ImagineIT

Spring Update

ImagineIT:
Knowing when you have been helped AND identifying when you have shifted your thinking.
1. Actively seek help from all sources (peers, teachers, etc.).
2. Challenge and question initial beliefs about a problem.
3. See work as a process with multiple iterations.

Progression of Assignments/ Opportunities to Grow and Practice:

1. Six foot bridge - Completed
2. Mini-Bot
3. Marble Sorter
4. Robot Day

Lessons Learned:
Currently, I have just finished the six foot bridge activity with my students. Here the
students worked in groups to design and construct a six foot bridge that could support sixty
pounds using only limited materials. The project was used in part as a formative assessment
piece for my ImagineIT. I had students write thank you cards to someone who helped them
complete the project. This assessment was done without any prompting in order to develop a
baseline to understanding about how students viewed themselves and each other in terms of
giving/ receiving help in order to complete a difficult task that would require modifications and
guidance at multiple points. It was hoped this would be a lever into getting students to
acknowledge when they had failed to understand or succeed on the first time.
What I learned was that students, much like with my initial attempts to acknowledge
failure, overvalue their contributions and minimizing that of others. The thank you cards, even
though prompted to thank someone who helped you achieve this difficult task, all were
simplified to thank you for cleaning up the glue or some equally low derivation. It is good that
students are seeing how others contribute but disappointing that not more students could see
where they got lost and understand who lead them back to the path. What was interesting was
before writing the thank you notes about 60% of students raised their hand when asked, Who
struggled with this activity and believe it is one of the hardest things you have done?
So I yet again find myself struggling with how to teach students to value their confusion/
failures in order to leverage the help of others. As a modification, I plan to have students do a
written reflection walking them through the most difficult parts of the activity as well as the most
mundane. The goal being to see if students can independently develop an understanding of
deep thank yous (e.g. questioning the solution to develop a better one) versus surface level
thank yous (e.g. returning supplies).