Nicer Loos
Presentation to the principal (above), BOT members and School Nurse (right).
Letter to the BOT (click to enlarge)
Poster teaching students to use the toilets properly
A letter from the Hutt Valley Health DHB (click to enlarge)
These signs for outside the toilets reflect the students understanding of colour, the skills of enlarging and mosaic-making.
What Hamiora learned about technology (click to enlarge)
Outcome
This unit was initiated through class discussion following a lunchtime problem with the toilets. When given the opportunity to express opinions about their school toilets it was clear that the students were less than impressed, several students (boys and girls) never used them.
This provided an excellent opportunity to gather data about the problems, research how public places provided user friendly facilities, talk to people and make decisions on what was possible for us to do. We wanted our students to take some ownership, responsibility and interest in their environment so they could effect change.
The students were focussed and interested as this problem affected everyone. Through data gathering it became clear that over use at certain times was a problem and this led to the discovery that there were not enough toilets for the number of users. It was evident that some users were careless and would need a reminder about correct use and that our toilets were not cleaned to an acceptable standard. The data indicated that the toilets were dull, cold and didn't feel or smell nice.
I realised we were involving ourselves in some very sensitive issues as this was an area completely overlooked by adults – a 'grey area' for responsibility. It became evident that since Tomorrows Schools there are no school toilet hygiene regulations, only building regulations. It is over to the school or in some cases local council regulations include schools. We had no specific policy for user-friendly toilets.
It was important to inform parents, cleaners, the Principal and the rest of the school that we would be investigating problems and needs. Parents and cleaners were supportive but teaching peers thought our Syndicate had finally 'lost it' until results of data showed the problems we were uncovering. Other students were interested and realised that even though we were a junior syndicate we were really serious about our task.
We needed to build knowledge about this most important but 'not spoken' about place and were greeted by sideways glances as we arranged visits to high user toilets in Porirua. The visits were taken by the three Rimu teachers each lunchtime for a week. A carload of students was the only way to make quick focussed visits, and twenty of my students made visits which included taking notes, photos, asking questions, oral sharing back at school and writing thank yous. Speakers and visits were invaluable in building students' background knowledge and providing them with a basis for making informed decisions. As the students were gathering knowledge they were building ideas for the changes they saw as necessary for our toilets. The case study material available on the Techlink website was very useful especially Spoon Biscookies which made it easy for the students to learn about the development of a brief and a conceptual statement. We focussed on brief development in this unit but the case study could as easily be used for planning for practice or outcome and development.
This technology unit incorporated all areas of learning so this meant we could pack the mornings with related reading, maths, interviews, etc. Learning in other curriculum areas was seen to be useful by the students.
Our goal was to provide the stakeholders with all the information necessary for them to see the importance of this study and to make a decision to help us make and have user-friendly hygienic toilets at school. The children's behaviours have changed, they are aware of their role in making the loos nicer. The cleaners are now more aware of the children's needs and expectations. However a number of the physical changes we would like to have made have not been undertaken due to school budget constraints and what would seem a lack of recognition by the BoT of the impact the school environment has on students and the positive contribution they can make to improve their surroundings at any age.
This was an excellent unit. It involved students in technological practice and engaged them in solving a problem relevant to them.
The last word...
"I learned from technology that technology is something that you think of and make it grow and grow intill it is too big for your head."
"I've learned that technology helps you like it helped us with our nicer loos and we learnt about colour and about other people's jobs and murals."
"I learnt that technology is about collecting data. Technology is work and its about briefs and criteria. We had to read regulations to the stakeholders."
"I learnt that technology can be making things better and it can be making space rockets and micro chips but for us it was about making our toilets nicer."
"I feel happy because we are going to teach the kids to use the toilets properly and we're going to paint the loos and it will be cleaner to use."
(Click to enlarge)
Mosaic signs for the outside the toilets (Click to enlarge)
A sample record card for one of the Year 3 students involved in this unit.
| Technology Education Progress Card Syndicate Kowhai/Odd Year
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Student's name: Y Syndicate Rimu/Odd Year
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