We kicked off our 5th season of Collab Labs on Zoom last week with a discussion focused on what educators were running into in the early weeks of the school year. We started the conversation by asking about what folks are seeing themselves or hearing from other educators:
Stakeholder involvement pushes teachers and school leadership to learn fast
When we lose control, we latch on to what we can control, e.. following the rules
Star testing on Chromebooks without reliable internet/devices does not work
If students aren’t in synchronous session they miss out
How do you reach the students who don’t come back to engage? Students feel they are so far behind that they can’t catch up.
teachers are overwhelmed, too many subjects to go deep, how do you check for understanding?
One week before start of school, we were told we will be using PBL with our students.
Lack of student perseverance – checking out when it gets to be too difficult
how do you replicate observation in the classroom?
fear of making mistakes?
students go to community centers during the day– how do they help kids when kids have so much work to do. The partners need to understand what is useful to learning.
frustrated trying to get content across, frustrated with attendance. Cuts across city & suburban districts.
kids at same grade level show up at same daycare, all with different assignments.
That prompted some further discussion around getting above a tactical level…
we’re still trying to deliver curriculum rather than learning.
Rethink what is accountability?
how to use tech tools to level the playing field and create empathy among students?
how to use synchronous and a-synchronous teaching in a structured way.
…and what teachers/schools need to make this work:
creating ‘digital citizen culture’ for using technology to learn together
Why is presence needed for learning?
How do we use tools strategically
How does a person demonstrate learning?
How does a person demonstrate learning?
Lots of time up front how to use tools of virtual platform.
We wrapped up with the recognition that post Covid, schools will end up somewhere new:
Systems have been cobbled together overtime. Now we are starting fresh. Can we think about how we ought to fix this?
Can we create a new framework for learning experiences that gives students a choice of opportunities to pursue?
Last Thursday’s Collab Lab explored what teacher-centric professional development might look like. We had participants introduce themselves by sharing their best and worst PD experiences. As we listened to those conversations, one thing that stood out was the number of times the physical setting of the PD session came into play– an offsite location offered an opportunity to shift thinking, a session which had teachers sitting on cafeteria benches for two hours conveyed that those planning the session had not considered what the experience would be like for participants.
With those experiences as background, the first task for attendees was to inventory what they hope to gain/provide through PD. Those ideas fell into several broad categories:
Enthusiasm & Inspiration:
Excitement to replicate and extend
Inspiration
Enthusiasm
Enhancement of skills
Excitement — I want to leave and keep on working on it
Gain Knowledge about specific tech subjects– AI, VR, etc.
Learn to engage students in new technologies purposefully
See great pedagogy modeled and be able to practice it
Rich content
Increase knowledge…
student relationships
engaging students
Knowledge that pertains to me!
Chance to learn from everyone in the room [recognize the experience in the room]
Develop a different perspective regarding those around us
Resources
Realistic or tangible outcomes
Share researched based best practices
Access to new information
Knowledge
Current best practices
New perspectives
Authentic experiences
Actionable skills, knowledge, connections
Collaboration
A space to collaborate & innovate
Ideas surrounding achieving classroom equity at the college and eventually university level
Follow up/accountability
Engagement through action and collaboration
Applicable/relevant
Processing time
Opportunities to reflect
Group of similar professionals for
encouragement
support
common passion
A tribe
Connections
Connections for students
Authentic experiences
Excitement, passion, purpose
Exposure to other experts, mentors, coaches
Real access to tools, tech, mindset of others in an interest area
Contacts/networking
Fellow, passionate learners
Teacher to teacher PD
Respect as a capable adult learner
Opportunities to share my expertise
Form a supportive community
Increase collaboration among staff on working with students
Growing a community of learners.
Stretch & dive deep
Be forced to struggle and stretch
A desire to want more — go deeper
Stretch
Deeper investment in your work
Student PD — if you could learn anything at school what would it be?
Domain specific PD
Become better/more effective at what you want to do
Opportunities for students to grow, motivate their self in learning
Visions of what PD could be
With this broad set of goals in hand, we allowed a bit more time for conversation about how one might realize one more of those. From there we asked attendees to pair up and create a vision of what PD that aims to meet some of those goals might look like. Here’s some of what was shared.
Implementation of a school wide-initiative
Focus
One big goal or vision for whole school
It is not
A lecture
Cookie cutter
Participants
all stakeholders [in strategic teams that make sense]
It happens
Off site, neutral territory
As a 3-5 year plan with set SMART goals and monthly check in intervals
I’m able to leverage it
Because all other PD is filtered through this vision
As a realistic shared vision — teams set goals aligned with vision
Community
Focus
Supporting persistence & community
It does not
Have a top-down structure
Feel contrived
Participants
A group of people with a shared goal
It happens
In varied settings, especially getting people out of their everyday environment
Settings where everyday pressures are less pressing (leave town?)
Includes both structured and unstructured time
I’m able to leverage it
By having the flexibility to allow good things to happen
Let participants lead
A specific helpful computer program (one of many)
Focused on
Benefits & “how tos” of a new program
It is not
Condescending
Just a lecture
A one one and done or passing trend
It includes for participants
Hands on exploration
QA, comments, input from participants
Brainstorming, how could you use this?
Builds enthusiasm
Offers + schedule of follow up support for participants at all levels
Time for follow up
Research based, relevant
Of value — time saving/increased effectiveness
Team Cohesion
Focused on
Creating a more collaborative and safe team environment by establishing norms and committing to action
It does not
Provide space for admiring the problem and creating blame
It includes as participants
The entire team
It happens
At a retreat
I’m able to leverage it
By creating a commitment to change and holding myself accountable for it.
Mindful moments
Focus
Transitions when students enter class. Being present and acknowledging current mental state/capacity for learning.
Self compassion, self awareness, self efficacy
It does not
Have lectures or assignments
Mandate the rules of how to apply or engage
Participants
Teachers/faculty
It happens
45-50 minutes initial time of session demonstrating strategies for teachers to learn and practice
Follow up email with people who are practicing/to share with others
I’m able to leverage it
At the end of the session we build an accountability partnership with other session goers. Email each other to check in once a week for three weeks. After that the partnership will re-assess
Power of Data – GIS
Focus
Scientific inquiry using GIS technology
Create individual lesson plans
Argue from evidence
It is not
A lecture
Participants
Educators– formal & informal
It happens
As active learning over a 35 hour block
I’m able to leverage
Software
Career stories
Data collection
Varied context
Differentiation
Focus
Differentiation
access
accountability
learner needs, not roll out of programs
It does not
Disrespect the learner. Rather, it encourages choice, voice of participants
Participants
Leaders
Experts
Learners
It happens
During regular employee hours but can continue after ours or on vacations
Deidre Roemer — Director of Leadership and Learning, West Allis West Milwaukee School District
Resources
Our participants shared a number of resources. Here’s the list:
Code for Milwaukee Internship ProgramCode for Milwaukee is a civic technology non-profit that builds out projects that serve the greater Milwaukee community and beyond. They are starting an internship program that is open to middle and high school students who will help build out a technology based solution to solve a problem our community faces
UWM Power of Data Workshops: 35 hour paid professional development program that enables st secondary teachers to increase students’ content knowledge, 21 Century Skills and awareness of geospatial technology careers through Geospatial Inquiry and data analysis. June 2020
Wisconsin ArcGIS Map Contest The 2020 Wisconsin map contest is part of the Esri national student ArcGIS Online competition. It is open to all Wisconsin middle and high school students.
Our December Collab Lab focused on student run enterprises. We were interested in the kinds of experiences participants hoped students might gain through participation in a student run enterprise.
Our process for the session took a slightly different approach, starting with how we wanted to students to talk about their experience. Our goal was statements that demonstrate a high level of engagement, but are also evocative enough that we could start to imagine how a student run enterprise might foster such an experience.
The initial brainstorming process generated a long list of experience statements, including:
“I worked really hard because the results really mattered”
“This program helped me find my passion.”
“The work here is important to me personally.”
“I’m glad I can be myself, express my mind freely.”
“I got to know myself better.”
“I grew as a person.”
“It was my favorite class ever.”
“I never thought I could do this.”
(with pride) “This is my project!”
“I chose to stay because of this.”
“I was able to make decisions that allowed me to take risks and learn from mistakes to help our business be more successful.”
“I learned how to fail.”
“There are real consequences for my actions in this enterprises.”
“I felt more empowered than ever.”
“This experience allowed me to really own my learning and let me take something I am interested in to a level I couldn’t have done without this experience.”
“I have a voice and I have value.”
“I understand my role.”
“I am proud of what exists here.”
“I am valuable to this business.”
“This experience helped me see how a business could not only help me but help the community.”
“The experiences I’ve had make me think about what I can do to help my community.”
“This experience allowed me to grow as a student leader and collaborate with others.”
“I have a better understanding of money, how it is created, and whether or not it has value.”
“I used the skills I acquired to further my knowledge and abilities.”
“I remembered doing this activity in class and could apply the technique learned to help myself.”
“This helped me learn how to apply my skills in the real world.”
“As a person, it made me make better decisions. As a member of my community it made me open my eyes and grow up.”
“It helped me figure out what I want to do with my life.”
With that list in hand, we asked participants to form small teams to talk through ideas for how a student run enterprise might help students have one or more of those experiences. Our second process change was to have these ideas expressed as “What if we…” questions. We wanted to see if that led to more expansive thinking. Here’s what they came up with:
Individuality Initiative
We hope students might say…
“I learned to fail”
“This program helped me find my passion”
“I have a voice. I have value.”
What if we…
created an environment where students weren’t as fearful of failing, but instead were encouraged to learn from their failures ;
created a survey or interview process to identify appropriate enterprises and their roles within them;
encouraged an education system that catered to helping students find their passion instead of telling them what they should be?
Failing with Open Minds
We hope students might say…
“I learned to fail”
“I found my passion”
What if we…
allowed kids to fail;
allowed kids to pursue their passion and explore themselves;
sourced innovation from kids?
encouraged all to fail of front of an authentic, receptive audience with an open mind while pursuing a curiosity which can become a passion after taking a risk?
Sustainable Futures/Business with an Impact
We hope students might say…
“This experience connects passion to community and allows us to thing about our impact”
What if we…
challenge them to make a product or service that helps the environment or community;
challenges them to create a business or product that reduces their impact on the environment;
create a business that would help their specific neighborhood issue?
Change Agent
We hope students might say…
“I feel more empowered than ever”
What if …
this purpose already means something to me;
I am interested to lead;
we make the community better?
Milwaukee Made
We hope students might say…
“It was so great to work with other students of all ages and to make money and learn how to be successful in a business.”
What if we…
break down barriers to students creating a business;
we worked with an elementary school, high school, and college to create a store/experience for students to learn from each other to make a real business;
raised confidence and creativity through working with college professors and students in collaboration;
used the new Marquette space in Schlitz Park to sell the produces of student enterprises and employ high school students to work in the store/paid students for the products they sell;
collaborate with Marquette, MATC, Pathways High & Golda Meir to do so?
Try – Fail – Reflect (repeat)
We hope students might say…
“I learned how to fail.”
What if we…
take time to reflect after failure;
normalized failure;
push students outside of their comfort zone?
Thanks to The Commons for providing the space and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas:
Our November Collab Lab focused on opportunities to engage students around green infrastructure. We asked participants to brainstorm ideas around different types of green infrastructure as they are designed, installed or in service, using the inventory provided within the City of Milwaukee’s Green Infrastructure Plan. From there we paired up educators with representatives from industry, higher-ed, non-profits, and local government and had them flesh out a specific idea in greater detail.
Here’s what they came up with:
Identify targets sites for green infrastructure
Identify vacant lots in the students’ neighborhood to active and install stormwater trees, gardens, community art.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Stormwater trees
Native landscaping
Regenerative stormwater conveyance
Greenways & land conservation
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
Desired experience for students:
Mapping GIS
Think about neighborhood & community
This is worth it!
Evidence and argument
Budgeting and finance
Understanding different land use/space factors
History of the area, why a particular lot is vacant
Cultural experience of neighborhood as an influence to art
Durability of art
What students will need:
Mapping software
Data
Facilitator/guides to support — experts, & exemplars
Documentation and presentation skills
Who students should meet as part of this work:
UWM School of Architecture & Urban Planning
Youth Council @ City Hall
Pocket parks tour
How students might share their work:
Video
Podcast
Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Story Map
Social media/website
Share with community service organizations, the experts that helped them.
Storytelling– “What did I learn”
Art within Native Landscaping
Design art projects within a native landscape
Green infrastructure targeted:
Native Landscaping
Desired experience for students:
Cross curricula – art/science/math
Exploring new things
Youth voice/leadership
New materials
Mentoring
Culture
What students will need:
Guidance/leadership to understand and get excited
Research on native landscapes, sustainable materials (what they are, why they are important)
Location, calendar, transportation
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Partner with college students
Landscape/gardening experts
How students might share their work:
Community grand opening, with presentation by youth
Garden Gallery (art) night
Low tech watering systems
Create olla pots or other system to water gardens when students/volunteers may not be available to do so.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
In Use
Desired experience for students:
Research the history of olla pots
Design a system where rain barrels fill the pots (how many rain barrels?)
Calculate how much water might be captured
Determine the size of pots that might be necessary for a particular garden or space
Monitor gardens to make sure the system is working
Compare performance at different times of year
Evaluate how the long the system can run without support
Calibrate the outflow rate from rain barrels so that it is most effective
What students will need:
History of olla pots & agriculture
Math — planning for the # of pots for the area
Science — expected rainfall for the area, ecology, human impact
Communication skills — share what they did
Reading & writing
Arts — decorating barrels, making their own pots @ schools with kiln [can we make our own rain barrels?]
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Community connections for support in monitoring
Environmental engineers
fresh coast guardians from MMSD
Teens Grow Greens for different ideas on irrigation
Pottery infrastructure
How students might share their work:
video story
Present @ Science Strikes Back? [Escuela Verde?]
Share after a full growing season for data collection
Share publicly — news, radio, social media, USDA
Butterfly Garden
Reclaim paved area of “playground” for stormwater management and wildlife habitat restoration.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Depaving
Soil Amendments
Phases targeted:
Design
Installation
In use
What students should experience:
Design process — native plants, permaculture, pollinator habitat, education of younger students
Self directed personalized learning
What students will need:
Research skills
Curiosity
Information sources
Access to professionals/experts
How students might share their work:
Photo voice
Signage
Newsletters & written media
Permeable paving meets math
Use installation of permeable paving as a chance to exercise mathematical thinking.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Permeable paving
What students should experience:
Apply math concepts (geometry, algebra, etc) when designing permeable walkway through a park
Art, design, science of materials
Exploration of career paths
Presentation of findings
What students will need:
Access to practitioners
Manipulation/manufacturing of materials
Best practices for fitting pieces together
Permeable paving vs alternatives
Cost data for possible choices — installation, maintenance, long term costs
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Practitioners: non profits, contractors, college student mentors
MMSD
Artists
Landscapers
Tours of UWM School of Freshwater Sciences, GWC, MMSD, etc.)
How students might share their work:
Green Students Conference
Opportunity for students across schools/districts to present GI projects to each other
Green job fair — in part, the conference could be funded by exhibitors (engineers, landscapers, etc.) who do a job fair
GI Scavenger hunt
Inventory and map green infrastructure within students’ community; identify where water is coming from; find as many examples as possible, create a map using GIS software
What students should experience:
The possibilities that exist in different areas
Problem solving using mapping software
Ability to visualize things on a map
What students will need:
Mapping software and an introduction to using it
General location for finding green infrastructure
Lesson on green infrastructure installations and interventions
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Students who did bigger project
How students might share their work:
Story map
Water quality assessment
Assess the water quality in the local community
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Rain gardens
Soil Amendments
What students should experience:
Data analysis
Hands on development of project
Ownership & involvement
Success & Impact
What students will need:
Space
Native plants
Raspberry Pi computer
Types of soil
Types of compost
Gravel
Sensors for moisture/contamination
Water quality test kits
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Upham Woods — digital observation kits
Sweetwater – Adopt A Storm Drain
River Keepers
Plastic Free MKE
How students might share their work:
Social media
Murals
Logos
Mottos
Peer to peer education — teach others to continue project
Brand it
Give it legitimacy
Greening Alleys
Create a list of priorities for green alleys near a school, identify and collect the data to use in prioritizing the alleys.
Green infrastructure targeted:
Green streets and alleys
What students should experience:
Surveying the neighborhood
Identifying improvements and analyzing lowest cost estimates of putting in improvements
Communication of survey, improvements,
What students will need:
Access to expertise
Computers/data sets
Estimation software/templates
Who students should meet as part of this work:
MMSD — Lisa Sasso, Bre Plier, Nadia Vogt
DPW — Nader Jabber
WDNE — Ben Benninghoff, Samantha Katt
Civil Engineers — Justin Hegerty (Reflo), Kara Koch (SSE)
Communications specialist
How students might share their work:
Entering the project in a competition
Via website/communication pieces they design
Presenting at a conference
Presenting to politicians/city administrators
Intervention as Art
Create an environmental solution that is a form of art
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns [start here but then see where it may connect to something else]
What students should experience:
Allow students to develop creative problem solving, apply multiple disciplines (math, science, etc.) in order to create a solution
Allow student to assess the financial components/cost of implementing the art
What students will need:
Location to meet
Access to technology and materials
Sample size materials to create prototype of artwork
Transportation
Design expertise (art coaches/artists)
Self determination
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Artists
Engineers
Government officials & leaders
Foundations
Contractors (in trades)
How students might share their work:
Social media
Press engagements
Unveiling events
Presentations
GI target map
Map neighborhood to identify opportunities to install green infrastructure
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Green streets & alleys
Soil amendments
Phase targeted:
Design
What students should experience:
Gain understanding of neighborhood and existing conditions
Gain understanding of community stakeholders
Build researching skills (reputable data)
Become informed skeptics
Gain understanding of types & applications for green infrastructure
What students will need:
Background in types of GI
Mapping support — map individual neighborhoods, add all to larger map
Critical thinking/perseverance
People skills — coaching/modeling
Arrange stakeholder meetings/presentations
Watershed locations
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Reflo
Eco Office
Environmental Engineers
SFS
Community organizations in neighborhood
How students might share their work:
Social media posts
Health fair at North Division
MPS STEM Fair
Heat Islands
Monitor/change heat island effect through interactive materials
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Bioswales
Stormwater trees
Depaving
Green streets & alleys
Greenways & land conservation
Green roofs
Phase targeted:
In use
What students should experience:
Gain an appreciation for environmental awareness
Visually see how GI can reduce heat island effect
What students will need:
Thermal imaging – drone
Students map with “hot spots”
Identify areas that would benefit from green infrastructure
What could be done– trees plants, gardens
See how different GI might reduce heat
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Engineering firms with surveyors
College students who work with GIS
How students might share their work:
Presentation to town, city, community
Design plan
From the areas identified, have students go to companies to implement or advertise their action plan
Designing School Building Projects
Allow students to design landscape areas; promote mentor-ship to have older students work with younger students; during construction, kids can monitor waste vs recycled materials
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain gardens
Native landscaping
Stormwater trees
Soil amendments
Phase targeted:
Design
Installation
In use
What students should experience:
Sense of ownership, cooperation, achievement
Growing consumable product
Science
What students will need:
Planting science and how to nurture
Planting buddies
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Contractors
Landscapers
Engineers
Business relationships for recycling
Farmers
How students might share their work:
Through food on table
Science & math through recycling
Personal development through succeeding in the process
Watershed Challenge
How can we positively effect the watershed in a way that will create buy in and support from the community
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Rain gardens
Stormwater trees
Soil amendments
Phases targeted:
Design
What students should experience:
Career connections
Get out in the field
Community connections – picking up trash connected to effects on watershed, talking to community, brainstorming community problems
Urban water cycle – treatment plant
Science/environmental connection — labs to “see it”
Interdisciplinary — data, writing, technology
What students will need:
Background knowledge– getting off campus, maps science
Access to to local experts
Community connections — talking to people in neighborhood, observing the location
Structure/system for the design part of the project
Who students should meet as part of the effort:
Water school
Washington Park Urban Ecology Center
Storm Water Solutions
Engineers that design infrastructure — public & private
Go to a school that did a similar project
Groundworks MKE
Milwaukee Water Commons
Reflo
MMSD (Christina Taddy)
River Keeper
Plastic Free MKE
Sweetwater (Adopt a Storm Drain)
Upham Woods
Artful Capstone
Bring math, science, and art together for artful landscaping solutions; understanding the design process
Green infrastructure targeted:
Rain barrels & cisterns
Permeable pavement
Green Roofs [hotels & apartments]
What students should experience:
Awareness of environment
Seeing project through to completion
Impact on community
Puzzle solving
Design process
Connecting things to their everyday life
Opportunities to see career options
What students will need:
Time
Parental support
Access to opportunities
Mentoring
Inspiration
Pragmatic examples
Connections to their lives
Opportunity to take risks
Who students should meet as part of this work:
Mentors
Government officials
Home owners
Community members
How students might share their work:
Authentic audience
Other students around the world through
Tik Tok
20 20
15s Film
Pachakucha
Thanks to The Commons for providing the space and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas:
Catherine Bronikowski — Math Dept. Chair, North Division High School
Our 4th season of Collab Labs kicked off on October 10th with a focus on building skilled trades talent. We began the discussion by building an inventory of the skills we’d like to see students develop. These fell into two broad categories:
Technical Skills
Design Skills
Read blueprints & technical drawings
Fine motor skills/hand-eye coordination
Math and measurement
Budgeting/Understanding job costs
General understanding of construction trades
Equipment/resource planning
Soft Skills
Creativity/Innovation/Problem solving
Fail Fast
Safety
Ability to take constructive criticism
Ability to take direction
Self Advocacy
Self discipline/integrity/follow through/show up ready to work
Self confidence
Determination/grit
Collaboration/Interpersonal skills within a team
Communication skills
Ability to listen
Willingness to learn/ask thoughtful question
From there we asked each discussion group to talk through experiences that do or could provide opportunities to build those skills. Here’s what they came up with:
Build2Learn Camp $500 stipend for summer workshop
European model – apprentices
Engage employers – job shadow
Inspire/Awe – Makerspace Home Depot creative space
Intentionally incorporate soft skills into lessons
Provide high interest projects
Bring industry speakers into the classroom
Real world applications with purpose – e.g. 3D prosthetics
Mentorships
Teamwork: moving a project to completion
Presenting/exhibiting craft work
Building confidence with no or low risk simulations.
Leverage connections and take them to scale
Address skills gaps with “it takes a village” perspective
Get professionals into classrooms
They can learn from students
Talk with students, not down to them
Our final step was to have each group take those ideas, talk through what a program might look like, and share that out with the entire group. Here’s where they landed:
Project Start to finish real world application
Build a house
Bring in industry
Have mentors
Engage employers
Build soft skills
Build technical skills
Goal is to have job ready workers, provide apprenticeships, job opportunities.
Identify industry partner/employer
Ask “What do you need from us?”
Identify what workforce needs exist
Identify training/skills needed
Company sponsored projects
Materials or time
Interviews of
the company
the student
Interdisciplinary/project based learning
Working with other schools/districts
Protocols
Feedback models – Hard on content/soft on person
Leverage technology
Skype team meetings
Drone/webcams of projects progressing
Build excitement about upcoming technologies
Early Hands-on Exposure
Youth apprenticeships
Out of comfort zone
Peer mentorship
Self-realization/mediation
Options (electives)
Students: Littles – early exposure
Education Workplace: Welcoming anti-racist, data-driven, performance based
What’s needed to move forward: Looking past personal bias, equal access to opportunities, a cultural shift
Industry-owned Youth Apprenticeships
IDing under-served population
Mapped to skilled trades values and skills
Bringing the industry straight to the families
Thanks to CG Schmidt for sponsoring our food and beverages for the evening, The Commons for providing the space, and to our featured participants for sharing their expertise and ideas,
Peter Graven – Earth Science/ Life Science/ Robotics, Deer Creek Intermediate School (St Francis)
Craig Griffie – Technology Education, Brown Deer High School
Our Collab Lab series is back for a 4th season! Join us on October 10th to kick off the series with Collab Lab 29: Building Skilled Trades Talent. The complete schedule for the season is below.
We had a record crowd for Collab Lab 27, where we explored ways to enable kids and parents find creative and playful ways to engage in math throughout Milwaukee. The focus for the session started with an idea Mary Langmyer raised coming out of our December Collab Lab– what would it look like if we could see math everywhere in Milwaukee? We worked with Mary to put together a vision statement, and started talking to folks we wanted to pull in to help figure this out.
Mary introduced the evening’s topic and several of her sources of inspiration. We then had attendees form groups that each contained a mix of educators and community partners. Their first task was a brainstorming activity to capture ideas what seeing math everywhere might look like.
Each group was then asked to pick an idea to develop. We had them flesh out details, get some feedback from other attendees, and then outline what it would take to move the idea forward. Here’s what the groups came up with.
Estimation on Location
A scavenger hunt to estimate distances, times, quantities, percents age, etc. of neighborhood landmarks.
Resources: Basics, like paper, volunteers, data, tracking, use a Google form or app if you want to get fancy.
Testing it out: School, library, south shore park
Fort MKE
Engage neighborhoods in construction of forts from re-cycled material
What: Everyone likes a fort; recycled/refurbished material; visual appeal of design; potential metrics– capacity, dimensions, quantity of material used, location coordinates
Why: Build community locally and across the city; teach math and engineering design, and communication skills
Where: Parks or schools– activate anywhere (access/equity)
Who: Kids in Milwaukee; 3 levels, for elementary, middle, and high school students. High school students might take on as a service learning project for a homeless shelter
When: Summer
Prize: Top design becomes an interactive exhibit at Discovery World (with membership for participating kids and families?)
Funding: Donors choose/go fund me; online research sites for sustainability
Fitness App Hackathon
A STEM challenge for Milwaukee area students to develop a fitness app
What: Hackathon to develop an app to track steps, heart rate, milage, weight goals; Once launched, users can hit fitness goals to unlock discounts at local establishments
Who: Collaboration with MSOE and YMCA
Where: Host the hackathon at MSOE
Partners: MSOE, YMCA, MPS, Learn Deep, area accelerators; MKE retailers and vendors
What’s the math around dying the Milwaukee river green?
What: On the (now past) occasion of dying the Milwaukee river green, have students estimate how much dye is actually required.
Why: Apply concepts of volume, concentration, and flow rate to a real-life problem
Where: Competition at the Fiserv Forum where teams present their calculations. Winning team gets to participate in the ceremony to dye the river.
Who: MPS middle and high school students
When: NBA Playoffs for 2020?
Partners: Bucks, City of Milwaukee, DNR, Brewers, DNC, local universities
Resources: River measurement estimates (with which to calculate volume; data on dye concentration levels/coverage
Funding: Sponsors to fund Fiserv event; food & beverage donations
Test: Get the data from 2019 event; model the problem in a classroom to calculate volume and use food coloring to estimate concentration levels
Milwaukee’s Movable Bridges
Math explorations while waiting for a bridge to lower
Where: Milwaukee River bridges along Plankinton Avenue and Water Street
What: Younger kids – count the number of boats going past; older kids — geometry of bridges (height, angle when raised, shape), velocity, duration of events — boats passing, bridge raising/lowering; how can this process be made more efficient for everyone impacted?
When: Anytime, or while waiting for a bridge
Why: We have a captive audience that needs to do something during the wait time.
Who: Drivers, walkers, bikers, public transit riders, boaters
Test: social media challenge; summer to do list from school
Math-a-thon
Math races for a cause
What: Create a math race for your favorite cause where participants look at
estimation
measurement
conversions
functions
substitution
geometry – angles, slopes
speed/velocity
rate of change
averages
variables
Why: See math everywhere– Students determine purpose and type of race (bike, walk, marathon)
Where: Milwaukee area with evidence of math and interest (animals, vets, immigration, etc.)
Who: 6th-12th grades
When: Winter/spring of 2020
Partners: City (route feedback, viability); Existing races/walks; fundraisers, organizers, MPS
Resources: Classrooms/teachers
Funding: Contest, racing funding
Test: Plan southside mural tour with 3rd-5th graders for winter of 2019. Show results to potential partner organizations to sponsor an event during the summer of 2020
Smoothies for Mathies
Play with ratios by playing with food
What: Smoothie cards that are placed next to ingredients within grocery stores with activities focused on cost, nutrition, and quantities.
Substitutions, pie charts, percentages
Include prompts for families — what is the most cost effective, nutritious, etc.
Why: Access– we all eat, practical knowledge, adaptable recipe, nutrition, creativity, trying new foods/combinations
Where: Grocery stores, fruit stands, farmers’ markets, gas stations, anywhere food is sold
Who: Shoppers, stores– could be categorized by goal, e.g. more fiber, ethnic food, weight loss, body building
When: anytime/seasonal recipes
Partners: Aldi, Sendiks, Outpost, Pic N Save, other local stores, Fondy food center, Riverwest Community Food Center
Funding: grants, advertising/promotion, brands pay for printing, food entrepreneurs for product placement; UW extension, WIC community outreach.
Test: individual store, easy to duplicate if successful; community stores
If you want to bake a pizza you must first invent the universe
An after school program to grow and prepare food
When: After school
Where: Neighborhood center
Why: People eat every day. If you are seeing math in something you do everyday, you’re learning math (in addition to nutrition and health)
Who: Students
Elementary School – garden
Middle School – Grocery store
High School – Test kitchen
How: Chez Panisse in Berkeley, grants, neighborhood center, partner
Partners: Grocery store, farm, restaurant, CSA school PTO, neighborhood center, Discovery World,
Build a Business
Student run business as exposure for applied math
What: Understanding economics of building a business; competition w/startup funding and showcase of ideas.
Why: Teach students fundamental math skills used in a business
pricing
costs
strategies
marketing, etc.
Where: After school program
Who: Middle and high school students
When: During school (equity); after school
Partners: Banks, JA, area entrepreneurs, foundations, sporting teams
Barriers: Time, funding for startups, curriculum, scalability
Resources: Leighton (MPS Rec), interested teachers/school districts, Universities, business schools, B-school students
Testing: 1-2 MPS After School summer programs/CLC site
Thanks!
Thanks again to Mary Langmyer for her enthusiasm and work to pull the session together, and The Commons for providing the space for this month’s Collab Lab. Thanks also to Monique Liston from Ubuntu Research who brought her grad students to both lend a hand and participate in the session.
For those of you that want to connect with or learn more about some of the math folks and resources from the Collab Lab:
Collab Lab 26 focused on storytelling and how we can use those practices to empower student voices and drive engagement.
We started the discussion with the question “What hopes do you have when students are given a chance to tell stories that matter to them?”:
Students will be able to share stories with an authentic audience
Students will develop a sense of identity and worth
Students will have the chance to understand a commonality of experience
Students are able to advocate for their ideas
Students capture history making connections
The process models collaboration, community, and critical thinking
Students understand the power of their voice, and empathy for others
Students share and support authentic representation, identity, and learning
Empathy – students see the ethical and therapeutic potential of seeing others as human
Students gain a sense of freedom, choice, ownership, authenticity, bravery, and dignity from the stories they share
Authentic storytelling comes with risks, so we also asked about the fears participants had when students tell stories that are meaningful to them:
We are not prepared to hear a story in a supportive way
A lack of efficacy or ability to change lives
If we don’t teach the art and science of storytelling, students will stop telling them– they need an audience
No acceptance of failure (shame, exposure, sharing)
Sensation of negative, leads to negative – e.g. if one student tells a story of harmful behavior does that lead others to emulate that behavior?
It is difficult to combat the toxicity of Celebrity as Hero.
Vulnerability of students (low initial stakes with incremental risk)
Exposure of trauma without an ability to care for it
From there we moved on to ask “What questions can help students identify stories worth telling?” Here, the need to as these questions in an iterative, repetitive way was called out as a necessary step in getting students to think deeply about their responses. The goal for participants here is to help students find a story they can tell from the heart.
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Why?
For what and for whom?
How can this story touch one person?
How do you tell different stories to different people?
What’s your reason – your personal mission statement?
What is/are your:
weirdness
mutation
zip code
fears
pains
joys
passions
Our final question asked participants what they need to help students tell these stories:
To create a culture and community that supports students’ voices, and provides safety and comfort as they tell their stories
To give students options about how to tell their stories
To provide students a space that makes them feel awesome
Time, flexibility, community, connections
Access to storytelling expertise
Time for students to play
A culture of storytelling that recognizes the need for authentic listening, and receiving
The opportunity to use non-linguistic media
Imagination
Give the focus on storytelling, one of our discussion groups captured what this might look like as a story:
At MLK Elementary, a 6th grader who was sometimes seen as a troublemaker got up in a front of a room and told the story of how she realized she was a naturally gifted pool player. This resulted in lots of positive attention for her! The workshops and prep time she used paid off!
Milwaukee Visionaries Project (MVP) UWM-sponsored after-school animation program serving middle and high school students from throughout the city of Milwaukee. Our programming for middle and high school students aligns with the MPS school year and we enroll students on a rolling basis throughout the year. MVP does not currently offer a summer session, but UWM’s greater Art Ed networking organization (ArtsECO) runs Pre-College Art and Design classes for high school students during our off-season.
ArtsECOBased within UWM’s Peck School of the Arts, our diverse programming offerings develop teachers as change-makers. ArtsECO is backed by a strong and sustainable community of arts organizations, non-profits, and K12 school partnerships. We offer monthly Meet-Up events available to the public as well!
Water: How can we engage students in authentic learning experiences related to water and water technologies?
Beyond the facts that Milwaukee sits next to a whole lot of water and spans several watersheds, it is home to more than 200 water technology companies. This creates an opportunity not just to explore physical connections to water and the environment, but to tap into expertise around how water is used and managed. At our February Collab Lab, we pulled together individuals from area organizations engaged water technology and issues from a variety of perspectives. We then sat them down with educators to flesh out some ideas and make the connections that can help bring those ideas to life.
Amber DuChateau was kind enough to step in as a guest facilitator. She guided our discussion groups through a process that began with participants sharing what drives their work and what excites them now about what they’re working on. From our perspective, the really interesting work in schools is driven by teachers passions. This method of introduction provides a chance for them to connect with others who share their enthusiasm.
Our search for opportunities began with a brainstorming process within each discussion group. We asked each table to generate ideas for potential projects using one or more of these strategies:
Mix and match — What would it look like to combine exciting work from 2 or 3 members of your table?
Shift context — What does it look like to take exciting work and put it in a different location, class (art music, language arts, history, business), age group?
Empower students — what does it look like when students drive the questions, act as mentors to younger students, lead the project
Distribute the work — what changes if you had 10 classes chipping in, what does it look like if you have 100?
Extend the scope — what changes if you can rely on the skills of students/teachers in other classes?
That process gave us a list of ideas that included:
What constitutes “healthy water”
How does water flow through the curriculum
gardens
aquaponics (our focus for Collab Lab 22)
connecting questions (inquiry) to answers (outcomes)
How is water made?
Connect Sweet Water’s Adopt a Storm Drain project to schools
Test presentations of water related work before visitors to Discovery World
Tell the story of a drop of water
Tell the story of a drop of water through water bracelets (each token on a bracelet tells part of the story)
Enlist students in UWM’s School of Freshwater Science as mentors to MPS Science teachers working with Project GUTS
Tell the story of the Habitat Hotels constructed for the Harbor District by Bradley Tech students
Extend STEMhero‘s curriculum to connect students to look at water usage of businesses near schools
With those ideas in hand, each group moved on to select one idea and create a vision for what that might look like. Here’s where they landed:
Project Idea 1: Adopt a Storm Drain +
Goal
Students adopt one or more storm drains near their school. Students understand the function of storm drains, how pollution can enter the system, and be swept into area streams and Lake Michigan. Inspired by this understanding, they work to keep their storm drain(s) free from garbage that may be swept into the drain and out into area waterways.
Key Issues
Scalability– how can this effort spread
What education levels to target?
Potential Partners
Sweet Water
Green Schools Consortium
Project Idea 2: If I Were a Drop of Water
Goal
Engage student physically, mentally, and emotionally to understand the flow of a drop of water from where it lands in Milwaukee and its journey to Lake Michigan. Use a multidisciplinary approach to help students build these stories, which are then presented to an audience from the wider community.
Where/Who/When
Across the watersheds which cover Milwaukee in grades 6-12. Pilot the effort in 7th or 8th grade. Prep for the effort in the fall, get students outside in the spring to follow the path of water from their chosen source to the lake.
What’s Needed to Move Forward
Identify locations to use as starting point for water journey
Tap local expertise to do so (building connections between schools and partners)
Do a test run of the water journey with teachers
Map the work envisioned back to curriculum standards
How to get Started
Reach out to science curriculum specialists to help identify schools who might be willing to pilot
Run the idea past local experts to identify source locations that would allow students to follow interesting journeys
Project Idea 3: What Constitutes Healthy Water?
Goals
Incorporate actual water issues for Milwaukee– lead, lake levels, etc.
Include water quality into multidisciplinary curriculum
How to get Started
Identify a client (big or small) for the work
Miller
Summerfest
MMSD
Colectivo
Craft a project to engage students in work to explore/address the client’s concerns around water.
Thanks again to The Commons for providing the space, to Amber for facilitating, and our featured participants for the experience and insight they brought to the discussion:
The idea for session came out of conversations we had last summer with Donna Genzmer and Kate Madison faculty members at UWM. Kate and Donna run UWM’s Power of Data Teacher Workshops. The Power of Data (POD) Project offers a 35 hour professional development program in mid-June that helps secondary teachers enhance existing lessons with Geospatial Inquiry. Through NSF funding the program is both free for teachers and offers a stipend to participants. We thought it would be useful to offer teachers interested in exploring how to leverage maps/Geographic Information Systems (GIS) tools a chance to explore some ideas, and connect with resources early in the year so they might better be able to leverage the PODs training.
Milwaukee has a wealth of GIS talent at area universities, industries, and non-profits. Our featured participants brought a broad range of expertise and practical knowledge in the use of GIS/spatial data analysis across a variety of domains. We structured the session to allow participants to share their interests in exposing students to spatial data, explore ideas for potential projects, and solicit advice for how to make that happen.
Thanks again to The Commons for providing the space and to Marvin and our featured participants for the experience and insight they brought to the discussion:
Collab Lab 26 focused on storytelling and how we can use those practices to empower student voices and drive engagement.
Beyond the facts that Milwaukee sits next to a whole lot of water and spans several watersheds, it is home to more than 200 water technology companies. This creates an opportunity not just to explore physical connections to water and the environment, but to tap into expertise around how water is used and managed. At our February Collab Lab, we pulled together individuals from area organizations engaged water technology and issues from a variety of perspectives. We then sat them down with educators to flesh out some ideas and make the connections that can help bring those ideas to life.