C REATIVITY, C URIOSITY, AND C RITICAL THINKING COMBINED : L ESSONS FROM THE STEAM L AB Ms. Ann Scott Hanks Ocee Elementary School November 13, 2015

L ESSON E XAMPLES : M ODEL I NSTRUCTION Plant A Rainbow Analyze Deer Jawbones

Did you know that the bright colors of flowers help attract insects and birds?

P LANTING A R AINBOW A Kindergarten and First Grade STEAM Project

C HALLENGE Your group will design and build a rainbow flower garden.

R EQUIREMENTS All flowers must be 3D. Flowers must include all plant parts: roots, stem, leaves, petals. Each table must represent all of the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.

P ARTS OF A F LOWER

C OLORS OF THE R AINBOW

M ATERIALS Construction Paper Pipe Cleaners Craft Sticks Cotton Balls Yarn Tape

How are flowers the same and different from each other?

What happens to a deer’s teeth during their life cycle? How is this the same as and different from other animals?

B OTTOM L INE #1 guide on the side (coach) vs sage on the stage

B OTTOM LINE #1 minds-on (create) vs hands-on (consume)

A CADEMICALLY C HALLENGING E NVIRONMENT integrate knowledge and skills to solve real-world problems even when the “correct” answer is unclear

A N EDUCATED P ERSON Past: know lots of facts Present: problem-solve for the future Why? access to information via the internet

E MPHASIZE 21 ST -C ENTURY S KILLS

W HAT IS CREATIVITY ? Creativity is: What you do when confronted with a problem for which you have no learned or practiced solution. It’s an ability, an attitude, and a process. Can I teach you to “be creative”? Probably not. But I CAN teach you the steps and types of creative thinking. Creativity is NOT limited to the fine arts. Creativity is what is used to design a science experiment, to prove a math theorem, to write a lesson/presentation, build a company, etc.

U SE CHILDREN ’ S NATURAL CURIOSITY

U SE RIDDLES

U SE M YSTERY OBJECTS

U SE U NUSUAL OBJECTS

C ONNECT TO C HILD Make it personal Guided imagery Prior experience Prior knowledge

USE QUESTIONS IN A DIFFERENT WAY Open-ended, discussable, not “google-able” Give hints but not answers estions.htm (low-level question=one correct answer; high-level question=debatable, can have a conversation around it)

S OMETIMES, THE BEST “Q UESTIONS ” ARE NOT EVEN QUESTIONS THE ADULT ASKS THE CHILD Example 1: Use questions in your conversation that you answer yourself What math strategy would help me at the grocery store? What would happen if there were too many owls in a habitat? Example 2: Use statements to stimulate discussion Estimating is bad because the answer is always wrong. Snakes are harmful.

If your child asks you a low-level thinking question, what could you do? re-phrase the question as a critical thinking question before answering it answer the question and then explain why that fact is important explain how to find the answer to the question ask how/why they thought of that question or why they think that question is interesting/important

M AKE C ONNECTIONS This is the same as… This is opposite of…

U SE THE C REATIVE A RTS “S TUDY THE SCIENCE OF ART AND THE ART OF SCIENCE.” (L EONARDO DA V INCI ) How have artists shown scientific information? Was their depiction scientifically accurate? How did their style choice affect what you learned from the art? STEAM Lab Lesson Examples: Paintings of trees Paintings of birds

S UMMARIZE Reflections What are the most important facts you learned? What learning skills did we use? Relationships How are two things similar? Different? Connected? Related? Variations What are research questions about this topic? What don’t we know yet?

F RAMEWORK : “ INQUIRY LEARNING ” starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios, rather than presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge is a process with a facilitator encourages the student to try to learn even more

M INDSET

OCEE STEAM LAB PROBLEM-SOLVING GAMES resources.html

S UGGESTED F OLLOW - UPS VISIBLE THINKING ROUTINES MINDSET oVzg&feature=youtu.be CREATIVE THINKING PRESENTATION child-creative-thinking-at-home/

Learner’s Log (to write or discuss) Habits of Mind (for background info) Instruction (3 tabs: for background info) Enrichment (5 tabs: for activities) Enrichment/Summer Opportunities (for programs outside of school)

S OME FINAL THOUGHTS Education is the training of the mind to __________________, not the memorizing of _________________. The question “Why?” is not always a critical thinking question. It’s only a critical thinking question if you have not already told them the “correct” answer. We want our activities to be “minds-on”, not just “hands-on”. The adult should act as the “guide on the side” not the “sage on the stage”; we want students to “create” knowledge/meaning, not just “consume”.

47 A question going AROUND in my mind. In regard to creativity, curiosity and critical thinking combined, identify…