Blog Points From Erica!

I helped out with the 9:40 group since Saafir is out this week. They were very excited about beginning their chain reaction sculptures. Because there was not enough pegboards for everybody to start building, Jonathon approached this day as a design day. The students didn't quite understand what we meant be design. After getting into their groups, most sat around. Some prompting helped them get started in the right direction. The parameters were introduced at the beginning, but the groups will probably need to be reminded of them at each session. The students were more interested when they were made aware of the materials. Some of the groups had some unique ideas about how to use some of the items. A few students practiced using the drill and saw and others started hot-gluing items for their sculptures together. A group of girls were very interested in programming music into the crickets. They were working together to try to figure out notes and rhythm. Towards the end, the teens were a bit more distracted being social than working on their sculptures. I wonder what would happen if the groups were instructed to brainstorm or list ideas before being exposed to the materials and tools. The balloons became a distraction near the end, so maybe the balloons should be limited. Also, I think some more materials would help the students be creative. The day seemed to go well. From the outside, it looked like chaos, but the students were coming up with some great ideas that will help them next week.