Collaboratory Corner

Our Trek for Tech

I love the beginning of the year when our youngest learners are just starting to explore the world of technology.  I love the looks on the students' faces when they realize that technology doesn't have to have a touchscreen or a charger or batteries.  I love explaining how technology is anything that was designed to help people or solve a problem in some way, and I challenge the students to find things in the Collaboratory that are technology that maybe they didn't even realize were technology before.  

The students start taking tape rolls out of the Makerspace and toilet paper rolls out of the Recycling Center and start talking to each other about why these items are technology.  To reward their smart thinking, I like to end the lesson with a "Trek for Tech" where the students go on a scavenger hunt through the school to find as many pieces of technology as they can.  They take pictures as "evidence" and when we regroup back in the Collaboratory, the students share, explain, and compare their "research".  It really gets the students thinking about why different items were created and how those items have improved our lives.  Thank you to Mr. Banin, Mrs. O'Malley, and Mrs. Greaser for inviting us into the office and participating in our activity!  

The best part of these types of lessons is getting to witness my students have those lightbulb moments when I can see the new learning and realizations on their faces.  

Here is one of my favorite lightbulb moments from a student this year:  

"Mrs. Murro, just wait until I go home and tell my mom that I am going to eat my dinner off of a piece of technology tonight!  She's going to think I want to put food on my iPad!"

Our oldest learners have already developed into technology experts, so they explore technology in a different way!  They focus on learning how technology doesn't necessarily have to be an object; technology can also be a process, such as the Engineering Design Process.  Therefore, these students get to participate in what I call the Triple Tech Challenge:  they use the technology of the Engineering Design Process to design and create a new piece of technology using only the assorted technologies in their mystery bags.  We love to use the character cards from our Design Extraordinaires kit because the students like to learn about the backstories of the characters.  The students had a blast, and I did, too!