Eighth grade magnet students collaborated today with teachers from RCMS and KID Museum to begin the week-long “field trip” experience centered around the national Invent the Future Challenge. Students are working together in groups of four, innovating to solve problems using cardboard and other common materials. Today, students designed solutions to a dangerous intersection, helped a space alien land safely on Earth, and began planning toward their culminating projects.
Tomorrow, they will continue working through engineering lessons and design workshops, moving toward more independent work as the week unfolds. With a familiar blend of direct instruction, inquiry, collaborative work/build time, and presentations, students are developing their own answers to the Invent the Future Challenge question: “What will you make to protect life on this planet?”
As they move into the later days of this experience, students will have more and more time to work independently, with RCMS and KID Museum teachers [and nosy inquisitive Mr. Orders!] assisting and guiding them through the process. By the end of this unique experience, each student group will have created a prototype of their design, as well as a video “pitch” presentation of their creation. Parents are invited to view all these presentations at the online showcase event on May 13th, from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
