Today’s students are moving beyond the basics and embracing the 4C’s — “super skills” for the 21st century! The Four C’s include:
Communication Sharing thoughts, questions, ideas, and solutions
Collaboration Working together to reach a goal — putting talent, expertise, and smarts to work
Critical Thinking Looking at problems in a new way, linking learning across subjects & disciplines
Creativity Trying new approaches to get things done equals innovation & invention
Build a bridge that can transport a marble from one side of your desk to the other without touching the desktop using only the the materials in your bag.
It was a great Friday afternoon activity in the Underwood Laboratory. The groups began by brainstorming and sharing their ideas. Learning to communicate with each other was a big part of the success of the teams. Then they collaborated to determine what part of each persons ideas they might use to build their bridge. Each group came up with a different design, which really surprised me. Then came the critical thinking as they all tested their bridges. This was followed with improvements or changes to make it work better. It was especially fun to listen to the conversations and reasons behind their decisions. Finally, I saw the creativity dancing in their eyes as they designed interesting elements to make their bridge look “cool” or “pretty”. One group made a “chair” to catch their marble.
At the end of the activity we reflected on our learning. One group decided that their team struggled with communication because they didn’t listen to each other very well (what an honest observation!). Another learning for me was watching one of the groups include a special needs students in our class. They encouraged him to look up pictures of bridges on the iPad and choose a cool design. He looked at the materials they had been given and decided that folding a paper plate in half would give the best visual likeness to the bridge they had found a picture of on the internet. I was so proud of this group for being inclusive during their collaboration period as well as allowing every member to be creative.
I am looking forward to our next STEM activity. Watching and guiding young students as they learn how to incorporate the important 21st century skills; communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity helped to remind me why I teach.