Did you know students' physical activity levels have fallen by 40% in the past 5 years? Whether you attribute this change to social media, lack of third spaces for kids to gather, safety reasons, or something else, it's definitely a concern. But it's hard to bring physical activity into the school day when there's barely enough time to teach students everything else they need to know. So why not integrate activity into other learning? The next installment in our spring webinar series will show you how to do just that. With Unruly Splats and the Head, Heart, Hands Model of learning, students can combine active play with education in coding, art, music, math, English, and more. Check out the full replay below or read on for a summary!
Why is active learning important?
We follow the Head, Heart, Hands (3H) Model, which takes the whole student into consideration. Instead of simply engaging their minds, we want to engage their whole selves. Although critical thinking, memorization, and reflection (Head) are certainly essential to education, they are not the only tools for learning. The great challenge for the teacher is how to get students invested in the material by engaging their values and emotions (Heart). Luckily, active learning (Hands) often helps. When students get to have fun with learning by crafting, playing, jumping, competing, making, and doing other activities, their retention and engagement both increase. They get more agency over how they learn, and the kinesthetic elements make information more memorable. Holistic education via the Head, Heart, Hands Model makes learning creative and dynamic—especially when enacted via interactive tech tools.
Using EdTech for Active Learning
The Head, Heart, Hands model is very flexible, so this method of active learning can take many forms. However, we've found that teachers have an easier time implementing active learning when they have EdTech to help. With EdTech, instead of coming up with activities themselves, teachers can use the lessons and challenges built into the provided curricula. These lessons guide and streamline learning, freeing up time teachers would have used to lesson plan. Meanwhile, students receive instant feedback, creating an environment for safe trial and error. Using EdTech also makes lessons interdisciplinary, since students gain 21st-century tech skills, like coding and computer science, alongside their regular learning. Solutions like drones, coding robots, 3D printers, and, yes, Unruly Splats, prepare students to exist in a modern world.
Unruly Splats as an Active Learning Tool
Unruly Splats are programmable, durable floor buttons that students can use to play or code cross-curricular games. The Unruly app comes with a growing library of dozens of lessons and activities for multiple subjects and grade levels. Starting with the pre-programmed activities familiarizes students with the devices. They'll learn how to connect and play with the Splats and how to code with the app's intuitive block-based language. They can then modify the games themselves, working backwards to understand the code's functions. Finally, teachers or students can program their own custom games that reinforce any subject.
One such game is called Adding Up, which challenges students to solve addition problems using Splats. In the game, the Splats will display different numbers, as well as a goal total for students to achieve. Then, students step on Splats that correctly add up to the goal total. If the goal total was 15, for example, students could stomp on the 5 button three times or stomp on the buttons showing 7 and 8. Because there are multiple combinations of numbers students could use to meet the total, they're challenged to problem-solve and be creative, satisfying the Head portion of the Head, Heart, Hands Model. The physical motion (Hands) of stepping on numbers provides extra reinforcement of addition principles, and the fun play experience engages their Hearts.
There are many more Head, Heart, Hands applications for Unruly Splats, which you can hear about in the webinar or read about on our blog. In the webinar, you'll also learn more about the 3H philosophy and the data behind Splats! For more information on Unruly Splats and other active STEM tools, subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media.