Curious Minds

Team Building Through Creative Design at Archbishop Beck Catholic Sports College

Archbishop Beck Catholic Sports College in Liverpool has just completed the third year of their Change School programme with Curious Minds.

Deputy Head Gary Begusch has observed that, as a result of working with Curious Minds on the Creative Partnerships programme, “we have massively moved on as a school in transforming the curriculum ... Creative learning has always been an important part of our whole school ethos, but without Creative Partnerships it could not have happened so quickly.”

An example of one project from year 3 of the programme is Team Building through Creative Design.

Working with The Smallpeice Trust, teachers and pupils investigated how the use of creative learning through design technology can support the development of team building.   

Pupils were divided into teams to explore engineering design and collaborate in the creation of a energy generating wind turbine.  The enquiry was designed to explore whether this way of working would develop young people’s skills to improve learning and attainment.  It was also to look at supporting how teachers can include creative team-building into their lesson planning.

Engineer Paul Davies from Smallpeice Trust worked with years 7 and 8 to define concepts and examples of engineering.  He started with an ice-breaker that challenged young people to create a stand-alone structure from paper and introduced the basic concept of engineering, introducing simple 3-D structures as the basis of strong design.  He then went on to explore definitions and examples through questioning, offering examples and inviting responses – with a clear sense of using creativity and ideas generation in the same way as the industry itself.

Once pupils were confident with the concept, Paul went on to explore finite and renewable energy with contributions from teachers and pupils.  He then supplied each team with basic materials and clear step-by-step instructions of how to design a wind turbine.  Each team had a clear remit to work in teams to construct cost-effective wind turbines that could generate energy.  They competed against each other to produce the most cost-effective, aesthetically pleasing energy-producing wind turbine.  And – time permitting – they worked on designing a poster to market their product.

Quotes and commentary:
Young people particularly enjoyed the opportunity of working for a whole day on a specific challenge.  The Y7 group liked the way that the ice-breaker set the tone of the day - and loved the competitive nature. They said that at first the paper structure they built wasn't very tall but they took ideas from looking at other groups and then re-designed their tower - and won!  

Young people understood that the project involved lots of different learning including team-building, listening to each other, design task, engineering concepts, measurement, trial and error, problem-solving, being systematic and costing the materials.  They also understood the importance of separate roles within the team.

The young people liked the fact that their teachers 'got involved in the tasks too.  They could see that they too were enjoying the activities and were possibly learning about engineering and wind turbine design from Paul.

The young people appreciated that Paul enjoyed working with them, listened really well to their ideas, was enthusiastic and encouraged them.  'He didn't tell us what to do but suggested that we think of certain things...like look at the size of the turbine blades...because ours were uneven.'

Young people were interested in finding out the different occupations and areas associated with engineering. One pupil commented:  'Paul knows how to explain things and when to leave you to sort it out for yourself‘. 

The young people said they were surprised at the way the different ideas people had, how well they worked together and that the shape 'triangle' was such a strong structure for building.

Teachers felt the problem-solving nature of activities was a real strength, giving young people real opportunities to work together in small groups. Staff welcomed the chance to step back and observe the young people get to grips with the different aspects of the process, noting that some pupils have really come into their own and others have struggled a bit. The allocation of jobs within the groups has been interesting, to see who takes the lead and how fair and equitable some groups have been. Also engagement and motivation over the full day has been a real positive for the staff, 'Joel has really been interested in anything. But this is right up his street. He's been more fully engaged in this then I've seen him since September!'

The teachers believe that the young people have developed skills in co-operation, team-building, problem-solving, measuring, costing, negotiation, building the structures, communication, addressing a design brief, keeping to deadlines, modifying designs and understanding the links between subjects such as science and maths.

Teachers believe that this way of bringing subjects areas and experts from other specialisms together is an effective and meaningful way of engaging, exciting and sharing learning for staff and pupils. They think that the competitive aspect of the project has really added to the motivation and enthusiasm of some of the young people - because they had a clear goal in mind. Staff have really valued the chance to step back and observe the young people working together and get to know them in different settings and see other qualities in them.

Teachers would now feel confident about organising similar themed events across subjects and/or year groups.

They were impressed by the overall engagement and levels of concentration on a challenging task.
And by the amount of actual learning building a wind turbine has generated. The responses of individual pupils have been a real positive too.

Written by Jane Evans-Woodason