Genius and Inquiry Hour - Toni Westscott

Genius and Inquiry Hour

Teaching 
Designing and developing digital outcomes
Progress outcome: Computational Thinking for digital technologies

1: Have a Hook
Being curious and open - wondering - collaboration and communication.

2: Link classroom to community
Who? Why? Examples in the community.

3: Have a Plan
Teacher guided - NOT a free for all, in charge of guiding the process. BUT put the kids in the drivers seat.

Week 1: I wonder

Week 2: Getting Inspired (Hook) - How to change the world (kid president).

Week 3: Identifying a Problem - Is it googlable? Problems are things that are not going to be fixed overnight or have not been attempted yet. What do the kids want to solve?
Household problem, School problem, community problem. (Sharing ideas through - Google form, spreadsheet, padlet etc).

Preliminary Research, Five whys. 
Problem: There is to much rubbish in the playground - Why is there too much rubbish in the school grounds? Why do people keep dropping it? etc - The problem is based from somewhere - goes a lot deeper than just the initial problem. Explicit teaching of research skills, websites (can i trust this, copy and paste, credit sources, what strategies do I have when I cant find what I am looking for?).

Who is the user? 
Showing empathy to whoever  - user friendly
Interview the user (stakeholder) - A pain point, finding more solutions to their problem.
How - Might - We... Stop littering in our school?
Turn the problem around.
Not always just about the solution - Fall in love with the problem and not the solution.

Sharing time - feedback - post it notes, docs, forms etc.

Crazy 8s - 40 second in your group to come up with possible solutions. (Youtube video example).
Technology -  Organising  - Presenting -  Awareness - Building 

Storyboard one Solution - Do, Learn, resources etc
CRITICAL FEEDBACK - Write down the problem and 3 solutions to the problem - their classmates go around and draw a dot on the idea they already like. Not being mean - being helpful.

Seesaw - Online sharing platform. Kept the kids accountable and kept the family engaged and informed.

Conferencing and Keeping Track: Mini workshops, what is going on with them - find the teaching moments - what do they need to help the process along. 

Link Community to Classroom:
Mystery Hangouts
Facebook/Twitter
Parents or business owners nearby
Tips for working with experts in the class

Celebrate and share with an audience:
Top Tip: Have a deadline - authentic audience - set up a stall. Sharing with friends and family.

Reflect and Refine:
How they thought it went, what they would do differently? Conversations rather than rubrics etc. Use these comments for reporting etc - What do they understand. Where could you put more self reflection so the kids are consistently reflecting and refining their work and ideas. You do not just have to put the reflection at the end - can be more useful being throughout the entire process.

Research Skills: Mini lessons!