Thursday, September 8 | Mini Project Week, Day 3 | Creation

Note: Please mark attendance on the spreadsheet. Help students who were absent find a home. Add their names. Please be mindful of group sizes.

How can we improve our Super Natural world?
Who are we as a community of thinkers, innovators?

Today's objectives are to complete the project and to prepare for Exhibitions. Please see what can be done to make sure that each person is making a meaningful contribution to the project.

DO NOW: (7:55-8:10)
Sentence Starts:  

• The question that best embodies our project is…
• We can best solve our problem by...
• The disciplines that we can readily use to solve our problem are...

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH: (8:10-8:15)

As your group is developing possible solutions to the problem, think about how you can bring this problem out into the community and take action.  What would this look like as a service learning project?  Great examples of projects that were interdisciplinary projects are:

• The Alzheimer Dance Project
• This project has continued beyond its intended semester and even school year.  These students not only created a dance, but turned it into a service learning experience where they brought the dance to individuals affected by this disease.  Connected with the Spark! Program at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, this dance has been performed at various local events/fundraisers, supporting the families and friends of individuals with Alzheimer’s.  Also, the dance has been recognized on a National level and still has time to make global impact. Just recently, the dance was performed at the screening of the documentary “Alive Inside”.  The audience participated in conversations with the producer and director, discussing what action can take place here in Sheboygan.  These students never imagined their dance to have such an impact on many individuals across the United States.  (Included Disciplines: science, dance, communications, and writing)
• Veteran’s Portable Shelter Initiative
• This project was a project that grew into an interdisciplinary nature.  A majority of the students who participated were not engineering students.  This project required research into homelessness and statistics. Architecture students who led this project used a variety of media to communicate their solution, from using communication skills in meetings, making computer aided renderings of designs, concept sketches, and professional writing.  These students have made an impact on quality of life of many future homeless veterans and built up connections for IDEAS Academy that will extend beyond the project.
• Your Mini Project
• How will you make an impact on our community?
• What are you doing to create your own, unique solution?
• If you’re bringing awareness, what are you taking out of our school and into the community?
• How are you an advocate for change?
• How are you committing an act of civil duty? Civic duty?
• How will your project advance a variety of communities?

BRAINSTORM ROLES: (8:15-8:45)
What roles exist within your group?  What needs to be done and what type of roles exist with this?
If you are creating a dance, who are your experienced dancers who can choreograph the dance? How can you apply the skills of visual artists in your solution? How can the mindset of engineers be made valuable? How can creative writers be able to use language to their advantage in your solution? How do musicians influence the emotions of your audience?  There may be a single product or a culmination of products into a single solution.  A single product is not always the best solution for a problem.

Example:  Engineering teams typically take a team approach to their solutions.  They attack a problem by using their strengths in individual teams such as business, marketing, CAD design, industrial design, and a core leadership group.  Interdisciplinary teams can take similar approaches.

DO NEXT (8:45-9:00)
Each person should claim what they will personally need to do today, first step. A student who has emerged as a leader in this mini-project should provide an overview of progress so far and help facilitate a projection for how time will be used today. Who will do what? For how long? What are your own expectations for quality?

CREATION PHASE - COMPLETE! (9:00 - 11:00)

Based on today's outcomes and intentions for today, create and carry out a plan for completing the project. Remember to balance the need to also prepare for an exhibition. There will be no time for planning tomorrow (Friday).

---> Someone from each Project Block group should email Tim (tpasche@etudegroup.org) a short summary of the project and what you will need for your Exhibition: Space? Technology?

EXHIBITION PLANNING (11:00-11:15)

Mini-Project Exhibitions are tomorrow!

Time: < 10 minutes (Do Not Exceed)

Goal: An exhibition of learning communicates your group's ideas, question, process, and creative choices in order to engage the audience in a new way of thinking about the topic of "community."

Include:
What is the problem/question that you are trying to solve or address?
Define your focus for the project. What is the solution or claim you are able to make, after doing research?
Share some of the the research that influenced you.
Explain who is affected by your project. Also, try to connect it to what you know about the audience.
Explain how you arrived at your final project AND highlight the specific, intentional choices made to develop the project.
**Bonus: If you are clever with communication and time-management, engage the audience in a thinking routine or feedback/response of some kind.
Assign Roles for Exhibition! Practice!

11:15 - Dismiss for "Open Lunch" - All students are reminded to to make positive choices that represent our school well while in the community and return promptly at 11:50 a.m., so that they are on time for Advisory.

Tuesday Sept. 6th | Mini Project Day 1 | TASK and IDEATION

How can we improve our Super Natural world?
Who are we as a community of thinkers, innovators?

Today's objectives are to explore the creative process within. Even though we have just completed a collaborative project and we will beginning another one for the next five days, it is important for students to self-select an art form that they are connected to. Through the DO NOW / GATHERING and the experience of TASK (which is a little social too), we will interpret a number of prompts through the forms available, because they are comfortable, happy, or a good fit. We will then reflect on our own creative choices and use that as a basis for selecting new groups for the next project.

In project groups, we will spend time thinking interdisciplinary, looking at a model projects, and beginning the ideation for a week-long project.

PEOPLE AND PLACES (beginning at 7:55)

• Addie's Advisory in Treehouse
• Beckah's Advisory in IDEAS SPED Room
• Becky's Advisory in Bradbury Room
• Dan's Advisory in Vis Art Room
• Erica's Advisory in Spanish Room

• Erin's Advisory in 3307

• Heather’'s Advisory in Mosaic SPED Room

• Mike's Advisory in Drama Room
• Molly's Advisory in Dance Studio
• Timi's Advisory in IDEAS Science Room
• Tim's Advisory in Engineering Room

PHONES IN BIN OR LOCKERS!!

ADVISORY IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT: (7:55-8:30)
Generate / Sort / Connect / Elaborate
Students will Generate qualities and traits about themselves (individually), then Sort them into categories, then identify Connections with each other.  Elaborate those connections into common traits about the whole advisory to create an identity for your advisory.

REFLECTION FROM FRIDAY (8:30-9:00)

Walk through this discussion with your advisory based around

• Intent: Thinking about initial thoughts, questions, expectations.
• What were your initial thoughts as you engaged in your microproject?
• What were the key questions you wrote down? Driving question(s)?
• What were questions you had but didn’t write down?
• How would you describe your expectations for your group’s end product?
• Process: Thinking of what happened in the research and creation phases.
• How would you describe each phase (research and creation)?
• How did your group’s thinking evolve through these phases towards your end solution?
• Product: Thinking of what happened when everything came together.
• What surprised you about the characteristics of your product?
• How did nothing become something tangible?
• When did your group reach the “this is actually going to become something” point? What was the turning point? What was hindering the growth of your solution?
• Intent: Thinking of future learning.
• How did this process influence your thinking as we head into mini project week?
• What types of problems would you like to investigate further based on what you saw at Camp?

TASK and MINI PROJECT IDEATION

DO NOW / GATHERING: (Approximately 9:00-9:20)
Circle up! Ask each person to spend one minute silently thinking of a dream that they have had. (This can be a daydream or a dream while sleeping.) Encourage the focus on details of one specific dream. After a minute has passed, challenge everyone to come up with a movement that represents the dream. Then, go around the circle sharing movements one at a time in a format where each person shares their movement and everyone else mimics the movement. There should be no discussion or explanation.

After the do now, ask students to turn and talk to the person next to them about how it felt to be part of this experience.

• What was fun?
• What was challenging?
• Were there patterns in the movements?
• Have a few people share out.

TASK:  (Approximately 9:20-9:50)

The next experience is something designed to allow for creative exploration and play. Just as the gathering required students to interpret an image, memory, story, dream through the art form of movement, participants in TASK will be required to interpret prompts, which are called tasks. However, they are not limited to movement as an art form or form of expression. Tasks can be interpreted in any form available to the imagination and space/time constraints.

1. Once a task is selected, it must be completed.
2. There is no wrong way to complete a task.
3. Tasks must be completed with only the materials in the room.
4. With the exception of drawing/paper, materials must be returned to their original place, function, state at the end of the exercise.
5. Everything that is created, moved, or changed must be done with decency and trust.
6. If you wonder if it is okay to use or do something, ask.
7. Noise must be location-appropriate.
8. This is not a competition.
9. This is not about speed.
10. After a task is completed (according to the person doing it), a new task  must be created before you choose a new task to complete.

What is TASK? (Discuss)
TASK: Begin TASK by going over the information above. Set up a space for NEW TASKS and a place for USED TASKS. Set up a space with paper and writing utensils, so that new tasks can be created.  Set up a space with disposable materials...the more random and grabby the better. Set the timer for 25 minutes.

TASK Reflection:   (Approximately 9:50-10:15)

• THINK - What art forms do you think you are most comfortable with? Most interested in? How did this experience reveal that?
• PUZZLE - What puzzles or challenges did you face during this experience? How did you overcome them?
• EXPLORE - As a thinker, innovator, and community member of a Super Natural world, what do you want to explore further as a result of this experience?

Mini Project Week Groups

• Addie in Treehouse
• Becky & dREW in Bradbury Room

• Dan in Visual Art Room (Wednesday in 21st Century Learning Lab in afternoon)

• Erica in Music Room
• Erin in 3307 (M.C. Escher's Corner)
• Heather & Beckah in IDEAS in Sp. Ed. Room
• Mike in Drama Room
• Molly in Dance Studio
• Tim in Engineering Room

• Timi in IDEAS Science Room
  

10:15 a.m. MOVE TO NEW ADVISOR

• DO NOW (again):  (10:20-10:35)
  When students enter, ask them to develop a response to the question
• How do people solve problems outside of the school walls?
• Circle up! As for a student to volunteer as a scribe and document responses from ALL in the room as you call the names on your list, and use the spreadsheet to mark attendance for today.
• IDEATION (again): (10:35-11:10)
  Today is ideation for the week-long project, which will continue the exploration into the theme of "Super Natural." Choose a protocol from below. Do not hesitate to draw from experiences, questions, ideas already explored thus far. Document all thinking in the room, so that it can be revisited on a later date.
• Beane Protocol (done individually)
  What concerns do you have with your role in a super natural world?
  What concerns do you have with the Sheboygan environment?
  What concerns do you have with Sheboygan’s role in the state, greater world, etc. environment?
• Once each student has had a chance to share their personal insight for all three questions, have them “turn and talk” to the person next to them, sharing their responses.  Then, as a whole group, start recording the concerns students had.  Place “stars” or “tallies” by the concepts that repeat.  Those with high repetition will be the concepts of concern to dive deeper into.
• Mind Maps (can be done individually or as a group)
• Write the word “Super Natural” in the middle of paper.
• Draw lines from “Super Natural” and radiate out-- share personal experiences, disciplinary experiences, questions, topics, etc. that relate.
• Make new connections by branching out from the key concepts
• If mind maps are done individually: Take a moment for students to participate in a “gallery walk”.  Have each mind map spaced out so students can rotate around and view each map.  As students participate in the “gallery walk”, they can provide feedback to their peers (on the mind map, or using post-it notes).
• If a mind map is created as a whole group: Take a moment for students to quietly view each other’s responses.  Make marks on the concepts of those that are of most importance or valued.

• Generate-Sort-Connect-Elaborate (done in a group)
• Generate a list of ideas and initial thoughts that come to mind when you think about “Super Natural”
• Sort your ideas according to how central or tangential they are.  Please central ideas near the center and more tangential ideas toward the outside of the page.
• Connect your ideas by drawing connecting lines between ideas that have something in common.  Explain and write in a short sentence how the ideas are connected.
• Elaborate on any of the ideas/thoughts you have written so far by adding new ideas that expand, extend or add to your initial ideas about “Super Natural”
• Continue to generate, connect, and elaborate new ideas until you feel you have a good representation of your understanding.
  
• TICKET OUT: (11:10-11:15)
  Before students leave the room, have each share one word that summarizes an anticipation, vision, or hope for the next week of developing the project.