Crew Young lead learning!

By J Smith14th February 2019

This week crew Young visited Crew Mandela to deliver a session on the method of loci. The method of loci (loci being Latin for “places”) is a method of memory enhancement which uses visualisations with the use of spatial memory, familiar information about one’s environment, to quickly and efficiently recall information. The method of loci is also known as the memory journey, memory palace, or mind palace technique. Crew Mandela found the method extremely useful and all students improved their memory of a single list of words!

 

Say Hello to Jeff!

By J Smith6th February 2019

This is Jeff! Jeff was the creation of Alfie and Adam in Pioneer STEAM expedition ‘Why Me?’

Jeff was the product of genetic inheritance. Pioneer found that some characteristics are controlled by a single gene, such as fur in animals and red-green colour blindness in humans. Each gene might have different forms, and these are called alleles. The monster Jeff shows the dominant and recessive genes in shown in the Phenotypes! Great work Pioneer!

Earth and Air Reboot

By J Smith12th December 2018

Expedition Earth and Air has taken a backseat in recent months due to other expeditions being completed by E24. Crew Mandela have been the first students in XPE to use the brilliant new workshop facility to complete their final product plaques. The plaques will be put into the ground to commemorate the tree planting in the school grounds. The crew worked extremely well and showed great care and craftsmanship and quality when using potentially dangerous equipment.

 

E24 Expedition Consolidation and Revision

By J Townson12th December 2018

E24 are gearing up for their final assessment in STEAM by revising the content we have covered in our expedition A Place Of Our Own.  They used a scaffold to support their summary notes of the main concepts and key words, using colour, text and images to highlight the information in ways which they felt were most meaningful to them.  Here they are sharing best practice and supporting one another in filling in any gaps in their knowledge:

What does it take to design a place of our own?

By Katie Haughey7th December 2018

C24 have been working in both maths and art on applying their knowledge of geometry and architecture to create blueprints of their own Eco-school. We firstly estimated the length and width of our own classroom in metres, which we then validated by collectively measuring the room, so we’d know roughly what size we’d need to scale the blueprints up to.

We then used computer aided design – an app called Room Sketcher. The students realised the minimum area for a classroom to cater to 25 students was 42m squared. The students then populated their classrooms with items that the Architect expert who visited in October had suggested on her blueprint of XP East.

 

Here are Libby and Alesha’s designs! I can’t wait until we get them finished next week. I love how Alesha has started to develop specialised classrooms and learning spaces. Libby used inspiration from our architect expert and used the adaptable sliding doors.

Another extremely stand-out piece of work was Callie’s extended study. She has re-created the corridor that my classroom lies on. I was blown away by her efforts and craftsmanship and quality – even down to the desk arrangements!

Here’s the link to the app for any C24ers who would like to carry on with their designs.

E24 STEAM: Biodiversity in ecosystems

By J Townson4th December 2018

E24 have been Working Hard learning about biodiversity in ecosystems through the use of diagrams to illustrate data: food chains, food webs, pyramids of number and pyramids of biomass.  Brendan was really proud of the effort he had put into his food web, drawing coloured circles around each organism to show whether it was a producer or different types of consumer; Theone’s food chain incorporated colour coding and a key; Mackenzie’s pyramid of numbers was a good example of a scale diagram drawn with a pencil and ruler.

How do we build an Eco School of our own?

21st November 2018J Townson

E24’s most recent STEAM Learning Target was “I can evaluate to what extent my school meets the criteria to become an Eco School”. The Guiding Question for this joint HUMAN-STEAM expedition is “How can we build a place of our own?”

They researched what it takes to apply for Eco School Bronze Accreditation and presented their findings to E25 students; consequently they drummed up so much interest we now have 47 nominees for 8 positions on the new Eco Committee!

E24 students then carried out their own Environmental Reviews of the school, identifying what we are doing well and what we could improve on across 10 topic areas. Thank you to all the staff who helped in answering questions ranging from “do school meals use fish from sustainable sources?” to “what steps have XP East taken to reduce energy usage?” All of this builds on the work we have been doing since September on energy usage, sustainability and efficient building design.

Finally the students each created their own Action Plan with suggestions which the final Eco Committee may take forward in the real whole-school Action Plan. Here are photographs of a selection, including Nathan’s, which considered increasing student intake of fruit at sporting events; through live class critique of his work on the board Nathan could share his original ideas as well as gain constructive feedback as to how to improve his answers in the ‘monitoring’ column.


Watch this space to learn more about who is selected by their Crews for positions on the Eco Committee as well as the Committee’s final three focus topics for the school Action Plan…

E24 Pioneer/Explorer Extended Study: Sustainable building design write-up

By J Townson11th October 2018

Both 8 Pioneer and 8 Explorer have an extended writing task for which the deadline is next Thursday 18th October.  The question is How was XP East sustainably designed around the principle of…? – the students complete the title by including their personal area of interest following the visit from XP East’s architect, Leanne Stamp, last week. 

All the resources to support this task, including the assessment rubric, are available on Google Classroom and students have been given time in a number of sessions this week to begin their writing, with peer-critique of their work and class-critique of WAGOLLs to support their development of ideas.

The majority of students will type their final draft, but if they have limited access at home to devices they will be permitted to handwrite their work in their book.

Please do email me if you have any questions.

Mrs Townson

C24 Expert visit from architect, Leanne Stamp

By J Townson7th October 2018

Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming Leanne Stamp, the architect who designed our school, to XP East.  It was not the first time Leanne had visited the school, but she expressed her joy at finally seeing the school full of students, staff and furniture and being used just as she had envisaged!

Both 8Pioneer and 8Explorer demonstrated excellent focus during each of her two hour sessions, in which she detailed her role as an architect and explained where it fitted into a wider team; she also shared with our students the design principles behind developing a building from concept to actual use, before setting up a group activity for them to apply these principles to the design of XP East.

This week we have followed up Leanne’s visit by consolidating our notes, using marketplace activities to share our learning from the group work sessions.  8Pioneer students have each chosen an area of the design principles which interests them and 8Explorer will identify their own areas of interest next week.  Each student will use this area of interest as the focus for a piece of extended writing on how XP East was sustainably designed and how we could develop it in the future.

Many thanks to all of our students for their questions, keen interest and for demonstrating the Character Traits during Leanne’s visit, particularly those of Respect and Craftsmanship and Quality.  I really enjoyed the day and I know it was a turning point in the expedition for many of our students, as it really brought the importance of sustainability to the fore.