Makeshop Monday: Including Students in the Design Process

Before I became a teacher, I remember someone telling me that I would rarely know the impact I had on most of my students. It's true - most of my former students don't tell me and probably don't realize how any given lesson has the potential to impact the rest of their lives. So when I have the chance to sit down with students and their teachers and talk about how a project will have a long-lasting impact on what a student learned but also on their understanding of themselves as students, it's an awesome experience. The science class I spoke with is co-taught by Ms. Elaine Tierney and Mrs. Jennifer Tracy. The focus of the class is the principles of Earth Science and they are very familiar with the maker space and the principles of design. At the beginning of the year, the students researched the universe and made semi-functional models of the solar system. Recently, I interviewed them about another making-based project they worked on. 

Avonworth Resource Center: Tell me a little about your project

Student 1: We started off trying to make a movie titled "The Tilt" but that got too complicated

Student 2: I still think we could have made it

Student 3: When we realized it would be too complicated, we thought about doing something else, and we decided to do a podcast instead

S1: The girls in the class were the production crew, and the guys were the research crew. It was about what would happen if the Earth no longer had any tilt.

Ms. Tierney: They did a nice job together of looking at the research and deciding what information to include and which to leave out

ARC: What did you like about doing the project in this way?

S3: It was easier, and everyone was more interested

Student 4: We didn't know what we were going to do [in terms of what the final product would be], so we all got to decide what we were going to do [as a final product]

S1: It was personal to all of us - not the final product but the process was. 

S3: It took us three weeks to plan [including planning and scrapping the movie idea] and about a week to make the product

MK: It [took us that amount of time] cause we worked as a team

Ms. Tierney: How did it help you learn?

S3: How destructive no tilt would be

S1: We learned more than just reading a chapter because we had to do a lot of work. It was kind of annoying [to do that much work] but it was good

Mrs. Tracy: But look at your recall - you remember so much more because you were all so into it.

S1: But we don't have to just remember things. Sometimes I like writing stuff down, but when I've written down a bunch of dates and names am I going to remember and think back to "Oh remember how I wrote all of that stuff down"? Not really.

Ms. Tierney: Would you rather do a project like this or present in front of the class?

Student 5: I would be more nervous speaking in front of people

S1: I hate standing in front of the class, but at least you can see their reactions so it's more reassuring.

Student 6: I'd rather record it [like we did for the podcast because] I get nervous when people are looking at me

Talking with the students about their project, it was clear that they were really invested in the design and production of their product. Because of this investment, not only did they demonstrate mastery of the concepts at hand, but they could see how they had internalized the concepts as well. They knew what they had learned not only about the tilt of the earth, but also about how they were comfortable communicating with their peers and how they best learned as students. It was great to be a part of this reflective and interesting conversation and I look forward to continuing working with this class in the future.