During my classroom experience with “hands-on” project/problem based learning I would often hear from colleagues, “The product is not as important as the process.” I think there is truth to that, but during my years of observing / facilitating numerous projects I found it somewhat shortsighted. I’m not saying that the product always has to be polished, however I found that getting the project to be beautiful or stable is where much of the problem solving, art/design and creativity happen. Example: The gizmo you’ve built requires 2-3 people to hold it together while another pushes the button or it doesn’t work or falls apart, versus we got it to work now we have to find a way to house it, have it work consistently and maybe even make it aesthetically pleasing.
Yes, getting the gizmo to work at all or even close to working still involves lots of problem solving, collaboration and all the other goodness that comes from a project. Pushing through to get the gizmo to work and then making it more stable so it is held together with no help and maybe even designing a container that it fits in nicely, get into design and esthetics and an understanding of what goes into making a final product. Throw in making it beautiful by redesigning the container and deciding on color and shape and form adds even more creative exposure. This is some of the hardest work, thinking and problem solving that can happen. How often do students experience that part? I found it can take as long as the initial design.
Again, I’m not saying to go there every time. It’s not feasible because of time and other constraints, but consider it as a powerful piece of learning … even once or twice a school year. The polish piece is an important learning piece that is way too often skipped or not appreciated as valuable. Yes, the process is very important, but don’t forget that getting to a stable, polished design is also very important. Messy, but very important.
Learning is messy!
Hi Mr. Crosby!
You probably don’t remember me, but I was one of your students for a number of years, way back in 2001-2004(?).
I have been trying to find the old “Don’t laugh at me” video you did with us way back then and that let me to your blog after some digging around.
Apparently google and a few other search engines don’t like trying to dig that far back for some old video!
It’s awesome to see that you’re around and still somewhat active in teaching, even if it’s not in school anymore. (Congrats on retirement!).
Anyways, I’ll leave by saying you were a big part of my childhood and that I got into technology because of you.
Thank you for everything!
Stay well.
Evan.
Hi Evan! Of course I remember you! Great to hear from you.
http://www.learningismessy.com/student-videos/
I think this is what you are looking for.
What are you up to now? Don’t Laugh At Me and other projects we did were awesome. I’ll try to email you in a bit.
Great information! I run my school’s robotics team. When do you step in as a teacher to help? Since there is a competition we have that polished goal of being competitive and doing well, but at the same time I want the students to learn. And sometimes the best way to learn to try and fail. Thoughts?
Hi Rosario – The best way to learn is to try and then learn from what didn’t work. That is the hard part on the teacher’s part for sure. No easy answer. I believe you have to weigh a number of things. How much time can you really spend? Trying and failing (as I’m sure you know) takes a lot of time, so as the teacher you have to note where you are on that continuum and jump in with as little help as possible. Encouraging and keeping them motivated is also key. Sometimes even a short break to get a drink of water and take a lap or 2 around the classroom helps. If it’s a group, facilitating a discussion between them (especially if there is real frustration on one or more members’ parts) where you get them to calmly discuss what isn’t working and what different approaches might help. Even get them to make a list of different things to try or research so they have more than one thing that might be a breakthrough so each failure isn’t the end. Have those pep talks about how the stories / movies they see about breakthrough designs alwqys center around solving the seemingly unsolvable problems along the way and how that is what the inventor / problem solver is feted for the most … sticking with it. It’s also what makes it so exhilarating when you are finally successful.
As the time crunch and frustrations tighten then you might have to offer some concrete suggestions that you note OR (if collaboration between groups is OK – sounds like this is competition though) have another group member make suggestions … for me that is more real life. Asking help from colleagues or experts is where engineers and scientists (and others) go all the time.
Hope that helps some at least – not knowing the exact situation you are experiencing makes it tougher to offer thoughts. Feel free to contact me with any follow-up. Learning is messy!
Brian
Brian, the idea of polishing the product as part of the learning process is something I hadn’t considered before and adds so much value to problem solving in the classroom. Through my years as an education major, I have become obsessed with the learning process and helping students focus on how they are getting to their end goal rather than have them hyper-fixate on said end goal and the grade attached. I have long felt that, as a whole, the American education system has greatly devalued the learning process to make way for standardized testing. We’ve made learning a linear process rather than allowing it to be dynamic and divergent. Of course, there are teachers across the country that are attempting to break the mold, but even as I observe and work in schools prior to student teaching and having a classroom of my own, I notice that there are still some teachers giving lectures, doing homework papers, and giving tests over and over. Does this actually support the learning of our students? A handful, yes, but does it engage our students? My guess is no. If we can get teachers and students to invest into their learning process equally instead of just the end, I think we could begin to revolutionize the system.