Last week we took on the challenge of raising awareness about our group problem. We made posters and wrote letters to spread the news! This week, we are diving into thinking up a solution for our problem by creating an invention! Tons of people have thought up brilliant ideas for world problems, why can't we :) Here are some videos we used as inspiration. We worked together in our groups to come up with our invention idea! it wasn't our own idea that we came up with by ourself, but a group idea that we all agreed on! It took us a whole day of planning and prepping before we dove into making our invention prototype! We set aside time in the afternoon to gather materials and start creating! We call this time "Idea Workshop" We also used the book,"The Most Magnificent Thing" as a mentor text for our idea workshop process because it clearly outlines what this process can be like for many kids. It is HARD WORK to turn that idea in your mind into a reality. Here are a few of our seesaws that explain the plan for our inventions!
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During the creation process, the creative energy in the room was amazing! I was able to capture a bit of the magic with these photos, but lots happened that I didn't get a chance to capture. Many students really enjoyed the long chunk of time that they were given to create, add on, and perfect their creations. Although, some students really struggled with this amount of time and how to use it without being given explicit instructions on what to do. The skill of seeing a problem, creating a plan, executing the plan, and having to modify the plan when things don't work out does not come easy for everyone!