The Applied Design, Skills and Technologies (ADST) curriculum encourages children to think, design and re-design.

Children are expected to evaluate their ability to successfully problem solve, as well as work effectively in a group.  This includes:

• Persevering when something doesn’t work and being flexible enough to try different ways of doing things  
• Working respectfully and constructively with others

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Much thanks to our librarian, Ms. Field, for facilitating our learning.

Applied design, skills and technologies is a part of the K-12 curriculum.   ADST is more than robots or coding or building things.  It is a mindset that encourages curiosity and exploration.  Seen in roles from engineers to artists, they solve real-world design challenges by inventing and re-inventing.

We introduced the children to a variety of materials, tools and technologies in order to encourage creative and critical thinking through design.  They generated ideas, made a product, and solved problems in their design by incorporating new ideas.  

• Kinetic Sand- create castles using this material that feels like real sand and holds it shape
• Keva Blocks – create a structure by stacking wood planks using no glue or connectors
• Snap Curcuits – build a variety of circuits that do something like turn on a light or run a fan
• Crossy Roads – develop a set of logical steps to do something
• Chatter Pix – use oral language skills to create a picture that talks
• Marble works – create a structure that uses chain reactions to move a marble through chutes
• Beading – create a necklace made of beads that follows a pattern (a pre-cursor to coding)
• Tinker Toys- build structures that move
• Lego – design and build unique structures
• WeDo robot – use hardware and a software to create a robot that completes a task

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Division 8 has been reading The Six Cedar Trees.  This book features the core competencies, each represented by an animal (bear, beaver, orca, raven, salmon and wolf) from the Pacific Northwest Coast. 

The second animal that we have learned about is Raven.  Raven is a Creative Thinker.  Raven reminds us to never give up when faced with a challenge, be innovative and think “outside of the box”. 

The children of Division 8 have completed a self-assessment of how they see themselves as a creative thinker; emerging, developing, proficient or extending.   

Please visit your child’s blogfolio to view his/her response.