My friend Kevin Honeycutt (https://www.honeycuttconsultinginc.org/ ; https://www.facebook.com/kevin.honeycutt ; https://twitter.com/kevinhoneycutt ) is a lifelong educator that has been in the classroom and moved into PD & support & workshops & events for educators and students. He has much more information about this project than I do, as it was his baby.
He had a big idea that would combine many of the things that he utilizes/works with.
The idea would involve elementary, junior high, and high school students and educators.
Randolph Eastern School Corporation in Union City, Indiana said “that sounds like a great spark for our students learning”.
Junior high and high school students would build a lunar colony on the high school gym floor with a variety of stations for elementary students to experience. They would use cardboard and plastic and dust tape and packing tape and makedo screws and fans and …
Day 1 was when the junior high and high school students built the colony. Not only would they build it, but they would be responsible for the learning experiences at their stations. They had to spend Day 2 working with the elementary students. The JH/HS kids took control. In addition to building the colony, they made the learning experiences. The stations that they ended up with were :
Art Lab
Planetarium
Greenhouse
Robots
Fitness
Writing Lab
Engineering (Tubelox & MakeDo)
Circuits
Living Quarters
Elementary grades came in for 45 minutes and students went to 2 stations. There was so much activity, so many smiles, so much learning. Sometimes it seemed the JH/HS kids were having more fun building things. The night of Day 2 was community night. The parents came in to see “what the heck was my kid talking about”. They loved it. They loved seeing their child excited about learning. They loved seeing a big learning experience.
There is more than a short blog post can capture. Kevin has several videos and tons of pics (I only took 95). I can talk more if this interests you and can connect you with Kevin.
The stations could be anything you wanted them to get exposure to (culinary, 3D design, chemisray experiments, physics experiments, animals…)
This doesnt HAVE to be a lunar colony. It can be a boat, a colonial town, Rome…
This is a SPARK for more interconnected learning and more connections between the schools (you know the littles look up to the big kids). Now the teachers need to fan the flames.
(working on adding all my pics to slideshow)
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