“Hurry
hurry drive the fire truck”
A four year old M is
always interested in vehicles. As per his request, one day we started making a
fire truck out of a cereal box. We cello taped and glued together different
materials to make it look like a fire truck. When it was time to add wheels, he
found four milk can lids and asked me to fix it. I fixed it with hot glue gun,
but he was not happy with it. He wanted rotating wheels. We brainstormed and
thought of fixing the ‘wheels’ with nails, so marched to the carpentry area. We
passed the nails through the ‘wheel’ and the ‘truck’. Now the wheels were rotating but it was
coming out often, so he was frustrated. We found some fat screw nails among the
nails and I asked M to try with that. He screwed it with a screw driver and attached the tops to
the truck loosely (tool technology). Now the truck rides with the turning wheels. He was very
happy and we sang together “Hurry hurry drive the fire truck…..” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jo5cCmbnWTc#
Through this experience, M and I became familiar with the mechanism and technology used in this creative art. Now he knows that red paper is required for fire truck and needs to cut paper in the shape of ladder and lights (Materials technology). He developed his technological knowledge of how to bind things and how to make moving wheels. He also developed the ability to represent his discovery, using creative media and technology associated with it by designing the bus and making the wheels rotate (Ministry of Education, 1996). As per Smorti’s (1999) reading, M showed his technological skills by solving his problem. He was creative and purposeful in his activity which met his needs through the development of the product. With my help he solved the problems of fixing different materials with cello tape and glue and making the wheels turn. He was creative by using an appropriate cereal box and finding the milk can lids for the bus. We jointly used our knowledge, skills and resources and found solution for our problem.
Since
I have a creative mind, I have been doing creative activities with the
children, but this was the first time I was making a vehicle with rotating
wheels. M’s persistence made my technological mind work. I never knew I could
relate this process to technology till this course started. Now I keep my eyes
open to observe the technologies that we use every day in the centre life. I am
going to teach the children the technologies that are connected with every
activity they do in the centre. I know now that “A project is emergent and
negotiated, rather than pre-planned by the teacher, thereby encouraging
children to generate creative solutions to problematic situations” (Fleer & Jane, 2011,
p.221).
Yesterday, when I opened the store, M spotted a pram with a
missing wheel. He suggested that we could make something in place of the fourth
wheel. I take it as a challenge and going to brainstorm with M to make a new
wheel. “Got any ideas friends?”
References
Fleer, M., & Jane, B. (2011). Design and
technology for children.Frenchs Forest ,
Australia :
Pearson Australia
MacNaughton,
G., & Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children:
Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs Forrest, NSW, Australia
Ministry of
Education. (1996). Te Whāriki: He whāriki matauranga mō ngā mokopuna o
Aotearoa: Early childhood curriculum .Wellington, New
Zealand
Smorti,
S. (1999) Technology in early childhood. Early Education, 1, 5-10.
The New Zealand Curriculum. (2007). Curriculum achievement objectives by learning area. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum
The New Zealand Curriculum. (2007). Curriculum achievement objectives by learning area. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/Curriculum-documents/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum
Hi Judy, this was a very interesting piece of technology you wrote about vehicles, but more importantly aboout rotating wheels. It was very interesting to see how much you have developed throughout the whole process you had had with M. As you mentioned in your reflection, I too also believe that there a lot of tools and objects that surround our centres in which we do not take notice that they are technology. As well as this, it was great to see how much support you had shown towards M throughout his experience with rotating wheels. I do agree with Miyuki above, maybe with your next invention of pram wheels maybe you could then include other children who may be interested therefore all children feel welcome and involved. Moreover, if the children decide to work with another object that contains wheel maybe they can all plan something together and figure out how they will be able to do so. Great Job with your reflection Judy, I enjoyed reading and learning more about your experiences with other types of technology that we would not normally consider as technology.
ReplyDeleteOnce again Judy who have written a reflection with the whole process and steps that you have taken to develop the fire truck. It shows your commitment to `M’s learning and developing his concepts and love for technology. I believe you taught M to be persistent during solving a problem. The end product is a great fire truck. As Miyuki and Grace suggested `M’ can now engage with his peers with his knowledge about making a truck and share it with others in order to further refine his skills. I do agree to the fact that unplanned projects enhance children’s creative thinking and problem solving skills. Towards the end of the reflection you mentioned that M is actively looking around for things that will help him practice his new found knowledge and refine it. I wish you both an enjoyable technological journey where so much learning is promoted. As New Zealand curriculum states, “students learn to be innovative developers of products and systems” (Ministry of Education, 2007. p.17).
ReplyDelete“Technology is about helping people and solving problems”. (Smorti, 1999, p.5) This reflection supports this quote. The child’s learning has been scaffold by the teacher by directing him to the carpentry table, providing the necessary materials to fix his problem to make the wheels move. This experience developed the child’s capability and interest and curiosity in solving more problems using other materials. I think your next step to solve your pram problem would be to get other children involve in the investigation. You can help them brainstorm the ideas and encourage them to try and asses which work effectively. You will be surprised with the number of ideas children come up with. Thank you Judy for sharing this experience .Your appeal for asking ideas to solve this problem shows your persistence and commitment.
ReplyDeleteYou have found out a lot of different kinds of technology through helping 'M''s hands on learning. It is true the technologies that we use every day in the centre are as you mentioned in your reflection. Doing creative activity will meet a lot of challenges and require problem solving skills. It is amazing to see that 'M' is now able to instruct us how to make vehicles out of empty boxes, and how to add rotating wheels onto it.
ReplyDeleteYou could encourage him to get involved with his peers next time. His peers might be able to develop their knowledge of rotating technology, or they even might have different ideas to make more interesting vehicles. You could get information about vehicles from the internet such as You-tube and show it to your students on a computer. As you know there are a lot of different kinds of vehicles in the world. The children will be able to expand their knowledge of vehicle technology through the activities.