Workshop at Ahveniston koulu

On December, 17th, we went to Ahveniston koulu, in Hämeenlinna, to develop an activity with students.

This activity was inspired by a course I've attended in Coursera early this year called Tinkering Fundamentals: A Constructionist Approach to STEM Learning. This course was provided by Exploratorium, "an eye-opening, playful place to explore how the world works", in San Francisco, CA.
The activity we developed with 9th grade students at Ahveniston koulu was the creation of a scribbling machine. We gave them some ideas about the connection between drawing and movement, and we showed an example of such a machine. After that, they were free to create with the available material their own machines. We acted as facilitators, showing them how to solve some problems when necessary.
For me, it was a very interesting opportunity to see joy in learning, and the connection between arts and engineering through free experimentation.
Finns are so quiet (specially when they need to speak in English) that sometimes you don't know if they are really enjoying what you are doing. I hope these students enjoyed this activity. :-)

Here are some photos.

The environment, the classroom of Math.

As pointed out by the Exploratorium guideline for this activity, the environment has a important role. The classroom was just perfect, because it's comfortable, with good lighting and worktables, and students could see the work of their colleagues.

A very short introduction

Work time!

Creation time

Hands on!

First tests

Play time: everybody together!

And now, the video.

Very clever students! Congratulations for them all!

I'd like to thank the support from HAMK, specially Maaret, Marja, and Juuso, and also the teachers at Ahveniston koulu, Tove and Marika. Special thanks also to my colleagues Rodrigo (IFMS) and Carolina (IFRN).