Cornell Teachers Reflect on a Field Trip

Last week a group of teachers from Cornell took a field trip with Dr. Ronald Perry from RMU to learn about making from some of the area’s experts. We visited Melissa Butler and Jeremy Boyle of the Children’s Innovation Project at Allegheny Traditional Academy and we toured the MAKESHOP at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh with Rebecca Grabman. It was a great opportunity to both see how Melissa and Jeremy were working with students K through 5 and what steps the Children’s Museum had taken to organize and design a space to inspire curiosity in an informal setting. 

After our visit we were able to debrief as a group and identified the following take aways:

1. It is about the process, not the stuff. At Allegheny Traditional Academy we were not wowed by the technology that was used in the classroom. The students were using for the most part lower tech items, such as circuit blocks. We witnessed thoughtful questioning strategies being used with kids and opportunities for students to explore and wonder about how things work. This process is used across the curriculum in all content areas at Allegheny Traditional Academy and is a centerpiece of their professional development.This was an example of a school prioritizing quality of technology integration over quantity. 
2. A successful maker program needs to start with kindergarten and be thoughtfully planned through the upper grades. We learned how Melissa and Jeremy started with just a few students and built their program through an entire school over the course of several years. Every lesson they taught or planned for their students is closely connected to their goals. The program was mapped out for an entire year for all grade levels. 
3. We need to spend time looking at our curriculum and identifying our weaknesses. We should spend our time trying something new with lessons that are already not working as well as we would like. Through this process we will be able to find what works for us and develop a program that is not a replica of another school’s but a reflection of our own needs and school culture. We are going to need to make the time to sift through curriculum and materials and reflect on how and where we need to make the changes. This is a large undertaking that is going to take a lot of staff time and collaboration, but we believe this is an important investment for our students. 

RMU Students at Children's Museum

This fall RMU teacher education candidates taking ECED3100 (Integrating Arts & the Developing Child) worked in pairs to create activities that would engage young children at the Children's Museum of Pgh. Each of the activities was linked to a children's book that highlighted creativity, making, building, textiles, etc. RMU School of Education pre-service teachers presented their activities to RMU faculty & museum staff for feedback before taking their materials & ideas to different areas of the museum. Patrons of the museum and children from the Pgh. public preK classroom, housed in the museum, participated in the activitues. Some of the activities included working in a small group to build cities, skyscrapers, etc. with boxes, using material & paper to create textile patterns, building and testing houses for the 3 Little Pigs to see which materials were strongest, working with oobleck, and creating individual projects out of boxes & other recyclables (like Adalade's robot).

Working with young children at the museum is part of a unique year long project tied to the Maker Movement. In the spring, this same group of RMU students will take ECED3060 (Family & Community Partnerships). They will continue to collaborate with staff at the Children's Museum and also faculty, staff, parents & children at Avonworth School District's primary center by assisting in the running of Avonworth Primary School's "Makeshop Madness" event. An all day event which also highlights critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity by participating in a variety of hands-on activities.