Now that the 3rd graders have gotten information from many sources about possible solutions for the problems with noise and trash in the cafeteria, they are narrowing down their suggestions.  Because they learned from their Systems Thinking lessons that it’s important to see the ideas from other perspectives, they did an activity called, “Framing” this Tuesday to consider how other people might be effected by each idea.  These perspectives included: the school principal, the custodians, teachers, other students, parents, and staff who work in the cafeteria.  They showed surprising insight on some of the issues that might come up!

The 3rd graders also worked on another collaborative math problem, but we mixed it up this time and did mixed-gender teams.  One team did great, while the other had a difficult time communicating with each other.  However, they both were able to solve the challenge through perseverance.

Another activity 3rd grade did was to add their creative products to the “Squiggle Challenge” all of my GT students are participating in.  The challenge comes from a school in Minnesota, and it will be interesting to see all of the different ways students can find to transform the same squiggle!