PROJECT TITLE: Our Place in Space!

School Name: St Joseph’s Pemberton

Teacher’s Name: Emma Clark

Year Group: 1,2,3

Number of students: 15

Creative’s Name: Tony Windberg

Creative Practice: Visual Artist

Main Curriculum Focus:

TERM 2: SCIENCE Earth and Space Sciences

TERM 3: HASS Geography

Cross-curricular Links:

TERM 2: MATHEMATICS – Measurement and Geometry, problem solving, reasoning

ENGLISH – literacy

TERM 3: MATHEMATICS – Measurement and Geometry, problem solving

TECHNOLOGIES – D&T - Engineering principles and systems, Materials and technologies specialisations

ENGLISH – listening & speaking interactions

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Context

St. Joseph’s Primary School is a small school with low student numbers (below 50) in Pemberton, regional Southwest WA. The class consists of Year 1’s, 2’s and 3’s (total 15 students).

“It's creative and you can use a lot of characteristics in making a lot of things and you can create things that are interesting and it helps educate you because you really think about things that are like interesting and it's really good for you to learn stuff like this.”  (Student)

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WHAT WE DID  

Terms 2 and 3 straddled the vastness of space and our home in the solar system with a shift in curriculum focus from science to HASS.

The science focus tapped into the students’ natural sense of wonder about the strange far away worlds out in deep space.  Learning about planets engaged their curiosity and imagination, and became a useful learning tool, a strategic ‘way in’.

Getting familiar with the solar system began with a look at competing push and pull forces including gravity and atmospheric resistance.  In warm-up activities we pondered - then tested - the rates a feather and hammer fall to the ground and why. Videos were shown of the same experiment performed in a vacuum on Earth, and on the moon.  Outdoors in nature’s classroom, students blew leaves to make them move when the wind was still. They saw for themselves how a flat paper sheet falls more slowly than a crumpled one due to air resistance. They were then asked leading questions like whether the class ceiling fan would work out in space? What about in a space-ship?  

This led to a closer look at the nature of the planets, whether they had atmospheres, solid ground or not. How did they move, and how big and far off these planets? A challenging aspect here was to sort fact from fiction while encouraging imaginative thought.  The underlying science can still tap into flights of fancy, but it became increasingly obvious that some were exposed to misleading online information.  We discussed the importance of reliable sources. To show how knowledge shifts over time I brought in old books on the subject.  Jupiter apparently had 4 moons, yet now there are close to 100 known.  Could more still be discovered?  

Finding facts became fun through direct engagement. Counting rocks to represent moons became a physical act, making the learning concrete.  Likewise, placing rocks in cells in tables showed the direct connection to data, yet also the benefits of entering a number instead!

Their crucial data in bland information tables were referred to so the information could be extracted by the students and made real, not just numbers and letters.  To comprehend the incomprehensible vastness of space, distances measured in millions of kilometres were scaled down to more relatable – and funnier - toilet paper sheets. Using the length of the school hall, 100 sheets represented the sun to Pluto. Comparative distances from the sun to the other planets became an engaging and meaningful exercise.

Great ideas were sparked by the simple act of playing with blocks and making connections going through a pile of recycled materials. Interestingly, placing restrictions on the number of items seemed to boost options rather than limit: imagination filled the void. Students appeared to make freer associations and creative connections after such activities, but this is hard to validate without ongoing testing.  While some students preferred following a set plan, others liked to go with the flow and see where it took them.  The traditional design approach of ‘plan first, make later’ worked for many. However, others found direct explorative handling of materials was liberating, productive and highly conducive to generating new ideas.

This flexibility was encouraged with the design process in making sections representing the inner rocky planets to the outer gas giant planets with a limited pool of materials like gravel, sand and birdseed, foil and paint. New challenges arose when they needed to cut or pierce holes of correct diameter on overlaying masks to show comparative planet sizes. Persistence and collaboration got them through, sharing ways of folding paper first to make the first cut for a larger circle, or using a tapered skewer to make a circle only a millimetre wide.

In term 3, making and playing with materials continued. ‘Terrain squares’ were created representing hazardous areas on a mythical newly discovered planet named Wodkejry (the word was the result of a game of random selection choices using a pair of dice and a letter lucky dip).  These painted squares of card, clay and recycled items were later placed on same size squares on the conveniently gridded large school library mat. The mat’s 5 coloured rows became a representation of Wodkejry distinct 5 banded coloration from North to South.  Making the connection between a 3D planet and a 2D map became the entry point into mapping within the HASS/Geography curriculum focus. The library Mat-Map was later transformed into a game: navigate your space vehicle creations safely through the hazards (the terrain squares placed prior using coordinates: a 5 coloured spinner made by students, and a die)

Teaching opportunities were seized upon along the way during the Creative Schools project, whether within the allocated curriculum area or outside. The mat dimensions were measured in a number of units using conventional rulers and metric units, toilet paper sheets, student strides and even teacher’s footsteps! Accuracy and consistency were discussed.  Mathematics was also covered in guessing and calculating the number of squares in the mat’s 5 rows by 6 columns.  Subsequently, if all 15 students in the class made a terrain square, then half the mat would be hazardous! Too much danger to negotiate, so the question was posed on how best to split the students (6 pairs + a trio). The resulting collaborative creations highlighted all 5 Habits of Learning in abundance.

The final session with the students saw the launch of their spacecraft from Earth to Wodkejry, now established to be way beyond Pluto! (which is, of course, why it is newly discovered!) Students wrote of planetary encounters in a journal entry for the Wodkejry Space Mission, showing great imagination. This mission incorporated and reflected on science learnings from Term 2 such as escaping Earth’s gravitational pull, launching from Darwin not Pemberton (not only reliable weather but also closer to the equator giving slightly greater centrifugal force advantage). Once beyond Earth’s gravity, they could ‘slingshot’ around planets along the way, using gravity to advantage. Finally, to touch down on Wodkejry, the spacecraft would plunge through the planet’s atmosphere. Could this be used to advantage to slow the craft down? This question recalled the experience of blowing leaves and dropping paper sheets, applying knowledge to a hypothetical but realistic scenario.

The reflection activities were often ‘cool down’ sessions for the young students after the excitement of the main activities. Discussions were directed towards reviewing and recalling what we had covered, with particular focus on which of the 5 Habits were evident. In bringing together the science and geography covered over the 2 terms, the students positively enjoyed investigating and contemplating their place in the universe.

“We are learning about space and we found a new planet… it's better than actual lessons – except for writing. We've made space buggies and space rockets and we've even made little planet spots from Wodkejry… Its learning that anyone can do like we made a spacecraft and anyone can have a go at it. Most people don't like normal lessons but now they like creative schools. They get excited about the creative schools lesson. Which is unlike English.”  (Student)

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WHAT WAS THE IMPACT?

“Creative schools is a collaborative program that capitalises on the amazing skills of creatives in our community to inspire our students and to get them thinking differently about learning. The partnership between our staff member and creative has been very successful and the students look forward to their creative schools lesson each week. It has supported staff pedagogical development and has set a very high standard in how to approach project based learning and inquiry processes in our school. It is clearly evident that learning has been continuous through the program whilst maintaining a very high level of engagement and enthusiasm with our students.” Ashlee De Campo (Principal)

“The children have been highly engaged and have thrived on being allowed the freedom to set the direction of the inquiry, and having the time to test their ideas, collaborate with each other and to be imaginative. They also have learnt to persist when things don’t go to plan, to challenge their ideas further.” (Teacher)

“As a sole creative who connects to people primarily through teaching, the Creative School program also teaches me the art of collaboration! Working with the teacher, school and students has been a tremendously rewarding experience and I look forward to more such opportunities.” (Creative Practitioner)

“It's cool because we found out about this other planet that’s got a weird name… we got a piece of cardboard and we put stuff on it and we painted it.”  (Student)

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