The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
By:  Kim Fox

Project at a Glance :

This is a project where 4th grade students will gain knowledge about Holland history and the connection Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, has to our community. This project will take 12 weeks.

Driving Question:

How do we implement a creative, engaging hands-on exhibit at The Pump House Museum to showcase The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and the connection Frank Baum has to the Holland area?

Standards:

• 3rd - 5th Grade Anchor Standards:
• Build knowledge through resources, extend, connect, and use evidence to communicate
• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately
• Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience
• Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats 
• Present information, findings, and supporting evidence
• Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data 
• Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks

Team / Culture Building:

• Using ChatGPT, students created movie trailer profiles of themselves and also summer screensavers so classmates can learn about each other ​
• Creative DNA
• Raft Protocol
• Collaboration Tower
• Hashtagmood

Entry Event:

• The students read and watched The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then they visited the Historic Pump House Museum and Learning Center

Students enjoyed learning from Mr. Dan at the Pump House Museum

Stakeholders:

• Members of the Pump House Museum Board
• The Holland Community
• Students who visit the Pump House
• Summer tourists who visit the Pump House 

Empathy Building:

• Stakeholders Map
• Empathy Map 
• Pain/Gain Map​
• Students came up with a character and age group to see our exhibit in other people's eyes. What they felt, thought, said.....​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Students decided what they liked and didn't like about exhibits at the Pump House and the National Museum of Natural History (virtual tour). They made a Bug List and "Love List"​​

Gaining Insights:

• Studying the book, Wizard of Oz, also helped the students move to the solution phase
  
• ​Our visit to the Pump House and our virtual visit to the National Museum of Natural History helped us gain insights to start designing our kiosks. 

Incubation:

• Crazy 8 Brainstorming​​

• Students drew ideas during Crazy 8 for the exhibit
• Dot Voting to decide on what was most liked
• Determined our exhibit criteria (Fun, Engaging, Interactive, Game, Puzzle, Timeline, Hunt, Kid-friendly, etc.​

• Used AI to generate ideas for the interactive ideas part of our exhibit 

Checking in:

• Check-ins took place at the end of each design stage or at the end of the week
• Students frequently looked at what we Need to Know in order to revise

• Anti-Problem
• Analyzing Analogies
• Rip/Slap/Pass

Frank Baum

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Solution Building:

• The students used a variety of strategies to narrow and organize ideas such as: Elevator Pitch, Critique & Revision, Dot Voting, Saturate and Group
• Students made paper drafts of kiosks so they could see what would fit on the real kiosk​​

Critique and Revision: 

• Nuff Test
• Critical Friends
• Fireside Chat
• Two Stars and A Wish 

Authentic Audience:

• Mrs. Smyk
• Community members who attended the Open House at the Pump House Museum

Solution Examples:

• Click here for the Then and Now Kiosk - shows pictures of how things looked "then" and "now"​

Then and Now Kiosk

• Click here for the Riddles Kiosk​
• Click here for the Timeline Kiosk

Riddles Kiosk

Click here for teacher's full plan.
Reflection and Feedback:

• Rubrics to evaluate students
• ABCD Feedback
• Question and answer session at the end of the pitch
• Gave time for students to talk to authentic audience after pitch and also asked for contact information to follow up with them later

Open House Invitation

Timeline Kiosk

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

Meet the Educator:
Kim Fox will be teaching 3rd - 5th Grade Advanced Language Arts (SAIL) and 2nd grade ELA enrichment at Pine Creek Elementary in West Ottawa. This is her 30th year of teaching.  Prior to teaching SAIL the last three years, Kim has taught 2nd - 5th grade general ed., as well as advanced math. She has been involved in PBL for several years, facilitating summer IChallengeUjr programs for elementary students, Michigan Design Challenge, and a design challenge at The Historic Ottawa Beach Pump House Museum and Learning Center this past summer. Kim has also participated several years in Alumni Connect and various FuturePrep’d book studies.

          "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin      I am passionate about design thinking and project-based learning because they involve                             students in ways that empower them to become creative problem-solvers, critical thinkers, and active collaborators. When learners engage in authentic, hands-on projects, they don’t just                  remember content—they build confidence, empathy, and a real- world mindset that prepares them for lifelong success."