Erin: You guys had some struggles at the end of the prototyping, right? I noticed on your collaboration log a disagreement about how one of the parts was going to be shaped.

Because we really focus on collaboration at this school, students are more successful in their projects.

Student: I flipped it, so that was my bad.

Erin: When they graduate from here, they’re going to be really good at working with people, in the workforce or in college. More than knowledge, collaboration is something that they can carry forward and use in the future.

You feel good about that? Okay.

Our mission is to train future leaders and innovators who can go out into the world and problem solve.

John: I think collaboration really improves your work a lot, because it brings you new ideas that you would not have thought of before.

Ray: You can’t just be like, “Hey, my idea’s the best and you guys just leave me alone.” You have to figure out a way to incorporate everyone so that it can turn out a good product in the end.

Student: I think it goes there.

Erin: So at our school, project based learning really provides authentic opportunities for students to collaborate from grade six through eight. So when they come to eighth grade, they can really analyze their collaboration a little bit more.

Today we’re working on our final models. All of you should be done with your prototyping at this point, assembling the parts that you’ve cut out.

John: My partner and I are modelling where the Indian plate meets the Eurasian plate, and how they collide to form the Himalayas.

Ray: So the Himalayas is a continental convergent. Two continental plates are going towards each other.

Erin: At the beginning of each class, we ask them to fill out the goals and roles chart.

Ray: Okay, so I put that you were going to sketch and cut fabric.

Erin: If the group sets out really clear tasks that each person is going to work on, they’re more motivated to get the work done, and it’s a lot easier to hold them accountable for doing that work.

John: When you’re collaborating, as you move through the project, we kind of learned what each other was good at.

Ray: I’m better at duct taping and he’s better at like, the table foam cutter. I’m more of a perfectionist so like, I’ll do the small details and he’ll do the bigger ones.

John: So yep, I think it goes a lot easier.

We’ve gone through a lot of like, stages and changes.

Student: And if we can’t get it straight, we can just sand it a little bit.

Student: Yeah.

John: But you have to be willing to compromise to make the product better.

Student: Yeah, that’s good.

Erin: All right, everyone, it’s time to transition to collaboration logs and doing our–

At the end of the period, they’re going to reflect on whether they met their goals and fill out their collaboration log.

Ray: I feel like we both had a good attitude towards the project. Then is the next participation?

John: Participation.

So all the group members grade each other on whether we were on task, participating, communicating.

Student: I feel like you should also get a one in communication, because you didn’t talk to us, most of the last period.

Student: Do you agree with that?

Ray: You did good on the duct tape. It was your first time trying it and so I feel like you should get a two in that.

Collaboration logs are a great way to communicate to your group members about how they’re working, because sometimes your partners don’t realize that they’re not collaborating that well.

Ray: I like it, because I like to know what I can improve upon, what I could do better.

John: The teacher can also see the collaboration log.

Erin: I think lately you haven’t been providing specific evidence, and you haven’t been reflecting as much.

I look at the logs on a semi-regular basis and hope the group problem solve.

I’ve noticed in your collaboration log lately that you’ve been taking away points for not managing your time very well.

Ray: Yeah.

Erin: Is there something that you’ve planned to do to kind of make adjustments for that?

Ray: Well, like, the more we do it, I feel like the better we get at it, and so I–

Collaboration, it’s a big part of life, because you learn how to work with different types of people, so that later on, when you’re in college or your job, you can work with those types of people in the real world.

Erin: I always tell students at the beginning of the project, if you get collaboration skills out of this, I’m going to be happy. You may or may not use your knowledge of plate tectonics in the future, but you will definitely use collaboration.

Student: We came up with the best decisions for what we want to do so far.

Schools That Work

Dayton Regional STEM School