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Student engagement matters. This infographic based on the Levels of Engagement from the research of Phillip Schlechty define what level of buy-in you really have from your students. Sitting quietly does not necessarily equal learning. When students are authentically engaged, they learn at high and profound levels.
So how do we create high levels of engagement in our classroom? Design sprints are one answer! They fit perfectly into a Project Based Learning unit, which is another way to create high levels of engagement. I recently learned about design sprints from my friend Kristen at innovationinfirst.wordpress.com while I attended the #InnEdCO18 conference in June. Design sprints ask students to answer a question or solve a problem in a specific amount of time using the design thinking process. The ISTE Standards for Students defines the deliberate design process as: A methodology for problem-solving; a series of steps used to solve a problem and design a solution. For example, human-centered design process, project-based learning, engineering design processes, scientific method.
This design sprint is going to focus on Project Based Learning. This is the third post in this 4 part series: Literacy + STEAM= Design Sprints (Check out the first post in this series What If . . . and the second post in this series Abby Invents Unbreakable Crayons). Discover great picture books to launch a design sprint with a STEAM challenge in your classroom.
The World is not a Rectangle A Portrait of Architect Zaha Hadid by Jeanette Winter
This book, published in 2017, is about the creative designs of architect Zaha Hadid. She was an Arabic, a Muslim, and a woman who designed unusual, flowing buildings without traditional corners, and that made her designs controversial at times. She wanted her designs to reflect nature in the world around her. One of her quotes is the title for this book: "The world is not a rectangle. You don't go out into a park and say, 'My God, we don't have any corners.'" This book does a beautiful job of showing the inspiration for Zaha Hadid's work. It describes, "Her buildings swoosh and zoom and flow and fly." It shows illustrations of the swaying grasses and marshes that inspired the Signature Towers in Dubai, and the wind in the sand dunes that inspired the Bee'ah Headquarters in Sharjah. She holds the shell that inspired her design for the Al Wakrah Stadium in Qatar, and she sees the Guangzhou Opera House in China that looks like pebbles in the water on the outside, and, "Inside the opera house, a singer is the pearl in an oyster shell." This tribute to the career of Zaha Hadid includes facts about the life of this influential architect and over 10 of her designs and the inspiration behind them: galaxies, the flow of the water, the mountains, and jungles. Zaha Hadid passed away in 2016, but she left her mark on the world. A note from the author at the end of the book sums it up perfectly, "When I first saw photos of Zaha Hadid's architectural designs in 2010, the buildings seemed to fly. My spirit took flight–to a place in my imagination that only landscape had taken me before. I had to find out more about her."
Science + Engineering + Art = Minecraft Designs
I took a class this summer from my good friend Brandon Petersen who works for Microsoft, and I learned about how to use Minecraft EDU in the classroom. It is amazing! It is the perfect tool for students to use as an entry event or to create a product during a PBL unit. My district invested in computers from Microsoft, and with it came a free Minecraft EDU account for every student for the next 3 years! Woot! Woot! If you don't have Minecraft EDU accounts for your students, you can purchase school licenses for $5 per student (Click here for more info). There are some amazing things you can do with Minecraft EDU as a learning tool in the classroom, and there is a whole bank of lesson plans to get you started.
Using the PBL Project Design Overview from BIE, here is a PBL unit that can be done in the architectural style of Zaha Hadid with flowing lines that mimic nature, so students can become architects using Minecraft EDU.
Name of Project: Design a Zoo
Subject: Life Science
Grade Level: 2nd and/or 4th
Entry Event
Take students on a Virtual Reality field trip to see The Birds of Denver Zoo, or The San Diego Zoo with Google Expeditions. Included in these virtual reality field trips are questions and facts to share with students as you take the tour together. For example, in The Birds of Denver Zoo, it says, "Welcome to the Denver Zoo! You're now in our Rainforest Exhibit in Bird World. In this immersive habitat there are lots of different species, but they can be difficult to spot. As you look around, find features of the exhibit that could help meet the needs of birds. Hint: food, water, shelter, and space to be active!" It also includes information about the waterfall found in the exhibit, "In this exhibit, there is a waterfall as well as a small pond. How might birds use these to meet their needs? Fun fact: Some of the birds perch by this waterfall, using it like a shower to clean their feathers!"
Then read the book, The World is Not A Rectangle by Jeanette Winter. Discuss how architect Zaha Hadid used nature as an inspiration for her architectural designs. Tell students their task: Can you design and create a zoo in Minecraft EDU that simulates the habitat of 5 different animals found in 5 different ecosystems? Then ask them if they can design their zoos with nature as an inspiration for the buildings they must include in the habitat, just like Zaha Hadid. Try to avoid corners and square spaces for their animals and use nature as an inspiration for their space.
Product
Working in groups of 5, students create a scale model of the zoo in Minecraft EDU from their initial design. (I suggest having one Minecraft world for each group of 5 students, and each student in the group can build one of the habitats for the zoo in that world in collaboration with the other members of the group). It will include 5 different habitats with a different animal in each habitat. It must include the important things that those animals depend on in their environment to survive. Students will be able to speak to the following questions as they relate to the animals in their zoo:
(2nd grade)
What are the basic needs of plants and animals?
Making Products Public (include how the products will be made public and who students will engage with during/at the end of project)
Because of the similarities in the 2nd and 4th grade life science unit, students in those grade levels can present and/or collaborate on the design of their zoo. They can ask students to take a tour of their zoo.
For a more authentic audience, contact your local zoo to see if someone on the staff would be willing to listen to students present their ideas and give feedback on the virtual zoos they created.
Resources Needed
Minecraft EDU accounts (Click here for more info)
Reflection Methods (how individual, team, and/or whole class will reflect during/at end of project)
Have students use Flip Grid (which is now free for educators!) to reflect on different stages of the process: The research, the design, building in Minecraft, and feedback from students and zoo staff members.
Click here to make a copy of this plan on a google doc to get you started. I know you will need to make changes in order to add details of the research and learning your students will need to do, and to add specific details for your unit, but this should help you get started. There are also more great lesson plans you can find on the Minecraft Education Edition website that relate to this life science standard:
Would your design be feasible to implement in reality? What about the school setting?
Learning Objectives
Learning Objectives
Have you ever used Minecraft EDU in the classroom? What was your experience? I can't wait to give it a try this year!
Don't forget to check back for more ideas in the series Literacy + STEAM= Design Thinking Sprints! The last post in this series will feature the book:
Using the PBL Project Design Overview from BIE, here is a PBL unit that can be done in the architectural style of Zaha Hadid with flowing lines that mimic nature, so students can become architects using Minecraft EDU.
Name of Project: Design a Zoo
Subject: Life Science
Grade Level: 2nd and/or 4th
Key Knowledge and Understanding (CCSS or other standards)
In Colorado, 2nd graders and 4th graders life science standards and essential questions focus on habitat: How do living things depend on their environment? Organisms depend on their habitat’s nonliving parts to satisfy their needs. (2nd grade). How are resources shared among organisms in a specific ecosystem or habitat? How do nonliving components of an ecosystem influence living components? There is interaction and interdependence between and among living and nonliving components of systems. (4th grade).
Success Skills/21st Century Skills (to be taught and assessed)
Creativity and Innovation
K - 2 Creativity and Innovation Rubric
3 - 5 Creativity and Innovation Rubric
K - 2 Creativity and Innovation Rubric
3 - 5 Creativity and Innovation Rubric
Project Summary (include student role, issue, problem or challenge, action taken and purpose)
On the Minecraft Education Edition website, there is a lesson plan called Design a Zoo. Students research 8 ecosystems and 1 animal for each ecosystem. Then they design a zoo in Minecraft that houses 5 different animals in different ecosystems.
Driving Question: Can you design and create a zoo in Minecraft EDU that simulates the habitat of 5 different animals found in 5 different ecosystems?
These Guiding Ideas were on the lesson plan on the Minecraft Education Edition website:
What is an ecosystem?
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
What happens to animals or plants that live in an ecosystem that does not meet its needs?
Give some examples of living things in an ecosystem and some nonliving things.
What are the basic needs of animals?
What do herbivores eat? What do omnivores eat?
What do carnivores eat?
What does extinction mean?
What does adaptation mean?
What are the five groups of vertebrate animals?
These Guiding Ideas were on the lesson plan on the Minecraft Education Edition website:
What is an ecosystem?
What is the difference between a food chain and a food web?
What happens to animals or plants that live in an ecosystem that does not meet its needs?
Give some examples of living things in an ecosystem and some nonliving things.
What are the basic needs of animals?
What do herbivores eat? What do omnivores eat?
What do carnivores eat?
What does extinction mean?
What does adaptation mean?
What are the five groups of vertebrate animals?
Take students on a Virtual Reality field trip to see The Birds of Denver Zoo, or The San Diego Zoo with Google Expeditions. Included in these virtual reality field trips are questions and facts to share with students as you take the tour together. For example, in The Birds of Denver Zoo, it says, "Welcome to the Denver Zoo! You're now in our Rainforest Exhibit in Bird World. In this immersive habitat there are lots of different species, but they can be difficult to spot. As you look around, find features of the exhibit that could help meet the needs of birds. Hint: food, water, shelter, and space to be active!" It also includes information about the waterfall found in the exhibit, "In this exhibit, there is a waterfall as well as a small pond. How might birds use these to meet their needs? Fun fact: Some of the birds perch by this waterfall, using it like a shower to clean their feathers!"
Then read the book, The World is Not A Rectangle by Jeanette Winter. Discuss how architect Zaha Hadid used nature as an inspiration for her architectural designs. Tell students their task: Can you design and create a zoo in Minecraft EDU that simulates the habitat of 5 different animals found in 5 different ecosystems? Then ask them if they can design their zoos with nature as an inspiration for the buildings they must include in the habitat, just like Zaha Hadid. Try to avoid corners and square spaces for their animals and use nature as an inspiration for their space.
Product
Working in groups of 5, students create a scale model of the zoo in Minecraft EDU from their initial design. (I suggest having one Minecraft world for each group of 5 students, and each student in the group can build one of the habitats for the zoo in that world in collaboration with the other members of the group). It will include 5 different habitats with a different animal in each habitat. It must include the important things that those animals depend on in their environment to survive. Students will be able to speak to the following questions as they relate to the animals in their zoo:
(2nd grade)
What are the basic needs of plants and animals?
How are the basic needs of all living things similar and different?
How do living things depend on their environment?
How does an organism respond when basic needs are not met?
(4th grade)
How are resources shared among organisms in a specific ecosystem or habitat?
How do nonliving components of an ecosystem influence living components?
What would happen if the Sun’s energy no longer reached Earth?
What would happen if water were removed from an ecosystem?
Because of the similarities in the 2nd and 4th grade life science unit, students in those grade levels can present and/or collaborate on the design of their zoo. They can ask students to take a tour of their zoo.
For a more authentic audience, contact your local zoo to see if someone on the staff would be willing to listen to students present their ideas and give feedback on the virtual zoos they created.
Resources Needed
Minecraft EDU accounts (Click here for more info)
Reflection Methods (how individual, team, and/or whole class will reflect during/at end of project)
Have students use Flip Grid (which is now free for educators!) to reflect on different stages of the process: The research, the design, building in Minecraft, and feedback from students and zoo staff members.
Click here to make a copy of this plan on a google doc to get you started. I know you will need to make changes in order to add details of the research and learning your students will need to do, and to add specific details for your unit, but this should help you get started. There are also more great lesson plans you can find on the Minecraft Education Edition website that relate to this life science standard:
Students use Minecraft to create a bird-attracting garden.
Lesson Objectives- Students understand adaptations for survival of living things.
- Students understand how the environment can impact a living thing.
Guiding Ideas
Students should be able to include a variety of features in their garden which will allow a bird to survive such as; a bird bath, bird house, plants of varying sizes, a fence to keep out predators etc.
Students should consider the adaptations of the particular birds they are trying to attract and design their garden based on these adaptations. For example, if the students were wanting to attract an eagle, they would need to include other small animals in their garden to ensure the eagles would be attracted to a food source.
Students should include a description of their garden on a sign-post created in their world. They should include their design decisions and the justification for these decisions.
What will be providing the birds with a food source?
What will provide the birds with a water source?
What will provide the birds shelter?
Will there be any protection available in your garden?
What information would be important to include in your signage?
What types of tools will you need to construct your garden?
What resources will you need?
Can you design it to scale?
Deforestation is occurring at an alarming rate! Since the 1990’s it has doubled and continues today. Deforestation happens all over the world.
- Students will design and create Minecraft worlds illustrating the before and after effects of deforestation from 1990 or prior and 2016 in an area
- Students will make predictions for the next 5-10 years in that same area based on the rapid rate of deforestation since 1990.
- Students will research and present their call to action for slowing the process of deforestation in their community.
Students investigate the relationship between elephant and man.
- Students develop an understanding of the complex issues surrounding habitat destruction and land-use conflict
- Students use case studies to identify solutions that have been tried and tested – and use tools to assess their relative success
- Students use their developing understanding of the needs and preferences of both elephant and human communities to design and trial a range of solutions in Minecraft
- NGSS - HS-LS2-7. Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Have you ever used Minecraft EDU in the classroom? What was your experience? I can't wait to give it a try this year!
Don't forget to check back for more ideas in the series Literacy + STEAM= Design Thinking Sprints! The last post in this series will feature the book:
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