Applying Our Learning

The other day, we were talking about an article that we read. It dealt with using oysters to filter pollution from the water in Hudson Bay. We talked for a while about how that would work and how an ecosystem like that works in general. Later in the discussion, we related the oysters of Hudson Bay to our own enclosed aquaponics ecosystem in the media center. Right now, we have a fish tank hooked up to an aquaponics system and we are trying to grow strawberries and lettuce. It has been a disappointing venture. Something is not working correctly and we have yet to come up with a solution.

Some of the kiddos thought they could take a look at the system and determine the problem and come up with a solution. Being of the mind that kids should be doing most of the learning through hands-on experiences, I took them up on their offer. A couple of the kids came down to the media center and looked over the system. I explained what I thought was the problem. Right now, we have a dozen or so fish in the tank and a system that holds over 90 plants. That is far too many and most of the plants have died off. The boys were determined to save the still-living plants and maybe plant a few more seeds to see if the system would support them.

First off, they determined that the top deck of the system was too close to the light and the top needed to be taken off. That is probably true but it isn't feasible to take the top deck off of the system at this time. Instead, they moved all of the living plants to the bottom deck so that the light would not be as intense. They also moved the plants to areas of the deck where the light would be enough to grow them but not too intense as to burn them up. They also pulled out the roots of all of the dead plants and allowed more water flow. 

This is the first tweak to the system. The kids are going to check in every few days to see if their changes are working and, if not, tweak some more. They are learning through hypothesizing and experimenting, experiential learning. What they learn from this project will stick with them, I'm sure. 

This is another area of the media center that will be run by students. In our library, we try to get the kids to take over as many of the duties as possible, from checking in and checking out books, to helping set up new areas of the library, to brainstorming ideas to make the library even more of a draw for the kids in our school. We feel that we have 500 kids' brains brimming with ideas and we would be foolish not to tap into those ideas. Our media center is still evolving into the kid-friendly learning wonderland that we hope it will be. We feel that we are well on our way to that goal. 

Reading Marketplace Prize-a-palooza

How do you hook kids into reading when reading may not be their favorite thing to do? Well, I always say that kids who don't love reading just haven't found "their books" yet. It is true. Once kids find the books and authors that they love, they become voracious readers. But what do we do to entice them to try books? How do we get them to read certain authors? Forcing them doesn't work. Demanding it doesn't work. Assigning it doesn't work. They may read and find it "boring" and become kids who hate reading. That is not what we want. We must hook them, and sometimes we have to entice them with...prizes!

At Lely Elementary, we started a Reading Marketplace Prize-a-palooza where kids can "spend" the points they earned in the Reading Counts Program. Kids read books, take a short quiz, pass the quiz, accumulate points, and on Marketplace Day, spend those points. This is the way we entice kids to give reading a shot and to try different authors. Sometimes, the power of the prize really works with elementary school kiddos. It certainly did for us. 

Kids were so excited to spend their points on prizes ranging from 1-150 points. We had put together a selection of prizes that ranged from mini-fridges and stuffed animals to passes for Maker Space time in the media center or extra recess. 

Each class had a half hour to shop the marketplace. We had separated high-point prizes in one room and lower-point prizes in a connecting room. Kids walked through the high-point room and, if they had enough points, could purchase anything in the room. Then we moved to the lower-point room and everyone spent their points there. We did not allow kids to "save" points; they had to spend them all, and they did. 

Our kids were incredibly excited to visit the marketplace. Already they were making plans for the next quarter and the books they would read and the points they would accumulate. We have most of the kids hooked. Now, it's time to use that hook to steer them toward "their books". It would be a waste if we did not work with their natural motivation and help them become intrinsically-motivated, voracious readers. Now that they are open to reading more books, we can figure out which books they will love most. We can use their interests to turn them on to authors they will love and find books similar to the ones they already love. 

It is not our end goal to give prizes for reading. The prizes are a means to an end. Our end goal is to help develop lifelong readers. In order to do that, we have to get kids to love reading. The Prize-a-palooza was one step in the process and now we must take that enthusiasm for reading and continue to show kids the wonders of reading. If we get them to love reading now, we have set them up for much success in their futures.