Story: Lisa Swift | Photos: Rohan Francis
Visitors from outer space inspired the design ideas of Owler Brook pupils in November 2013, as they tackled the big questions of the universe while also gaining skills to become better learners.
Children debated the possibility of the existence of life on other planets after Headteacher, Sue Bridges, introduced the week of learning with an image of UFOs above Sheffield. Children showed that there are different ways of seeing unexplained events by playing characters from a sceptical NASA scientist to the concerned Lord Mayor.
The children spent a week making work that responded to these ideas including poems, models and drawings, all the time thinking hard about what skills they were using to learn.
Natasha and Sadas explained in their ‘Captain’s Log’ about what ‘learning powers’ they were using:
Resilience: To manage distractions and keep on going
Reciprocity: To work independently and to work as a team
Reflectiveness: To talk about your learning with others, remember to stop, think and do
Resourcefulness: To use things that are around you and help with your learning
Children designed alien transport and then reflected on their designs. Uzqir wrote:
“I like the rocket because fire is coming out, I like the cone it has a point on it. I would change the masking tape because I put too much on, I would change the rocket because it is too small, although it took a lot of time.”
Zaynab and Afifah wrote:
“I like the colours on the model. I like the design of the balls and also the sticks and the glitter because they look like stars. I don’t like the masking tape on my model and I don’t like the label, but we needed it so we know it’s ours.”
Zana explained what the aliens are like:
The aliens are good and they are really nice
The aliens are sneaky and wobbly
I like the aliens
My aliens are stinky
The aliens have three heads
My alien was big
The children put on an amazing display of their work in the school hall to celebrate all they had achieved in their week of Building Learning Power.
