Educator Roundtable C
Part 1 Theme: Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Part 2 Theme: Independent Projects
When: Sunday, October 16, 1:00 – 2:40pm
Where: Room 513 – CERAS Building, Stanford
What:
Part 1 (45 min)
- Information and communications technology (ICT) hands-on to reveal problem solvers
Manon Woringer, Twende (Tanzania)
Chris Mushi, Twende (Tanzania)
Twende is a learning space with the objective to give any Tanzanian the ability to become an innovator capable of solving his or her own problems. The majority of our programs take place in and around our workshop in Arusha and its environment. The ecosystem here is really far from ICT (information and communications technology) and any maker culture. Besides that, the education curriculum is old-fashioned: almost no practical exposure and the full potential of the students is not explored.
At Twende, we concurrently offer both formal and informal education. We work with any school, government or private institution that is interested in Twende’s projects, as well as a diverse range of foundations and NGO’s. Our workshop is also open; we welcome youth for trainings. The project we are presenting here started in a simpler form in 2015 which we recently developed into a “getting deeper” curriculum that we ran as a pilot project with one school. After successful completion, we now intend to start with new schools very soon. The “getting deeper” curriculum is the program we are presenting here in detail. The majority of our learners are secondary school students. We eventually intend to integrate this project with Twende’s creative capacity building canvas to include both younger and older students from more diverse backgrounds.
We can say that the key things that we have learnt from this experience and that we are now focusing on to reiterate the program are: 1. ICT and even more electronics are extremely strong in raising the student’s curiosity because they appear somewhat “magical” to them. 2. We have to ensure that the students feel part of a community of makers, let them interact with innovators, present them role models and connect them with mentors. This way we are capable of making them explore their full potential. 3. Finally, Twende is a multi-disciplinary space with numerous mechanical, agriculture and design projects. This environment makes them more confident to explore subjects that are unknown to them and that they consider complex, such as practical electronics and ICT.
- Science Enrichment And Research (SEARCH) class
Terry Chou, Cupertino Union School District
SEARCH stands for Science Enrichment And ResearCH and it was created to be a semester long science elective class open to all 7th and 8th grade students at Joaquin Miller Middle School, a public school within the Cupertino Union School District. Designed to offer students an authentic scientific research experience directly driven by student-generated projects, the learning of science is made applicable as each project is developed from a business perspective and all student groups are effectively start-up companies. SEARCH students foster the 21st century skills needed to navigate through a world demanding the use of technology for the purpose of creation and design, group work abilities to bring an idea to life, and stamina to persevere through iteration after iteration of all possible outcomes.
Part 2 (45 min)
- Tools Follow Ideas Kinetic Sculpture Course for High School in São Paulo
Tomas Vega, Escola Castanheiras (Brazil)
This roundtable will discuss latest experience in Art Education using the structure of the Invention Workshop, a maker place special designed for deep hands-on approaches in a private school in São Paulo. The innovative course of Kinetic Sculptures offered to the High School could only be possible by using the tools and materials available on this maker place and his methods, but were also pushed beyond thanks to the ideas and engagement from the students.
- DSIL FILA: The Orchestration of Multiple Projects in Project Based Learning Classroom
Nalin Tutiyaphuengprasert, Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning (Thailand)
Ittichai Rattanatavorn, Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning (Thailand)
Project based learning is widely known that it helps students to connect knowledge in classrooms to real world situations. The connection to real world of the lessons increases the motivation to learn. However, it is not always the case that the selected project will attract all students in the same way. Personalization is another interesting drive that helps in increasing motivation for each individual student. However, it is challenging for teachers to handle diverse project interests in classrooms to allow every single student to pursue a project of their interest and at the same time. FILA is a model of the classroom management that is known to help in managing problem based learning. Ittichai Rattanatavorn, a teacher from Darunsikkhalai School (DSIL) in Bangkok has brought together the FILA model and other strategies into a DSIL FILA model which accommodates multiple individual projects. DSIL FILA has been developing and being used to facilitate planning and managing of project for students and for facilitators to monitor and evaluate project since 2013.