For the last 2 days the SuperSeventeens have been working hard to make moon buggies. This is a project that ties in with our context of Planet Earth and Beyond.
The students had a design brief to work to that included specifications for the size and features of the finished product. I initially thought that this would be a 1 day activity but in fact it has been one and half days already and we will work for another half day tomorrow before exhibiting our finished buggies (to our syndicate & buddy class).
For me this has been an interesting process, as a class we came up with the idea of creating a moon buggy, we collected the materials we would need and then I came up with the brief/specification.
The children have worked tirelessly to draw their designs and build their models. They continued to update/amend their drawings in tandem with creating their models.
I have spent my time assisting the children with tasks they wanted to perform, together we have learnt how to do things,how to use the glue gun without getting burnt, how to break off blades on the craft knife, how to fix toilet rolls on so that they don't fall off. We have discussed things but I haven't told the children what to do or how to do it. (Except when it was tidy up time of course).
It has been fantastic and I think that the quality of the buggies we have produced reflects the amount of thinking that has gone into them. Most of all I have enjoyed working alongside the children who have worked so well together, collaborating, sharing resources and materials in a mature way. The SuperSeventeens really are SUPER!
We need to value the learning that comes from a hands on project like the moon buggies. If it takes a day or more, with students totally on task, co operating, collaborating, thinking outloud, designing, negotiating and assesing and reassessing designs - the learning is unquestionable. It may not be group work or sit down and complete a follow up to group work, but life skills and social skills that come to the fore. Children love these hands on projects! My class loved the tree houses we created. Their narrative stories based around these tree houses and the alien masks made earlier in the term are rich in language and description, far more so than if I had of asked the students to imagine it all in their minds. I say lets do more hands on learning.
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