Collab Lab 27: Recap & Notes

Pete Reynolds Blog, Collab Labs April 17, 2019April 24, 2019Math

See Math Everywhere

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.

Where: School, library, neighborhood, grocery store, parks, pools
Who: Teacher, librarian, community organization, leader, parents, students, pedestrians
When: How about now? How many windows are in this building?
Partners: Libraries, schools, neighborhood associations, businesses, MCTS
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?)
Partners: MIAD, Rockwell, Northwestern Mutual, MSOE, Discovery World, Milwaukee County Parks, neighborhood associations
Resources: Recycled building materials, marketing materials
Funding: Sponsorship from partners
Test: Pilot in fall of 2019 with 2 schools

Family Road Trip – Go With Math

Math related activities for families planning a road trip

What: Budgeting of time and money – miles, maps, calculations
- pre planning/investigating multiple trips; ranking
- spreadsheet tracking
- estimation and comparison with actual outcome
- create simulation/game/scenarios of chance
- create an app for others
- environmental impact/cost
Why: Apply math, critical thinking real life, dream, plus plan and budgeting for the unexpected
Where: Could be anywhere!
Who: Anyone, any age– a family activity
When: Summer project with family or as project within school
Partners: travel agent, gas stations, visit MKE, tourist attractions, restaurants, transit, banks
Resources: Online travel planning ; spreadsheet app/program
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
Resources: CYSI; local incubators; Vroom; MSOE students/faculty; YES! (Young Enterprising Society)

What does it take to dye the Milwaukee river?

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
When: Spring/Summer (to supplement summer learning)
Partners: Milwaukee Public Works, Vroom, Google field trips
Resources: Signage by bridges
Funding: City, summer/after school programs
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
Resources: Nutritionist, cook book authors, chefs, graphic designers, MIAD, printers, distribution/display maintenance
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:

Mary Langmyer is on Twitter @mlangmyer
Chris Nho with Chicago Public Schools and Public Math is on Twitter @nhoskee
Synovia Moss at Medical College of Wisconsin coordinates Vroom for our area
Gabriella Pinter at UWM runs math circles for teachers and students

Collab Lab 59: Recap & Notes
February 9, 2024

After a break in January, our Collab Lab Series resumed last night with a session focused on dealing with setbacks and recognizing wins. Challenges Began the discussion with an inventory of the challenges and setbacks students face when they work together on open ended projects. These challenges primarily revolve around: Expectations Focus on grades Belief that their voice won’t matter Opposing wants — freedom vs control Expectations are unclear An ability to deal with uncertainty Lack of confidence Being open to the idea that there is no one right answer Aversion to risk/failure Communication & collaboration Inability for team members to agree on a common approach Ability to deal with personality conflicts within a team Ability to give and receive constructive criticism Lack of accountability Lack of feedback Project structure Project lacks structure that would allow students to make progress Space/time to iterate Access to resources necessary to effectively take on the challenge Skills Ability to arrive at a good definition/understanding of the problem at hand Time management Need for higher level thinking skills Strategies In our second round, our discussion shifted to look at strategies to help students address each of these challenges. Expectations Set clear expectations with examples Set up an environment with clear expectations for communication, collaboration, willingness to learn from things that did not go as expected. Dealing with uncertainty Students have repeated opportunities to immerse themselves in the challenge and circle back with their teacher for input and guidance Acknowledge big feelings to help understand that “failure” is not personal Communication & collaboration Understand the context of students life beyond school and what they may need to work effectively with peers Small, frequent check-ins Create time/space for purposeful reflection Project Structure Students are given a clear view of the process they will follow to arrive at a solution even if they can’t yet see where it might lead Decompose challenge into smaller pieces Structure challenges students to stretch at each step of the process, but those steps are within reach, and build on each other Connect students with what they need when Repeated opportunities to practice and develop skills within the context of the project Skills Both students and teachers are equipped with the skills they need/supported in their development of those skills Skills required build on those already acquired A Simple Tool With this inventory in hand, we recounted the story of the Number Talks Quick Refence Card that was developed out of a project we did with K-12 teachers and UWM Math faculty. That project supported teams of teachers who wanted to establish Number Talks as a regular practice in their elementary school classrooms. Though teachers could clearly see the value of the practice, it was something new, so they wanted something that could rely on to help keep them on the right path. One of the teachers suggested a small card of reminders that should could hold and glance down at while working with students. The card we developed includes three sections: Talk Moves (strategies), Probes (questions to ask), and Pats on the Back (signs that things are working). As the final exercise of the night, we asked each of our discussion groups to develop their own Quick Reference Cards for open ended projects. Here’s what they came up with: Group 1 Moves Give yourself time Accept “I don’t know” Build personal connections You’ve got this Accept congratulations Probes Tell me more… How might we…? Pats on the Back I was afraid to try this but I did anyway Group 2 Moves Yes, and? Build community Set Goals Normalize failure Probes What did we learn? What is your why? What makes you uncomfortable? What do you bring to the team? How might we…? Pats on the Back Unprompted reflection Group 3 Moves Are students in the right groups? What does this student need? How is my relationship with this student? Probes How will you define success? Pats on the Back Students are engaged Students are gaining essential skills Students give and receive feedback Students get the feedback they need Students move from “I” to “we” Thanks again to our Featured Participants: PJ Dever — Executive Director for Playworks in Wisconsin Lana M. Minshew — Assistant Professor, Director of the Human-Centered Design Lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin Nina Johnston — Program Manager of the Human-Centered Design Lab at the Medical College of Wisconsin A big thanks also goes out to Anthony, Audrey, Connor, Olivia, & Madeline, Architecture students at UWM. They are joining us this semester for Collab Labs and other sessions we run at the STEM Center as part of service learning field experience for Arch 302. In another example of 1 + 1 = 3, The students gain a field experience as they look at the design of learning spaces (in this case the STEM Center), we get help setting things up and cleaning up after each session, and our Collab Lab participants get the perspective of 5 individuals not far removed from K-12 who find themselves navigating open-ended, collaborative, community-engaged projects. Thanks also to MSOE’s STEM Center for hosting the Collab Lab Series, as well as the students from Pathways High School and Bradley Tech who joined in person/on Zoom.

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Collab Lab 57: Recap & Notes
November 16, 2023

Following the Hero’s Journey theme of Collab Labs this season, our November session explored stepping out of the known world and dealing with uncertainty. Our discussion began with an exploration of the uncertainty participating teachers and students already deal with in school. That set some context for the next round of conversations focused on fears/worries about engaging students in open-ended challenges. We wrapped up the discussion with an inventory of strategies and practices teachers, students, and attendees from outside of K-12 have seen or use to manage uncertainty around projects — whether that is where the project will lead or how the team will get there. This week we pulled those factors into a system map, connecting elements based on what we heard in the discussions. What’s striking, though not unexpected, is the importance of trust and open communication in all of this. It is what allows both teachers and students to take some risks, try something new, and be willing to accept and learn from efforts that don’t work out as hoped. You can view the system map here, and we welcome your thoughts and input on what else we might include, or how we might better repent the dynamics at play. Those of you who have explored the map produced from last seasons sessions focused on feelings of safety and affirmation at school, will recognize a number of familiar elements. Going forward, we’ll be looking at how we can merge or otherwise use these maps and what we hear in upcoming Collab Labs to paint a more complete picture of the forces at play when we look to offer students the hands-on community-engaged learning experiences they deserve. … Next up on our Hero’s Journey, we meet the mentors and helpers as we explore what it takes to support authentic work. Join us on December 14th for Collab Lab 58. Thanks again to our Featured Participants: Amber Henzig: Scrum Master & Servant Leader, Johnson Controls Kelsey Otero: Senior Director of Community Engagement, Marquette University Sean Campbell: Teacher at Pathways High School, Milwaukee Thanks also to MSOE’s STEM Center for hosting the Collab Lab Series, as well as the students from Pathways High School and Bradley Tech who joined in person/on Zoom.

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Collab Lab 56: Recap & Notes
October 18, 2023

For our 8th season of Collab Labs, we’re exploring how the lens of the Hero’s Journey can inform how we approach community-engaged project based learning, and what more we can offer students when we do so. Over the course of the 2023-24 season, each of our Collab Labs will focus on a different phase of the Hero’s Journey. We kicked things off last week with Collab Lab 56, a session focused on the call to adventure. How do we motivate our students to take the first couple of steps on their own learning journey? How do we channel the enthusiasm of some students who clearly identify with a topic and want to set off in pursuit of the prize, bypassing what we as educators believe are essential knowledge and skills in the order we believe these ought to be learned? What makes a call compelling for students? We began our discussion with the question, “What makes a call compelling to students?” As attendees explored the conditions for getting students engaged in a big challenge they noted: Authenticity of subject, intrinsic motivation A teacher’s excitement & confidence Proximal development Involvement in ‘the process’ Confidence in the person leading the process >> proper guidance and support, constant work on trust and relationships Align with student’s experience and expertise, attitudes and aptitudes (don’t set the student up for failure) Culturally responsive and relevant The end result will be tangible (Appropriate) level of autonomy & power to choose the path that seems most interesting or rewarding Additionally, much relies on (role modeling) a certain mindset: Overcoming competing forces that may hold someone back Failure is an opportunity to learn. “A bump in the road is not the road itself” What has your experience been with creating compelling ‘call to adventure’ for your students? What do educators and students need to commit to the journey? With that inventory in place, we moved to a discussion of what needs to be in place for students (and their teachers) to commit to the journey.On the student side, that includes: Trusting relationships, respect, sense of belonging Build an iterative experience that gets progressively more challenging Create oral/written feedback opportunities that encourage engagement Defined roles based on prior experience Adjust composition of the learning space to reflect the work Normalizing uncertainty Being able to see your peers as resources Learning how to co-create Know and/or find yourself as a learner (EQ) Develop understanding of what ‘commit’ means Barriers for students fully participating in these challenges include: Housing instability Health issues, Food availability May exist outside the school environment >> teacher less aware Overall stability inside & outside the learning environment For educators, the list includes: Bring (or gain) personal experience with the journey you’re asking students to take on. Professional development on relevant concepts, such as PBL, collaboration, etc., by experts >> those actually doing this work, from a ‘learner first’ perspective >> practical, hands on Best practices that are share across schools and districts A framework for designing and managing, similar to ‘design thinking’ Sustainable partnerships to 1) support student projects and 2) share resources (how do you) develop community support for a different approach to learning (time and energy to) Pursue grants to help support ‘extra’: field experiences, resources, PD, etc. Admin support for taking risks with experiments. If you are a teacher, how are you navigating the hurdles to offering student driven inquiry projects to your students? In the discussion of barriers for students, several participants brought up a recent piece in the New York Times that noted that economic stability and integration of families, as well as higher levels of teacher pay in the US Defense Department’s schools were among key factors that allow those schools to outperform public school systems. You can find the article here. One caveat noted in the discussion– the focus of these schools is on a standardized curriculum with traditional models of instruction. A special thanks for our featured guest, Andi Gomoll from Gomoll Research & Design who brought her extensive experience with understanding what motivates and engages users (customers) to the conversation. And, as always, we’re appreciative of MSOE for letting us make use of the NM Lab in the WE Energies STEM Center every month. Up Next Collab Lab 57: Dealing with Uncertainty Thursday November 9th, 5:30 to 8:30 pm at MSOE’s STEM Center Actively using some form of PBL with your students and looking for ideas or encouragement from others? Consider joining your peers in the inspirED Community.

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Collab Labs Return
September 6, 2023

We’ll be back at MSOE’s STEM Center on Thursday October 12th to kick off our 8th season of Collab Labs. If you’ve been looking for an opportunity build connections with individuals who share your passion to do more for students, exchange ideas with folks inside and outside of K-12, and explore opportunities to collaborate, this is the place to do so. If you are a student that would like to see your school value all that you can bring, take on real challenges, and build connections to the broader community, this is your place to. Building off our experience with students in our April and May Collab Labs, we’re now extending a formal invite to middle and high school students who want to be part of the conversation. Our discussion topic for October is Heeding the Call of the Student — where do we hear that want to go, how can create opportunities for their concerns and passions to drive a richer exploration of what you had hoped to cover anyway? Collab Labs run 5:30 to 8:30 pm on the 2nd Thursday of each month October through May, except for January. There is no cost to attend, and beyond great people and great conversations, we provide food and drinks. We look forward to seeing you there.

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Collab Lab 55: Recap & Notes
May 18, 2023

How does mental health manifest itself in k12education? How is it compromised and what are the levers we may use to positively impact the learning culture for our students (and teachers etc.) May is Mental Health Month. It felt appropriate to continue the work our #CollabLab54 attendees had begun with a follow up conversation. So last Thursday, we hosted Collab Lab 55 to create a safe space for conversations about the factors that influences mental health negatively/positively for students, teachers and others, such as trust, empathy in education, difficult conversations etc.. Building on our first conversation in April, we gave our attendees a first draft of a model map of factors we collected together. Attendees at each table reviewed this map for accuracy and completeness using their particular perspective. They could focus on a specific area, review it as a particular stakeholder, etc. This was truly a ‘kitchen table conversation’ where people from different backgrounds, ages and experiences engaged in open dialog about what they experience every day. Together we identified how many of these factors are connected (but differently for teachers and students) and what we might do to break through the negative cycle many are experiencing. You can find our updated mapping here: Where might this lead?- Over the coming months, we’d like to see additional conversations taking place with people representing all stakeholders at the table- We’re going to make our STEM Studio time available over the summer for teachers (and students) to participate in a student project design lab.- we’d like see a project develop to add stories from students, teachers, parents to the map as illustrations of when culture ‘works’ to affirm students and build a positive culture of respect and collaboration in learning. There are many more opportunities that present themselves from having a comprehensive mapping like this. We’ll be exploring those over the coming months. Curious about the map that’s is under development? Have an idea you’d like to explore to address youth mental health in education? Since this was our final official Collab Lab of the 2022-23 school year, We want to thank Milwaukee School of Engineering for offering the use of the STEM Center this year (and again in the coming school year!), as well as Northwestern Mutual for sponsoring ‘our lab room’ in the STEM Center. The Collab Lab formula keeps getting better every season. We’re grateful for all of our attendees who came out for one of the Thursday evening sessions. We look forward to seeing many of you again next season and can’t wait to hear what cool learning you are offering your students as a result of the conversations you’ve had. Have a great summer!

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Collab Lab 54: Recap & Notes
April 26, 2023

Collab Lab 54 explored issues around youth mental health and violence. One of our largest groups to date, which included middle and high school student leaders, focused on factors that impact the degree to which students and teachers feel safe and affirmed at school. Matt Nink and Vanessa Rodriguez from SKY Schools kicked things off for us with a mindfulness exercise, after which we dove into the discussion. The output of those conservations was a long list of interrelated factors, and some initial thoughts on how those influence each other. We pulled those factors into the first draft of a system map. If you’re not familiar with a system map, each of the factors identified in the Collab Lab is represented as a node. Solid arrows connecting two nodes indicate that an increase in the factor represented by the first node leads to an increase in the factor represented by the second node. A dashed line indicates a negative relationship between nodes. As an example, zooming in on one area of the map, we indicate that Students’ feeling of affirmation are driven by level of student voice and leadership, and in turn an increase in the degree to which students feel affirmed at school leads to higher levels of respect for teachers and greater levels of engagement. Conversely, we suspect that an increase in the frequency of policing interventions will lead to a decrease in students’ feeling of affirmation. We invite you to explore the map in greater detail here. Again, this is a first draft, we haven’t been able to connect all of the factors raised in the session, so we know we are either missing nodes, or don’t understand how those do connect. It’s also likely that the connections we show between nodes might be off, and the phrasing used for some of the factors is unclear. Your feedback and ideas are more than welcome. Let us know what you see, or join us for Collab Lab 55 on May 11th, where we’ll use the discussion to get to an improved version, identify nodes where community partners are already focused, where some of the projects we’re looking at for the 2023-24 intersect and how this mapping might inform how we approach those. A special thanks to Kyle Ashley, Lawrence Battle, Nate Deans, Clintel Hasan, Maria Hamidu, and Sharlen Moore who got us started on this path, helped us plan the session, and recruit participants. A big thanks to the students from Glen Hills Middle School, Pathways and Reagan High Schools, and Youth Forward MKE sharing your voices and experience, and keeping the discussion focused on issues that matter most to youth!

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