Digital Project Planner for Teachers
Meet Amy Reinert. Amy is a PBL teacher at Veritas Academy. She is a big advocate of project-based learning and usually works with her students on projects that are centered around history and science. She’s created a number of projects on Spinndle to break down her complex projects into manageable pieces. Spinndle has helped students as young as grade four can tackle design challenges. Spinndle’s also acted as an online community for students to bounce ideas off of for their extended learning programs.
See what’s in Mrs. Reinert’s library.
This year she completed a project called: A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words. The students looked at how photography and art can take part in telling a story, specifically capturing history. The students also became photographers, with the goal of telling their stories.
In their Community Service project, students researched local organizations, came together to vote on one to support, and then created a plan to best serve this organization. She’s currently working on an Architectural Engineering project with the driving question: How have architects balanced aesthetics with safety when designing structures in the past and present; and how can this inform future design innovations?
“Spinndle has helped with project planning by providing structure and organization. In particular, I appreciate the different roadmaps provided when setting up a project. It has taken the difficulty of moving the plan in my head to a framework accessible to the students.”
See how Amy has organized one of her projects:
First LEGO League: Playmakers Challenge.
Amy’s students were challenged to design an obstacle course for people of all abilities. To better understand how our bodies work and need to move, her students studied the human body and systems.
She organized her project into three stages.
STAGE 1: Learn
As students brainstorm ideas for new ways to play, they will also learn about the human body. Why is exercise or movement important to be healthy? What can we learn about our bodies that will help us design new ways to play?
STAGE 2: Imagine
Students come up with ideas to create new ways to play. Design a play area for either a parking lot, park or other under utilized area in the neighbourhood.
STAGE 3: Make
It’s build time! Students design a prototype in teams and present their idea.
On Spinndle, students are set-up with easy to navigate roadmaps that breakdown their project into clear steps. With an organized structure and a built-in feedback community of peers, students work through their projects with greater independence. Spinndle is a project platform designed to streamline planning, documentation, and formative assessment so teachers can look to one place to track their students’ learning.