I still like to think that education is meant to turn kids into happy adults, and if that also parlays itself into other forms of success, all the better.
When students engage in authentic work - that which speaks deeply to the student’s passions AND which leads them to engage with the community beyond school- it develops in them the habits that every school has made part of their missions and visions:
- a lifelong commitment to learning;
- an engagement with the world;
- an aesthetic appreciation for beauty;
- the capacity for reflection, self-expression, and critical thought.
I have also come to see that the artistic process - the means by which artists comprehend the world and their place in it - might be the best way to promote creativity, critical thought, and interdisciplinarity. That is, the way learning genuinely happens in the world.
My goal for the coming year is to design a curriculum that incorporates all the elements of engineering and artistic design, which frees student imagination yet provides a structure suitable to learn the skills and concepts for each academic discipline, and which creates a product that encourages the students and the audience to question their fundamental understanding of the world.
Below, I have attached a few projects I designed for my classes in previous years that I think are steps on the way to that goal.
When students engage in authentic work - that which speaks deeply to the student’s passions AND which leads them to engage with the community beyond school- it develops in them the habits that every school has made part of their missions and visions:
- a lifelong commitment to learning;
- an engagement with the world;
- an aesthetic appreciation for beauty;
- the capacity for reflection, self-expression, and critical thought.
I have also come to see that the artistic process - the means by which artists comprehend the world and their place in it - might be the best way to promote creativity, critical thought, and interdisciplinarity. That is, the way learning genuinely happens in the world.
My goal for the coming year is to design a curriculum that incorporates all the elements of engineering and artistic design, which frees student imagination yet provides a structure suitable to learn the skills and concepts for each academic discipline, and which creates a product that encourages the students and the audience to question their fundamental understanding of the world.
Below, I have attached a few projects I designed for my classes in previous years that I think are steps on the way to that goal.
The Vermiform Composting Bin/Agitprop Entrepreneurial project, in the Berkshire Eagle
The UnHappy Meal, in the Chatham Courier
(article from the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Apr 22, 2013 - featuring the Aquaponics/Shark Tank project
This website features an interdisciplinary project that was meant to teach design thinking and have the students address the problem of sustainability in Hawai'i. The students designed and created a small, table-top aqua-ponics kit for the home and then create a marketing pitch to sell it publicly. The rationale for a small table-top size kit is for parents and children to use it for home education about sustainability - but also, to create something with aesthetic beauty - and maybe grow some herbs for the kitchen, to boot.
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This was the follow up to the Aquaponics Project - students had to take their final creations and then market their product. In other words, we are blending academics and entrepreneurialism and challenging students to make Hawai'i's growth more environmentally sustainable. They competed to present the best designs - scientifically, educationally and aesthetically - but also the best PR and marketing strategies. On Monday, April 22nd, 2013, they presented their designs and pitches to a team of experts - similar to the ABC show Shark Tank. The winning team received funding to go into the mass production of their design to sell to the public.
“What’s the best way to help students understand drama?” I had no interest in teaching the play The Trojan Women the way I had learned drama in high school, and the goal of our humanities program was to have me, the teacher, function only as facilitator, rather than the source of comprehension. I ended by speaking to one of our theater teachers and asked him how best to teach a play. His response? “Act it out and understand that theater is a mode of communication as much as text.” If the kids understood the play, it would come out in their performance. And the only way to give a good performance is of course to understand the play. We scaffolded every skill we thought necessary for the students to have effective voice movement and comprehension, and the results are contained in this website, along with every resource necessary.
They Call it a Play, Don't They? by Raleigh Werberger is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. |