Resources: Quality teaching
Science and Technology provides an excellent way
of extending students through activities of high intellectual quality
and significance to both students and the wider community.
The Kids' Design Challenge links to the Quality Teaching in NSW
public schools in all three dimensions of pedagogy:
Intellectual Quality
Deep knowledge
Students focus over a significant period of time on one central
idea about Built Environments, identifying an area in the local
area for improvement or modification to better suit the needs of
the community.
Deep understanding
Students have opportunities to demonstrate a strong grasp of central
concepts around built environments. They identify a diversity uses
for areas in the local environment, how they change over time and
opportunities for improvement. Students provide reasons to justify
their choices as they work through the design process.
Problematic knowledge
Students find out about the built environment as areas which change
over time and are influenced by a number of often competing factors;
laws, needs and wants, financial considerations etc. They see that
people have different views about how areas of the built environment
should be utilised. Various views will be considered as students
make decisions about the best design solution.
Higher order thinking
Design-based activities, by their nature, promote higher order thinking.
Students investigate the range of uses for built environments and
needs that exist within their local community. They explore the
relationships between people and built environments and develop
solutions to solve local problems. Students make judgements based
on a criteria and evaluate, critique and justify their choices.
Metalanguage
Teachers and students draw attention to particular aspects of texts
(e.g. words, images and symbols), discussing how different types
of texts and other symbolic representations actually work. The language
features of relevant texts are focused on, e.g. design briefs, criteria,
maps, logos and keys, explanations and presentations.
Substantive communication
Sustained conversations occur between students and students, and
with teachers as they engage in investigation and design activities,
working in groups, individually and as a whole class. The emphasis
is on explanation, justification and student negotiation.
Quality Learning Environments
Explicit quality criteria
Criteria are established through negotiation with the class and
through the Kids' Design Challenge itself. Frequent opportunities
are provided for students to reflect on, and test their ideas against
the criteria. Final judging and feedback from experts and other
students will be provided to classes involved in the Challenge,
based on set criteria.
Engagement
Student engagement is maximised by interesting, relevant activities
where students feel ownership over their learning. The Kids' Design
Challenge promotes learning that is relevant to students, is open-ended,
negotiated and well-supported. Students work individually and in
groups towards devising solutions to issues they identify. They
make decisions, negotiate priorities and roles, and present their
proposals to a real-world audience.
High expectations
The Kids' Design Challenge is based on the expectation that all
students are able to participate in challenging activities that
model real-world experiences local context.. Students are encouraged
to take risks in developing creative and original design solutions.
Social support
The Kids' Design Challenge encourages students to express different
views, to negotiate and to devise a wide range of design solutions.
Respect for different views and cooperation to achieve the best
design solution by the whole class is a key feature of the Challenge.
Student's self-regulation
The nature of Kids' Design Challenge tasks promotes involvement
in activist. Student self evaluation of their progress and achievement
through learning logs, reporting on progress, reflection on relevance
and the quality of work as it is completed are all part of the Challenge.
Student direction
Within the overall timeframe students will need to work collaboratively
to decide on the best ways of investigating needs and wants, negotiating
expectations for each group with student reflection in various ways;
logbooks, presentations, reports, photos etc.
Significance
Background knowledge
The Kids' Design Challenge is built on a process which begins with
students current understandings. Activities to share students current
understandings about built environments and knowledge about the
local environment as a starting point for further investigation.
Cultural knowledge
Students and teachers will need to consider the cultural identities
and groups within the local community. Opportunities exist through
the Challenge to value diverse cultural experiences when identifying
aspects of the local built environment, in planning appropriate
sources of information and in discovering the needs and wants of
the local community.
Knowledge integration
The Kids' Design Challenge is focused in the Science and Technology
KLA but draws on outcomes from other KLAs, especially HSIE, mathematics
and English. This needs to be explicitly identified to ensure students
see learning as linked across areas.
Inclusivity
The Challenge should be managed to ensure that all students feel
their perceptions of the local built environment are valid and valued
and that their role in developing design solutions within their
group is an important one.
Connectedness
High connectedness is evident when learning has value and meaning
beyond the classroom and school. The nature of the Challenge connects
student learning to real-world issues in their immediate environment.
Students draw on and respond to the views and ideas of members of
their local community. The audience includes industry professionals,
other students and teachers in participating schools, parents and
local community members.
Narrative
Personal narratives can be an important way of students sharing
experiences and perceptions of their local built environments, which
can be recorded through reflective journals and portfolios. Experts
and local council personnel will provide narratives about their
roles, occupations and examples of what they do and why.
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