Driving questions for next year...

Driving Question Starters 

What makes a good ___ ? What are the ingredients for a successful ___? What is the best way to ___? Is there a relationship between ___ and ___? What are the advantages and disadvantages of ___? What will happen if ____? How are ____ and ____ different? How many different ____ are there? Did ___ influence ____? Is _____ really important? In what ways did ____ influence _____? What would ___ be without ___?

I also found a fun link on BIE.org to create a "tubric" to help in creating driving questions:

http://www.bie.org/images/uploads/useful_stuff/Tubric.pdf

End-of-year reflections

Ms. Catchen and I facilitated group discussions based on reflections about their experiences in STEAM class and their final project.  Two groups were able to share their experiences in-depth with their classmates.  Surprisingly, the group that seemed to struggle the most with their collaboration praised their ability to work through their challenges.  C'est la vie!

 

1. Describe the process that this class explored to learn, design and build the final project. Describe the importance of all the components.
2. What worked well?
3. What could have worked better?
4. Three things you learned from working on this project that can be applied to future work.
5. Describe a task in class in which you took a risk?  What did you learn from that experience?
6. What is your favorite memory of this class this year?

STEAM projects on display!

 Student project displays included their LEGO module, team blog entries, 3-D LEGO design and proposal.

Building the modules with LEGOs

Students had to use their digital 3-D LEGO model to build their actual module.  Students had to use their charisma to bargain, borrow, and trade for LEGO pieces they needed.  This is the entertainment module - can you find the dance floor?

Fantasy architecture sketches finished!

Students recently finished their fantasy architecture sketches.  As a math teacher, this one is my favorite :-)

Crayon etchings finished!

Students finished their crayon etchings along with an original moon flower haiku.

Etching...

Students used their original flower sketch to etch over the paint, revealing the vibrant colors from their first layer.