Students reflect about their artwork relating to kindness when talking about their Kindness Machine. They also reflect about what they learned form the artwork of Emery Blagdon. This video documents their project. I am so excited about the end result.
The 4th grade students created a project inspired by the artwork of Emery Blagdon. He is an untrained artist that built something he called the Healing MachineThe 4th grade students used the Design Thinking Process to guide them through their learning.
This school year with my STEAM classes and in the art room, I have been experimenting with the Design Thinking Process and how to get students to take ownership of their learning.
Empathize - How do I understand and solve the problem?
Design- Analyze, Interpret and Plan
Imagine- What do I create?
Prototype- Build or Design or Sketch
Test- How can I improve this idea? Review, Revise and Reflect
The problem the students needed to solve- To design a "Kindness Machine"
What will I create?
How will I make people think about kindness when looking at our artwork?
Through this process students answer those questions. They were also inspired by Emery Blagdon and the story of his Healing Machine.
Then students written reflections on how their artwork generated kindness to make the machine work and then reflected on what they learned about Emery Blagdon and why he created his artwork.
Learn more about Emery Blagdon watch this wonderful documentary Emery Blagdon and His Healing Machine
