Building STEAM Confidence and Creativity in Middle School
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
It is important to use bricks or basically any available material as a hands-on activity for the students, it is a way to inspire them and engage them. We need to teach them how to be creative in problem solving, the work world is changing and so are the jobs, and even some of the future jobs still don't exist today, so we need to prepare them for the future. Jobs in the future needs specific skills, emotional intelligence and rapid decision making, that can be required through hands-on activities and playing in class.
It has been noticed that most students are anxious about schools and grades and about trying new things, they are often too afraid to experience new things especially when it's linked to grades or undesirable outcomes, and therefore they seem to grow lacking the confidence to take risks and try out new things. Therefore, teachers must provide students with the opportunity to try without the risk of failure and without it being linked to grades and marks, so that their experience would be enjoyable.
It has been noticed that most students are anxious about schools and grades and about trying new things, they are often too afraid to experience new things especially when it's linked to grades or undesirable outcomes, and therefore they seem to grow lacking the confidence to take risks and try out new things. Therefore, teachers must provide students with the opportunity to try without the risk of failure and without it being linked to grades and marks, so that their experience would be enjoyable.
Greg Kent, the technology coordinator of Kailua elementary school (HI) says that the "fearless vs. reckless" is the essence of learning, which means we do want the students to think of the consequences, but we don't want them to be too afraid to try, and that is the kind of learning that they take with them even after they grow up. The teacher must provide a safe environment and equipment where students can feel that it is harmless to try out a new experience, which will teach them how to solve problems on their own instead of having the teacher solve these problems for them. And so, this kind of hands-on teaching must be purposeful, it is a shift in the mindset where creativity is not just drawing or painting something, it's rather found in everything ; problem solving, communicating, addressing issues..
The teacher must take into consideration the age and stage of the students when choosing the material and tasks, and then let the hands do the thinking for them because when they work with their hands, they train their thinking better. It is also a way to manage frustration and pressure. These two are considered by students to be very bad, however, hands-on activities like Lego for example could teach them how to better work under pressure and that frustration is what leads them to find new solutions. And therefore when in the future they are faced with a problem with serious outcomes, they'll be able to deal with it better. Working together on these activities will also teach them how to put together other people's ideas along with theirs to come up with a solution. One example of such a game is to give all students equal numbers of Lego bricks, let them sit back to back, and verbally describe to the other what they have built. Or have multiple groups of students challenge each other in who could build the tallest tower, where they learn that if it falls down they've just learned one way that doesn't work, and they are immediately back to work to try a new way instead of giving up. If kids use their hands and not only listen learn and speak but also "do", they would have better connection and better understanding. It is important to understand that kids need time to investigate, they need time to play, and they most likely won't get the right answers from the first time, and there are a lot of ways that kids can be creative. Another example of this method in language and arts is to tell a story and ask the kids to model out (with Lego bricks) a part of the story they've heard. These activities teach them algorithmic thinking and how to come up with new solutions based on the concepts they've taken from the teacher.
The webinar also talked about a new robotic release by LEGO education called the "spike prime" which is an interactive robot that builds quicker prototype and offers scratch based coding.
