Primary
Sophie Poisel – Head of Innovations & Digital Technologies K – 6
Slow looking to explore the complexity of systems at our fingertips
One of my favourite thinking routines from Harvard’s Project Zero encourages students to slow down, look closely and explore the complexity of objects. The Parts Purposes Complexities thinking routine enables students to make detailed observations of an object and think about how the parts work together as a system. It is in this way that students can begin to understand the complexity of objects and develop their understanding of systems thinking. This routine stimulates curiosity, questions, surfaces areas for further inquiry and assists in identifying misconceptions.
This was one of the routines a group of Primary School teachers learnt during the Harvard Maker Centered Learning course in 2018, and continue to embed in learning opportunities with students.
Some examples of how we have used this routine this term include:
- Looking closely to explore the complexity of a codapillar robot in Kindergarten. Here the students have clearly identified how the parts of this system work together to make the robot move, as well as areas to further develop such as misconceptions about what is inside the robot. A brilliant follow up learning opportunity would be taking apart this robot to see what components make this robot work.
- Explore the complexity of microscopes and think about their purpose with Year 3 students. This has uncovered what the students know already about the use of microscopes, and their curiosity to use one to try and see small things. An interesting conversation followed about how microscopes could be used to see germs, and discover new viruses and invent vaccines. Following this, students were given the opportunity to view some plants, as per the following example.
- Building an understanding the complexity of plants using microscopes with Year 3 students. When asked to draw a range of plants, as part of a Living World investigation, students began to draw representations of the plants they were looking at. Following explicit feedback from myself and their peers, the students began drawing what they were actually seeing. Their drawings moved from representations of flowers that they already knew how to draw, to drawing the shapes they could see. Students then looked at these plants through the microscopes and were excited by the detail they saw. We were also lucky to see a tiny caterpillar crawl out of one of the lavender flowers. A great conversation ensued about the pattern on the creature’s skin and being able to see the creature’s heartbeat or how it breathes. The ‘horns’ all over the creature’s body also led to an interesting discussion including that they “are used to sense what is around them”.
Students aren’t empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge from their teachers and other adults. Using Thinking Routines such as Parts Purposes Complexities and carefully designed provocations, we can ignite curiosity, and, uncover and clarify current understandings.
