In this project we made recycled furniture that includes a woven seat. The patterns woven into the seat express mathematically what students have learned about the impacts of human production and activity on the Earth.
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First, students made a 1/4 scale model of their chair design and wove a seat using mason's line. Second, they doubled the size of their models to be 1/2. This made issues more obvious and required more technique. Last, the designs were constructed at full scale. The pattern that is woven into the seat represents the student's research into their chosen topic.
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17JUN2024
This project wrapped in the winter of this school year. Overall there were ups and downs, a summary of these is collected below.
What worked?
Full scale furniture in pairs is a great project. Partnerships take time to build properly but are overall the best way to ensure that project work is sound. This project was structured such that students made progressively larger models with progressively more complexity, which keeps the energy up in the class and helps the work feel fresh with each iteration.
What was surprising?
The pace of the semester was surprisingly slow. I used a new assessment style (engagement) and did not emphasize deadlines as heavily as I emphasized being on task all the time. I think that this led to the project taking too long and we didn't put as much detail and rigor into the projects as was necessary. As I write this, every chair but one has broken after being used in my class all semester. I'm glad that we didn't replace the conference room chairs like I had intended to. In the future I am adding a timeliness component to assessment to show that being on time is valuable.
Never again?
This was my first full semester with a new teaching partner and I pushed us into a project with which I was comfortable but that they didn't connect very deeply to. At the end of this Exhibition we had a great conversation and pivoted the project to "Something New" in the spring in order to better incorporate her interests and passions. It was a valuable change, and since then we have planned additional projects that are more collaborative. In the future I need to ensure that my partner and I are honest about our level of connection with project plans and goals, because faking it leads to frustration and miscommunication.
This project wrapped in the winter of this school year. Overall there were ups and downs, a summary of these is collected below.
What worked?
Full scale furniture in pairs is a great project. Partnerships take time to build properly but are overall the best way to ensure that project work is sound. This project was structured such that students made progressively larger models with progressively more complexity, which keeps the energy up in the class and helps the work feel fresh with each iteration.
What was surprising?
The pace of the semester was surprisingly slow. I used a new assessment style (engagement) and did not emphasize deadlines as heavily as I emphasized being on task all the time. I think that this led to the project taking too long and we didn't put as much detail and rigor into the projects as was necessary. As I write this, every chair but one has broken after being used in my class all semester. I'm glad that we didn't replace the conference room chairs like I had intended to. In the future I am adding a timeliness component to assessment to show that being on time is valuable.
Never again?
This was my first full semester with a new teaching partner and I pushed us into a project with which I was comfortable but that they didn't connect very deeply to. At the end of this Exhibition we had a great conversation and pivoted the project to "Something New" in the spring in order to better incorporate her interests and passions. It was a valuable change, and since then we have planned additional projects that are more collaborative. In the future I need to ensure that my partner and I are honest about our level of connection with project plans and goals, because faking it leads to frustration and miscommunication.