Tag Archives: STEM

by | May 30, 2024 · 1:14 pm

Playdough for Everyone

Playdough is a tactile educational tool that can be used as a way to incorporate creativity and kinesthetic learning into lessons. It is inexpensive and easy to make using available kitchen ingredients (flour, salt, water & oil).

Playdough can be used throughout the curriculum for all ages: it can be an effective form of experiential learning from the development of fine motor skills in preschool children (Rukmini et al., 2022) all the way to post-secondary students learning neuroscience anatomy (Gopal & Bhooshan, 2021). Further, having students engage in hands-on learning increases engagement and can lead to improved outcomes.

Although playdough can be purchased, it is relatively cheap and easy to make, and can last several months in the sealed bag or container before being disposed of in the compost. Here are two of my favorite recipes:

Ideas for Elementary & Middle Years Teachers:

  • Sensory math activities (playdough can be used as a manipulative). For example, matching numbers with small balls of playdough or squishing playdough balls during counting
  • Using playdough to model and learn about 2D and 3D shapes
  • Exploring fractions and equations using fractions
  • Telling or re-telling a story using playdough.
  • Students might even create play
  • Building structures or engineering (you could include other resources, such as toothpicks to create more complex structures)
  • Colour theory – students can blend small balls of colored playdough to create a colour wheel.
  • Spelling words by molding letters or by using letter cookies cutters or alphabet stamps
  • Using playdough to explore patterns (ex. colour, shape, size, etc.)
  • Learning about Earth and the solar system
    • Modelling the phases of the moon or exploring the moon’s surface and craters
  • Telling time using playdough to make the hands of the clock

Ideas for Secondary Teachers:

Higher Tech Ideas for K12 and beyond:

  • With Squishy Circuits students can learn about and create complex circuits while expressing their creativity. Concepts including conductivity, resistance, simple circuits, parallel and series circuits, short circuits and switches. The Professor responsible for Squishy Circuits at the University of St. Thomas shares recipes for both conductive and non-conductive dough.
  • Use Playdough to construct a ‘MakeyMakey’ piano or game controller. MakeyMakey is a basic micro-controller appropriate for all ages.
  • Model and sculpt characters and setting to tell a digital story
    • Stop Motion Animation is an excellent way to incorporate digital tools with hand-building and creative expression. Tools like Stop Motion Studio or iMovie can be used as they have ‘auto timing’ features that make stop motion more efficient. The example below shows how a very effective movie can be created using simple techniques.

References:

Rukmini, R., Mustaji, M., & Mariono, A. (2022). Effectiveness of a playdough game in stimulating fine motor skills and cognitive skill: Early childhood education. The International Journal of Early Childhood Learning, 29(1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.18848/2327-7939/CGP/v29i01/1-12

Gopal, V., & Bhooshan, L. (2021). The feasibility of using playdough and household materials as an educational tool for self-learning of neurosurgical anatomy during COVID-19 lockdown. Anatomical Sciences Journal, 18(2), 92-99.

Guest post by Peer Mentor Lindsay Cunningham (Ph.D. student, EDCP), May 2024.

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under Activating Strategies, Active Learning, AppliedDesignSkillsTechnologies, Blog Posts, Curriculum, Inclusive Practices, Not Subject Specific, Planning, STEAM

Tagged as , , , ,

by | April 27, 2021 · 9:21 am

Podcast Series: interdisciplinary learning

Thinking Outside the Sandbox was created in summer 2020 as the result of a collaboration between two graduate students Belén Guillemin and Nashwa Khedr, together with Yvonne Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager, Teacher Education as part of the 2020 Scarfe Sandbox team. The inspiration for the podcast series came about as Belen and Nashwa interviewed Faculty of Education faculty members to learn more about their views on interdisciplinary learning and STEAM. During the recorded interviews, they noticed some themes emerging across the separate video interviews. In order to capture these broader themes, Belen devised a script that wove together excerpts from the interviews.

Episodes were published during the 2020-2021 school year. Each episode is accompanied by a blogpost on the Scarfe Sandbox website. Happy Listening!

Listen on Anchor (or get access to alternative streaming platforms including Spotify)

Episodes (in order):

  1. Outdoor and Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Harley Banack, Dr. Sandrine Han: Podcast Episode 1 & Sandbox Blogpost 
  2. Technology and Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Jennifer Jenson, Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin, Dr. Sandrine Han: Podcast Episode 2 & Sandbox Blogpost
  3. The Arts and Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Shannon Leddy, Dr. Marina Milner Bolotin, Dr. Sandrine Han: Podcast Episode 3 & Sandbox Blogpost
  4. Challenges in Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Shannon Leddy, Dr. Hartley Banack, Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin, Dr. Sandrine Han: Podcast Episode 4
  5. Learning about and through Food featuring Dr. Kerry Renwick, Dr. Susan Gerofsky, Dr. Lorrie Miller: Podcast Episode 5 & Sandbox Blogpost
  6. Textiles and Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Lorrie Miller, Dr. Kerry Renwick: Podcast Episode 6 & Sandbox Blogpost
  7. Math and Interdisciplinary Learning featuring Dr. Susan Gerofsky, Janice Novakowski, Dr. Cynthia Nichol: Podcast Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9 & Sandbox Blogpost

We gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by the students of UBC via a Teaching Learning Enhancement Fund grant, Weaving Together Arts and STEM. We would also like to thank the many faculty who volunteered their time to prepare for and participate in interviews leading to the podcast episodes and associated blog posts.

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under AppliedDesignSkillsTechnologies, Blog Posts, Curriculum, Engineering, Inclusive Practices, Math, Not Subject Specific, Planning, Podcasts, Resources, Science, STEAM, Technology, The Arts

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | March 29, 2021 · 2:22 pm

Storytelling for STEM Subjects

Using the art of storytelling to teach STEM subjects.

“Maybe stories are just data with soul”

– from TED Talk “The Power of Vulnerability” by Brené Brown

Storytelling can be an effective method for engaging students with STEM subject areas – and this has been shown to be the case for girls especially (1, 3, 4). According to an article by Catalyst.org, Women in STEM (1), a gender gap in STEM persists across the world. This is a problem because the same systems of bias that push women and people of color out of STEM careers, also influence the products and services created by STEM organizations.

Some female students do not further pursue the STEM subjects, and enrolment in math, computer science and engineering programs can become lop-sided, as a result. This creates many issues, such as the creation of AI and other technologies that do not include women’s perspectives in the algorithms. The use of storytelling is therefore important for developing technologies such as AI products because it engages female students at a higher rate with computer science and engineering-related subjects. This way, females stay in the field and later contribute their perspectives and ideas to AI technology development. Females also tend to care about the environment, and might consider this when developing new technologies (2).

The references below explain some approaches & resources to support you in developing your own stories in the classroom. According to a blog article by Scientific American (3), stories and art can be used to help teach math and science subjects. You might also consider how Indigenous perspectives and first people’s principles of learning are supported through a storytelling approach (links to post in this blog).

Storytelling to Teach Math & Science:

  1. Math teachers can analyze the intricacies of M.C. Escher’s artwork with their students or read “Behind the Beautiful Forevers” by Katherine Boo in order to take into account different perspectives. (3)
  2. Science teachers can read aloud the poetic observations of Dr. David George Haskell, and biology teachers can share the story of the HeLa cells. In other words, they can incorporate some interesting and odd facts into their science teachings that are very memorable. (3)
  3. The National Council Teachers of Math website has some excellent resources to support storytelling in math. Use the search box at the top right to search for storytelling and to find a plethora of articles on this subject including: Trigonometry Comes Alive through Digital Storytelling and Storytelling + Origami = Storigami Mathematics. The nctm.org website also includes articles involving strategies and benefits of math discussion (refer to refs 9, 10).

Computing Science and Storytelling:


For computer science related subjects, it can be especially encouraging to hear that there have been many great female computer scientists all throughout history, who have contributed much to this subject area. This 2015 article by The Guardian (4), is mostly focused on Ada Lovelace, known by many as the first computer programmer, and presents interesting ideas to incorporate STEM (2015 article). You may wish to include some of the fun ideas below into your cross-curricular storytelling!

  1. Create a historical timeline or a collection of curious facts
  2. Demonstrate some science tricks
  3. Solve some mysteries
  4. Create a DIY model

A 2019 article by Edutopia explains how the teachers used a story about dragons to help engage their students with science content. In this case, the content was about anatomy and characteristics, such as bone structure. According to the article, “lessons like these help students make connections between what they’re learning and their prior knowledge.”

Some tools for coding for storytelling:

There are various options for students engaging in coding stories with many being accessible for even younger students due to the ‘drag and drop’ nature of some block coding languages. There are even many unplugged or more kinesthetic opportunities to practice computational thinking as they make their stories! A few tools that might help you get started:

  1. Scratch is a simple drag and drop programming language that allows even young learners to create animations, stories and games.
  2. Twine can be used to create interactive digital stories and support the development of literacies including computational thinking skills. Likely best for upper intermediate and high school.
  3. Ozobots are little robots that students can code to tell stories that can be physically ‘acted out’ or ‘enacted’ by the robot on a drawn story map or other surface in the classroom.
  4. Unplugged coding activities support a range of activities including storytelling.

For more information on why it is important to incorporate storytelling into computer science subjects, please refer to the BC curriculum. In particular, you can look to the Applied Design Skills & Technologies (ADST) and computer science curriculum.

  1. Critically analyze how competing social, ethical, and sustainability considerations impact designed solutions to meet global needs for preferred futures
  2. Evaluate impacts, including unintended negative consequences, of choices made about technology use
  3. Analyze the role technologies play in societal change
  4. Examine how cultural beliefs, values, and ethical positions affect the development and use of technologies

Storytelling: Indigenous Perspectives & First People’s Principles of Learning

Incorporating story in teaching & learning, provides students with opportunities to engage in the first people’s principles of learning (FNESC has a wonderful poster) and can support a deeper connection to place, content and varied perspectives. Inviting elders into the classroom to share story or accessing authentic voice via digital stories published online is one approach.

More recently, digital storytelling is being employed to help preserve cultural knowledge and language.

Incorporating storytelling into classroom studies is an important part of the current BC curriculum across subject areas. Within the computer science curriculum, for example, there are standards related to being culturally aware, and recognizing the impact that technology can have. Storytelling can also help create a greater awareness of other cultures, the environment, and gender-based issues.

 

Guest Post: Jacqueline Boivin, Project Assistant 2021; Edits, Y. Dawydiak, Learning Design Manager, TEO

References:

  1. https://www.catalyst.org/research/women-in-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem/
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/eco-gender-gap-why-saving-planet-seen-womens-work
  3. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/budding-scientist/to-attract-more-girls-to-stem-bring-storytelling-to-science/
  4. https://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/2015/oct/05/six-creative-ways-inspire-girls-science-lessons
  5. https://www.edutopia.org/article/dragons-and-fairy-tales-science-class
  6. https://www.banffcentre.ca/indigenous-arts
  7. https://fullcircle.ca/full-circle/about-us/vision/
  8. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/curriculum/adst
  9. https://www.nctm.org/Research-and-Advocacy/Research-Brief-and-Clips/Strategies-for-Discussion/
  10. https://pubs.nctm.org/view/journals/tcm/14/4/article-p206.xml
  11. https://blogs.ubc.ca/scarfesandbox/drag-and-drop-programming-scratch/
  12. https://blogs.ubc.ca/scarfesandbox/computational-participation-creating-interactive-digital-stories-with-twine/
  13. Simone Hausknecht, Shannon Freeman, Jenny Martin, Carrie Nash & Kelly Skinner (2021) Sharing Indigenous Knowledge through intergenerational digital storytelling: Design of a workshop engaging Elders and youth, Educational Gerontology, 47:7, 285-296, DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2021.1927484
Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under Blog Posts, Digital & Media Literacy, Inclusive Practices, Planning, Remote teaching & learning

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | November 12, 2019 · 3:12 pm

Design-Based Learning: STEM and Simple Machines

Watching children play, particularly very young children, we can see they behave scientifically.

Children observe and collect. They wonder and deduce, and they’re methodical. They collaborate – sometimes! – and when they’re puzzled, they experiment and make adjustments.

At whatever age STEM learning occurs, though, make no mistake: it is real STEM learning, not mere child’s play (McClure, 2017). The earlier that children begin STEM activities, the sooner they begin to hone what Katehi, Pearson, and Feder (2009) call engineering habits of mind: systems thinking, creativity, optimism, communication, collaboration, supported persistence, and attention to ethical thinking. And, obviously, these habits of mind apply to more than just STEM work.

“In the minds of these children, too, there was a complex inner process – one that is hard to see, which often results in adults underestimating young children’s current capacities” (McClure, 2017, p. 84)

Teachers can make good habits, too, while teaching STEM-related material, which again can apply beyond STEM lessons: designing and facilitating experiential learning tasks, for instance, or asking questions of students vs providing them with answers, or collaborating with colleagues and the local community. Before long, students and teachers are spotting STEM links all over the curriculum. For instance, classroom engineering activities become a practical way for students to see abstractions like mathematics in action while a look at simple machines prompts the chance to notice just how commonly we rely on them every single day.

Along with reinforcing habits of mind, sustained STEM learning also influences students’ longer-term post-secondary and professional decisions. As we look for ways to make STEM careers more inclusive and accessible to all, researchers have found that women who were made more aware of career opportunities during their school years were more likely to select engineering as a post-secondary degree major (Tyler-Wood et al., 2012; Frehill, 1997).

“A STEM identity is developed by active participation in the environment” (Subramaniam et al., 2012, p. 176)

Learn from the educators at UBC Engineering’s Geering Up Program about how to design your own design challenge using this resource they’ve shared with us!

Create, Make, Innovate: Getting Hands-on with Learning Design

Recap of Create, Make, Innovate! session, held on Tuesday, November 12th, 2019 in the Scarfe foyer: It all about simple machines: wheel-and-axle, wedges, inclined planes, pulleys, levers, and screws.

Free Clip Art by >\\sas from clker.com

Using a variety of basic tools, e.g. scissors, screwdriver, a small X-acto knife, you and your students can design and build simple machines of your own, with inexpensive everyday materials like dowels and planks of wood, cardboard tubing, pipe cleaners, buttons with twist ties, string or twine, and a spring scale. By planning ahead and adjusting after experimentation, they will be able to tackle straightforward design challenges that illustrate physical concepts in action, like force, work, friction, mechanical advantage, and the law of conservation of energy, just to name a few.

Simple machines are found literally everywhere, and they are a super way to introduce students to physics and engineering.

Free Photo by vũ tuấn from Unsplash

A basic model approach to engineering really does read like children at play: observe, design, build, experiment, adjust. For hands-on classroom activities, it’s hard to find something more stimulating, more instructive, or more fun than simple machines and engineering. And because simple machines have no power source and require someone or something to make them work, what better source of energy than curious students and their teachers!

Resources

British Columbia’s K–12 curriculum features a subject discipline called Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST), which “builds on students’ natural curiosity, inventiveness, and desire to create and work in practical ways” in order to “… provide firm foundations for lifelong learning.” As early as Kindergarten, students can take a role in learning how to apply ADST principles such as cross-disciplinary thinking, collaboration, and contextualised problem-solving.

On the Scarfe Digital Sandbox, you’ll find some terrific STEM resources, like PhET, which is particularly about Engineering, including simple machines, and also Arduino, specific to electronics, another fun STEM topic we explored back in September.

Check out the Boston Museum of Science website, where the month of November 2019 is Women and Girls in STEM Month. You can explore the Museum’s wide array of engineering lesson ideas and activities, which are suitable for all ages.

In-class, project-based learning has proven effective for student learning as compared to out-of-class projects, which are less significant. (Hansen & Gonzalez, 2014)

Read about some very young engineers and their simple machines in this article from the Early Childhood Research and Practice (ECRP) open-source e-journal, published by Loyola University in Chicago.

Acknowledgement: post author, Scott Robertson; editor, Yvonne Dawydiak

Interdisciplinarity, collaboration, hands-on learning – that’s the spirit of Create, Make, Innovate! We want to promote enthusiasm for sharing and learning across age groups and across subject disciplines.

Make, Create, Innovate sessions took place during the Fall 2019 in the foyer of the Neville B. Scarfe building and were hosted by Scott Robertson, a project assistant on a small TLEF grant with Dr. Lorrie Miller, Dr. Marina-Milner Bolotin and Yvonne Dawydiak, Teacher Education.

If you have an idea or an inspiration for a resource or future session, please let us know! scarfe.sandbox@ubc.ca

References

Frehill, L. (1997, Spring). Education and occupational sex segregation: The decision to major in Engineering. The Sociological Quarterly, 38(2), 225–249.

Katehi, L., Pearson, G., & Feder, M. (Eds.). (2009). Engineering in K-12 education: Understanding the status and improving the prospects. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/read/12635/chapter/1

McClure, E. (2017, November). More than a foundation: Young children are capable STEM learners. YC Young Children, 72(5), 83–89.

Subramaniam, M., Ahn, J., Fleischmann, K., & Druin, A. (2012, April). Reimagining the role of school libraries in STEM education: Creating hybrid spaces for exploration. The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, 82(2), 161–182.

Tyler-Wood, T., Ellison, A., Lim, O., & Periathiruvadi, S. (2012, February). Bringing up girls in Science (BUGS): The effectiveness of an afterschool environmental Science program for increasing female students’ interest in Science careers. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 21(1), 46–55.

Featured Photo Credit: “Stainless Steel Bolt With Lock” – Free Photo from Pexels

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under AppliedDesignSkillsTechnologies, Engineering, Math, Science

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | November 11, 2019 · 5:56 pm

Secondary Science: some possibilities for digital tech integration

One cannot truly experience science without experiencing its technological dimension. As a result, emergent technologies have increasingly shaped students’ experiences with science as well as influenced their relationships with natural/physical world. (Oliveira et al, 2019)

This fall, I had the pleasure once again of working with two of our Science Ed instructors, Leslie Johnstone and Oksana Bartosh, to plan some class sessions intended to expose teacher candidates in Secondary Science (Chem, Jr. Science and General Science) to emerging technologies through a series of hands-on, play based stations. Our aim was for the students to begin to consider the role of these technologies and to uncover both the possibilities and challenges in their own teaching contexts.

Our Stations included

(NB: content of stations varied across the four sections of Jr. Science, General Science & Chemistry See the Prezi presentations slides below for specific content)

  1. Coding  across  Curriculum – data analysis and sensors:
    • Micro:bits (impact sim, CO2 sensor by Eric) – Micro:bits kits available on load in Ed Library – see Yvonne to borrow CO2 sensor
  2. Simulations and Video (PHET, Annenberg Chem & ACS Virtual Chem)
    • Video and Simulations in the Science classroom – afford the opportunity for students to try experiments that might be otherwise impossible or, perhaps, just inaccurate if done hands-on. Sims and video can also support varied learners including ELLs in pre-playing or re-playing hands-on experiments. Check out PHET for some free, open access sims.  For some amazing video experiments, see: Olympian vs. Toaster and Evolution of Bacteria on a Megaplate.
    • Science 360 – an app and website that houses a large database of science videos and content
    • Consider the value of student (or teacher) created video
      • *Camtasia for video editing,
      • *VideoScribe for animation
        • *both of these robust softwares are available free to UBC students!
      • ShowMe app for quick multi-modal video creation & formative assessment) – there are many different apps in this class called ‘whiteboard’ apps
      • Stop Motion Studio: storytelling in science contexts can help students make sense of science content and abstract ideas in personal and concrete ways. Another app you might try is iMotion.
  3. All class response & Collaborative tools
    • Polling: Kahoot, Menti, Plickers (the free downloadable cards)
    • Collab and co-creation: a Padlet wall, AWW online drawing app & Concept mapping using Mindmup
    • During the session, we discussed the value of incorporating approaches including digital technologies that move beyond ‘teacher asks question’, ‘students raise hands and respond one at a time’. Students had the opportunity to put their ‘teaching hats on’ and explore Padlet or Kahoot. A few additional thoughts about these systems:
      • Student privacy (Kahoot, Menti and Padlet do not require students to login or give personal info!)
      • The system is only as effective as the questions posed! What constitutes an effective question?
      • How might gaming and competition impact student learning and how might it be leveraged or tempered..
  4. Emerging Tech (a little more on Augmented and Virtual Reality at the bottom of this post)
    • Theodore Gray’s Elements – interact with the periodic tables on a handheld device (this one is a paid app but very powerful and worth chatting with your school librarian about!)
    • Leslie had fun sharing Curioscope Virtual-i-tee – a very cool AR T-shirt & accompanying App that allows students to peer inside the human body
    • Merge Cube – this $15 AR spongy cube & accompanying free apps allow students to hold the the beating human heart, lungs, the earth and even the entire solar system in their hands! The ‘hologram’ that appears in your VR headset, ipad or smartphone is interactive to an extent (you can see different sides of an object by turning the cube or with a swipe or tap, adjust the view, see annotations, or even look inside of the object)
    • StarWalk – allows you to see the night sky ‘in real time’ at any given place or time. Hold it up to view the horizon or sky above you; hold it down to the floor and see through to the southern hemisphere! This app is transformative in that without such an app, students really have a difficult time visualizing the movement of the celestial sphere (and we definitely can’t show them this during the school day!).
    • Google Tour Creator (student and teacher created 360° VR environment that offers an immersive experience learners can explore on their own. Students found out how to use existing templates (ranging from human anatomy to the solar system) and how a group of learners can customize and annotate the template and use it as a collaborative storytelling tool.
    • 360 video, VR content
    • If you’re interested in checking out fully immersive VR environments, visit the UBC Emerging Media Lab in IKE Barber.
A word about groupings and stations:

In your classroom, especially if students are new to cooperative learning, we would advise creating groupings in advance of class. The groupings might be homogeneous or heterogeneous and based on any number of factors including ability or interest  depending on the objectives of the teacher and the needs of the students. Sometimes, randomized groupings can be used and have the added benefit of introducing students to opportunities to interact with many different members of the class. There are many online options. GroupMind, a lovely little App developed by Louai Rahal an Education PHD student & instructor I met a few years ago, is free and open for you to use with no sign up required. For more on groupings, this article by Beatrice A. Ward (1987) is worth a read.

 

As a very science interested teacher, it is always a pleasure to work with subject area specialists! If you’d like to explore anything related to teaching, learning and digital technology further, please be in touch or click the ‘Ask a Question’ link in this blog. Sign up for a Scarfe Tea Party (Mondays 4-5:30), Gearing up for practicum session (Dec – Feb) or drop in to Scarfe 1007 one Wednesday this term.  Schedule here.

References:

Oliveira, A, Feyzi Behnagh, R, Ni, L, Mohsinah, AA, Burgess, KJ, Guo, L. Emerging technologies as pedagogical tools for teaching and learning science: A literature review. Hum Behav & Emerg Tech. 2019; 1: 149– 160. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.141
Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under Blog Posts, Science, Technology

Tagged as , , , ,

by | September 24, 2019 · 4:28 pm

Spin Class: Drop Spindles and Textiles

Interdisciplinarity can be understood as a response to the rapid changes our world is facing today, particularly social, technological, and environmental changes. Yet interdisciplinarity does not advocate for an end to traditional subject disciplines. Rather, it calls on each discipline to “develop open, dynamic, and transactional approaches capable of depicting research in a network representation that is more aligned with changing configurations of knowledge and education” (Klein, p. 28). In short, it calls on all of us to listen, learn, and work together more closely and more sincerely.

Beyond being educators and researchers, we are members of our families, our communities, and our society. As our society has been placing greater value upon diversity, an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, learning, research, and inquiry seems like a perfect fit.

Exploring textiles in the classroom provides an excellent opportunity for students to connect theory and practice, and to reflect on how we are living interdisciplinary lives and have an impact on the world.

Listen to Episode 6 of our Learning Outside the Sandbox Podcast: Textiles featuring Dr. Lorrie Miller and Dr. Kerry Renwick explaining and providing examples on how to work with students around topics like the sourcing of fibers, string making, and fabrics, followed by exploring the process of dyeing, transporting, manufacturing and wearing.

Create, Make, Innovate: Getting Hands-on with Learning Design

Recap of the session in the Scarfe foyer Fall 2019

Understanding the nature of fibres is the first step in learning how we use them.

At this week’s Create, Make, Innovate! activity session, held Tuesday, September 24, 2019, teacher candidates (TCs) were able to try their hand at the ancient craft of spinning wool into yarn.

Silk fibres as captured by the Leica optical microscope at more than 30x magnification

Using a Leica optical microscope and its accompanying downloadable camera app to capture photos, they also examined cotton, silk, polyester, and freshly sheared sheep wool. Something everyone found amazing is how odd, even alien, the fibres look at such high magnification. One TC imagined her students thinking these pictures had been taken at the bottom of the ocean. Everyone appreciated the value of seeing something so ordinary from such a different perspective!

After making their top-whorl drop-spindles, TCs compared and contrasted the properties and pliability of each material during the felting and spinning processes. By considering both historical and cross-cultural perspectives, teachers can ask students to think about how textiles have played central and supporting roles in the stories and traditions of cultures such as British Columbia’s local indigenous peoples, including the Coast Salish and, more specifically, the Musqueam, on whose traditional territory the university now resides. The Musqueam people have a long tradition of weaving. Weaving and the spindle wheel play a central part in their culture to this day.

Visit the Musqueam Cultural Centre Gallery and arrange for a short guided tour of the local community. The Gallery is located a short drive southeast of the UBC campus.

Today, even a cursory assessment of the contemporary textiles industry reveals its elaborately diverse range of interconnection with other areas: geography, sociology, anthropology, folklore, religion, iconography, economics, agriculture, environmental sustainability, fashion, mathematics, education, and – presumably for any of these – history. Through a political lens, the textiles and garment industries focus concern upon some of our most fundamental human rights issues, such as poverty, women’s rights, and child protection, and also labour codes and safety standards. As Blandy & Hoffman (1991) marvel, “… the breadth of this topic leaves one wondering how it could possibly be ‘hidden’” (p. 62).

Check out some brief instructional videos on the Sandbox to see spinning in action!

Visit our Podcast Episode, Thinking Outside the Sandbox – Textiles to hear from some UBC Faculty of Ed professors

Resources

If you’re intrigued by the scope of textiles, visit The Quilt Index (Michigan State University), “an open access, digital repository of thousands of images, stories and information about quilts and their makers,” and the Boise Peace Quilt Project (BPQP), “a gesture of friendship to the people of the USSR, from 35 Idahoans.” You can also read this New York Times article from 1985 to get a sense of the BPQP’s historical context.

Check out the Science Learning Hub – Pokapū Akoranga Pūtaiao, University of Waikato, www.sciencelearn.org.nz for some great articles detailing wool fibre properties and wool processing, and search for a lesson plan provided by the Science Learning Hub called “Making Felt.”

The fibres of a wool swatch, as captured by the Leica optical microscope.

Learn more about wool at lovetoknow.com and quatr.us, and learn about needle felting at birkelandwool.com.

Here are some sample unit plans for Weaving made available by School District #44 (North Vancouver), suitable for Grades 4–5 and Grades 6–7.

Local Math legend and Richmond helping teacher, Janice Novakowski, shared a blog post & handouts from a session titled “Creating spaces for playful inquiry: encounters with fibres and fabrics”

Finally, have a look at these fascinating films for a sharper historical understanding of the textiles industry as well as some future alternatives it might be able to provide:

“Thread” (Vey Films) “Can the fashion industry reverse global warming?”

Textiles on Film (BFI Player) “A century’s worth of cinematic history documenting the British textiles industry”

“The New Black” (Fast Company) “Ideas for the future of fashion that blend style and sustainability”

Acknowledgement: post author, Scott Robertson; editor, Yvonne Dawydiak

Interdisciplinarity, collaboration, hands-on learning – that’s the spirit of Create, Make, Innovate! We want to promote enthusiasm for sharing and learning across age groups and across subject disciplines.

Make, Create, Innovate sessions took place during the Fall 2019 in the foyer of the Neville B. Scarfe building and were hosted by Scott Robertson, a project assistant on a small TLEF grant with Dr. Lorrie Miller, Dr. Marina-Milner Bolotin and Yvonne Dawydiak, Teacher Education.

If you have an idea or an inspiration for a resource or future session, please let us know! scarfe.sandbox@ubc.ca

References

Blandy, D. & Hoffman, E. (1991, January). Resources for research and teaching about textiles as a domestic art in art education. Art Education, 44(1), 60–71.

Klein, J. T. (2012). A taxonomy of interdisciplinarity. (2012). In J. T. Klein, C. Mitcham, & R. Frodeman, Oxford handbook of interdisciplinarity. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under AppliedDesignSkillsTechnologies, Blog Posts, Not Subject Specific, Science, The Arts

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

by | February 25, 2019 · 7:00 am

Programmation glisser-poser : Scratch

What is it

Scratch est un langage de programmation glisser-poser pour les enfants de tous âges pour apprendre les bases du codage. C’est gratuit et disponible comme application de web ou de bureau. ScratchJr pour les enfants de 5 à 7 ans est disponible sur les tablettes Android et iOS. Scratch vous permet de créer tout ce que vous voulez : des animations, des narrations et des jeux sur lesquels des matériaux informatiques (comme MakeyMakey) peuvent être branchés.

Fonctionnalités du dernier logiciel Scratch 2.0 2.0 Scratch version:

  • Comptes pour les profs et pour les élèves
  • Données dans le cloud
  • Blocs de codage glisser-poser
  • Télécharger des fichiers de votre propre ordinateur
  • Dessiner vos propres éléments
  • Blocs customisés
  • Programmes d’éditeur – Vector, Bitmap, Paint
  • Éditeur de son
  • Enregistrement des vidéos pour les projets
  • Partage de projets
Why is it relevant
Scratch est une façon simple et amusante pour aider les enfants à apprendre les bases de la programmation et du codage. On peut créer une suite d’événements en utilisant des blocs customisés qu’on peut glisser et poser – on code les actions qu’un certain élément réalisera. On peut ajouter des éléments du base de données de Scratch, télécharger des éléments de son propre ordinateur ou dessiner ses propres. ScratchJr permet aux enfants dès 5 ans d’apprendre à coder ! La programmation visuelle qu’emploie Scratch est pertinente par rapport au programme d’études de la C.-B. revisé – en particulier le programme de CCPT.

ScratchEd fournit aux profs un endroit en ligne où ils.elles peuvent voir des ressources pédagogiques pour Scratch, collaborer avec des autres éducateurs.trices et partager leurs propres histoires. Les profs peuvent y trouver des exemples de comment ils.elles peuvent employer Scratch pour engager un sujet avec leurs élèves, et de comment s’inspirer.

Regardez ce guide Co-Creative Activities for the 21st Century Kids (disponible en anglais seulement) pour explorer des idées de comment les activités de codage (avec et sans Scratch) peuvent s’intégrer dans un cours.

Regardez aussi le guide Creative Computing (disponible en anglais seulement), créé par un membre de l’équipe de recherche ScratchEd à Harvard.

 

How to get started

1. Allez au site Scratch, ou téléchargez le programme de bureau.

  • Si vous allez au site web, vous pouvez l’essayer (mais rien de ce que vous faites ne sera sauvegardé) ou vous pouvez vous inscrire sur le site et puis créer quelque chose (il sera possible donc de sauvegarder et partager vos projets).

Pour vous inscrire, cliquez sur le bouton « Rejoindre Scratch » (en haut de la page) et remplir les infos requises. Vous devrez aussi confirmer votre adresse e-mail.

Après vous êtes connecté.e, cliquez sur « Créer » (dans la barre d’outils en haut de la page) pour commencer un nouveau projet ou « Explorer » si vous voulez d’abord trouver de l’inspiration.

  • Si vous décidez de télécharger le logiciel sur votre ordinateur, cliquez ici et puis choisissez votre plateforme.

Ouvrez le fichier que vous venez de télécharger et installez-le.

 

2. Les interfaces de l’appli web et de celle de bureau sont pareilles.

  • Glissez des blocs de codage du menu « Code » (entouré en rouge) et posez-les sur l’espace à la droite. Faites se toucher les blocs pour définir une série d’actions.
  • Ajoutez un arrière-plan et des nouveaux personnages/objets (appelés « sprites », entourés en orange) du base donnée Scratch, téléchargez-en de votre propre ordinateur ou dessinez vos propres.
  • En créent des nouveaux sprites, cliquez-les pour programmer leurs actions.
  • Regardez votre projet sur l’écran d’affiche (entouré en bleu). Cliquez sur le drapeau vert pour activer votre projet et le signe rouge pour l’arrêter.

Email, RSS Follow

Leave a Comment

Filed under AppliedDesignSkillsTechnologies, Blog Posts, Curriculum, en francais, Resources, STEAM

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,