Spicewood Elementary School The IB encourages students to be inquirers, thinkers, and actively responsible for their own learning. With that said, we explore the design process with our students in a few units of inquiry, Day of Global Design, design challenges in the library, and during our annual STEAM Day. Opportunities like these allow our students to foster an innovative spirit in addition to instilling higher order thinking and questioning.
Our fifth graders are currently working on an exciting project in our atrium space. The students identified that although this space is loved by our community, it lacks information for any visitors to learn about the plants, pond, turtles, and history of this unique space. In order for students to be able to create an interactive and informative place, they first had to do some research and learn more about how museums use interactivity to increase the engagement from its visitors.
With the help of our 5th grade teachers, IB Coordinator, Mrs. Vance, and ITS, Mrs. Haney, students explored museums around the country online, viewed different informative brochures and maps, experienced a few VR tours of historic places around the world, in addition to researching more about museum curators and the thinking that goes behind a museum installation.
We’re excited to see how this innovative project unfolds! In the meantime, feel free to explore our Interactive Atrium Project website. We’ll be sharing updates on the Spicewood website and Twitter (@SpicewoodPYP).