Project Roebling

In October 2011, the team presented Project Roebling in a Design Jam at the Mobility Shifts conference.

We had a great turnout of about 25 participants, and we'd like to thank everyone for coming out! Stay tuned for documentation of the event and the projects that resulted.

This is very similar to some of the ideas we have been throwing around:

The classroom can be fundamentally improved. Teachers currently spend valuable class time lecturing information to their students. We want to end the lecture and give teachers more time in class to actually engage with their students, and not simply address them.

Here are the example files to go along with the previously posted breakdown:

State Standards 

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/documents/sslearn.pdf

Core Curriculum 

 K-8 Social Studies

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sscore1.pdf)

Global Studies

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/pub/sscore2.pdf)

Scope and Sequence 

K-8 Social Studies

http://schools.nycenet.edu/offices/teachlearn/ss/SocStudScopeSeq.pdf)

High School 

http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/rdonlyres/C7F8BDD8-3558-41ED-9861-F7954254B32B/86669/HS_SS_SS_8510final.pdf)

Assessment/Rubric

Developing Scientific Explanations

http://lizastark.com/portfolio/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Developing-Scientific-Explanations.pdf

(Also examples on the site for lesson plans below)

Curriculum Map

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/ciai/socst/ghgonline/models/huntington_ufsd_global_geoII_coursemodel_10.pdf

(or any of these)

http://lizastark.com/portfolio/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ELAcurricMapGRD7.pdf

Lesson Plans

https://knowledgebase.newvisions.org/CustomAOIIndividual.aspx?id=732

To get there:

It's summertime, and there seem to be no shortage of teachers conference out there. This one, however, is not to be missed. The tone of the event seems spot on: schools that ignore social media will be left behind. From the website:

The changes in the way we live our lives must create change in the way we teach and learn. The real-time web should create profound changes in the way we think about what, how and why students and teachers can do, create and communicate. The very nature of what we consider “school” should be radically different given the powerful reach of the communicate tools our students have at their disposal. #140edu is dedicated to exploring and expanding that change.

The process of forming new connections happens because of cross pollination, and this remixing of ideas is a critical driver for progress. 

Fancy shiny new innovations may not be what we need. Instead, remixing parts from old solutions, that are based on local knowledge could mean better maintainability and access for iteration.

How can we apply these ideas to whatever we build/work on/propose?

Thinking of the reasons why many platforms, services and programs fail, leads me to ask - how can the elements of a system be modified to function in harmony? 

If that is too floaty, maybe something a bit more specific:

How can systems of education be abstracted and visualized, to better understand their behavior? Looking at these models, can we spot interesting places to explore and possibly intervene, to help improve the overall system?

Biomimicry is an often discussed topic lately, as engineers and designers are looking to nature for ideas on how to replicate the mechanics of nature in other applications.

Similarly, as designers faced with a complex, interconnected problem, we can look to ecosystems in nature for ideas.

I am particularly drawn to the diversity of the types of components in an ecosystem, how they interact and how each plays a critical role. Some are, at a very simplified level -  living participants (animals, plants), non-living (the sun, mountains, water), behaviors (individuals, communities, populations), processes (photosynthesis), and flows (energy, nutrients) 

Maybe we can somehow use these in our research, to map parallels between the components of ecosystems in nature to the components in systems of education.

Flows of energy = flows of knowledge?

The geography of ecosystems = what is 'learning' in different cultures and parts of the world ?

How food transforms to energy = How knowledge is shared, processed, and absorbed, helping transform lives of people through action gained from that knowledge?