Thursday, July 18, 2013

Students should experiment first

At Robotics Camp, everyone is experimenting!
“We are showing that exploration, inquiry and problem solving are not just ‘nice to have’ things in classrooms. They are powerful learning mechanisms that increase performance by every measure we have.”

Research at Stanford shows that students who experiment first, before they read about a topic or watch a video, improve their learning substantially.  It's great to have proof of the importance of this sequence of presenting lessons.  Hands-on familiarity with materials gives students a context in which to organize thoughts and it deepens what they learn.


Monday, July 15, 2013

Breaking the mold

On Friday I was witness to a wild game of Spartans vs Romans as kids ran through the woods between two gigantic fallen trees with spear-like sticks in hand.  "We are the Spartans and we are on the attack!"  A fleet of running children streamed into the Roman's tree when suddenly the cry rang out "Retreat!"

The utter joy and the crazy and spontaneous changes in the direction of runners, abandoned stand-offs, and altering fortunes of both sides made for thrilling viewing.  It reminded me of days in the (distant) past when I was a kid racing through backyards with abandon in the ever evolving games of a neighborhood throng.

In reading this article in MindShift, Breaking the Mold: School Fosters Design and Discovery I remembered what I love at Parker: the freedom to make school be about discovery, excitement and fun.  These past weeks at camp, kids have built shelters, gone tearing through the woods in "Capture the Chicken", labored through many iterations of design and programming to make a LEGO robotic dog's tail wag, and designed troll huts and fairy houses by the creek.  Everyone's imagination is sparked and everyone is participating and pushing themselves in some way.

The school year has more structure for sure, but the elements of choice within a theme and freedom within the structure remain.  Learning is richly full of questioning and imagination, with skill-building layered within to give students the tools to explore further.  Learning has a distinct purpose.

Education speaker Will Richardson says "We don't need schools to be better, we need schools to be really, really different."  Camp is a great model for how different  - and how exciting - learning can be.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Engagement in school leads to success in life




Building and launching rockets; creating LEGO robots and programming them to flip; constructing a shelter in the woods - this is engaging learning.  It's fun!  

New research shows that children who feel interested and engaged in school show greater success professionally over and above academic attainment or socioeconomic background. I'd wager that the same holds true for engagement at camp!


Children's interest and engagement in school influences their prospects of educational and occupational success 20 years later, over and above their academic attainment and socioeconomic background, researchers have found.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-school-engagement-success-life.html#jCp
Children's interest and engagement in school influences their prospects of educational and occupational success 20 years later, over and above their academic attainment and socioeconomic background, researchers have found.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-school-engagement-success-life.html#jCp
Children's interest and engagement in school influences their prospects of educational and occupational success 20 years later, over and above their academic attainment and socioeconomic background, researchers have found.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-06-school-engagement-success-life.html#jCp