What is school culture?

In 5th grade, we study culture. Students hunker down at their computers and in front of books, reading about what makes a civilizations different. We have a list of enduring understandings that we want the children to retain after a year of study. Therefore we do all sorts of activities that support their learning.

Here are the enduring understandings:

So we asked the question: what are some elements of our school culture? What are the traditions, values, ideas that make our school itself?

We had the kids make a long list of the elements. Then students chose which element they wanted to explore and find "evidence" for. They scurried around the school, snapping photographs of everything. When they returned to the classroom, their job was to upload the photographs onto a google site and write a caption for each one, explaining what that element says about the schools value. We wanted them to make the conceptual leap. . . if we collect pennies for people less fortunate, what does it say about what we find important? Though it may be obvious, we too often put children through the motion of experiences without making them reflect on what the value is. How often is our work in school valuable. More important, are we aware of the values that we are transferring??

The Golden Ratio and Sketchup

In 5th grade, students learn about ratios and fractions, so it's a meaningful entry point into the wonders of the Golden Ratio and it's application in ancient Greek architecture.

I'm using this presentation for the Sketchup lesson, if you're curious how we're including the golden ratio, skip ahead to slide 14!



So when I put the first slide up (the close up of the sunflower seeds) I asked what the students to guess what it was. Answers, from these city kids, varied "pineapple, a pine comb, wood." The interesting part is that the guesses, pineapple and pine comb, are both natural items that also follow the golden ratio. Is it possible that sub conciously they see the same patterns?

5th grade temple designs

5th graders are now beginning a project on greek temple design. The "temple design" project is an integrated exploration of social studies, writing, dance, math, art and technology. In this project students are immersed in Google Sketchup, a free 3d modeling software, to design a model temple. To begin the study, students research the unique attributes of Greek Temples, including vocabulary, design principles and scale. The results of our research become the guidelines for the sketchup design. Students will then use the software to design the temple choosing column style, altar, diety etc. Importantly, they will also measure dimensions and submit the "proposal" to teachers for feedback. Our feedback will include suggestions for changing scale, ratios, and other mathematically challenging tasks.

In dance class, students will choreograph a pose dedicated to their chosen a god or goddess. These detailed live sculptural poses are based on the students' research through books and a visit to the ancient Greek Art exhibits at the Metropolitan museum. Photographs of the students' pose will be added to the entryways of their deities' temples. Your children will become the centerpiece of their individually designed Greek temples!

Finally, we will take the final models and virtually place them (facing east of course!) on the Greek landscape within Google Earth. Our final product will be a Greek geographical tour of our student temples.

Last year, 5th graders designed their own version of the Olympic venues in Beijing. Here is a video with the results of that project.


Students also explored the city geography and created a collaboartive Google Map, plotting the venues and using html code to embed stock images:

View Beijing Olympic Venues in a larger map

ipod design

So Dan Pink talks about design and storytelling as ways to help develop crucial right brained thinking skills, so along with ISTE standards, school expectations and personal interests, I'm keeping this in mind when developing projects.

Over the past few months, 5th grade has been studying "progress". Though they study China and Greece, I chose this as an opportunity to do an ipod exploration with the students.

Over the course of a month, we looked at changes in ipod design from 2001 to present day, talked about product design and usability, explored price trends, features and interface. After exploring the history of ipods, we designed ipods of the future and then made prototypes. Enjoy this short video of a student talking about his take on a new ipod.