The Design and Technology Cycle in Grade One

Investigate/Research


Plan/Design

Create

Evaluate/Test

Grade One students have been guided through this unit of inquiry using the Design and Technology design cycle.

We figured that this would be the ideal way to check for their evidence of understanding of the central idea.

Using this rubric/continuum, we have been monitoring their understanding throughout the unit.

For a summative assessment, students will use what they learned about the facets of the design cycle and apply it toward designing a structure which has meaning to them.

Can you balance a book using only one piece of paper?

"If I trap the air in here, it will hold the book up."

Through this learning experience, students were challenged to use innovative ways to make a typically weak material paper (a piece of paper) strong.


Students were guided with the following questions:

• How can you manipulate the material to create a sturdy structure?

• What method can you use to make it stronger?

• How can your knowledge of 3-D shapes help your structure?

• What 3-D shapes can be used to improve your structure?
  

"I'm making something that will hold it like a building...This is a wall...I want to make four of these things fat for the edges...This is VERY frustrating!"

"I'm making it kind of like a shape, so it can balance. I put this, it is something so it can stand."

"We can make an airplane...The book can stand on the plane...If I fold it like a pocket, maybe it will stand."

What is a structure?

Central idea: Methods of construction and properties of materials influence the design of structures.

In order to develop a solid foundation* for this unit, we reflected to see our understanding of what a structure is. The class discussion went deeper than a mere dictionary definition.

Here are some initial theories and beginnings of ideas of the students that will grow into further understanding:

"A structure is not land. People build it."

"A structure is science. If people build something, they have a paper. They have to make the building the same as the paper."

"Can art be a structure?"

"Is science art?"

*Please ignore all of the building puns that will be inherently used during this unit.

Field Trip to Savar - Celebration of Victory Day

We recently took a field trip to Savar to visit Sriti Shoudh, the National Martyr's Monument for Bangladesh's Victory Day. I created this slideshow movie with some help from animoto to sum up our learning experience.

A Unit to Celebrate

Transdisciplinary Theme:

How we express ourselves

Our new central idea:

We celebrate different events based on our culture and beliefs.

When one thinks of celebrations, one tends to gravitate towards the three 'f's': food, flags and fashion. But does that really get us to the essence of how and why we celebrate? The Grade One team has devised a tool kit to help us hone in on celebrations and help students get a clearer picture of the celebrations in their lives.

Grade One Action-The Art of Campaigning

Grade One was able brainstorm ideas on how to improve their relationship with the environment throughout this unit. They were also able to see their ideas through by acting on them within their community.

Creating posters to make others aware

As they learned about the importance of reducing, reusing, recycling and rotting, the grade one students were challenged to get the message out to a wide audience. They created posters, and they hung them in the various places so the whole school could read them.

Making recycling accessible for others

Students were confronted with the thought that even if people knew about the benefits of recycling, it is not a common practice in the community. Students created recycling bins and sorting labels to promote recycling. Eventually, they partnered with the secondary Roots and Shoots organization. Currently we are all working together to help create an environment that is conducive to recycling.

Getting the word out

Two risk-takers had the idea to promote the grade one recycling campaign during the primary assembly. Saif and Aabir got in front of the whole school to let students know about their ideas and feelings toward the environment.

Modeling the actions that you want others to take

Motivated by our recent walk outside of the school grounds, students decided that they wanted to clean up the litter. Equipped with appropriate safety materials, they took action to improve the environment. As they picked up the rubbish, others were motivated to join in!

What happened to the things we buried?

We dug up the rubbish that we buried a couple of weeks ago to discover the following things:

• The paper broke up into smaller pieces.
• The glass and plastic just got dirtier.
• The bread was gone!

We have a couple theories as to how the bread disappeared:

• Ants came and took the bread away (there was a bunch of ants by where the bread was).
• The rain water washed it away.
• The bread melted into the ground.

This learning experience leads to the question:

Is there any rubbish that is good for the environment?

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot, Refresh?

Do a Google search for 'environment' or 'recycle' and your browser gets littered with links. I thought I would help you to sort through them to choose the best ones, so you can reduce the amount of time searching for yourselves at home. Here is a break down of the sites that we use in class which have the most kid friendly content:


Recycle Now's section on home composting is brilliant for young minds, and it even has a step by step video about the composting process. The only problem was that you can only order a compost bin if you live in the UK, so we had to make our own!


Both Compost This and Recycle This are vivid and informative sites. The latter has a forum type setup where people write in with questions as to how they could recycle things such as compact discs, old sponges, maps etc. Users can post their ideas to share with the poster.


Eekoworld is another gem from pbskids.org which is entertaining and interactive. The videos break down each form of pollution in depth and promotes action by posing questions about our responsibility for our future. There is also a game which has players searching around a virtual house looking for ways to reduce waste. Best of all, there is an interactive forum for kids to respond to different environmental prompts. We often give students a chance to submit their own posts on our classroom computer.

A first hand look at pollution

What is your relationship with the environment?

We went on a walk just directly outside of our school. Our main focus was to look for litter and other pollution. We took pictures of what we saw:




Grade One students are inquiring into using adjectives to define and strengthen their writing. Using the photos that they took, they went around to interview other members of the community to see what adjectives they would use to describe the environment.


Students will be using the adjectives that they acquired to write and reflect about their feelings for their immediate environment. During that process we will be looking to see if they have any ideas toward improving the situation. As we develop ideas, we will look to start a campaign and a plan of action. Look for future posts for examples of student writing.

What will happen if we bury it?

Grade One students discovered that most rubbish is gotten rid of by dumping it and burying it. We decided to see what would happen to certain things when they are buried.

We buried:

• a glass bottle
• a piece of bread
• a brown paper bag
• a juice box
• an A4 sized paper
• a plastic bottle
• a plastic container
• an empty bag of chips
  

We will check our marked garden in two weeks to see what happens.

Here are some of our predictions:

'I think the chips box will still be litter.'-S'aqib

'I think someone will come and take it away.'-Amber

'I think it will be a nasty environment.'-Tahsin

Action in our Unit of Inquiry

Humans live with the consequences of their relationship with the environment.

While planning this unit, we have decided that most of the student understanding that will fall under this central idea will be able to be measured in student action. We are working on an assessment continuum which will help assess student action through the different stages of the unit. According to the PYP, action occurs in a three way cycle where students CHOOSE, ACT and REFLECT. Here are some of the reflections that students initiated this week:

'If you make signs around the pond telling people not to throw rubbish, maybe people will follow the signs.'-Aryana

'People could use these to make a new bottle'-Sumran

'If someone throws glass in the water, then the duck will get hurt. The blood will start coming, and their blood will be finished. He will die.'-Adrif

Literal learning web for our new unit

Central Idea:

Humans live with the consequences of their relationship with the environment.

How can you promote understanding of how humans are connected to their environment?

Grade One used a physical presentation of a mind map to show the connection.

Five students 'became' elements that are necessary for life on the planet such as clean water, clean soil, etc by wearing labels. Other student carried labels of living things such as trees, birds, plants, humans, etc. If the living things thought that they needed any of the elements, they would become connected with string. The living things also connected strings toward other things. For example, humans need plants to eat and breathe. The discussion continued as the 'elements' noted that they cannot survive without eachother. Clean soil cannot stay clean without clean water.

The learning experience continued, as the teacher remove one element, clean soil, from the web. Consequently, everything connected to the clean soil also died off. This eventually removed everyone from the web.

Students reflected about their role in the experience in their writing journal. We will use this as a starting point for inquiring into human's relationship with the environment.

What are your strategies for addition?

manipulatives

using memory

using hands

calculator

hundred square

We had a class discussion about how the students approach addition. It was a great time to share ideas and strategies. We also talked about what strategy would be useful for different levels of addition. For example, if you are adding single digit numbers, you could use memory or adding with your hands. If you are adding larger numbers, you could use a calculator or the hundred square.

The learning experience was introduced to help students begin to realize that you can use different methods toward finding the same answer. When your child is tackling a problem at home, be sure to encourage her to think of a variety of strategies and choose the best one for that situation.

Below is the list of strategies toward addition that the students have thought of so far. Are we missing any important ones? Are there any others that work for you?

• counting on fingers

• ___ in my head and ___ on my hand

• tally

• hundred square

• calculator

• memory

• coins, cubes (manipulatives)

• number cards
  

A common interest early in the school year has been the students' curiosity for the book "Cloudland" by John Burningham. Maybe it is the playful language or the whimsical fantasy of the picture book that has had the young readers so engaged. It could quite possibly be the realistic photographic illustration enhanced with hand drawn pictures. Motivated by the illustrations and the story, students were equipped with cameras to take pictures of their realistic setting. Sorting out the pictures, they chose one to create a mini story. Students superimposed their hand drawings onto the photo backdrop.


For our unit of Who We Are, students are inquiring into groups under the central idea of:

We belong to groups, some chosen, some inherent, in order to meet certain needs.

In the story, the main character, Albert, gets separated from his parents while hiking above the clouds. He is adopted by the 'cloud children', and they help tend to his needs, especially the need to have fun. Albert eventually realizes that he misses his family, and he eventually finds a way to get home.

The book served as a great conversation piece with our inquiry into groups. The students made connections with Albert, noting that they can belong to groups outside of the home. Students noted the physical needs that Albert was able to meet, such as to eat and to sleep, away from home, and they are starting to scrape the surface of the deeper social needs using words like 'belong'.

We will continue to find out what these needs are and think of ways to describe them.