Good Idea Grant Project Unfolds

Another thing that happened was that I got my Good Idea grant project going (projects using electronic modules called LittleBits). It's not going quite how I envisioned it, but it's going. I had to decide from the beginning how structured to make this. I went with the Little Bits company motto, "Make Something That Does Something." Pretty loose. At a certain point, I had this feeling that it was chaotic, and not going how it was supposed to go. The students were supposed to make a plan, and then build from their plan. It seemed that they were just doing whatever came to their mind. They saw styrofoam balls and wanted to make a snowman. They saw pipe cleaners and wanted to make candy canes. And heaven forbid, someone made guns from the connecting cubes. They were even making projects that had no plan to incorporate the Little Bits! They started to do their own thing rather than work with partners, which was one of the objectives. The supply box was a mess. The room was a mess. This same day, my principal came in, and I was horrified, because I thought things were going very badly. When she left, I had a talk with them. And as I was talking to them, I realized that there were a few teams who were focused, on task, and actually putting a lot of thought and effort into their projects.  One student had ambitious plans to make a hover craft, but realized, after trying, that with the materials we had, it would not work. This is exactly the idea. This is engineering, trial and error, problem-solving. No, the projects were not very complex, but it was a first effort. When I spoke to my principal the next day, she had noticed those good projects and said encouraging things. I think I got a thumbs up from her. I am thinking about how I can make the process more structured when we get back from break. I will not give up.