The Puzzle Approach
10/26/2019
We give young children puzzles to help practice their fine motor and other developing skills. We give adults puzzles to escape from the stresses and strains of the day. We give elderly people puzzles to keep their minds sharp. Whether you are a four-year-old doing a jigsaw, a 40-year-old playing Wordscapes, or an 80-year-old with a crossword, you are learning through puzzles. At PNA we believe in creating learning experiences for our students that are more like puzzles than other traditional teaching practices. Our math curriculum itself (especially at the Middle School level) revolves around team-based problem solving. They are consistently working together, talking through problems, trying to find solutions. This collaborative, "puzzle" approach encourages students to work together and progress what they know from one critical-thinking stage to another. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a buzz word in the educational world, but its merit holds true. Remembering, understanding, and applying content are the first three stages of thinking, while analyzing, evaluating, and creating are those higher levels we are encouraging our students to reach. Of course, it’s valuable for a student to independently come to a conclusion, but for that student to have the ability to explain his/her reasoning to another person and evaluate how the solution was obtained, is an impressive and crucial skill. We do this in our math instruction and across all of our other subjects. We use actual puzzles as well. I’ve been having the most fun watching people solve the metal “brain teaser” puzzles I have in my room. Those physical puzzles are perfect for the down time before school starts, in between classes, or if students needs a quick break to concentrate on something concrete, while cooling off from something else going on in their minds. Most students have been successful with these puzzles and their mindsets have changed. If we don’t know how to solve something and it’s difficult for us, we may deem it impossible and give up. However, our students have viewed these puzzles (and academic “puzzles”) as challenges they’ve accepted, therefore solving them feels like a game. Sarah and I said over and over again in our parent-teacher conferences on Thursday how curious our students are. Watching a student reach their “aha moment” is phenomenal. Humans have an inmate problem solving instinct and our students have certainly shown us theirs. Whether our kids are tinkering with puzzles or working as a team, we are seeing them begin to shift into the higher levels of thinking skills and are very proud of them. Please remember, you’re never too old for puzzles, have a look at our staff. Mission Accomplished!
10/19/2019
This week Middle Schoolers had a deadline; they had to complete their colony and make it ready to present for the Space Week Community Event on Thursday evening. All those ideas researched and discussed last week (see Mission to Mars blog post) had a deadline. The time had come to get down to business and make it happen. As teachers, we provided students with the project requirements and then put teams in charge of their own daily deadlines. They decided task priorities, who would be responsible for each task, and assigned themselves homework to keep their projects on schedule. It was a very busy week and students were constantly negotiating needs and creatively solving problems that unexpectedly popped up. They had to listen to each other and answer to each other. And while it felt like students weren’t gaining academic knowledge as they painted and hot glued and designed miniature greenhouses, we heard them use what they had been learning to justify their choices. “Wind power will be better than solar because of our location in this valley.” “We need to have a greenhouse - people won’t want to eat dehydrated food forever.” Students were constantly using and developing the skills that are more sought after by today’s employers. We found ourselves quite proud of our innovative designers. Listening to them show off their completed colonies, we were convinced that they understood the complexities of colonizing Mars by how they were able to explain the inclusion of each element of their design. It was another great week of learning! Mission To Mars
10/12/2019
With Space Week approaching, this past week our middle schoolers did a lot of ground work for their mission to Mars. Each time we do a creative, “big picture” project like this one, our kids impress us with their creativity and sense of wonder. We received questions like, “Would NASA listen to our ideas?”, “Why are we focusing on going to Mars when the Earth needs our help?”, and “Can we do ___?”(insert some seemingly far-fetched, but super imaginative idea). Our students have been insightful, inventive, and fired with enthusiasm. They’ve been put in teams of 3, 4, or 5. Their overall mission is to create a colony (for 20 “colonists”) that could be sustainable on Mars. Before their specific ideas started flowing, we did a lot of research about the differences between Earth and Mars. We discussed how we meet our basic needs of survival here on Earth and what characteristics on Mars would cause challenges to arise. They brainstormed solutions as they did their research. We played a planning game (with some similar features to Monopoly) in which students had a specific budget to work with. They had many choices for each component of life: should the colonists have private bedrooms or dorm-style? Should they eat dehydrated food or have greenhouses? The students discussed and made critical decisions for their colonists’ well-being. However, it wasn’t just about survival. We took their mental-health into strong consideration. What would they use for entertainment, exercise, or communication with people on Earth? Some groups have plans for trampoline parks, cat sanctuaries, and high-tech antennas for FaceTiming. They spent most of the week doing this detailed planning. Finally yesterday, after each team finished their labeled sketches, we set them loose. The building stage is the most fun to watch. When students do hands-on learning, the whole 2nd floor starts to buzz. Our students become engineers, architects, and teachers themselves. Our classrooms become their workshops. They are collaborating, testing their ideas, trying and failing, and trying some more. They are laughing, compromising, and up and moving for most of the day. One student built a vehicle out of a bunch of scrap pieces of material. She called me over, showed it to me and said, “I have never been so proud of myself”. I smiled at her and my eyes started to water. These are the reasons I became a teacher and am proud to be a teacher at PNA. To be able to take a pause from our regular social studies and science curriculums to focus on a comprehensive project, such as this one, is such a privilege.
Friday was only their first day building; I cannot wait to see what next week has in store. Please join us for our community event on Thursday, October 17 from 6-8. All of our finished colony models will be on display and I know we will have some proud students who’d love for you to see their work. Parent "Launch"
10/4/2019
Working with a team can be challenging. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sports or a work team, many of the necessary skills are the same: communication, understanding the goal, problem solving, knowing the resources available, and many others. The pipe cleaner challenge at the parent “launch” on Friday required teams to use and develop skills that will help them with their future Mars Colony Design Project. We wanted to underscore the importance of these skills for students as they start imagining a design for a Mars colony. What is really involved? What are the consequences if what we thought didn’t really work out?? Beginning next week, students will work to understand the complex components of society here on Earth and transfer these ideals to a Martian colony while taking its unique environment into consideration. This is a HUGE project with many moving parts. While this type of project fundamentally requires solid team working skills - collaborating, negotiating, communicating - , it will also require students to think critically, problem solve, engineer, design, construct, research, and do a whole lot of learning. Basically, middle school students have a lot on their "launch" plates in the next two weeks. They will need to get good sleep and eat well to fulfill their Mars Colony MIssion. To the future, and beyond... |
Sarah Mariner
Ms. Mariner earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Science from Colorado State University, and was awarded a teaching certificate through the University of Alaska, Southeast. Her varied background includes being an environmental education field instructor in Massachusetts, Colorado, and Baja, Mexico. She also served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. Archives
April 2021
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