Junior CEOs Share Their Knowledge!

Our elementary school internship wouldn’t be revolutionary if students weren’t guiding and reflecting on their own learning!  So, throughout the first two weeks of our internship with Katherine Smith Elementary School, the students have been writing daily blog posts. Here’s a sample of some of the incredible insights and feedback we received from the Junior CEOs!

Week 1: Design Thinking Warmup!

Design Thinking Part 1: Developing Empathy

Guiding Question: Describe a time that you struggled. What were you learning? What were you feeling in that moment? What helped you learn it?

Gilbert — Grade 6

“A time It was hard for me to learn was when we did new kinds of fractions… I felt really stressed out because it was like I was figuring out how to do that kind of thing…What helped me learn it was the teacher start to help me more on it by explain it to me more clearer so I understood it more. My advice to someone who is struggling to learn a lesson is just ask for help and don’t give up.”

 

Ezekiel — Grade 6

“A challenging time I had learning was when I had to measure the pieces for my boat project. The thing I wished I had done better was to communicate with my group more.”

 

 

Design Thinking Part 2: D is for Design!

In the second part of the week, the Edcite interns developed a game to teach the kindergarteners the ABCs.  Here is a sample from one of the students:

Oscar — Grade 6

“The second day at Edcite was Fun! We did a prototype for kindergarteners. Ours is called “Shoot To Dance” it’s a game where you have to shoot a letter. The letter where the dart hits is what you have you have to do. For example if you get an “A” you have to make an alligator action. What I learned was that kindergarteners like to have fun while learning not just to sit down and learn the abcs.”

Week 2: Design Thinking in Practice!

Driving Question: How Can You Make Edcite A Better Site?

Here is some of the advice we read from students!

So what do kids want to see out of online websites? Color and games are the things that pop out the most. They want the site to feel more like the games they enjoy, learning sites and games sites don’t have to be that different. And they want to feel like they have a reason to come back. Those are some worthy goals to have. Stay tuned for more information on the design changes the students devise!