Thursday, December 10, 2009

Toy design student sample collaboration

I collaborated with my student teacher, Julia Bemis, and our Early Childhood Education teacher Lelani Gordon.
My original collaboration colleague was John MacDonald, but this year due to time constraints and class schedule I implemented the unit in a semester physics class instead of an integrated academic/CTE engineering design class.

I was very thankful of the flexibility and enthusiasm of Lelani Gordon. She was extremely welcoming and supportive of the collaborative effort between my physics students and her early childhood high school and preschool students. Our high school students met twice. The first time the physics students interviewed Lelani's students to generate some criteria and constraints. On the second meeting, the preschoolers actually tested the toy designs and provided feedback to my physics students. Julia Bemis, my student teacher, helped implement the unit and evaluate the projects. This authentic design project would not have been a success without collaborative efforts of Lelani and Julia. Thank you guys!