Session 2: Generate, decide and implement
Part one, 30–40 minutes
Before the second session the teacher looked at her students’ projects to find out what questions they were pursuing. Students then decided how they would research their key question and present their findings.
Students now moved into the Generate section of their projects where the teacher told them they would create a piece of work based on one or all of the artefacts. She suggested:
- you could make a poster that explains more about the artefacts to someone younger
- you could write an essay about one or all of the artefacts
- you could write a story showing how each of the artefacts would have been used
- you could record interviews with people talking about their memories of the artefacts.
The teacher facilitated a discussion among the students to generate more ideas. Students were encouraged to record these as ‘Text’ within the Generate section and then to copy them into Decide. They could then order their ideas using the ‘Rate’ tool.
Here are some of the students' ideas with their ratings of them:
- I'll record a sound file of my parents talking about one of the artefacts and turn it into a presentation.
- I'll create a poster to advertise one of the artefacts, as if in its own time.
- I'll re-design one of the artefacts so that it looks modern and can be used.
- I'll make a video of someone in my family using one of the artefacts – once I have discovered how it works!
So far students have learned:
- to go through a logical process to what they decide is a valuable outcome
- to think creatively about ways to use an artefact as stimulus for further exploration
- to combine growing knowledge with their own strengths to enhance the outcome.
All students copied the image of the artefact(s) they were looking at into Implement. Those who had chosen an outcome they could produce via a computer and/or on paper began work at once.
Students saved and closed their projects so the teacher could view their work via the Student Management Tool.