A national dialogue has formed around gun violence, thanks to the efforts of very brave young people. The following video chronicles the story of my students using a maker-ed and design thinking challenge to create an object or performance to start a dialogue around the events and central themes in Kekla Magoon's award winning novel How It Went Down.
My instructional design process leveraged methodologies ranging from the human-centered design practices of the LUMA Institute, visible thinking strategies as outlined by Harvard School of Education's Project Zero, and the process of guided inquiry as articulated by Trev MacKenzie.
Our student products and performances were all inspired by the themes of Magoon's novel, including but not limited to the topics of gun violence, underrepresented communities, criminal justice system reform, racial profiling and the way that statistics (on race and violence) are reported, street art, and so much more.
Students built robots, recorded podcasts, created infographics and other forms of data visualizations, composed slide decks for presentations, and wrote spoken word poetry to share at a whole-school assembly. Inspired by the work of the students articulating their vision, many adults and classmates in other grades requested copies of How It Went Down and thus began an impromptu community book club.
The Fluency Project at Carnegie Mellon University's Community Robotics, Education and Technology Laboratory (CREATE Lab) presented powerful stories on building cultures of community around technology and making. I was honored to present our story as a member of the Fluency Project cohort at YOUMedia in Chicago, Illinois.
Every Friday, a group of 15 dedicated Holy Family Academy juniors and seniors commute to Garfield for an entire morning of STEM-fueled, social justice themed making, building, and creating. Along with Ms. Jennifer Lanas and teaching artists, Ms. Shannon and Mr. Paul, the Assemble Activation Club builds the essential skills and dispositions that will help them to not only develop creative confidence today, but also co-power our students to become kind, ethical agents of change and leaders in the world beyond Holy Family Academy. (Excerpted from a press release published in the Holy Family Academy November newsletter)
