Can you believe what young people can achieve in just 8 lessons? I am absolutely blown away with the creativity, flair and inventions they came up with. Such great examples of what you can achieve in a classroom that provides differentiated, curriculum-linked, integrated learning where the students have agency in their own participation and outcomes.
Massive thanks to the teachers who believed in STEAMpunk adventures and allowed me into their classrooms.
The inaugural STEAMpunk Adventures competition
In conjunction with National Science Week 2020 in Australia, STEAM Engine Global ran an online STEAMpunk Adventures competition: Around YOUR World in Eight Days – A STEAMpunk Exploration.
The teams registered online and were presented with four themes that they could choose from;
- Health & Wellness
- Social Connection & Inclusion
- Environment & Resource Management
- Pick your own / Wildcard
We also provided examples and information about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but to be honest, I really don’t think these young people needed any examples or prompts. As far as I could tell, they took to it like ducks to water and were sprinting before the teachers or I could say READY, SET, GO!
Based on design thinking principles and inquiry based learning, the teams all went through the process of forming teams, assigning roles, exploring their world for problems, researching and documenting their findings, brainstorming ideas to solve the problem, designing solutions, planning how to pitch the invention, and presenting their findings. All this was done over a period of two weeks with less than 8 lessons (thus the name Around YOUR World in Eight Days), and as you will see, it covers multiple learning areas including Design, Digital Technologies, Health and Social Sciences, Literacy, English and the Arts.
The problems they picked
As you will see on the writeup of each individual project, there were some interesting and robust conversations, but each team worked out their own mechanisms for working together and selecting problems. In the end, we ended up with the following 4 projects:
- Team Tree – How might we reverse the effect of trees being chopped down
- Cyber Stoppers – How might we help and empower people who are cyber bullied
- Ocean Heroes – How might we reverse the effect of ocean plastic pollution on turtles
- Voices of the Voiceless – How might we combat the effect of abuse, harassment and violence against girls and women
Let’s take a look at each team.
Cyber Stoppers
This was the submission from from the CYBER STOPPERS team made up of a blend of students from mainstream and EAL/D (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) backgrounds in Year 5 and 6 at a primary school in Australia.
This team was pretty clear from the outset that they wanted to tap into issues around social inclusion and connection and quickly narrowed it down to cyber bullying, which they felt very passionate about. I love the role play and how they have designed and app, and at the same time made sure that they included the number to call for anyone who was experiencing hardship.
As you can see from their pitch, they did in-depth research and ideation, which they used to inform their invention and pitch. The teams were asked to also walk through their journey and what potential challenges they came across.
Ocean Heroes
This was the submission from from the OCEAN HEROES team made up of a blend of students from mainstream and EALD (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) backgrounds in Year 5 and 6 at a primary school in Australia.
This team debated robustly over the ideas in initial brainstorming with passion and intelligence. Despite several viable candidates including helping people with disabilities, the team together decided to work on an environmental project.
Pollution was whittled down to ocean pollution, and specifically what plastic pollution does to turtles. Don’t you love the creativity and the effect of the stop motion video, which they created? And the facts about the Aspergillus tubengensis blended with prawn shells blew my mind.
As you can see from their pitch, they did in-depth research and ideation, which they used to inform the stop motion video pitch with voice overlay.
This team did the walk through of their journey interview style, so we get a bit more insights into how they arrived at their invention.
Team Tree
This was the submission from from the TEAM TREE team made up of a blend of students from mainstream and EAL/D (English as an Additional Language/Dialect) backgrounds in Year 5 and 6 at a primary school in Australia.
This team had some very wild and fun ideas at the beginning, including finding as solution for carpet burn, which according to one student is a major challenge. As a team they decided to tackle a more global issue and focused on our forests being cut down and what that means for the survival of us and our planet.
I love how they decided early on that they wanted to sing a song as their pitch, and as you can see, they researched the problem robustly and came up with a number of potential solutions. They even designed and 3D printed a machine that would plant new trees when we cut down a tree. Unfortunately this did not quite make the cut in the video, but I was impressed that one of the students who had NEVER designed before was able to get up to speed with the program, design and print a small model that could have worked… Did I mention that this was all done in 8 lessons over 2 weeks only?
As you can see from their pitch, they did in-depth research and ideation, which they used to inform their invention and pitch. The teams were asked to also walk through their journey and what potential challenges they came across.
Voices of the Voiceless
This was the submission from from the small VOICES OF THE VOICELESS team of secondary school students from Malawi in Africa.
They started out with an idea about a digital walking stick to help blind people who they felt were very vulnerable in their community. They then went through a whole series of ideas and research, including looking at technological innovations to protect albino people who often are subject to discrimination and violence. In the end, they decided that the problem with violence and abuse of young women was a global problem that needs attention, creativity, collaboration and innovation.
Did I mention that this was all done in 8 sessions over 2 weeks only? As you can see from their pitch, they did in-depth research and ideation, which they used to inform their invention and pitch. The teams were asked to also walk through their journey and what potential challenges they came across. We are currently on hold with next steps for this team because of COVID-19 challenges, but will continue working when things are under control. We think this could be a longer term project.
