety of materials to build with including cardboard, plastic cups, yarn, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and more. Students had to design, built, compromise with others, and rework/redesign to come up with a suspension bridge to hold the elephants. Students did a great job applying what they learned about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge and created new bridge designs. Student groups collaborated to design, prototype, test and rework their bridges designs throughout the project. They were creative with the use of the materials and how they utilized them to create their bridges.  With this project students continued to make connections with the literature they are reading, the history they are learning about as well developing their communication and collaboration skills!