tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69186745789816807732024-03-12T19:18:46.216-07:00Fusion 10The home of St. George's School's Fusion 10 programme; a grade 10 STEM cohort.Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.comBlogger26125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-65224325430907382912020-04-03T08:36:00.002-07:002020-04-03T08:36:59.276-07:00Reaching Out<div style="text-align: left;">
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There's not been a lot of activity on this blog for Fusion MKIV, I will admit. What I'm hoping, is that this post gets some wider circulation because, as we jack into the matrix full time, we need help. Let's back up and give some background.</div>
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Fusion is a cohort of grade 10 students at <a href="http://stgeorges.bc.ca/" target="_blank">St George's School </a>who devote their year to exploring STEM fields and skills in a myriad of ways. This is the fourth year of the program, hence Fusion MKIV. The boys take a number of classes together and work toward a major assignment that, loosely, has them identify and try to solve a real problem in the world that can be solved (or improved) through the use of STEM skills and understanding. This year's group is looking at issues such as automating plant health, autonomous and empathetic social care workers, adaptive and modifiable computer keyboards, use of CRISPr technology for identifying and attacking viruses in the body, and a public awareness app for skin care health.</div>
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Here's the problem. We typically share these out in two ways over the course of the Spring. First, the students host an evening at the school where the projects are shared with parents, faculty, and anyone else in our school community who wishes. Given the wide area of expertise of our parents (many who are associated with our local universities or in a STEM industry) and our faculty, this is an outstanding first round of public feedback for the students to get different perspectives on their work so that they can further iterate and refine. Then, we take the show on the road. We do a year-end trip that coordinates with an engineering outreach program at a university in Canada where the students spend some time showing their work to university faculty and STEM industry experts. Finally, there are sessions on that trip that help the students explore futures for their project, whether that be turning it into a business, exploring research opportunities, or entering design competitions. Many of the boys have taken this experience and leveraged it in their senior years at the school by starting a business, entering science fairs, or taking their developed process skills to explore additional projects.</div>
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In a time of COVID-19, we are clearly not able to leverage the face to face opportunities that we have used in the past. There will be no sharing evening at the school, and there certainly will not be a trip across the country to talk with university experts. The students are at home working diligently on their projects. In some cases, these projects have become a full time endeavour as so much time has been freed up from other activities. I'm seeing evidence of some of these projects being taken to a level I've not seen before. What we need is that expert feedback. We need conversations with the students. We need different perspectives on the work that the students are doing.</div>
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If you are someone or know of folks who might be willing to give some of their time to the students, please contact me at <a href="http://mcrompton@stgeorges.bc.ca./">mcrompton@stgeorges.bc.ca.</a> I don't yet know what the format of that conversation take. It might simply be reading a few blog posts and commenting. Each of the boys keeps a record of the project on their own blogs (the links to each blog are in the right sidebar of this blog's homepage.) It might be someone presenting in an online meeting to the group on more general topics related to their projects. Right now, I am very flexible with how we might work and I'm simply looking for people keen to give of their time. Please share this post and contact me if you feel you have STEM, business, or other expertise that you might be able to share! <a href="mailto:mcrompton@stgeorges.bc.ca">mcrompton@stgeorges.bc.ca</a></div>
Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-2852918901837164142019-09-17T10:47:00.000-07:002019-09-17T10:47:14.862-07:00Fusion MKIV - Off to a busy start!Fusion MKIV, the fourth iteration of our Grade 10 STEM cohort, is off to a <i>very</i> quick start this year! After getting to know each other and learning the basics of design thinking back in June at our retreat, we jumped into a very public design challenge at the Vancouver Maker Faire on the weekend. With the prompt, "How might we design an object that would significantly improve the visitor experience at Science World," the boys had two hours to interview visitors and come up with some kind of solution to the problem. They used available materials and tools to build a prototype to demonstrate that solution. And check out the cool LED name tags that they're wearing in the photo below. Somehow, in the first week of school, we also found time to learn how to solder and make these!<br />
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After each team was done, they had time to wander the exhibits and get a look at what other people make and hopefully fuel their thinking about the kinds of things that they will want to create over the year and different ways of making things in general.<br />
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Throughout the year, all of the boys will be writing their own blogs documenting their progress and thinking. Many of the posts will be assigned to them but I'm hoping that many posts will also simply be ways of documenting things that are important to them. I encourage you to follow along and comment as you read. You can find links to each of their blogs in the right sidebar under "My Blog List." Writing blog posts can be a lonely business and the interaction with others about what the students are thinking about will be encouraging and hopefully give them useful feedback on the concepts they are working with or their process.<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-20634989174948289492019-05-20T08:04:00.002-07:002019-05-20T08:04:34.658-07:00Back in the YVR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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OK, so the intent was to blog every day, but that was clearly an unrealistic goal. I got caught up in the day to day busyness of our time in Waterloo and reading the students reflections on their own blogs. This post is more about final reflections on the trip and the students themselves with some more photos from the trip.<br />
I have to say that this was one of the most enjoyable year-end Fusion trips to date, at least for me. This group of students is the most positive and curious groups that we have had yet. Fusion, and especially the year-end trip can be hard in terms of engaging 100% of the students 100% of the time. Each student joins the cohort for different reasons, has different interests, and wants something different from their experience. When one student is deep into 3D printing technologies, another might be more interested chemistry and work in material science. Yet another is taking Fusion because they recognize that there is something in the STEM fields that is of interest to them, but they don't have a clue what that is. Each and every activity we do in the year has the potential to excite and bore different students at different times. The boys in this year's Fusion cohort are, as a group, curious enough about everything that they engage with every activity with a positive attitude and a willingness to explore how the idea being presented might apply to their interests and passions.<br />
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While the year is not yet done, we are certainly down to the home stretch. Watch the student blogs for their final posts and a reworking of their space to develop a full portfolio of their learning for the year.<br />
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Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-17169430389558306462019-05-11T19:58:00.001-07:002019-05-11T19:58:30.801-07:00From Zombies to MentorsThe last few days have been busy with all sorts of fun and activity. So much so, in fact that I've gotten behind in writing my blog posts! Apologies for that. This post will fill in some blanks and provide some images and video. Hopefully, you've been keeping up with the student blog posts and keeping up with us all and getting more detail.<br />
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One of the highlights for many of the boys was the trip to the 3D Printing labs. Unlike the way we tend to use 3D Printers at St George's to make things, the purpose of this approximately $50,000,000 group of labs is to study 3D Printing technology. While the primary material that we use is plastic, here at Waterloo, they're particularly interested in printing in metals. They want to know if there are more cost effective types of metals to print with and how strong the end result of printing using different methods of printing in metal can be. Some methods of metal 3D Printing are capable of producing custom metal parts that are significantly stronger than other forms of metal part production.<br />
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Another project that the boys spent a fair amount of time on was in building virtual worlds and then testing them by uploading them to a VR gaming console so that they can step into the world that they have created. Some of the worlds that were created were detailed and truly amazing! <br />
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Friday afternoon was the Fusion students' opportunity to present their personal projects to a number of Masters, Doctoral, Post-Doc, Faculty, and industry experts. Each student sat down with 3 different mentors for 15 minutes each. While the reaction was certainly not universal, I will say that I've never seen so many excited students coming out of their meetings filled with feedback and ideas for future improvements. The mentors then were able to sit down over dinner with the boys for more casual conversations about engineering, industry, university life, and I'm sure, many other things. Some of the boys commented that this informal conversation was even more productive than the formal meetings. <br />
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Saturday morning gave the boys a chance to use electrical current and chemistry to change titanium rings to different colours. They then took apart single cylinder engines and put them back together. While they seemed to be successful and one group got through the activity in record time, I'm fairly confident that I don't want any of them doing repairs on my car (at least not for a few years!)<br />
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A final session on the personal projects put experts on business and networking in front of the group to look at ways of taking their personal projects the next step. If the ideas that they have been working on are ones that they would like to take beyond their Fusion year, they now have some ideas on how they might connect with people and funding that might allow them to take that next step. <br />
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Evenings are always scheduled with some fun activity. While the first night was spent learning to juggle, the second and third nights involved playing Humans vs Zombies (essentially tag using Nerf dart guns) and going on a wild Goose Chase (a scavenger hunt that is monitored and run via social media). <br />
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Enjoy the photos. The last video on this page is in 360VR, so if you have a VR unit of some sort (Google Cardboard, Merge, Oculus, HTC Vive, etc) then you can step inside the lab that we did our engine dissection in and join in the activity!<br />
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Non-VR version (you can watch in your browser).</div>
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Best in a VR viewer!</div>
Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-901727302535880902019-05-09T04:28:00.002-07:002019-05-09T04:32:57.617-07:00Keeping Balls in the AirToday seemed to be all about keeping multiple balls in the air. We started the day with an introduction to our program coordinators and then launched into a ball challenge that involved passing a soccer ball between every member of Fusion in under 10 seconds. But, of course, there are rules around how the ball may get passed that make this a much more complicated problem than it might seem!<br />
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The day was very much hands and brains on following this initial challenge and asked the boys to solve problems from stopping the spread of major diseases to finally achieving perfect customer satisfaction at Starbucks. They were introduced to two different longer term projects, one involving virtual worlds that they will be able to actually move around in when uploaded to computers at a virtual reality arcade in a few days and the other involving defining and creating value in a project that will unfurl through our entire visit to the University.<br />
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And in the spirit of keeping those balls in the air, they ended the day learning to juggle with varying degrees of success and hilarity. Start looking toward the boys' blogs Thursday night when their first required blog post is due. Hopefully you'll get much more detail and perspective surrounding their experience!<br />
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Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-11376292414209811022019-05-07T18:13:00.000-07:002019-05-07T18:13:00.505-07:00Looks like we Made It!!!While not a terribly exciting day, Fusion MK3 has now landed at the University of Waterloo. The boys were very effective at napping on planes, busses and in airports. Once we landed and get settled in our dorms, we had a great walking tour of the campus and a pizza dinner. The boys are now relaxing before hitting the hay a little on the early side. Here are a couple of pictures of our day.<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-68179161658461678032018-09-20T09:08:00.002-07:002018-09-20T09:08:51.787-07:00#Fusionmk3<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hFp7_KhaGS0/W6PF7lLV4gI/AAAAAAAAETc/pFZ38eXqFMkKk-k2nJtfJ-zhu0zRn0sTgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_0093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hFp7_KhaGS0/W6PF7lLV4gI/AAAAAAAAETc/pFZ38eXqFMkKk-k2nJtfJ-zhu0zRn0sTgCKgBGAs/s320/IMG_0093.jpg" width="320" /></a>We're so excited to be launching into the third year of our Fusion Cohort programme at St George's School. Not only are we beginning to see the legacy of the the work students have started during their Fusion year, but the third iteration of the programme is allowing us refine, reflect, and revise the way the year roles out for our boys.<br />
The core principles remain the same from year one:<br />
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<li>The learning has to be relevant. Personal connections need to be made. Students need to find paths through the year the make sense to them and relevant to their experience, prior knowledge, and curiosities.</li>
<li>The learning needs to be as cross-discipline as possible. You can't talk about science without leveraging the language and logic of math. You can't design without understanding of physics and chemistry. You must be able to communicate your thinking using writing, speaking, and visual literacies.</li>
<li>For learning to have personal relevance, reflection is key. The boys maintain blogs throughout the year as journals of their thinking and documentation of their progress. </li>
<li>Assessment needs to formative and meaningful. Grades, at least in the Fusion course, are essentially eliminated in favour of more direct feedback on the work that is being done at any given moment. Most importantly, the student must participate in that assessment for it to be relevant. </li>
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I think that we continue to get better at providing a learning experience that allows students discover and grow in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) world. But we are also aware that not only can we do better, but the needs of one group and one student are not the needs of another. </div>
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This year's crew is an inspiringly varied community of students. We have the STEM geeks who want to dig deeper and we have those that a re simply curious about ideas connected with STEM. They each have their own unique set of skills and experiences that they bring with them and it will be through their knowledge that the group will flourish. </div>
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For the first time, we are also seeing the legacy of #Fusionmk1 and #Fusionmk2 feeding back and inspiring #Fusionmk3. We have some student who are pursuing their own interests and businesses that relate to the work the current group will be doing. These boys are keen to give back and share their passion with the current group. We also have boys who are interested enough in the work of the current group that they are reading blog posts and leaving comments for the new crew. It is exciting to see the programme gain that level of depth.</div>
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If you are interested in following the work of #Fusionmk3, please follow this blog or, better yet, follow the blogs of the students in it. These boys are listed with links to their blogs on the right side of this post. The easiest way to follow any of these blogs is to copy the URL of the home page of the blog you wish to follow. You can than paste the URL into email clients that support RSS feeds or use an RSS reader such as <a href="https://feedly.com/" target="_blank">Feedly</a> to follow multiple blogs at once. Please feel free to comment at any time or follow our Twitter feed <a href="https://twitter.com/SGS_Fusion" target="_blank">@SGS_Fusion</a>.</div>
Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-66709677588784193162018-05-16T18:02:00.001-07:002018-05-16T18:02:30.863-07:00Waterloo 7Here it is. The last night of the trip. It's been a great time and I can see that many of the boys have grown a lot. First, a recap of the day, and then some thoughts about the trip. <br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvVsncvhZR0/WvzSicnfNuI/AAAAAAAADRM/F2Y66_vl5MElR5lTZVsDcdfpFJQfTvBzgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8420.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WvVsncvhZR0/WvzSicnfNuI/AAAAAAAADRM/F2Y66_vl5MElR5lTZVsDcdfpFJQfTvBzgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8420.jpg" width="320" /></a>The day started with our regular brains on activity. Today it was cup stacking. I will admit that I had an opportunity to visit a makerspace at Laurier University's library down the street, so I missed this activity, but returned for their session on public speaking and a coaching session for their presentations on their Create Value Challenge. There was some frustration as the students got some criticism on the 30 second versions of their presentations, but they learned a lot from these practice runs and ultimately put the feedback to work later in the day. We then boarded the bus and hoofed it across town to the Tannery. This is a huge wooden building that used to house the 3rd largest tannery in the British Empire. The Brits moved out and the building changed purposes multiple times. Currently, it houses Communitech and Velocity (among other tech based companies) that focus on startups and innovation generally. It is possible for young entrepreneurs to avail themselves of services, networking, and advice for up to 3 years to get their companies off the ground. All without having to give up any equity in their companies to Communitech or Velocity. The spaces cater to all sorts of activities and needs and are interesting and fun to tour. A previous resident in the building (Google) left behind cafeterias, games rooms, and a slide!<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Sy-FteuB4E/WvzSes8SqSI/AAAAAAAADRI/Gr5EKy8GkzE9TGqwFGO5YOylJS86zAwkwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_8410.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Sy-FteuB4E/WvzSes8SqSI/AAAAAAAADRI/Gr5EKy8GkzE9TGqwFGO5YOylJS86zAwkwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_8410.jpg" width="320" /></a>After touring the facility, eating lunch and putting the finishing touches on their presentations, it was time for the boys to pitch their work to a panel of heads of local companies. They each had 6 minutes to tell there stories and 2 minutes for a Q&A with the judges. I have to say, this is only the second time that we've done this with students and I was thoroughly impressed with creativity in their work and the quality of the presentations. The judges had a genuinely difficult time picking a winner. Ultimately, the award (and a DIY hand-held computer game kit) went to Ace and Riley who developed a publicity campaign for suicide prevention. The judges were impressed with the way that equated their project to creating value and the high quality of the design work involved. The day ended with some chill time with the option for the boys who wished, to go back to @CTRL V to blow off some steam in the VR arcade. Tomorrow, we head to St Jacobs Market before heading home.<br />
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I think that hardest thing about the year-end trip is that it happens at the end of the year. After spending a year with the group, the learning and relationships have developed so significantly that it feels like we are returning to Vancouver with an entirely different group of students than we left with. There have been so many opportunities to chat, and for the boys to interact with ideas that they would never have time to in the day to day of St George's. I would be very surprised if at least some parent don't get requests for tools, toys, courses, books, and other items to extend the learning of something that's been triggered by this trip. One student returned last year wanting an engine that he could dissect and rebuild on his own!<br />
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My hope is that each and every boy has come out of this trip knowing something more about themselves. Maybe their personal project or create value challenge project has sparked something in them and they feel a need to take it further. Maybe they now realize that they need to learn to code, or build robots, or develop deeper fabrication skills. Maybe, they've realized that STEM is not for them. This is all good and I would hope that they find ways of getting support to deepen their learning through the school. I would love it if I had 18 conversations about personal projects (new or continued) that the students need support for in the coming years. If it means organizing tools, materials, or mentorship, we can find a way of making it happen. <br />
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Whatever each individual students' experience has been on this trip, it has been an honour to travel and learn with them. The folks at U of Waterloo: Caity, Lyndia, Jen, and Kris have all been amazing and we can't thank them enough for their energy and hospitality. And, it is always a pleasure to work and travel with such fine colleagues and Ms Holmen, and Mr Forseth. See you all in Vancouver!<br />
Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-5843146317816514562018-05-16T05:03:00.001-07:002018-05-16T05:03:28.070-07:00Waterloo 6<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Wow! We're getting close to the end of the trip. It feels like we just arrived and the time has flown by, but at the same time, it's been forever since we've slept in our own beds. Tuesday was an other busy day, centred around the implementation of the Create Value challenge. But before we get to that...<br />
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The day started with a trip over to E2 (Engineering 2), one of the oldest buildings on campus. We were there to do our brains on activity and get bodies moving and everyone communicating. The task was to replicate a drawing. Seems simple, but when you gut multiple chefs into the mix, things can get interesting. The drawing lived in one room with a single member of a team of 3. They got to study the drawing and had to describe it to a messenger (who was not allowed to see it). The messenger, then went down the hall to another room where a budding artist sat ready to replicate this great work of art. The messenger had to describe the drawing, but could not see what the artist was drawing. We get some interesting abstract art, even when the original drawing supposed to be a simple cat!<br />
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We then headed to E1 and one of the campus makerspaces. In this space the boys were tasked with deconstructing a snowblower engine and then reconstructing it. Surprisingly, there were few Ikea moments (you know - that point in assembling a piece of furniture to discover that there are 3 extra parts with some strange Swedish name that you have no idea what to do with). For many of the boys, this seemed to be the first time that they'd ever worked on an engine before and learning how a combustion engine works and simply getting their hands dirty to pull something like this apart was a lot of fun. <br />
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Lunch at an uptown cafe, Harmony, was followed by 3 hours of enacting their plan to create value on the streets of Waterloo. It is hard to know at this point, exactly how successful each was. The task of reporting on those experiences and presenting them to a panel of entrepreneurs is today's task. But they seemed to have fun and watching the boys interact with the citizens of Waterloo on this project seemed to indicate that they were getting the results they desired.<br />
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A return to campus, dinner and a night of juggling wrapped up the day. <br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-68935000267752123652018-05-15T06:26:00.001-07:002018-05-15T06:26:28.799-07:00Waterloo 5<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BfezfaWSVk4/Wvre3Wf1O3I/AAAAAAAADLQ/LXOuG-pi6ikLrjCqQf4xI-YrRx4RHEbdgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_7861.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BfezfaWSVk4/Wvre3Wf1O3I/AAAAAAAADLQ/LXOuG-pi6ikLrjCqQf4xI-YrRx4RHEbdgCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_7861.jpg" width="320" /></a>Monday brought a lot of activity starting with the concept of things having the potential to be and not be at the same time. Quantum Mechanics is being used in quantumcryptography to secure information travelling digitally around the world. The boys explored this idea by sending and receiving crypto keys using lasers and the concepts around quantumcryptography. <br />
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From here we travelled to a fairly open grassy space to play a communication game where, in groups of three, the boys had to locate and retrieve objects. <br />
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The person doing the retrieving was blindfolded, the person who could see was not allowed to speak and a third person in the group had to issue the direction to the retriever. It was chaos, and a lot of fun, especially when they started to trip over each other or when one group thought they could get away with retrieving multiple objects out from under the noses of the other groups.<br />
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We then returned to our home, E5 (with a brief stop to pick up souvenirs at the UW bookstore). Here, we turned titanium rings into different colours using the principles of adonization, a little salt water and some batteries. <br />
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Following lunch, the boys engaged in a discussion around brands and marketing in preparation for their Create Value Challenge. Kerry Anne Rothe, a local marketing consultant, talked about the ideas of brands, the trust that they try to engender, what happens when that trust is broken and the 7Ps or marketing. <br />
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For me, the highlight of the day was dinner. It was not the highlight because of the food, but a number of members of engineering design teams came to talk and eat dinner with the boys. After dinner (and in some cases, during) the discussion moved into the various rooms and construction bays where the boys got see the work that the UW students were doing on building cars, rockets, a version of hyperloop, submarines, and more. <br />
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This was a great opportunity for the boys to see what these engineering students do in their spare time and explore projects that they themselves could potentially work on some day. An added bonus was running into old boys, Nick Varabioff and Reese French. Reese hung out and visited with some of the boys to share his experiences of first year.<br />
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We finished the evening with a chill time at a campfire making smores and playing mafia.<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-81259362015130081732018-05-14T11:08:00.000-07:002018-05-14T11:08:35.816-07:00Weekend UpdateWe've had a busy weekend! While the students' reflections will be far more detailed and personal than mine, I'll give you a run down of the last couple of days with a few pictures. Saturday began and ended with some serious work, but was mainly a trip out to Stratford to see the Stratford Festival production of <i>The Tempest</i>. In sequence:<br />
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First, we looked at product design from a user perspective. The boys paired up and asked either questions around what they like and need in a wallet and then they had to make their partner a wallet. I found it interesting that some of the boys asked questions that helped them get to know their partner better. Questions like, "Are you an introvert or extrovert?" and, "What's you're favourite colour?" rather than "What kind of wallet do you want?"<br />
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From that brief challenge, we hopped on the bus and headed to the Costume and Prop Warehouse for the Stratford Festival. <br />
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It was very cool to see not only costumes for productions going back the entire 65 year history, but how many of the more intricate ones were designed and built to simulate certain materials and textures or to enable quick changes. Lunch preceded the drive to the main Festival Theatre, with a brief pause for a particularly slow moving and entitled parade of swans. The production of The Tempest was outstanding. Mr Hillis had prepped the students with a brief plot synopsis and made them aware of particularly important themes and this helped us all to understand the work at a deeper level. What was particularly unique about this production was the fact that Prospero, the wizard and father of Miranda was played by a woman, who had made her Stratford debut in the role of Miranda many decades ago. The implications of having a woman in a traditionally male role made for interesting discussion in our post performance chat with a couple of the cast. The boys made some very insightful observations and asked particularly astute questions. For many, the highlight of the afternoon was that half hour discussion about the play!<br />
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After returning to the campus, the boys spent some time on their Create Value Challenge after doing a couple of different challenges to get their brains in gear. One was a negotiation activity where, in pairs, both parties had to negotiate how they would split $2. The parameters would change and they would have to come to an agreement on the value of this money. Then they looked at creativity through a timed circle challenge where they had to draw in 30 circles given some specific constraints. Once their brains were engaged, they got to spend some more time working our details of their Create Value challenge project with their partners. <br />
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First thing Sunday morning, we headed off to Google where we spent the day. While the space that we were in is new and un-developed as of yet, it was cool to be one of the first groups to use the only Google Community space of it's kind in the world. The day started with more of a tech focus as the boys started by using various conductive materials as controllers for their laptops. From there, they moved on to learning to program Arduino micro-controller boards. While the use in these beginning projects was fairly basic, the use of this type of micro-controller board is an inexpensive way of automating any number of projects as the software is uploaded to the board then the board can run independent of any other computer. It is a free-standing simple computer that can run interfaces, sensors, and even small robots.<br />
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After lunch, there was discussion around computational thinking, what it is and how one might use it, in and outside of computer programming. Then, they were organized into groups to build staircases that would hold one of the program coordinators, and ultimately, with luck, Mr Crompton. It was interesting to watch how the teams constructed their staircases, and how some of the strategies explored earlier in the year were utilized. <br />
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The day ended with the most stressful challenge of the week. I won't speak of the details of the challenge itself as we hope that this is something that we will do again in future trips, but I will say that this activity will not soon be forgotten. The lessons learned revolved around teamwork, leadership, problem-solving, questioning ones beliefs. I would encourage you to read the student blogs to find out their thoughts on their time and particularly what they learned in the dice challenge.<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-71116821919036674902018-05-12T05:31:00.001-07:002018-05-12T05:31:40.431-07:00Day 3<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Today was a day of culminations. We finished up our Virtual Reality (VR) designs and took them over to <a href="https://www.ctrlv.ca/" target="_blank">@CTRLV</a> to try them out. It was exciting to see the boys take images that were designed in a flat 2 dimensional environment and actually walk (or jump, or fall off of) through that world. The boys also seemed to really enjoy playing in their own and each others worlds as well. Of course, having the opportunity to then play commercially created games was fun too!<br />
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The afternoon brought us a little time to work on our Create Value Challenge (you can read about the parameters of that <a href="https://sgsfusion.blogspot.ca/2018/05/day-2.html" target="_blank">here</a> if you have not already done so) before our mentors came to discuss the boys' personal projects. For more than an a hour, each boy had a chance to discuss the ideas that they'd been working on for months with faculty, graduate students, and industry professional. The conversations that I overheard and the discussions that I had with the boys afterward indicate that most of them were excited by the feedback and encouragement that they received. I'm hoping that they will be inspired to continue their work and develop their ideas further.<br />
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The evening brought a web-based wild goose chase where they got to run around the campus with current students and residence staff. They were asked to take pictures of themselves performing tasks such as finding an underground mine, recreate the famous Titanic scene, identifying campus landmarks, and spelling names of campus landmarks with their bodies. These pictures were sent to a program where the organizers (Saint's teachers and residence staff) could encourage them and keep score. Enjoy the pictures!<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-2243824142438833142018-05-10T19:55:00.001-07:002018-05-10T19:55:43.069-07:00Day 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Not a lot to report today. It was a simple day that involved a lot of time working through some important projects. The day started with a cool trip to the MultiScale Additive Manufacturing Lab where they are focused entirely on 3D printing technologies involved with printing metal. There are three styles of printer that all use slightly different methods of attaching small grains of metal powders together in layers to form objects. If all they did way 3D printer with metal, that would be cool enough, but they are truly invested in studying the technology to allow advances in metal manufacturing methods and to increase the variety of different metals that are available for 3D printing. <br />
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It was a fantastic way to look at 3D printing in general, but also to look at how one area of that larger field is working to progress and understand the implications of these new tools.<br />
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Following that trip, we hunkered down for few hours of work on two separate projects. The first is to develop more intricate Virtual Reality (VR) environments that they will be able to test out tomorrow at a VR arcade. It was interesting to see how invested the boys were in developing these skills and developing these environments. <br />
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The second was the longer-term Create Value project where they made some headway in identifying clients or users who they might create value for. They tried to define their problems as clearly as possible so that they will be able to develop solutions over the next few days. They will be given $20 for each pair of students and they will pitch their solutions to entrepreneurs on our last full day.<br />
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After a hard day of indoor work, we then took the 20 minute walk through the park to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, an amazing building where people come from all over the world to ask the big questions about how the universe works from the tiniest particles to the largest bodies in space. We got to walk through many of the spaces used to share ideas and develop new ones, and attempt to decipher intricate equations that were scrawled across pretty much every inch of every chalkboard in the place. Many of us found this to be an inspiring space to be in.<br />
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We finished the day with pizza in the park and time to kick a ball around and generally let off some steam. We're looking forward to our trip to @CTRLV tomorrow, the VR arcade for some development and testing time, and perhaps a little fun! Enjoy the pictures.<br />
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-13389985399427091002018-05-09T12:37:00.001-07:002018-05-09T12:43:51.550-07:00Day 1<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Caity, our amazing host, showing us around campus.</td></tr>
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The Fusion Cohort landed in Toronto last night, experienced some fine local cuisine (well... fast food at a road side stop), and got ourselves on to the University of Waterloo campus. Once checked in to the dorms, we did a sunset walking tour of the campus to get the lay of the land and tried to get a decent night's sleep in a strange environment (and going to bed at least 3 hours earlier than any of us are used to!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Ball Challenge</td></tr>
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This morning's breakfast came brutally early, but the boys got themselves up and out the door in decent time and on our way to the first day of excitement. A walk across campus got us to Engineering 5 (E5), the building that we will base ourselves out of for much of the trip. They tackled a ball problem where they needed to transfer a ball among all of the boys with some interesting constraints. They did very well, almost beating the record last year's group set. As part of the process, they explored a brainstorming strategy that focuses on creating the worst solutions to problems. Once "anti-solutions" to problems were identified, they then needed to come up with a way of taking one of these "anti-solutions" and actually make it work as a solution. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Edwin discovering ways to NOT separate recycling!</td></tr>
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The next problem was one near and dear to my own heart. They were tasked with making a better coffee cup. The discussion of the history of the coffee cup and the various ways people have tried to solve this problem was informative and lead to looking at different ways of solving the problem, whether that might be focusing on aesthetics, materials, safety, or other attributes.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alex trying to hit the target with his ping-pong ball</td></tr>
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The remainder of the afternoon is being spent introducing a long-term challenge for the week, the "Create Value" challenge, building devices that move ping-pong balls to a specific target using an electric motor and cardboard, and then getting in to design for Virtual Reality environments. An exciting start to the week. Assuming that we all survive the Zombie battle after dinner tonight, you should hear from us again tomorrow!</div>
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Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-14664126785386045852018-05-07T19:53:00.000-07:002018-05-07T19:53:54.742-07:00Off to the Far East<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QEzwg2HnN6U/Wu-rxLZQSLI/AAAAAAAACxY/Dr7b6XGPyegbhTH4LLCA7wMAnN6k6dB9gCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_9914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="1600" height="140" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QEzwg2HnN6U/Wu-rxLZQSLI/AAAAAAAACxY/Dr7b6XGPyegbhTH4LLCA7wMAnN6k6dB9gCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_9914.jpg" width="200" /></a>Well, we're not exactly off to the Far East, but from a Vancouver perspective, we are heading a fair distance in an easterly direction. The students in Fusion have been busy preparing for their year-end trip to the University of Waterloo where they will be exposed to a myriad of activities ranging from tours of the world renown Perimeter Institute of theoretical physics, to work in a mechanical engineering lab where they will disassemble and rebuild an engine. They will be posed a challenge where, with limiting constraints, they will compete to create the most value and pitch their projects to local gurus in the entrepreneurial world. They will also be matched up with University of Waterloo faculty and staff to discuss the personal projects that they've been working on at home for the last few months (more on those below). In their "down time", they will also be attending a performance of <i>The Tempest</i> at the Stratford festival and enjoying Mennonite cooking at St Jacob's Market.<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jVFp_ezXk2g/Wu-ryzp5cwI/AAAAAAAACxc/xjrk21QlGVsFHzl3R4pXcoTFvMX3jvEngCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_9917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1173" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jVFp_ezXk2g/Wu-ryzp5cwI/AAAAAAAACxc/xjrk21QlGVsFHzl3R4pXcoTFvMX3jvEngCLcBGAs/s200/IMG_9917.jpg" width="146" /></a>If you are interested in getting more of a taste of what the week has in store, you might want to bounce back to posts from last year's trip. While the students and some of the activities will be different, you will get a flavour of the week (and a few days) at the following posts: <a href="https://sgsfusion.blogspot.ca/2017/05/year-end-trip-waterloo-update-1.html" target="_blank">Update 1</a>, <a href="https://sgsfusion.blogspot.ca/2017/05/year-end-trip-waterloo-2.html" target="_blank">Update 2</a>. If you want to see the ongoing reflections of the students themselves, make sure that you check the student portfolio links in the right sidebar as the week proceeds.<br />
The personal projects, have resulted in some very interesting thinking. The task was to identify with a problem worth solving and to come up with a solution. The only constraint is that the problems must leverage their growing knowledge in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. The projects were wide ranging in their topics, from designing a new international language, to developing nutrient rich breads that are inexpensive enough to be eaten in poverty stricken areas of the world. We had others develop satellite systems for early detection of forest fires while still others looked at how to insulate existing buildings from sound and heat by attaching panels to the outside of the structure. Another pair of students looked how they might create an anti-bacterial keyboard for computers in medical environments. They pitched their ideas to their parents and school faculty last week. The photos in this post are from that event. You will likely find the posts that the students wrote on their projects interesting. These are also in the student portfolio links in the right sidebar.<br />
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Please come back over the coming two weeks to see what we're up to and how the trip progresses! <a href="https://twitter.com/SGS_Fusion" target="_blank">You might also want to follow us on Twitter!</a><br />
<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-67542116023826965992017-09-12T09:35:00.001-07:002017-09-22T09:03:33.314-07:00New Year = New Group!As we head into the 2017-18 school year, we are excited about having a new group of Fusioneers ready to start their journeys. New personalities, new expertise, and new dreams all make this an inspirational time in the year as we all get to know each other.<br />
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Technically, the year began for us back in June when we left town for a few days to hang out at <a href="http://www.cheakamuscentre.ca/" target="_blank">Cheakamus Centre</a> just north of Squamish. We talked about design thinking and put our collective heads to the task of solving (or at least start solving) a number of problems. We then headed to <a href="http://www.makerlabs.com/" target="_blank">Makerlabs</a> in Vancouver to spend a day learning the basics of rapid digital prototyping and CAD programs.<br />
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We hope that you will follow our journey this year through our blogs. This blog is written by the Fusion teachers and will outline our perspective on the progress of the year. Our new year's resolution is to update this more regularly than we were able to last year. More importantly, the students will be writing their own blogs and talking about what they are working on and thinking about. The blogs are listed under <i>Student Portfolio</i>s to the right-hand side of this blog's home page. We encourage you to read and comment on the blog posts throughout the year. Nothing is quite as motivating as knowing that others are actually reading what you are spending your time writing!<br />
<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-29692724934078649362017-05-13T09:28:00.001-07:002017-05-13T09:28:50.559-07:00Year-End Trip - Waterloo 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
It's been a whirlwind trip thus far. From a teacher perspective, it's been amazing to see who has been learning what from which experiences. It seems redundant to report on what we've been up to and what we've learned. The boys have been writing their own blog posts (see the right sidebar) and have made some great connections and told some great stories. What their stories lack are images, so feel free to take a look through these photos and bounce over the blog posts for some explanation! </div>
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<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-20972717650134460702017-05-09T08:56:00.001-07:002017-05-11T04:48:13.537-07:00Year-End Trip - Waterloo Update 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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At the time of this post, we're partway through Day 2 of our trip to Waterloo. After flying the red-eye, spending a morning at Niagara Falls in the cold and damp (but beautiful), we arrived at the University of Waterloo mid-afternoon on Sunday. A tour of the campus was followed by dinner and a quiet game night. An early bedtime prepared us for an early start and productive first day.<br />
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The first day started with a walk over to E5 (Engineering Building 5) which is serving as one of our two home-bases for the week. We looked at defining innovation and design, worked with the head of the Engineering Outreach branch of the University to design better coffee cups (a project dear to my heart), looked at the psychology of bias in decision making with one of the Psychology department faculty, were introduced to a week-long project that we will be working through, and met and played a game created by old-boy, Rob Bolton (04) who drove in from his job at Idea Couture in Toronto to visit with us. This was a busy and full day that wasn't over yet.<br />
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After dinner, we trekked across campus to our other home-base on campus to meet with the Engineering Student Society to talk about its role in campus life and problem-solve some of the real problems that they're wrestling with at the moment. After that, the boys had some well-deserved down time to play a game of Humans vs Zombies and then board games, pool, and ping-pong.<br />
This morning felt like a really early start as some construction that was going on late last night didn't help to make for a completely restful sleep for some. We've launched into problem definition and had a trip to the Real-time Embedded Systems Laboratory to see 5 projects that are all working on ways of ensuring the safety human life and property through the embedding of systems within other systems to diagnose or protect those systems. Examples included a test mechanism for ensuring that autonomous cars work effectively without crashing, and a system that prioritizing data traffic so that critical systems are never compromised on networks. At the time of this writing, the boys are busy putting the ideas presented regarding problem definition into use in their personal projects.<br />
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Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-37360825031061531732017-01-19T10:54:00.001-08:002017-01-19T10:54:41.057-08:00Mousetrap - Teacher Reflection<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-78mm_LRcq68/WIEKeIket6I/AAAAAAAAAvk/0tutKQeTw0k5_GRyjlcXG8MZm94dQnv2ACLcB/s1600/IMG_0612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-78mm_LRcq68/WIEKeIket6I/AAAAAAAAAvk/0tutKQeTw0k5_GRyjlcXG8MZm94dQnv2ACLcB/s320/IMG_0612.JPG" width="320" /></a>Prior to the Christmas break, the boys in Fusion completed their second iteration of a mousetrap vehicle challenge.It was interesting to see how the thought process evolved over the course of that project. It was as much an exploration of the Design Thinking Process as it was a look at the transfer of potential energy into kinetic energy. It was as interesting to see how effective the project addressed the anticipated learning as it was to see what was learned that we did not expect.<br />
Over the course of the project and term, I started to break down our learning into some broad categories. They became Engineering/Making Hard Skills such as designing and building models using 2D and 3D CAD and CAM tools, the use of the Design Thinking Model itself, Communication Skills that focus on how a student clearly articulates their thinking in a number of ways, Analytical Thinking Skills that focus on how a student breaks down a problem in order to solve it, and Collaborative Skills that look at how groups of students work together to accomplish a task.<br />
Generally speaking, the students came to a clear understanding of what the Design Thinking model is and how to leverage it in group problem-solving. Probably the biggest realisation was that the model itself is not linear. While we talk about five stages which do progress in a sequential fashion, there are often times where it is appropriate to move from stage to stage in other orders. Probably the most common issue this way is in the prototyping phase. Many students discovered that as they got a prototype built or partly built and significant issues arose. Those that felt confined by the Design Thinking model didn't go back to the ideation phase or at least the ideas that they'd come up within that phase. They would typically get stuck or obsess about a small issue that might not even be solvable rather than stepping back, looking at the other options that they'd already partly explored and use that thinking to inform their design. Over time, they became more adept at using the model and recognised that each phase was a way of thinking through the problem and that sometimes moving across the model to leverage those different ways of thinking was more effective. Rather than being confined by the model, they used the model to their best advantage.<br />
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The hard skills wound up being a real issue with some. We have very much been operating from a philosophy of "just in time learning" where we wait for a real problem to arise before teaching the skills to address it. This makes the learning of these skills more relevant and efficient because the skills have direct application. It is common to teach STEM kids to solder, but if the student doesn't know what a circuit is and why they might want to build one to address a problem, the learning becomes fairly hypothetical. The downside to "just in time learning" is that you don't know what you have to learn before you have to learn it. When students come up with different solutions to a problem, the skills that they need to solve it are different. Some students deal with what they don't know by avoiding learning a skill and finding another way around the problem. Others dig in a get their feet wet. The biggest danger, of course, is that they don't know what they don't know and if they don't know that something is possible, then they won't think to explore it.<br />
A big area of emphasis for me in the second iteration of this project was in the use of communication skills. This is where the blogs were most effective and if you are a regular reader of the student blogs (look to the right of this screen), then you will have noted many conversations where I was pushing the students to clearly articulate their thinking. There were many issues with communication from laziness and bad grammar to simply not having thought through a design or a problem clearly and thus not being able to articulate their ideas. The communication struggles would cause issues with final presentations and reflections, but would also result in miscommunication between team members as they would misunderstand each other and be thinking about their work differently. This is an area that we will continue to push as I truly believe that the clear articulation of an idea is the best evidence of clarity of thinking.<br />
While communicating ideas was important in the way a group was able to work together, there were other aspects of communication that affected how effective a group was in their work. Some groups were very deliberate with how they set up their online communication tools, how they divided responsibilities, and what their expectations of each other were. There was a direct correlation between those groups that took the time to organise themselves in these ways prior to getting down to the work of solving the problem and those that felt that the process was successful. Those that simply started in on the problem and never talked about their group dynamics reported more frustration with how the group progress throughout the challenge. The learnings here have been taken to heart and are being leveraged in the current design challenge.<br />
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The final key learning in our mousetrap vehicle project came through our discussion of what it means to be successful in these challenges. Clearly, in the work world, success is completely dependent on the end product. Rarely do companies care how a job gets done (apart from harmful workplace politics or processes that cost too much money). They care more about delivering a product to the customer in a timely fashion that generates a profit for the company. We have the luxury in education about not worrying about the bottom line and this frees us up to care more about the process and less about the product. Having said this, I was curious to know if the students saw things the same way. Do they really on care about making their vehicle going further or faster than the other teams'? Do they care only about getting a better mark than their classmate? If so, then the discussion around what one learns from a "failed" attempt is much less effective. I was encouraged to see that these students were generally able to step back from the product and look at what they had learned from the process. If iteration two didn't grow in some way on iteration one, it was generally seen as a failure. If iteration two took some risks and resulted in new learning, regardless of whether the actual vehicle moved at all, it was generally seen as a success. In my mind, this is exactly as it should be even if it doesn't result in replicating the "real-world" environment. In our business, the product is the learning and everything else is simply a demonstration of that learning. I was quite pleased to read the students' blogs and find out that many of us are on the same page!Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-46204070179335944332016-11-13T09:32:00.002-08:002016-11-13T09:38:26.493-08:00Week 10<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Improvement time!</td></tr>
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So, when I said that I wouldn't likely be able to post <i>every</i> week, I didn't think that I would go <i>this</i> long without updating our main Fusion 10 Blog! A lot has been happening in the last 7 weeks (seven weeks? - wow!) We have worked through our first iteration of our mousetrap vehicles, have had an old boy who is currently employed in the bio-medical engineering field come to visit and speak to the boys, and have made a start on personal projects that connect the students to areas of engineering and problems that they are passionate about.<br />
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Before I get to catching you up on our journey over the last few weeks, I should offer a partial explanation for the lack of posts on this blog over that time. As most who read this blog will know, all assessments have been done in the form of student blog posts this term. We have had no tests, essays or other more traditional forms of grading. The reason for this is that the curriculum for the Fusion course (remember that Fusion is a design course within the Fusion program that includes other courses such as Math and Science) is very fluid. There is no Ministry prescribed list of skills, concepts or facts that students must know. The students, especially in the first year of the program, come into the course at a wide variety of skill and conceptual levels in a myriad of areas. It is more effective to have students report and reflect on their learning at various points along the way rather than testing them at the end of a unit. For the work that we have done so far, these reflections tell me much more about what a student has actually learned than any multiple choice test ever would and is more responsive to the immediate learning that is going on than essay questions as part of a unit test. The down side to this approach to assessing the boys learning is that it takes more time on an ongoing basis to have these discussions via the blogs. I comment on most of the blog posts and ask questions that try to get deeper thinking when I can and to clarify understanding (mine and the boys'). I think that the time is well worth it, but it means that this blog drops to a lower priority when I'm spending my time reading and commenting on the students' blogs. <br />
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Back to the last seven weeks.<br />
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We learned a lot from our first attempt at our mousetrap vehicles. Besides building strong connections with the physics curriculum in Science, we have learned a lot about the design thinking process. The process involves a phase of <i>Research</i> where we try to understand what we need to understand in order to address the specific problem at hand. In this case, much of that research involved understanding physics concepts of potential and kinetic energy as we try to understand how the energy stored in the set mousetrap could be captured and converted into forward motion of some vehicle across a gym floor. We struggled with the idea of <i>Defining</i> our problem in a succinct manner so that we would have clear direction and something to measure the success of our solutions against. We got better at <i>Ideating</i> (brainstorming) as many approaches to solving the problem as possible so that we could look at the problem from different angles. We enjoyed <i>Prototyping</i> our solution by building our design and getting it ready for the final <i>Testing</i>. We then took our final solutions and tested them by not only measuring the distance that each vehicle traveled but also video recorded the test run in order to be able to measure the acceleration and deceleration of the vehicles so that we could understand how efficient our design actually were. The entire time, we learned about how we could work best in our teams to accomplish our tasks.<br />
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You will see by reading their blog posts (linked on the right of this blog's home page - check for dates around October 1) that each of the boys took away something different from the process. Some reflected on the need to improve their group's time management skills. Others noted that there was little connection between phases in the design thinking model. They brainstormed a number of interesting ideas in the Ideation phase and then forgot them all to make what they could when they looked at the materials in the prototyping box (imagine a junk drawer for prototyping general design problems). Still others were simply not happy with the actual design of their vehicles and learned much about what doesn't work in terms of fabricating and materials used. <br />
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From this experience, we distilled our take aways from iteration one to create four goals for iteration two of the same vehicle. These goals are:<br />
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<li>Ideation: Think of at least 4 contrasting ideas</li>
<li>Communication: Ensure that all group members are on the same page at all times</li>
<li>Prototyping: ensure that there is a strong connection between ideation through design to prototyping</li>
<li>Time Management: Ensure that time is allocated effectively</li>
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The biggest change to the problem between iteration 1 and iteration 2 of the mousetrap vehicle has been that in the second attempt, the boys are allowed to use the digital fabrication tools (3D printers, laser cutter) to create their solutions. This is helping them to be more deliberate in their actual design and their choices of materials. As a consequence, there have been many more conversations between the students and between the students and I around the clarity of the ideas that they are working on. They are being pushed to communicate their ideas through their blog posts more clearly than they have had to previously. The communication of their ideas through words and visuals has forced them to think their ideas through in more detail than they had done in the past.</div>
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While all of this mousetrap vehicle stuff has been going on (we are planning to put a wrap on this in the next two weeks) the students have also been working to define a personal project that they will pursue through the remainder of the year. Some are looking at projects that are big enough that they will be able to get a start on this year, but will not likely finish and others are biting off small projects that will, no doubt, lead to second or even third project in our time together. It has been fascinating to watch some dive right in being excited by the opportunity to work on something that they are passionate about while others struggle to find their passion. We've only had two class sessions on personal projects as of yet, but I'm encouraged by the regular requests for time to pursue them. More details can again be found on the students' blogs. </div>
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Finally, we had an opportunity to bring in an old-boy who is currently active in bio-medical engineering and working with a company developing technology for strengthening arteries in the brain after aneurysms. It was great for the boys to hear his path from his grade 10 year through his University of Victoria engineering experience and into the field that he is currently employed. He gave his ideas on their mousetrap vehicles and explained what he felt the most important skills that the boys needed to develop were in anticipation of a post-secondary engineering path. </div>
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It's been busy times and we have much more to look forward to in the coming months. The year end trip seems to be coming together and I hope to be able to announce something soon. We are planning the next design challenge that will pull in some significant mathematical acrobatics as well as bring some chemistry ideas to the fore. And we hope to have some fun with short challenges before we break for Christmas! </div>
Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-31246299834495360892016-09-25T10:08:00.000-07:002016-09-25T10:08:48.967-07:00Week 3<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-brqhRUYPBiI/V-gDoKOAI6I/AAAAAAAAAYs/NYgws8vlqG4moXTAJAAXDWYDwZJfZa4XwCLcB/s1600/DSCF7351.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-brqhRUYPBiI/V-gDoKOAI6I/AAAAAAAAAYs/NYgws8vlqG4moXTAJAAXDWYDwZJfZa4XwCLcB/s320/DSCF7351.JPG" width="320" /></a>While we only had two classes this week, a lot of progress was made. We moved from our iteration phase, where we brainstormed ideas about how we might solve the problem that we defined in our definition phase, to prototyping. This is where the fun, for most of the boys, began. They got to get their hands dirty and try out some of the ideas that they'd thought up during previous phases of the design process. <br />
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It was fascinating to watch as they began trying out different concepts, quickly rejecting some and building on others. There were many failures, but each failure seemed to generate some valuable learning that propelled them toward a better solution. It was also very interesting to see how deliberate some groups and individuals were with the process. A thought process might have gone something like:<br />
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<li>We'd originally thought that string would be the best material to use between our mousetrap and wheel. </li>
<li>I wonder if the elasticity of rubber bands would propel the vehicle further</li>
<li>Let's try the rubber bands</li>
<li>That was/was not more effective. Why? Is it the rubber band or is it the way we are using it?</li>
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Other observations that I'm taking away from the process include:<br />
<ul><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PceLZW_FBAQ/V-gD3OYQx2I/AAAAAAAAAYw/3PWC8Tkn1Bw8Ky4Bj_HwGmBUyLRbrqr-QCLcB/s1600/DSCF7393.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PceLZW_FBAQ/V-gD3OYQx2I/AAAAAAAAAYw/3PWC8Tkn1Bw8Ky4Bj_HwGmBUyLRbrqr-QCLcB/s320/DSCF7393.JPG" width="320" /></a>
<li>Is the connection between the ideation phase and the prototyping phase strong?<br />Are the boys actually taking an idea that they had during the ideation phase and prototyping it? Or are they starting somewhat fresh in the prototyping phase?</li>
<li>Are the groups being purposeful with their materials? <br />Only one group brought in their own materials. The others went to the prototyping kit (a couple of tubs filled with materials that might be used for prototyping) and used whatever they could find. These designs ended up changing to suite the materials available to them. I'm unsure how much of an effort was made to stick to the original idea and find materials that suited the design.</li>
<li>The group dynamics were distinctly different between groups.<br />Some groups functioned well as a unit while others made the decision early to separate into smaller entities from the beginning (pairs or individuals). Still others seemed to have leaders who did much of the work while others observed and commented. </li>
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There will be much to work with coming out of this first design challenge and I'm eager to see what lessons are truly learned and carried forward. I'm really not concerned about how successful the actual vehicles are as long as the students are reflective about the process and can carry forward their learning. <br />
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Next week will give them an opportunity to finish their vehicles and test them. This will take two of their four classes. We will be trying out an <a href="http://www.vernier.com/products/software/video-physics/" target="_blank">app from Vernier</a> to take video of the actual test runs and analyze their results. This will carry over into the Math and Science classes where they can look at the results and make observations that will inform the students understanding of how the vehicles performed from a physics standpoint and give them some information to help them with their next iteration of the vehicle. As we've not used this tool before, we are testing it as much as we are testing the vehicles at this point.<br />
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Os_YCzFoSs4/V-gD6892RRI/AAAAAAAAAY0/euao47kb0UE2lPGVAEaeBfbW0Ff1Z09AwCLcB/s1600/DSCF7425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Os_YCzFoSs4/V-gD6892RRI/AAAAAAAAAY0/euao47kb0UE2lPGVAEaeBfbW0Ff1Z09AwCLcB/s320/DSCF7425.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
Finally, we will be tearing apart the process in order to understand how we can use the design thinking model better the next time around. We will also make sure that we look at the products themselves to see what kinds of design improvements we need to make as well as investigating how effective our group dynamic was in tackling the problem. Expect lengthy posts in the come week from the boys!Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-57860409177536028622016-09-18T11:46:00.002-07:002016-09-18T11:46:58.935-07:00Week 2<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lmPh_2MGJcw/V97g4L3f0tI/AAAAAAAAAVk/xBoOOITLzvAB91IUW1gDDrCItKBCeUE5QCLcB/s1600/DSCF7349.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lmPh_2MGJcw/V97g4L3f0tI/AAAAAAAAAVk/xBoOOITLzvAB91IUW1gDDrCItKBCeUE5QCLcB/s320/DSCF7349.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Zach and Tony exploring the mousetrap</td></tr>
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It was an interesting week in Fusionland with the beginning of our first true design challenge. As you can read in the student blogs, they were tasked with designing a mousetrap vehicle. The only real restriction in this process is that they are not going to be using our new digital fabrication tools for any aspect of the construction of the vehicles. It has been interesting to see what questions come up in the process from the definition of the word <i>vehicle</i> to wondering if the mousetrap had to actually remain intact and be used as designed. As a teacher working through this assignment for the first time, I intentionally left things pretty open-ended (as I am prone to do). While this can make things messy as we work through ideas that I might not have considered and potentially having to re-clarify the assignment as we go, it opens up the process to all sorts of thinking and questioning. The alternative would be to restrict the design with so many constraints that the resulting vehicles are independently designed copies of the same thing. <br />
<br />Another interesting concept that popped up this week came through the students' introductory blog posts. It became clear that there was a wide range in the sense of purpose that students were bringing to Fusion. Some have very clear, long-standing passions that they felt Fusion might help them explore. Others are more vague and feel that they are "mathy" or "sciency" and that Fusion might be a fun place to hang out. The ultimate goal of Fusion is for the students to be able to identify problems worth solving and to use their STEM skills to solve those problems. To be able to identify problems worth solving, the students need to have some sense of what areas of the STEM world they are excited about. It becomes really interesting to explore ideas that cross what would be considered hard boundaries from a high school subject standpoint. <br />
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We took advantage of an opportunity that surfaced when a Science class became available. We used this class to introduce the idea of <a href="http://www.dvusd.org/cms/lib011/AZ01901092/Centricity/Domain/4781/What%20is%2020%20Tim1.pdf" target="_blank">80/20 time</a>. Students were asked to spend much of this "extra" period to explore ideas in the STEM world that might appeal to them, to identify projects that they might want to explore, or to to simply get better grounded in what fields of interest might appeal to them. We hope to be able to take some time every week or two (roughly once every five classes) to explore personally relevant topics and perhaps work on personally-driven projects. The aim would be to have the design and fabrication skills along with the science and math content knowledge develop in parallel to the realization of personal passions so that much more time could be devoted to working on those real-world problems worth solving that have personal meaning to each student. Every student should leave Fusion with an idea of what direction they might want to head in the Grade 11 & 12 years and on into university. Better yet, they might already be developing ideas and pursuing projects that lead them in exciting and innovative directions.Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-72229126828195527012016-09-11T12:35:00.003-07:002016-09-11T12:35:17.814-07:00Week 1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I doubt that I will be disciplined enough to write a post every week, and more than likely, there will be some weeks where we plod along and get stuff done, but there is little new to report. In some respects, week 1 is just one of those weeks. After such a great start to the year at our retreat last week (week 0?), week 1 simply seemed like an "OK, let's get to work" kind of week, with little time to actually get much work done. All three teachers, Ms. Holmen, Mr Forseth and myself noticed a strong sense of team and positive outlook from the group. This underlined the need for some sort of retreat with a strong emphasis on getting to know each other for future years.<br />
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In Math and Science, the boys were hit with their first assessment. The purpose of this assessment is to get a read on what they already know in relation to the curriculum that they are supposed to address through the year. Our hope is that there will be some areas that will need little time to address, other areas that will serve our purpose to go much deeper than the prescribed curriculum and yet others that will need to be addressed at a level comparable to any other course at the same level. Theses assessments are not for marks and it is expected that every student will not be able to complete aspects of them. It is simply for them and us to get an accurate read on their starting point.<br />
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In Fusion, we completed a survey debrief on the retreat and began to build our eportfolios. Once the last of the surveys is completed, I can report out the general observations on the strengths and weaknesses of that experiences. The discussion around eportfolios started with a brief discussion about the concept of academic rigour and thus, the need to document process and reflection throughout the year. You will see a list of the student portfolios on the right sidebar of the home page of this blog. There are many reasons for having students document their work publicly. Some of them include:<br />
<ul>
<li>the potential for connection with others doing similar work, whether that be other students or experts in the field around the world.</li>
<li>the ability for parents, teachers, and other students to follow the progress and thinking of each student.</li>
<li>the production of an eportfolio/online resume that will help with future university and job applications</li>
</ul>
We're hoping that anyone that is interested in reading the posts in the general Fusion blog will follow up and start dialogues with the students in their own spaces.<br />
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The final thing that has been fun to watch is the students who are starting to build their skills on our digital fabrication/prototyping machines. While many of the things that are being made right now are simple, seemingly inconsequential and sometimes downright silly, the fact that they are getting their feet wet and building skills will pay off in spades when their assignments ask them to put these tools to a more practical use. All students should be encouraged to play at this point!<span id="goog_950752362"></span><span id="goog_950752363"></span>Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-32755977695131589032016-09-05T16:40:00.002-07:002016-09-05T16:40:58.551-07:00Retreat ReflectionThe retreat for our first Fusion cohort is now behind us and we have all returned home to dry out, warm up and rest prior to our first official day back at school next week. We spent 3 days and 3 nights at the Sasamat Outdoor Centre on Sasamat Lake just outside of Port Moody with the goals of getting to know each other, dusting off some of our math and science skills, learning about and practising design thinking and getting our feet wet with some digital fabrication concepts. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QrIcVBl0dJY/V84BA8ixQRI/AAAAAAAAAUA/hZa-qreWKckHr1WKcKWryTduuhoN2LcVgCLcB/s1600/IMG_2689.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QrIcVBl0dJY/V84BA8ixQRI/AAAAAAAAAUA/hZa-qreWKckHr1WKcKWryTduuhoN2LcVgCLcB/s320/IMG_2689.jpg" width="320" /></a>The retreat kicked off with our school's resident Improv Theatre guru, Ember Konopaki. It was great to see the boys, many of whom knew each other fairly tangentially, jump in with both feet, take risks and laugh in the face of potential embarrassment. Besides being an outstanding ice-breaker for the retreat, the boys practised thinking on their feet and learned about the power of suspending judgement and adding to the ideas of others. The evening's activities really did do a great job of setting the stage for the rest of our days together and the year in general. <br />
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The next morning began with a <i>Setting Agreements</i> protocol that allowed us all to have a frank discussion about how we want our cohort to operate throughout the year. The discussion surfaced the priorities of all of the members of the community (students and teachers) as we looked at what we valued and how those values would serve the work that we are about to set out to do. As a teacher, I've done this protocol with a number of different groups and it was interesting to see how our Fusion cohort compared to previous groups. The agreement "Have fun" almost always comes up and there is inevitably a discussion about whether having fun is something that we need to have in a list of agreements that we make with each other. New for this group was a discussion of setting the group agenda ahead of the individual's and the idea of adopting a "Yes, and..." approach to everything. The discussions around these agreements was enlightening and very productive!<br />
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Our illustrious Math teacher and avid board gamer, Jordan Forseth then took the group through a math-based challenge that had the boys brushing off previous year's math concepts, extending some new ones, running around the camp looking for clues and even, in true Die Hard fashion, "defusing a bomb." It was a truly fun way of flexing the math muscles! This was followed by an afternoon of low-ropes activities, swimming, archery and other outdoor games, all done under cloud cover and light rain (but no damp spirits!)<br />
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Catherine Holmen, our braniac astrophysicist/science teacher took the boys through a challenge in the evening that some of the boys just didn't want to stop working on. The premise was that groups of the boys were stuck inside a space station (on one side of a bench.) Using only three boards of various dimensions, and a length of rope, they were to retrieve a bowling ball from a milk crate a set distance away from the bench. Of course, taking a "space walk" was not permitted, so they had to build some sort of structure that would allow them to accomplish their task. We'd split the full group in two and both groups came to a simple, if not risky and inelegant solution relatively quickly. They were then told that this was not the solution that the creators of the problem had come up with and they dove into trying to find a different solution. Eventually, both groups did come up with the suggested solution, and one of the groups decided that they wanted to keep going to see if there were other solutions that might work! The debrief after the exercise revealed a wealth of interesting ideas from how the physics of the suggested solution actually worked to what kinds of processes were used (or not used) to get each group to any solution. It set the stage beautifully for the discussion of a design thinking model the next day.<br />
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The second full day was all about design thinking. After looking at what worked and didn't work in the process of the previous evening's Space Arm challenge, we discussed a design thinking model and put it to work designing a new school cafeteria. While none of the solutions revolutionized the way the world will look at student dining, the exercise and debrief was a great way to walk through and start to understand the step to coming up with a solutions to real problems.<br />
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The next challenge involved building aluminum foil boats that would hold a certain amount of weight. This challenge was all about prototyping ideas and the concept that rarely is the first attempt at solving a problem the best one. We also looked at what we learned from our failed attempts and how these failures accelerated our progress in coming to our final solution.<br />
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The final challenge of the day was the most defined with largest number of constraints. The boys had to build a water tower that met a certain set of specifications. While nobody met all of the constraints and one could argue that none of the solutions were "successful," the process was great fodder for a discussion about constraints, time management (one of the constraints) and how design/engineering work might look in real life. Of course, the day was also interspersed with recreation opportunities for the boys, in various configurations simply got to hang out with each other and get to know each other better.<br />
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<span id="goog_1987007924"></span><span id="goog_1987007925"></span>The last day of the retreat was an earlier wake up as we had to get ourselves fed and out the door to a day at <a href="http://makerlabs.ca/">Makerlabs</a> where we learned to use some of the digital fabrication tools that we have at our disposal now at the school. The boys explored 2D design through <a href="https://inkscape.org/">Inkscape</a>, 3D design through <a href="http://www.123dapp.com/design">123D Design</a>, 3D printing and laser cutting. This, coupled with a tour of the Makerlabs space to see what other fabrication tools could be accessed on future visits got the boys' imaginations flowing as they started to understand how different tools might be used to create different things over the course of the year. All the folks at Makerlabs were fantastic and special thanks go to Maryam and Scott for working with the boys. <br />
<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6918674578981680773.post-9380250012675072312016-09-03T13:43:00.000-07:002016-09-05T16:43:46.021-07:00Retreat Slideshow<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here's a brief slideshow of our first ever Fusion Retreat! A more detailed reflection will occur in a future post.</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ynsqdrvgtZs/0.jpg" frameborder="0" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ynsqdrvgtZs?feature=player_embedded" width="320"></iframe><br />
<br />Marc Cromptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03052260517495322661noreply@blogger.com0