Play-based learning is at the heart of everything we do at Playful Engineers. And that’s why we encourage teachers to follow our 3 step sequence, making the most of the materials, and of what we have to offer as play-based teaching artists, before, during, and after our sessions. We’ve based it on our experience working with kids in hundreds of schools, our thinking also informed by principles of Constructionism and Universal Design for Learning.
Allowing time for unguided activities makes room for play – in this instance, socially-driven play – to be childrens’ best guide for self-directed learning. By making room for play before and after the instruction, kids may arrive at a deeper understanding of specific ideas presented by the teaching artist, and gain a broader context for the associated hands-on activities during the sessions.
A sequence like this one should directly increase the benefits to the students, for any costs of materials or fees for a program such as ours.
*This sequence can be modified to fit both In-Person and Online sessions with the teaching artists*
Phase 1) Pre-Workshop Activities: exploration, discovery
Teachers introduce the workshop materials before the session, allowing plenty of time for random exploration, discovery, and generation of creative ideas. Through this unguided, socially driven play, kids explore and test their own and their classmates’ ideas about what’s possible.
Make time for post-activity discussion. Afterwards, students see a video from Playful Engineers which introduces our teaching artists, and outlines what to expect from the upcoming session
Invite us to view classroom pics, videos, comments and questions through a google doc, Flip, or platform, or before the visit, to enhance connection and engagement.
Phase 2) Facilitated Workshop: demonstration, inspiration, replication (from instruction to construction)
This is the visit with our teaching artist. They greet the kids, then proceed to demonstrate and explain the basics of the mechanisms we’ll be building together. A good number of specific mechanisms are shown, in which the materials, techniques and purposes for constructing them is given context.
Hands-on activities follow. Kids may team up, or work on their own. Some will work on replicating what they’ve just been shown, and some will go their own way, and everything in -between – each at their own pace, and to their own level of ability and understanding. We think of this as a playground, but for fine motor skills, and not so much running and jumping around!
Phase 3) After the workshop: extension, integration, and reflection
Now teachers allow the class to access the materials, or gather new ones, for a longer period of time. Try polling the class for ideas as to how they’d like to set it up. Competition, total freedom, solo work – what fits best for your classroom, and your teaching style, from free-form chaos to guided, curriculum-relevant activities.
Observe how students might have picked up specific approaches from earlier phases, and how these might be integrated with their own creative approaches and ideas. Allow time for student-driven discussion, and allow for non-verbal forms of expression here – does anyone want to draw a picture of their ideas?
Make available more time, space, materials, books, videos, and other teaching resources to the class, watching especially for any students that seem want to deepen their understanding, skills, and relationship to this type of work/play.