School Name: Chilcotin Road Elementary
School District: SD#27 Cariboo-Chilcotin
Inquiry Team Members:Reanne Sacchetti: reanne.sacchetti@sd27.bc.ca, Mairen Hutchinson: mairen.hutchinson@sd27.bc.ca, Jennifer Routtu: jennifer.routtu@sd27.bc.ca, Jutta Bienhaus: jutta.bienhaus@sd27.bc.ca, Melissa Porter: melissa.porter@sd27.bc.ca, Stacey Bergen: stacey.bergen@sd27.bc.ca, Patsy McLean: patsy.mclean@sd27.bc.ca, Jill Kurki: jill.kurki@sd27.bc.ca, Rachel Davis: rachel.davis@sd27.bc.ca, Vanessa Neufeld: vanessa.neufeld@sd27.bc.ca, Kirstin Lauren: kirstin.lauren@sd27.bc.ca
Inquiry Team Contact Email: reanne.sacchetti@sd27.bc.ca
Type of Inquiry: NOII (focus on core competencies, OECD learning principles, etc.)
Grade Levels: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7)
Curricular Area(s): Applied Design, skills & Technology
Focus Addressed: Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, STEM / STEAM
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Using ADST curriculum to address core competencies.
Scanning: We focused in on the question What do we know about our learners? We created a scanning tool which we called a Student Profile. For the primary students it focuses in on Social Emotional Learning and for intermediate students it focuses in on Multiple Intelligences and Learning Differences. Teachers will do the scan in June and in September we will look at patterns in the scan to determine our PLC topic.
Focus: A survey was conducted and there was one topic teachers said the most. ADST (We did not base our topic on a scan this year)
Hunch: With the new curriculum there is a lot of confusion at our school as to what ADST is and how to implement it.
New Professional Learning: K-3 Evidence
Should see design grow out of natural curiosity
See skills develop through play
Technology used as tools
4-5 Evidence
Designs improved with prototyping and testing
Skills developed through practice, effort, and action
The correct choice of technology and tools depending on the task
Taking Action: We are first going to address what ADST is.
Then we will go through the District ADST Kits
Finally we will share other resources as we find them both online and offline.
We met and discussed how we would spend the ADST money the district gave us.
We then purchased and implemented the following into our classrooms. Rokenbok, Electric Circuits, Edisons, Tynker and Scratch, Offline (from TPT) and Online resources.
Checking: Because the ADST curriculum was new, we assumed that students knew very little about “Design Thinking.” Therefore, we did not do an initial scan and a baseline was not establish.
At the end of May a Student Survey was given out and we discovered the following (Choice on the survey was very well, well, somewhat, a little and not at all):
• Student reported that they were able to follow the main objective of a project. (well)
• Student reported that they were able to give ideas towards a design. (well)
• Student reported that they could add to others’ ideas about a design. (somewhat)
• Students reported that they could choose a design to purse. (well)
• Students reported that they could choose the right tools and materials for a project. (very well)
• Student reported that they learned how to use their mistakes to make a project better (very well)
Reflections/Advice: I think overall, we underestimated how capable many students were in this area of Applied Design Skills and Technology. Technology and design thinking has been part of our world for some time and the education system has just got on board.
Many of these students have been developing these skills at home with gaming programs like Minecraft and are very familiar with the technology needed to run these programs.
It is not surprising that students struggled when adding to other’s ideas. At this age many students are centered on their ideas and what they can do. Working to create something as a team is much harder. In the future we will continue to work on “group works” skills.