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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.

Each child in Division 8 has made a film of themselves answering the question, “Would a bat make a good pet?”  

This project demonstrated each child’s proficiency in using oral language strategies: volume, pace, tone, and articulation.  The videos were also evidence of how they were able to synthesize a large amount of scientific information.

First, the children decided what they wanted to say.  Then, they practiced it over and over.  Their final responses were recorded in front of a green screen.  Finally, bat videos were added in the background. 

The end product can be seen in his/her blogfolio. 

Thank you Ms. Chow for all your help.