I See....I Think....I Wonder...

South Fayette incorporates Visual Thinking Strategies in all their STEAM lessons, as well as in all curricular areas where applicable.  The "I see, I think, I wonder" came as a result of Project Zero, born from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.  Project Zero was originally designed to improve education of the arts, but over the years has expanded into the areas of intelligence, understanding, creativity, and many other areas of human thinking. As this concept is introduced to their students during Project Based Learning, an Essential Question is then created.  Lessons generally conclude with a "3-2-1 Bridge".  Students are asked to add 3 words of reflection, 2 questions and 1 way to apply.

3D Printing

So what exactly does 3D printing do?  Is it a fad or in our future?  This video explains relatively simply how 3D printing works.  It is just amazing to see what has been printed and how far we have come with this technology.  Some 3D printers are even within the $200 range.

The class I took at South Fayette was on the 3D software called BlocksCAD.  It is a fairly complicated program but sure gave me the overview I needed to finally understand how 3D software and printers actually work.  

I also took a class on TinkerCAD, which is another 3D design software and much more user-friendly for younger students.  By user-friendly, I in no way mean easy....after 15 minutes I was completely frustrated and not sure how to move forward, even with the TinkerCAD tutorials.  Luckily, Kirston, one of my Lead Learners at STEMCAMP.edu, was able to sit with me and review the very basics of the program.  If I decide to use it in class, I know there will be huge learning curve for myself before I could ever bring it to my students. 

My takeaway from 3D printing?  I believe it is here to stay and is just in its infancy.  The possibilities especially as it relates to medicine and its ability to help prolong life or make the world easier for those who have lost limbs seems so promising.  My own grandfather lost fingers on his left hand in a terrible farming accident and spent the rest of his life struggling with use of only one hand.  Today the strides that have been made in prosthesis would have made his life so much easier.  I can only hope that the advances in medicine/technology continue to help others.

Lego We Do 2.0....or "Lego We Did After 3 Attempts"!

Another set of Robots we worked with were the Lego We Do 2.0 Core Sets.    Again, I am not being compensated to write about these, nor do I have any in my library.  But I do know that children young and old, are fascinated with anything that has the word "lego(s)" attached! These are the most recent offering from the Lego people.  They differ from the 1.0 version in that they have added many online educational modules for the students to interact with while building their robots, and they also work off Bluetooth.

The software to code these robots is available as a free download.  It was fairly easy to use, although not necessarily as intuitive as I would have hoped.  The modules available online to create each robot, however, were easy to follow and we built our robots with ease.  I had two takeaways from this experience:  

1.  The process for the initial building of these robots lacks creativity from the onset.  Not     that the robots can't be modified, but building from the beginning is something most young children will easily be able to do.

2.  The kits themselves are fairly expensive and we found the bluetooth to be finicky, as shown in the video above.  It seemed that some computers were able to launch the bluetooth more easily than others.  

While I would still love to have these available in my library, my first purchase would still be the Hummingbird Robotics kits because of their integration of the Arts and Electricity, combined with block coding.

Hummingbird Robotics

One STEAM session at South Fayette centered around the Hummingbird Robotics Kits. The Hummingbirds originated right here in Pittsburgh through Carnegie Mellon's CREATE Lab. Anyone involved with STEAM knows there are so many options for robotics/tools that it can be overwhelming to find just the right ones that can offer students a wide range of experiences.   I am in now way being compensated for these kits, nor do we even have these in our library.  However, I am hopeful that will change in the future.  The Hummingbirds give the students the chance to be creative, while also learning block coding and some basic electricity facts as well.  

First stop on my sabbatical journey....the endless professional development options offered through Remake Learning.  The first set of sessions I attended were held at South Fayette School District.  South Fayette has had a vision for years directed at creating a STEAM environment for their students.  The district did not just invest in their physical buildings and talk about STEAM, but has embraced this movement or rather philosophy, district-wide.  I can't tell you how excited I was to attend these sessions!

Most of the classes I attended were at their new Intermediate School.  The first thing that completely knocked my socks off was their STEAM room.  The tables were all on casters with whiteboard tops.  Their "Wonder Wall" was the ideal space for students to brainstorm, create a vision, and revise this idea based on their experiences.  The organization of all things needed for STEAM was incredible.....and this was just the front room!  In the back "Collaboration Room" area, was yet another separate space for students to work through ideas collaboratively.  Now, here is the best part; this was just 1 of 3 "STEAM Rooms" in this building!  They were all on different floors, located in the very heart of the floor and school. It was not hard to imagine the focus of this district for their students and/or visitors.  

If I have learned anything recently, it is that STEAM can mean, depending on the school district and teacher, different things.  It can be the simple integration of a STEAM component such as Bee Bots, Puzzlets, Dot & Dash Robots, etc.  Lessons in coding can appear in a classroom, or as a standard required curriculum for specific grade level(s).  However, at South Fayette, their STEAM curriculum incorporates computational thinking across many curricular areas, beginning right in Kindergarten.  I learned about their incorporation of "Habits of Mind" as well as Visual Thinking Strategies.  After 7 days my head was literally swirling with new ideas not only from the wonderful teachers at South Fayette, but also from the connections I made with many other educators from schools across Pennsylvania!