Teens Flock to Museum
​                                  By:  Shawn McMasters

Project at a Glance :

This project involves connecting students with local history and making supplemental interactive exhibits for the Tri-Cities Historical Museum in Grand Haven, MI.        
 
Driving Question:

How can the exhibits at the Tri-Cities HIstorical Museum draw in the “Missing  demographic” - middle and high school students?        

Standards:

• Problem Solving
• Problem Solving
  
• EDP - Design skills
  
• Collaboration
  
• Critical Thinking​

Team / Culture Building:

• Values Cards activity to get to know team members and understand the perspective of MS students and museum visits. ​

Entry Event:

• Students will visit the Tri-Cities Historical Museum and interview staff members to gain insights for the project.​

Stakeholders:

• Students
• Parents
• Museum Staff, Board, & Visitors

Empathy Building:

• Students will create Empathy Maps based on Entry Event activity.​​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Stakeholder Map
• Interview the “missing demographic” via  Google Forms and Face-To-Face.​

• Create a Journey Map illustrating information gathered.  Followed up with a Gallery Walk identify what they wonder and notice so far in their investigation of the driving question.​

Incubation:

• Brainfiring protocol - does the question need to be modified or changed. Take the overall question and modify it to your specific project?​

• Review Journey Map and add new ideas.
• Idea quota protocol - to generate potential solution ideas, answering the question - How can the museum draw in middle and high school students for a variety of purposes?
• Follow up 100 ideas with:

          *What if _____ were ____ blank? and
          the 3-12-3 protocols.

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Solution Building:
After generating ideas students will use the following protocols to narrow down their ideas:  

• Dot Voting
• $100 Test
• Modified NUF Test based on a number scale
• Revisit Empathy and Stakeholder Maps to look at ideas from the stakeholders point of view.​

Critique and Revision: 

•  Create an Elevator Pitch and design a poster highlighting solution ideas.  Followed by a Gallery Walk to obtain feedback from a variety of stakeholders prior to final presentations.

Authentic Audience:

• Parents
• Students
• Tri-Cities Museum Staff and Board members

Final Presentation:

• The culmination of this project will bean evening event of presentations.  Followed by an EDP (Engineer Design Process) to build their final project.  Student projects are specifically geared toward their vision for a new museum exhibit. ​​

Click here for teacher's  full plan.

Reflection and Feedback:

• Students will receive a scale based rubric based on standards AND student reflection, answering the question - If you could change one thing on the project now that it is done, what would it be and what would be involved with making the change? and why?​

Click here for the  teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet.

Meet the Educator:
Shawn McMasters teaches Computer Science, Gifted and Talented, and Project Based Learning courses for Allendale Public Schools.  

    "I enjoy connecting students with real experiences, allowing them creative freedom in solutions and watching them problem solve due to parameters connected with problems presented."