“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
For our MindUP and Math Sessions this year, the children were given an open ended task of designing a Theme Park.
We had a price list of materials and the children set off designing and building their structures and calculating the cost.
Their biggest challenge was that they had to keep within a strict budget of $10. We discussed the fact that it would probably be closer to $10 million realistically, but worked within a $10 figure to make the math simpler. This way, even the youngest children in the group were able to calculate what their individual slide or other ride would cost. Older children were encouraged to use their knowledge of tens and add some zeros at the end to give a more realistic estimate.
The older children then had to write a proposal to give to the investors to try to persuade them to invest in their theme park. They had to think about additional running costs such as salaries, electricity and also find ways of demonstrating how the park could make money.
The children very successfully worked in multiage groups with an older group leader. They used the skills that they’d learned in the MindUP sessions to work together as a team. During the final days, the children all made signs for their Theme Parks which would encourage everybody who came to visit the park, to have a positive outlook on life and treat others with respect and kindness.
If you ask the children who participated in these sessions, they will say “MindUP Rocks” Evidence of this was found in the fact that children really wanted to come in and work on their proposals during their free time and they never seemed ready to go home at the end of each daily session! The only time they got a little upset was when they had to break down and tidy away all the materials that they’d used to put together their amazing creations, but were happy to know that each had been photographed to go up on the blog so that they could look back and enjoy the forever.
What follows are photos of the children’s creations. We hope that you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed making them. Unfortunately the proposals to investors and signs that the children made for the park were too large to upload. If you would like us to email you a copy, please let us know.
