North Woods PS new pedagogies artefacts

1. Strong and Stable Structures

2. Purpose:
The tasks were developed to support students in
developing inquiry skills by investigating the design and
materials that make structures stable and strong.
Grade 3 Science
Understanding Structures and Mechanisms
Strong and Stable Structures
Learning Goal: To design structures that are strong and stable.

3. Expectations & Skills
Develop Inquiry Skills
Overall Expectation 2.0
Overall Expectation 3.0
Develop understanding of the concepts stability
And strength and the factors that affect them
Investigate strong and stable structures to determine how their
design and materials to enable them to perform their load-bearing
function
Scientific Inquiry/Research
Skill Continuum (p. 15)

4. •Determined student background knowledge of the concepts “strong and stable”
•Explicitly taught students how to use the app, Explain Everything
•Read the Aboriginal story, Nanabush and the Bridge
•Co-constructed success criteria on designing effective bridges and presenting using the app, Explain Everything
•Students solved the problem presented at the end of the story by constructing paper bridges strong and stable
enough to support a Fisher Price person and goldfish
•Explicit teaching on techniques for stability and materials for strength
•Co-constructed success criteria for building task at each building station
•Investigated different materials and design structures that make structures strong and stable by rotating through six
stations
•Revisited success criteria, students asked to revisit favourite structure and make changes based on what they had
learned
•Reflective questions for students
•Students shared their learning
Much longer than anticipated, but worth the time! Still in progress and have been working on this for about 2 months.
** Kim is half time Special Education Resource Teacher and teaches this class for two 40 minute periods each week
The Task
Length

5. Whatdowemeanwhenwesay…
“Stable”
Partners Brainstormed and Shared…
“Strong”
In student
words…
…Class Decided
SE
3.4
SE
3.3

6. Explicitly Taught Students How to Use the app, Explain Everything

7. 1. Read aloud the traditional Aboriginal story,
Nanabush and the Bridge
2. Posed the problem, to the students, that
was introduced in the story, how will
Nanabush and his fish cross the water when
there was no bridge?
As adapted from aboriginalaccess.ca
Grade 3 unit plan: Strong and Stable Structures
4. Students were asked to document and
communicate their thinking and solutions
using the app, Explain Everything
5. Students collaborated in small groups to
build a bridge strong and stable enough to
carry Nanabush and his fish across the water
3. Co-constructed Success Criteria for
bridge challenge

8. Student Solutions
Using the app, Explain Everything

9. •Students collaborated in small groups to
explore building materials and and techniques
at 6 building stations
• Devise a plan to create a strong and stable
structure using the materials given
•Communicate what building strategy you are
using and why
• work co-operatively with my group and partner
Over approximately 6 – 7 classes, the student
groups rotated through the 6 stations, building
a structure at each station
SE
2.2
SE
2.4
•After rotating through each station, students
were asked to revisit their favourite station,
excluding Lego and K’nex, and use what they
had learned to strengthen the structure
SE
2.6
SE
2.4
SE
2.2
SE
2.3
SE
2.5
Building Stations
Co-constructed success criteria for building task

10. Popsicle Sticks &
Glue
Toothpicks,
Straws &
Plastecine
Paper cups, scissors
& cardboard
Newspaper & Tape
K’nex
Lego

11. Reflective Questions
SE
2.5
SE
3.9
SE
3.7

12. …and through exit slips

13. Use of digital to
access and share
information
Bridge Task
Building
Stations
Vocabulary
and
concepts
SE
3.7
SE
3.5
SE
3.9
SE
3.4
Teaching Strategies
Multimedia
website
(Learn 360)
Explain
Everything
app
Video clip: Structures:
Man Made Found in
Nature
SE
3.1
Explicit Teaching Conferencing
Struts, ties, tension,
strategies for strength,
and stability
SE
2.5
SE
3.3
SE
3.6
Hands – on, inquiry
based learning
Informal
and
Formal
Nanabush and the
Bridge
Six Station Rotation
Conversations with
groups during building
stations
Metacognition
Exit Slips
Reflective
Questions
Use what you have
learned to make
improvements

14. Student Outcomes
Targetted
Student Outcomes
Realized
•Collaboration
•Communication
•Collaboration
•Communication
•Critical thinking
•Problem Solving
•Creativity

15. Pedagogical practices Learning partnerships
• Taught and used the app, Explain Everything
• Accessed videos Structures: Man- Made and Found
in Nature
• Students used iPads to take photos and videos of
their work
• Student blogging of their work
Learning Environments
• Inquiry
• Exit slips
• Student voice informs instruction
• Co- construction of success criteria
• Collaboration
• Gradual release of responsibility
• Conferencing
• Explicit Instruction
• Universal Design
• Reflective Practice
• Clear learning goals and success criteria
•other classes and teachers
•Student to student partnerships
•Student and teacher voice to determine what to do in
each station
Leveraging Digital
•Interactive
•Kinesthetic
•Engaging
•Partnerships between and among students
•Exploratory and innovative
•Risk taking supported

18. What assessment tools/strategies
did you use and how would inform
others to plan and deliver
progressive learning
opportunities?
What assessment tools/strategies did
you use to enable learners to see and
appreciate the progress that they have
made and promote further learning and
development ?
• Clear learning goals and success criteria
• Observation checklist (with student names)
• Conferencing (based on success criteria)
• Student exit slips
• Assessment checklists based on success criteria
• Clear learning goals and success criteria
• Observation checklist
• Conferencing
“As time went on, I became less interested in the grades and marking because I came to realize
that it’s not about the final grade, it is about the process that students are taking.”
Teacher’s Thoughts…
Assessment Approaches

19. Examplesofassessmentapproaches…
Nanabush Bridge Challenge Assessment
Checklist

20. Building Stations Assessment Checklist

22. a. Length of time Did not expect the inquiry to take as long as it did, but once the
students started investigating, they had many questions and ideas
that needed time to explore
b. The value of the process Initially very concerned about how this would be “marked”, but as
students began their inquiries, the mark became less important
c. The importance of the learning goals
and success criteria
Totally framed everything we did. Learning goals gave teacher and
students a clear purpose. Success criteria was the basis for all
feedback and evidence.
d. The importance of knowing your
learners
By knowing students well, differentiation and universal design is
easy
e. The value of really knowing the
curriculum
Starting with really reviewing the strand in the curriculum, made it
easy to plan ~ could easily see the connections
Unexpected Impacts

23. 8. Learners’ voices
• [quotes] + Why the quote was included . i.e. this shows student awareness of learning environment
Children’s voice – their opinions/account of what happened.
[Insert image, audio, video, quote, etc.]
Student Voice

24. “students need time to “muck
around” to learn”
“Process is so important!”
“So much student learning
during the process…not even
sure that the “final product”
has to be completed”
“really need to know your
learners”
“did not anticipate all the
learning that would happen” “We were at the end of our
inquiry and before I could explain
that we would be reviewing the
building structures that day, the
students asked ‘when are we
going to build again?’…so I
scrapped the review and we are
building again ~ animal shelters
this time!”
“The students were so
engaged in the building,
they asked to skip phys ed
to keep building”
“breaking down the curriculum
at the beginning was so helpful
in planning””

25. Reflection
•Student engagement and learning high – students involved and active
•Integrating curriculum important (working on the same skills across
subjects)
•Student voice – listen to the students
•Rethinking assessment
•Integrating across other subjects
•Continue to work on triangulating data for assessment using
observations, conversations and product
•Keep looking at ways to leverage digital and build learning
partnerships outside of our classroom and school
NextSteps

26. •Students of Grade 3 at North Woods
•Staff at North Woods
•Families supporting this project
Many Thanks to …