Q: As educators do you think this important or should the creative thinking have a life of it’s own? And how does that affect our jobs? (In our school, the makerspace is in the library and each class visits the library for 45 minutes a week. I have continuously tried to align and focus the creative thinking and design process challenges with each grade’s curriculum.)
A1) My makerspace planning process connects to the standards while preserving open-ended exploration and creativity http://worlds-of-learning.com/2016/05/13/themed-making/
A2) One strategy I use when collaborating with teachers is to have prompts/challenges that are open-ended enough to be “tweakable” – which is much easier with teacher input. For example, a 7th grade science class was researching issues around poaching and endangered species, so we came up with a challenge to “rescue” a toy elephant from hunters by programming a Sphero. This same basic setup was used with a Language Arts class doing a unit on artists/biographies and so we dipped the Sphero in paint and were programmed to make Jackson Pollock style art.
A3) I enjoy a balance of both. Sometimes I have directed projects, sometimes I have more of a guideline and allow for student interpretation, other times I allow for complete freedom to create. This all depends on your personal preference, ability, and comfort with the creative design process.
0 Comments