Tech Inquiry Challenge

Objective: Students from a broad cross-section of studies will apply their critical-thinking skills within the engineer design process framework; through researching, analyzing, and confronting real-world problems, they will foster their collaboration skills, creativity, in the contexts of a variety of social lenses including sustainability, cultural awareness, inclusivity, and personal growth.

IntroDUCTION

Hey St. Patrick’s and welcome! With the introduction of our recent DIY Repair and Maintenance makerspace station, we’re looking to start the collaborative critical thinking assignments with an approach that encourages you to incorporate the lenses of social issues, sustainability, cultural awareness, inclusivity, and personal growth and development. This task will call upon each of you to dive into some applied inquiry-based experiential learning opportunities with this, the Student Inquiry Challenge! This is one of many such initiatives we plan on running here in our workshop which serve the OCSB Tech Integration Initiative, and we’re always looking for fresh, new community partners and real-world projects to take on, so feel free to join the team with ideas, resources, and community projects by contacting us at Patrick.High@ocsb.ca.

Challenge Overview

This challenge is one that allows students to choose a focus related to social justice, community supports, environmental stewardship and sustainability, global citizenship, the effective ethical and healthy use of modern techniques or technologies such as AI, or even personal growth at the individual level. Through those focuses we direct students to propose a specific question for their exploration within the framework of the engineer design process. With the help of their peers and a teacher mentor, they will develop a project that analyzes the question, explores solutions or supports, and presents their results and conclusions in the form of a formal project which incorporates or showcases a new approach or the implementation of a new technology. Such an inquiry-based approach has been shown to “see the need to gain access to ideas and to express them in a variety of ways. In this way, inquiry-based learning gives reason to value, use and develop skills, such as reading and writing, and does so in ways that blur the conventional boundaries between discrete subject areas.” (Government of Ontario)

Submission Guidelines

Across the weeks allocated to the project students will do the following:

1. Formally organize the results of their stages of the Engineer Design Process along with their proposed inquiry questions and research proposals which clearly define the intent, scopes of the research, and potential project directions. This can be multimodal to enable the learner spectrum, but has to be to the standards set forth in the assignment outline.

2. Conduct research and analyze the data, leading to the research-driven development of an adapted approach, project, or process to respond to the inquiry questions and affect a meaningful change. Before the proposal is tested, actioned, or developed into a product/project, it must be screened to be in accordance with such things as the Catholic Graduate Student Expectations and presented to the teacher for approval.

3. Complete their product/project while documenting the process and develop a final project presentation which walks learners unfamiliar with the project through the critical details such as the nature of the need, the scope of the project, it’s applications and/or developed tech/approaches, and a summary of their findings/satisfaction with the final outcome. The students are not only to consider their own personal perspectives in the final project, but to seek the feedback of others who have an interest in the results (ie. Community partners, ministry representatives, peers, etc.)

Optional Presentation and Open House

As this reflects a good cross-sampling of objectives both for learner growth and community development, students will be encouraged and enabled to present their projects at a special open-house event and/or on our school website. Depending on the nature and scope of the projects involved, representatives from the industries explored will be invited to participate in the activity and may be encouraged (upon board approval) to speak or otherwise share any pertinent developments in their respective areas, or to vote upon which project(s) would be the ones they might consider integrating or offering support in their development. This will not only provide the students with a valuable networking reach ahead similar to what we offer in our SHSM programs, but also a great opportunity to receive both praise and constructive criticism for their project’s development and their own personal growth.

Digital tech Showcase

The results of the final projects and details of the open house will be collected and showcased in our school as well as through our online correspondence with parents and the community to share the initiatives and inventive approaches that our students have achieved. Given that the effective use of digital technology is becoming more and more a pressing need for each generation, the students will also be encouraged to participate in the development of the digital elements surrounding the project, and if effective constraints are established, the administration might consider student contributions in this part of the project (the showcase) to reflect a measure of their required volunteer hours to graduate - given that it represents a commitment of personal time to foster community relationships. Examples of the products and projects involved in this would include website development, video presentations and other informative media, and interactive simulations.

CONCLUSION

On behalf of our board and school, thank you for your support in this journey of empowerment through innovation and exploration. The projects, connections, and results of this approach will be exponential in impact within the lives of both the students and partners involved. Through developing an applied understanding that crosses many curricular paths, we not only engage, but we enable students to develop critical thinking, collaborative communication, and important connections which build self-efficacy, resilience, and a newfound excitement for the learning process. Helping students to see the difference their work can make not only shows them throughout the process why education matters, but shows them that they themselves can be the difference in the world we live in. For more information on the intents and impacts we have through our board and further such projects, I encourage you to visit some of the following links:

The OCSB’s Vision for Education
Ontario Ministry of Education’s Strategic Plan
The OCSB’s Strategic Plan

This challenge was designed to support and incorporate the following course codes: