School Bags

Jenny McGill
Welbourn School

Lunch order box
Lunch order box. I put my lunch order in the box – Georgiafillia

Putting books away
I am putting my books away on their special shelves – Aaron

Introduction
Welbourn School is a co-educational contributing state primary school catering for students from Year 1 to 6 and is rated decile 7. The school is situated in a well established residential area of central New Plymouth with children also coming from rural settings. We have a unique environment boarding the Te Heniu stream with mature native trees in our grounds that are home to Tui and Kereru (the wood pigeon is used as our school symbol).

Our present roll of 350 students consists of 86% New Zealand European, 9% Māori and 5% of students relating to other ethnic groups. Our school has a Sensory Resource Centre attached to the school, which is a base for 5 itinerant teachers for the deaf and visually impaired who work across the Taranaki region.

Year Group
New Entrant/Year One

Unit Focus:
Systems Technology.

 

Pre-planning

shoes under the heater
I put my shoes under the heater – Jess

Library book
Library book in library box – Georgia

Lunch order- Lyric
Lunch order – Lyric

To design a system for storing and retrieval system for placing school things in our bags. The teacher had noticed that when she asked students to get equipment/personal belongings out of their bags the students tended to pull everything out of them in order to find a specific item. It was apparent that the students either did not pack the bags themselves or that they had no system to order the packing of their bag.

In the school, bags are stored in the cloak bays but are brought into the room when necessary to remove and place items in them. This unit was undertaken early in term 2.

An issue was identified: "To be able to pack our bags at the end of the day and be able to close the zip."
The students were then asked:

  1. What is a system? and came up with "A way of putting things away so that we can find them easily again, and for knowing how to do things."
  2. What systems do we have in our classroom?

Resources available:
Access to:

In each situation we looked at their systems that are used to store equipment/items so that they can be readily found/accessed

Additional information:
During the delivery of this unit the teacher looked for opportunities to develop students:

Delivery – part one

Learning Experience Specific Learning Outcome Assessment Task/Activity Gateway
Introduction
Selected students with no obvious system for storing their equipment/items to demonstrate how they pack their bag 

Analysing the assembled school bag to identify if there is a problem.

Focus questions:

  • What have you got in your bag?
  • Can you get out (a specific item)?
  • Can you tell me where your lunch is in your bag?
  • What are you likely to need get out of your bag first thing in the day – where can it be found?

Read a story to set the scene: "A place for everything" by Herbert McKay

Classroom systems:
Discussion on systems operated in the classroom to store equipment and why they are important. Examples used were:

  • Reading books
  • Writing books
  • Games
  • PE equipment
 Students can:
Identify the need for a system for packing their school bags		 Class and individual student discussion. Knowledge

 

Putting clothes in draws

I put my clothes in my drawers
– Tenisha

lunch order in the box

Putting the lunch order in the box – Aidan

Big book storage

Big book storage

Learning Experience Specific Learning Outcome Assessment Task/Activity Gateway
School wide systems
Visit to school office and library to look at systems that they use.

Students to illustrate how items are currently stored in their bags.

Exploration of how items are stored in other situations

First aid kit – how items are packaged to allow ready access and so people can easily see what is contained within the kit without having to completely disassemble it

Visit to:

  • Ambulance Service
  • Rescue Helicopter

(prior to the visit the teacher briefed the people who would be talking to the students on the key concepts that she want the students to gain an understanding of/reinforce during the visit. During the visit the teacher continually questioned the students to focus their observations on storage systems)

Key concepts for students to gain understanding of from the visits included:
Importance of labeling where equipment is stored
Importance of placing equipment in the same place all the time.
All equipment in ambulances is stored in the same place and why this needs to be.
How using storage systems enables these people to do their job efficiently.

Discussion on the order of how items/equipment stored in school bags are used and the frequency of their use e.g.

  • Raincoats compared to lunch boxes
  • Book bags required at the beginning of each day and not placed back in bag until the end of day
  • Placement of water bottles, sunhats, school notices for home etc.
 Students can:
Describe what they observed using related vocabulary. (key words – system, storage, sorting, finding, collating, labeling)

Students can
Illustrate (with labels) contents of their bag and where they are placed.
































Students can:
Identify the importance of storage systems and identify situations where they should be used.		 Class and individual student discussion.









Illustrated plans

































Class and individual student discussion.		 Knowledge









Skill





































Knowledge

 

filing cabinets

School office filing cabinets

Non-Fiction library systems

Non-Fiction library systems

Using Plan to pack bags

Using Plan to pack bags

Visit to rescue services

The visit to the Ambulance and rescue helicopter services

 

 

Delivery – part two

Learning Experience Specific Learning Outcome Assessment Task/Activity Gateway
Planning a storage system for students school bag
(use of drawings to illustrate the layout of how their school bag could be assembled). Identification of prioritisation for what items need to be stored and how they are to be stored. (identification of class specifications) e.g. drink bottles stored away from book bags, raincoat at the bottom of the bag

 Students can:
Plan their storage layouts using the identified specifications		 Illustrated plans Tech. practice

Trial Packing
Students assembled their bags according to their plans.

Testing undertaking to see if:

  • all items were contained in their bag with the zip closed
  • if they could locate a specific item when requested
  • if items where stored according to their order of use
Teacher and peer questioning/discussion to test packed bags

Evaluation
Class discussion to evaluate those storage systems (packed bags) that seemed to work well – identification of features that seemed to make them work well.

Second trail for those systems that didn't work well
use of students who's planned system were deemed to be successful assisted other students to redesign their storage layout. Students required to illustrate their new layout.Students to take plans home and to discuss their storage system with their parents/guardians

 Students can:
Test their storage system against their plan (as illustrated) and the identified specifications.		 Observation, individual student discussion Tech. Practice

 

Visit to ambulance service

Visit to ambulance service

Visit to ambulance service

Visit to ambulance service
Learning Experience Specific Learning Outcome Assessment Task/Activity Gateway
Evaluation of final systems Approximately one week after completion of unit
Class discussion on whether student's bag storage system is still working and what modifications they have had to make.		 Students can:
Demonstrate that they have understood and continue to apply the concepts learnt about storage systems.		 Student written description of their bag storage system. Knowledge
Two months after completion of unit
Use of the Messy Monkey resource to see if students can identify the issues surrounding storage and lack of a system.

Possible extension – getting students to predict how they would need to modify their storage system to allow for inclusion or exclusion of items due to seasonal changes e.g. inclusion of swimming equipment, sunscreen during summer.		      

 

First Plan

First plan for bag layout

Second Plan

Second plan for bag layout

 

 

Outcome

Comments by Jenny McGill
I have found working with Cliff Harwood, absolutely invaluable. He has provided guidance and support for my teaching which has made a huge difference to my knowledge and practice. I have a much clearer understanding of Technology and greater confidence to teach this. It is challenging to make Technology real and understandable for junior children. Cliff has helped this happen for me. What a fantastic person to have in "Technology" learning. Anne Radford* has also been superb in supporting technology teaching, guidance and knowledge; and also a valuable person in promoting technology. The unit was very successful with the children who several months later still know what a "system" is and how they are used.

* Anne Radford is a Technology and Science Adviser who is employed by Massey University and is based in Taranaki (although she works outside of this region also). Anne is an extremely knowledgeable person and works in schools alongside teachers and children. She has an extremely good rapport with schools and is highly regarded.