Future Forwards

56 Future Forwards: Exploring Frontiers in Education that the role of the facilitators of this session was to ask questions and nudge, and that they, the students, were responsible for their own hands-on learning. This shift in their thinking turned into a substantial finding for our team. We realized that technology wasn’t exactly what they needed just yet. What they needed more of was an outlet for their creative energies. They needed classroom environments where teachers and staff incorporated a constructivist mindset. Our team started to wonder, question, and connect ‘making’ to their learning. The question we were now asking was:

Could developing a maker mindset make a difference to students’ education at GBMH?

We decided to prototype a model: empower the teachers, help grow their understanding, and they in turn can empower the students. We believed that at the end of the day, the school’s teachers have to own the making process, believe in the constructivist mindset, and integrate it into daily learning.

Maker PD 101

The Indian curriculum places great emphasis on math and science. Our challenge for the GBMH teachers was to find a way for them to see the value that Art could bring to teaching these subjects in the classroom. We organized a morning Maker PD session for 14 elementary school teachers to give them a hands-on experience in learning through making themselves.

Scribble Bots - Perfection in the Imperfect Their first activity was to create a scribble bot, a drawing machine created out of recycled materials and a motor. We showed them an example, provided them with a variety of materials - pens, recycled yogurt cups, tape, batteries, and motors - and let them run free from there. Making a scribble bot wasn’t difficult. However, the secret to creating the perfect one was to offset the weight of the bot just enough to make it move when the motor was on. We were curious to see how many teachers would figure out this concept and apply it to their prototype. Through trial and error, teachers started to catch on, and found this to be amusing but clever, and ultimately, critical to learning.

Turtle Art - Program Your Art The teachers had a chance to integrate Art with programming using Turtle Art, a software that allows one to use blocks and create art through coding. This achieved two goals for us: they had a chance to tinker with the laptops, and they also saw a clear link between art and math. Our main insight from this activity was that while a few teachers struggled with just using the laptops, most others learned Turtle Art easily and saw those connections. These insights will be helpful in the future when we are ready to move into integrating technology into their classrooms.