Special Promotion
InnovatIon In EducatIon Starting Middle School at Pickering College means more hands-on, project-based learning — with impressive results Switching to a new school can be daunting. At Pickering College, Grade 6 is an ideal entry year — it marks the starting point of Middle School, when students split from one class into two. It’s also the year in which greater emphasis is placed on project-based, hands-on learning. Grade 6 teachers Amanda Hamm and Jacqueline Wurangian recently led their students through one such project — an innovative flight project that saw them construct prototypes of planes. “They had to design a prototype that would fly in a straight path using their knowledge of air and flight,” Hamm says. Students received lessons about air and flight, designed their creations using blueprints, recorded scientific procedures and built models. Then came the moment of truth. Would the planes
fly? And what if they didn’t? Turns out, failure is welcome — a key part of the discovery process. “The first prototype will never be perfect so they have to figure out how, using their knowledge, to make it fly in a straight line,” Hamm says. Adds Wurangian, “Getting around the idea that their concept was not successful and finding out what can they do to improve it is critical.” Students pick their own materials, often foam board, duct tape, cardboard or balsa wood. Recyclable materials are emphasized and projects are done entirely in class, so there’s no help from mom or dad. Planes ready, students pitch to an “aeronautical engineering company,” a panel of teachers, for a chance to hone their oral presentation skills. They tackle the projects