design thinking summer institute - Centennial HS

Outdoor and Environmental Science - Centennial High School'
Carter Cox, Adam Sandbeck, Kenzie Rushton

Students at Centennial HS have the opportunity to combine a passion for outdoor education with their learning in Science, Phys. Ed, Career and Technology Studies and CALM.

Three teachers came together last summer to design the next phase of their OES program.

We are re-designing the way we deliver and assess the human system learning outcomes from Bio 20, Chem 20, CTS 2010 (Wilderness First Aid WFA) and CALM.

Our project was extremely successful for the students, however we were unable to implement all of our original ideas.  The integration of the human systems from the Bio 20 curriculum and the CTS credits and certification in wilderness first aid worked very well.  A first draft booklet was created for the students to help with the practical implementation of human systems theory to real life first aid scenarios.  The students were able to demonstrate a higher level of understanding of human systems as it directly relates to wilderness first aid scenarios.  The students memory recall showed improvements on tests and as a result the students were able to obtain their certification.

The grade 12 students were unable to design simulations for the grade 11’s and therefore we were unable to be able to model simulations for the gr 11’s to design.  This is our ultimate goal for next year, to re-think how the gr 11’s will have enough time to design their simulations and provide the ultimate form of assessment.  

design thinking summer institute - Simon Fraser

Eco-Challenge Dragon’s Den
Gord Weeks, Simon Fraser

This project involved inviting all of our grade 9 students to design a product or service with an environmental theme which they were to develop with  a small group of fellow students from their homeroom.  The project culminated with presentations in each homeroom after about 3 weeks of school with each group presenting their idea to their classmates and homeroom teacher.  The top 2 presentations in each homeroom won the chance to pitch their idea to an assembled panel of judges in an “Environmental Dragon’s Den”.  Students were given 1 core period per day and 1 option period to work on this project.

Our work on this project changed my perspective on cross-disciplinary opportunities for students because I saw that students’ level of engagement was much higher than I expected.  I liked the fact that, because students had more choice in what they learned, they spent more time and effort than we had expected, and they had deeper learning about their chosen topic than they would  have gained from a textbook or a single lesson on that topic.

Gord shared a podcast he created to reflect on the project. You can listen here.  (Make sure you are logged into your educbe Google account.)

design thinking summer institute - Langevin Science School

In August 2015 a group of 40 dedicated grades 4-12 teachers came together for 3 days to answer the following design challenge:

How might we use instructional design to create effective, engaging and multi-disciplinary learning opportunities for our students?

image from: IDEO Design Thinking for Educators

These teachers designed a learning experience for their students, tried it out and reported back their results. 

Over the next few weeks we will share their stories. 

Minerals and Metals: Changes to the lives of early Canadian explorers and aboriginals.
Ross Howe, Langevin Science School

The project which we tried related ‘Minerals and Metals” in our Social Studies, Math, Science and Language Arts. In our Social Studies student took on roles as Archaeologists, Anthropologists, Botanists and Ecologists. Students were able to research a scenario of the discovery of a three hundred year old site of an Eastern Canadian Aboriginal group. Students gathered evidence and presented findings in a “Science Symposium”. Of particular interest was the use and application of metals and minerals in the aboriginal dig.

In Math, we explored the “Unit Cell” structure of minerals and metals by creating a crystal model and evaluating this model through basic geometry. Students did find creating a model somewhat challenging but manage in general to create the result adequately. Use of higher grade paper would have been beneficial.

In Science, students took the opportunity to explore minerals and metals of Canada and created a brochure about the mineral or metal and are geographic location. What was interesting was the learning which we did regarding the geology of Canada and where the different types of minerals and metals came from. Students learned a direct relationship between geology and geography. 

Finally, in Language Arts students using the idea of “Story Telling” created a story about how European metals and minerals changed the way of life for the aboriginals. What was interesting was the manner in which students had different ideas about how changes took place with “First Contact”. Some saw it as an advantage while others saw it as a negative effect.

The whole process is very interesting and you really must trust the process in order to gain the maximum benefit of the experience. I will continue to work on this idea….Integrated Curriculum.