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Messing About with STEAM in Chicago

12/11/2014

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The exhibit, Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child: The Philosophy of Frances and David Hawkins, is currently being hosted by Cultivating the Early Years, a Chicago-based collaborative. The exhibit is currently housed at the North Park Village Nature Center in Chicago, Illinois.
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This past weekend, Boulder educators Lauren Weatherly and Alex Cruickshank, traveled to Chicago to facilitate a workshop in conjunction with the exhibit. Eolithically, natural materials felt like the appropriate material to to explore at a workshop in a nature center. Participants in the workshop brought beautiful natural materials for us to explore:
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Following a period of open-ended circle-phasing, participants were offered the choice to continue along a thread they had already developed or choose from the following invitations:

  • compose a dream environment
  • construct a working machine
  • create a story



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One table joined together to create a group story. They reflected on the time it took for them to observe each other making, to discuss their possibilities, and to come together to mess about with collaboration. They reflected on the possibilities for children when they have access to time. 

On the iPad, this group messed about with iStopMotion to create a story about the figures they had made. They also reflected on how it feels try an experience that is completely brand new and how they were intrinsically motivated to keep playing with the app. 
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Another participant reflected on the satisfaction of being able to revisit the same materials over a long period of time. She reflected on the incorporation of photographs into the work to offer both revisiting and expansion of ideas. 

She put together the photograph, "Seeds and Links" using the app Poetics 

and a video, "Transforming", using the app Waterlogue

IMG 0995 from ULS iPads on Vimeo.

In the square phase reflecting at the end of the workshop, one participant mentioned how the tone and method the  facilitators' used to present possibilities strongly influenced the rest of her working time. It was such a powerful reminder of the strength of the teachers' relationship with children and the mutual influence each party has on the outcome. Small tonal changes can rapidly change the direction of the work. 
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Waves of light, Waves of sound

12/3/2014

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"It feels like the ocean over here."

The November workshop was designed to interact with light. 

Light tables, projectors, translucent and transparent materials, and reflective materials, were available for messing about. 

During the square phase (discussion phase) of the workshop we discovered we were talking about sound: 

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We wondered why a workshop about light would lead us to a conversation about sound. One participant offered: 
"It felt so quiet this time."


"I noticed that when I started to do something a little louder, I felt almost bad that I would disturb people."

"In my classroom I notice that I am so careful to honor the children who need quiet."


"Can we think about shaping the environment to honor the children who need loud as well?"

"As I was driving over, I was pondering light and that it is made of waves. 
Sound is waves as well - different lengths of waves."

"A wave can be described as a disturbance that travels through a medium from one location to another location. 
A Wave Transports Energy and Not Matter" - the Physics Classroom

How can we explore this connection between waves of light and waves and sound as teachers? In the classroom? What other types of waves can we explore? How can we use light waves and sound waves to transport energy in the classroom?

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Revisiting Messing About with Cardboard

10/16/2014

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A selection of photos from our workshop: 
This month's Messing About workshop also featured cardboard. Many of the teachers present had been participating in the #cardboardchallenge with the children in their classes and brought that excitement. 

We also had three children attend the teacher workshop with us. 

We noticed a series of 3d compositions were created - most of them were representational (ships, robots, pigs). 

Where last month had produced such a wide variety of  strategies for messing about, we wondered about the parallel work this month. Was this a product of the teachers' time messing about with the cardboard over the past month? Was this because it was the second workshop and some level of comfort had been established? Was this because the children present were so comfortable taking inspiration from the work around the room (where adults might feel uncomfortable "copying")?
A huge thank you to Ryan from ABC Imaging for the great donation of cardboard tubes
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Messing About with Teaching: The Pilot Workshop - #Cardboardchallenge

9/26/2014

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What does it mean to engage? to learn? to play?

In partnership with Boulder Journey School, we offered cardboard to a group of teachers to play with. Inspired by the three-phase cycle of messing about, we took time to openly explore, to declare our intentions, and to reflect. 

We chose cardboard as a material to mess about with because it is an eolithic find - it is easily accessible and often thrown away. All they had to do was ask and Boulder Journey School was flooded with cardboard of all shapes and sizes. We also chose cardboard because it is such a friendly material - it is lightweight, transformable, and its possibilities are endless. 

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One teacher began the evening with a big burst of gross motor - she invited the participants to play hide-and-seek. Once she’d explored the room this way, she crawled inside a box and drew representations of the evening. We wondered whether children have this same need - to own the space physically before settling in. 
One teacher went large. She built and constructed and worked on her own. When asked about her creation, she said she preferred not to share - until the end when she felt comfortable explaining both her vision and her process. We wondered how many children have this similar need to focus without explaining.
One teacher created a 3d representational collage. She didn’t intend to - she just started making and watched where it went. 

Another teacher created a 3d non-representational collage. She did mean to. She remarked she had long been drawn to the texture of the a cross-cut of cardboard and wanted to play with that. Another teacher, drawn from her own construction, joined in the texture exploration.
One teacher found interactive games to create in the cardboard. She worked on different pieces and saw the possibilities for engaging her work with others. 


One teacher engaged with the cardboard in a fluid kinetic-sculpture type of way while traveling around the room to dialogue with other teachers. Her cardboard changed shapes and configurations as she moved. 
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We wondered at the individual projects we encountered. Was there a necessary piece to the parallel play that we engaged in? What would it have taken for us to engage in collaborative play? Was it safer to be engaged separately with the same material while we are still getting to know each other?


We wondered how the children would engage with the cardboard the following day?

The following day we discovered the Imagination Foundation's Global Cardboard Challenge. In collaboration with Boulder Journey School, we are hosting our own #cardboardchallenge to celebrate every day as a day for play! Click here to visit our challenge page. Follow us on twitter (@hawkinscol) to keep track of our adventures as well!



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A New Adventure...

4/6/2014

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This past fall, we offered a four-part workshop series to accompany the exhibit's Denver stay. Each Saturday focused on a different big idea from the exhibit. We had seven core members who attended each workshop, and a few people who attended one or two. 


Each workshop allowed us time to participate in all three phases of messing about... 
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And time to collaborate, find shared interests, and develop an It for our I's and Thou's....
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And as we grew and learned as teachers, we laughed together, and sometimes cried together. We challenged each other and complemented each other. 
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Each workshop offered us time to explore the resources around us - materials and interests (eolithism)....
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And when the workshops were all done we realized we missed each other. 

So we decided to do it again...


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Exhibit Opening, Santa Fe Children’s Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1/10/2014

3/5/2014

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"There was one kind of development I must mention, a subjective one, which took place in parallel with the technical work of weapon development.... Everyone's life was being changed, changed radically I think, and irreversibly.... We all did know we were involved in something which would alter the nature of the world." 
David Hawkins, qtd in Inventing Los Alamos: The Growth of an Atomic Community, Jon Hunner

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"MESSING ABOUT WITH TEACHING" - SANTA FE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM

1/13/2014

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What is the role of this type of 
teaching and learning 
in 
today's educational culture?

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Set in the stimulating and rich environment of the Santa Fe Children's Museum, workshop participants from schools in and around Santa Fe, as well as members of the Santa Fe Science Initiative, took part in a day of messing about with materials and ideas inspired by the philosophy of Frances and David Hawkins.


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Workshop in Laramie Wyoming

6/19/2013

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“Children can’t be educated until they are 
engrossed in subject matter and 
teachers can’t well create conditions for engrossment without sharing in it.”
Teacher from Laramie, Wyoming joined us to mess about with natural materials that are native to their region. The excitement of collaboration took over and before their very eyes a village came to life and took over table after table of the classroom.

David and Frances talked about the power of eolithism - the use of resources, both physical and intellectual that are already in place. As a group, we discovered the natural resources and interests and relished in the joy of having time and space to explore them.
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NCAR opening - March 8, 2013

3/8/2013

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On March 8th, the exhibit moved to the National Center for Atmospheric Resources (NCAR).

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a federally funded research and development center devoted to service, research and education in the atmospheric and related sciences. NCAR’s mission is to understand the behavior of the atmosphere and related physical, biological and social systems; to support, enhance and extend the capabilities of the university community and the broader scientific community – nationally and internationally; and to foster transfer of knowledge and technology for the betterment of life on Earth. The National Science Foundation is NCAR's primary sponsor, with significant additional support provided by other U.S. government agencies, other national governments and the private sector.

In addition to feeling a connection with the mission statement of NCAR, and being enamored with the beautiful building overlooking the entire Boulder Valley

In 1998, NCAR hosted Reggio Children’s exhibit The Hundred Languages of Children, and in 2008 they hosted the next edition of the exhibit The Wonder of Learning.  We were honored, therefore, to announce that NCAR would be hosting Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child: The Philosophy of Frances and David Hawkins.

 

It felt fitting to use this time to focus on the panel of the exhibit that highlighted the relationship between David Hawkins and Loris Malaguzzi. The two men shared a mutual admiration for each other’s work and referenced each other in building their philosophies. For more information about the meeting of these two great thinkers, read the chapter Meeting of Minds in Insights and Inspirations from Reggio Emilia.



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Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child Opening Weekend Workshop

1/12/2013

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The morning started with an emotionally intense dialogue around the essay I, Thou, and It. We discussed the implications of the triangular relationship both personally and professionally. 
As part of the grand opening of the exhibit, Cultivate the Scientist in Every Child, a Saturday workshop was held at the University of Colorado Boulder Museum of Natural History. 20 participants had the opportunity to engage with each other, with materials, and with the philosophy of Frances and David Hawkins.
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We had the opportunity to mess about with rocks and see first hand how interactions with people and materials could simultaneously develop understandings of the properties of the rocks as well as deepen relationships with the other learners around us.
We expanded our initial explorations by adding components of light and shadow...
... and balance...
... and composition.
In our reflections, we thought about the role of the  teacher. How our involvement is crucial, otherwise we leave the "I"  out of our triangle. We talked about how our (teachers) understandings of the affordances a material offers is crucial so that we can support the possibilities that might arise, whether or not we foresaw them.


We noted the active role that we teachers take in facilitating learning through all the phases. Although the circle phase is "unguided" it is not unobserved. 

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    Hawkins Centers of Learning

    Hawkins Centers of Learning (HCoL), a 501C3 chartered in 2005, serves the educational community by preserving, articulating, and translating into practice the ideas of Frances and David Hawkins.

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