#edplay GHO Panel Chat

Do you want your voice heard?

When: March 6th

Time: 8:00 pm CST

Where: Google Hangout – using hashtag #edplay for backchannel

Topic: Three barriers to graduating tinkerer scientists in US schools

My goal of this chat will be to expose educators into the realities of learning in the classroom. This is where you come in. My overall goal with this group is to get teachers to create an atmosphere of learning, tinkering, play, and experiments not matter the content. In order for this to happen a lot of things have to occur. What I am working on is the mindset to get teachers to open up their toolkit and change the feel, design, and atmosphere of their rooms.

Here is a link to the Google Community Group: http://buff.ly/LHdIp5

Here is a link to my Play PD on my website if you want to read some thoughts of my own: https://coffeeforthebrain.com/category/play-pd/

 Topic: Three barriers to graduating tinkerer scientists in US schools

I read a chapter in the book Design Make Play by Margaret Honey titled, Making Their Way in the World by Elliot Washor and Charles Majkowski

In the chapter the authors raise the following concerns

Three barriers to graduating tinkerer scientists in US high schools.

1. Due to pressure for test scores little to no attention to creativity, exploration, tinkering, and invention in the elementary and secondary curriculum.

2. School curriculum employs cognitive abstract teaching and paper and pencil assessment methods that shoulder out other ways of engaging and understanding the world.

3. The only learning that counts in schools is the learning accomplished in school. Students have few opportunities to bring what they learn and accomplish outside of school into the school and ear academic and graduation credit.

Example: October Sky – math story of poor in school but amazing at home

For this discussion I would like to discuss whether or not we agree with these barriers and if they do in fact exist what can we do to overcome them?

Kyna Leski states that “creativity is not in knowledge itself but in exploiting those multiple ways of knowing. Discovery and invention are not about arriving somewhere expected but deliberately moving outside what is known.”

If you are interested in being on the panel please head to this Google Doc and sign up. I will send you an invite about 10 minutes before we go live. I would love to have a mix of students and educators to discuss these issues.