Improving Our Playground
By:  Martha Persak

Project at a Glance :

Third graders involved in an extension class were tasked with finding a solution for an improvement to our playground (in whatever way they saw fit) using money from the PTO specifically set aside for third grade.
 
Driving Question:

How can we improve our playground? 

Standards:

• Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and situation in order to provide requested detail or clarification.
• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled) with diverse partners on grade 3 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.
• Explain different strategies students and others could take to address problems and predict possible results.

Team / Culture Building:

• Creative DNA

• Hopes, Fears, & Norms
• Collaboration Tower​

​Entry Event:

• Students explored the current playground and created a Bug List of things they didn't like.

Stakeholders:

• PTO
• Future students
  
• All 3rd grade students
  
• Teachers and Staff
• Allendale Public Schools School Board

Empathy Building:

• ​Stakeholders Map

• From the Stakeholder Map, the class chose to create an Empathy Map for a  future student and perhaps a student with a disability.​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students developed questions to ask  fellow students through a Google survey and analyzed results.​

Incubation:

• Idea Quota protocol:  After thinking about who would be affected by our suggestions and consulting our Bug Lists, it was time to generate as many ideas as possible using the Idea Quota protocol.

• Following the 100 Ideas protocol students use the Group and Saturate activity to organize the ideas into categories.

Checking in:

• #Mood Board - throughout the project, students ended meeting times looking at the Hopes, Fears and Norms board. From there, students used a sticky note and wrote down their  #mood for that time.

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Solution Building:

• Students used the Dot Voting protocol to narrow solution ideas. Once we had "idea chunks", students were given dots to vote for their favorite ones. We had some clear winners very quickly!

Critique and Revision: 

• Poster Session - to share ideas and get feedback after giving an Elevator Pitch.
• Students used the NUF Test as a way to critique solution ideas.

Authentic Audience:

• Gwen Luban, Oakwood Intermediate School Principal 
• Douglas Bol, Evergreen Elementary School Principal
• Beth Voss, Curriculum Director
• Gary Torno, Director of Operations

Final Presentation:

• Students presented a skit to share their solution ideas.  They also presented their posters and explained their ideas, they answered questions from the panel about projected costs, ways to cover said costs, and how to keep students from arguing over suggested playground equipment and games.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• With the proposals presented, our administrators let the group know that they are taking their suggestions seriously and hope to make improvements to the playground soon.
• The interested adults in attendance let the students know that they were thoughtful and thorough and were very impressed.
• The students were invested and engaged from start to finish. Because this was a mix of students from several different classrooms, we have seen friendships built over the project. Students have shared their experience with their various classrooms, and interest in the project and in doing similar types of projects is high!​

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

Meet the Educator:

Martha Persak teaches 3rd grade in Evergreen Elementary at Allendale Public Schools. 


     "PBL experiences build passionate learners. I love watching 3rd graders feel empowered to steer their own education!