It’s really more of an engineering/robotics project. What does this project have to do with chemistry? Not much – especially not the concepts we are currently studying. (That’s a completely scientific term.) These three students are in my chemistry class. What does this have to do with letting go in the classroom? A whole lot. The robot is almost finished, and on the day of the Maker Fest, they will be driving it via remote control around the event space and shooting t-shirts to the crowds. They also called local businesses to donate t-shirts to be shot out of the canon during the event. Our robotics team already has a t-shirt cannon, so they are integrating the t-shirt canon into the robot design. At first, they wanted it to be a tank, but I suggested it did something more positive. They decided to make a Power Wheels style car initially, and over time it has morphed into a robot. Three of my freshmen boys weren’t initially sure what they wanted to do for their project, so they were brainstorming with one of my teammates for ideas. I want to tell you the story of one of our groups. I have been talking about our upcoming STEM Maker Fest in several of my recent posts. However, as students work and learn together, your classroom will not be completely silent, and that is completely okay! I think sometimes in education we have been fed the lie that noise equals chaos. Organized chaos can be a really good thing because it really isn’t chaotic. It just means you develop a new set of procedures for the environment. Stepping back and letting students take control of the their learning does not mean that all of your classroom procedures go out the window. Inquiry and discovery is the nature of science. To me, it is the only way to teach science. It is so much more beautiful when students discover concepts on their own. I am sure that helped set the stage for me moving more and more to full PBL over the past few years. Chaos can’t be good, can it?Īs a science teacher, I have always lived by the rule that science is loud and messy. If you let go of full control of your classroom and let students have autonomy, what will happen to your classroom management and discipline? How will you make sure that students are on task 100% of the time? Can students really learn if you are not feeding them information at the front of the room day in and day out? It sounds like chaos. For us, stepping back and letting go is second nature, but for many teachers it is a scary proposition. However, I teach in a program that has been PBL since the school opened five years ago. We are finishing our first year as a fully PBL school. It is interesting that today’s topic is about building a more powerful classroom by letting go as I was just having this conversation with my teammate at lunch today.
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