Design-Based Learning at UCLA Center X Online Learning in a Never-Before-Seen World
Design-Based Learning ACTIVITY #2 Sneaking Up on Creativity A Physical Object Becomes a Never-Before-Seen Creature
(Metaphoric and symbolic thinking comes alive through an inanimate object) ©Doreen Nelson
Never-Before-Seen Creature: Pretending that a physical object comes alive and becomes a Creature is a way to teach personification and empathy. The physical object becomes a student’s avatar that is used to launch self-expression in a non- threatening, seamless way.
In one 3rd grade class, 8-year-old Doug was a yellow M&M candy. When he was interviewed as an Object Creature, he described how happy he was when he was born at the factory and how he had come from a long line of sweets that had made people happy since the beginning of time. Doug said that his relatives ranged from fruit to sugar and that while he loved his M&M family, his favorite thing was to have his owner reach into the bag and choose him. When asked when the M&M would die, Doug put his hands on his head and said, “Oh my god, I was born to die.” He later wrote a skit about the life cycle of an M&M.
(He still remembers being a yellow M&M! Doug now practices medicine at the Yale Hospital Emergency Clinic, trains resident emergency room physicians as an adjunct faculty member of the Yale Medical School, and started a leadership training program in Yale’s School of Business Management).
Purpose: To teach metaphoric and symbolic thinking
The Never-Before-Seen Object Creature Activity: Have your student choose a favorite object or toy at home that fits in the palm of their hand so they have it in front of them for the whole activity. The more they are invested in their object, the more learning takes place.
Essential Question: How does metaphoric and symbolic thinking make information relevant and reusable?
Problem: How to get students to personify an inanimate object.
Design Challenge for Students: Bringing to Life a Never-Before-Seen Object Creature by identifying the characteristics of the Object Creature and how the Object Creature lives.
Criteria List
This Criteria List is given as a guide for selecting and getting to know their Object Creature. Have your students read or listen to the list and check to see if they do everything.
Teachers: After the Design Challenge of personifying a physical object as a Never- Before-Seen Creature is done, guide students through the following lessons so they learn required grade level and subject matter standards and curriculum in an engaging, hands-on way.
Object Creature Interview
Pretend the Never-Before-Seen Object Creature is alive, and make up the answers to the questions based on the characteristics of the physical object (there are no wrong answers as long as the students can justify their response).
Write or say the answer to each of these questions:
Where is your Creature’s original habitat?
Who are your Creature’s ancestors? 3. Who is in your Creature’s family?
What are your Creature’s hopes and dreams for the future?
What was your Creature born to do (its purpose or function)?
What are your Creature’s fears?
Who are your Creature’s enemies?
Make up a few questions of your own to ask your Creature.
Never-Before-Seen Object Creature Biography — Descriptive Writing
Use the Never-Before-Seen Object Creature interview questions as a guide and write about the life of your Creature. (Teachers: This could be completed independently or in partners/small groups. It might be called The Origin Story of the Never-Before-Seen Object Creature.)
Introduce your Never-Before-Seen Object Creature, including its shape and size and purpose.
Explain where the Creature originally lived and where it lives now.
Tell about the things it likes and fears.
Describe your Creature’s ancestors.
Include any other important details and information you can think of .
(Teachers: Students who are old enough can conclude with a summary about what they wrote, they can write a journal or diary about the life of their Creature or animate their drawing into a comic)
To review and apply various Math concepts, the following lessons could be done by students independently or in small groups:
Discuss and compare the materials used in your Never-Before-Seen Object Creature(s).
Identify the shapes you find in your Object Creature(s).
Compare the sizes of a group of Object Creatures.
Order the Object Creatures from shortest to tallest, lightest to heaviest, etc.
Count the number of syllables in your Object Creature’s name.
Write and complete word problems involving your Creature.
Create a daily schedule for the main things your Object Creature needs to do each day using increments of time (waking up, eating breakfast, visiting other Object Creatures, getting ready for bed, going to bed, etc.).
To review and apply various Science concepts, the following lessons could be done by students independently or in small groups:
Discuss what characteristics you have given your Never-Before-Seen Object Creature to help it survive.
Discuss and compare the traits that your Creature has inherited from its parents, and how these traits are influenced by the environment.
Discuss the life cycle of your Creature. Compare your Creature’s life cycle to the life cycle of an animal in the real world.
Organize several Creatures into like groups based on traits and tell how forming these groups help them survive.