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 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:
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.
After a fantastic couple of weeks of SLCs, we decided that yes, we’re smart, but it would be even better if we were even SMARTER!
So we decided to do a silent discussion around what ‘Get Smart’ looks like, feels like, and sounds like.
Fin seemed to enjoy it.
Crew Ali are halfway through their SLCs now; congratulations to Cerys, Charlie, Tom, Leoni and Marshall for completing theirs to such a high standard. I feel privileged to be included in this process and have been really impressed at the attention to detail our students have put into preparing for what is a challenging, nerve-wracking but also empowering process. Feedback from parents has been positive and the critique the students are giving one another in Crew and outside of sessions is absolutely crucial in improving their delivery. Charlie said the ‘fishbowl’ activity he had done with Leoni and Kristian (Crew Parkinson) in Extended Study had provided him with “great feedback” to help him prepare for his SLC at the end of last week.
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.
A reminder to all students in E24 Explorer that the portfolio piece showing at least three of the four ecosystem diagrams (food chain, food web and pyramid of numbers) is due tomorrow in your STEAM lesson. The lesson slides are on Google Classroom if you need support.
Many thanks, Mrs Townson
C24’s X-Block product has finally become a reality thanks to help from our expert Hannah from Sheffield Print Club, and I am delighted to say I absolutely love how they have turned out!
This Monday and Tuesday the Year 8 groups have been in a screen printing workshop, picking up new skills and creating more beautiful work to contribute to their final product. Their learning target for this term has been ‘I can create a 2 layer screen print of a Doncastrian building’ and it has required weeks of preparation. Our product started in immersion week, where we took a gallery walk to check out the local architecture, taking pictures as we went.
Since then, in Art C24 have been creating detailed drawings and fact files of a building of their choice. Seven images were then shortlisted to be the top layer in our screen print designs for the product. We took inspiration from Andy Warhol’s screen prints, and his fascination with creating artwork from the everyday, from items such as soup cans and brillo pads. We used this theme to bring some old, and in some cases rather rundown and underappreciated buildings across Donny back to life.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to Hannah, who was with us for the two days and managed to pull off a small miracle, creating 250 prints, with 49 students in the short 3 hour workshops. It couldn’t have been pulled off without everyone pitching in during de-gunge. All three sessions were a delight to supervise, and I was immensely appreciative of the year 8s for making this such a success.
It’s felt impossible choosing which prints ended up on this blog post, I was so happy with all the work that has been created. Seeing C24 produce such high quality work just goes to show how many budding artists we have here at XP East.
Also, getting to specialise in a digital-free and rather uncommon trade, in an age where technology is involved in most of our everyday processes has been really refreshing. We discussed how unique each students 5 prints truly were, and that if we’d done this using computer aided design or manufacture, the work wouldn’t be as special.
I’ve always dreamed of owning my own Warhol pop art print, but I have got to say, that I think I’d rather hang a few of these up in my living room instead.
We have been working towards answering our guiding question ‘What does it take to build a place of our own?’ Part of that consists of looking at what we already have. Doncaster is rich in cultural and architectural history, and it has been wonderful being able to appreciate that in this expedition.
Stay tuned for more info on what’s coming up next for C24 and their final product launch!
Here’s what they had to say on the matter:
Zach H: “I feel ecstatic and am looking forward to my SLC!”
Jacob: “I’m looking forward to my SLC because I have put a lot of hard work into it and I would like to see them to see what I have been up to in my academic studies AND HOWLs.”
Finley: “I feel excited because I haven’t done an SLC before and I’m excited to show my parents my work.”
Nikodem: “I am really looking forward to my SLC because I can’t wait to share my progress in learning.”
Lilly: “I am really excited and well prepared for my SLC. I can’t wait to share all my work. However, I am still a bit nervous.”
Zach M: “I am really ready because I feel that I’m really prepared and I’m really focussed on the work that I’m doing.”
Woody: “I feel good about it because I’m ready for anything.”
Thea: “I feel good about my SLC and I am excited to show my parents my work.”
Lucie-Mae: “I’m feeling organised but excited to share what I have done here to my mum.”
Denim: “I’m feeling organised and read to do my SLC. I’m excited to talk in front of my parents and share my work with them and share who I am as a learner.”
James: “I feel confident towards my SLC because I have prepared so much and worked really hard on it.”
Faith: “I am really well prepared and excited for my SLC. I can’t wait to present my beautiful work to my parents.”
GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!
This week I’ve met with almost every member of Crew Turing to discuss the progress they’ve made on the SLC script. We’ve spent 20 minutes doing a read through and making little tweaks, focusing on the craftsmanship and quality of their scripts.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed catching up with my crew and taking 20-30 minutes out of our days to review and reflect on their work. I am so proud of their portfolios and the graft they are putting into the re-drafting process – their hard work is really paying off. Also, drinking 10 hot chocolates in the space of 5 days has got to be a highlight of my week, it must be said!
The thought of having to stand up in front of my Mum, Grandma and form teacher at just 11/12 years old to present my work in a conference that I was running seems impossibly daunting. Looking back through my old workbooks, I feel no attachment to any of the pieces I completed, it was just another task to be finished and handed in.
Knowing my crew, getting a preview of their beautiful work, and seeing the new-found confidence that 10 weeks here at XP East has given them, I anticipate this SLC period is going to be one of celebration and pride.
Parents & guardians, you’re in for a treat!
