James Linzel

I’m in the position of having a predefined design challenge to solve. My challenge is to co-design with my colleague a integrated grade nine geography [CGC1W] and grade nine science [SNC1W] course.

When using SPARC, the initial question focused on our ideal day and what prevents that ideal day from happening. The line of questioning led us to a position that is beyond our control. That is the structure of the school day. My colleague and I have already been given approval to attend Cohort21 to help us gain time and guidance and ideas on how to structure and delivery the learning activities for our students.

At this time, the line of questioning by SPARC has been previously, satisfactorily resolved at this time. Perhaps in the future we will need to reengage administration to create next steps.

Our current challenge is to follow up our first learning challenge with an equally engaging experience. Our first challenge asked our students to refine and define the Driving Question of How does Ashbury shape us? Most student teams refined the question to ask how social events, or boarding influenced their well being. Given a VERY short timeline, the students needed to define their audience, design a survey to collect evidence, analyze the evidence, and present their findings. Now that I describe the steps, I remember how well they did as they presented to their peers and a few members of the leadership team.

How do we follow this up?

Our second question, “How do natural processes shape the land we live on?”, is focused on the physical geography & chemistry of Earth’s formation. My concern lies with the fact that at this time there is a lack of life. I’m wary of a lack of emotional connection. We are struggling with the design of the Final Response, BUT it offers the opportunity to have a personal connection. We shall see.

Stay tuned.