A Magical Week of Collaborative Thinking (and fun times)

This week we saw deep bonds forming between our F1 students, and wonderful collaboration manifesting. While our F2 to S6 students wrote exams, our youngest students took part in a week of engaging and fun learning activities designed to strengthen bonds between students, immerse them in design thinking and get them ready and excited for their years to come at UTS.  

On Monday and Tuesday, our F1s gathered together in the UTS gymnasium, guided by the inspired leadership of educator Moses Velasco. Author of the book, The Transformative Power of Collaborative Inquiry, Mr. Velasco is currently the director of Curriculum and Assessment at the Ontario Teachers’ Federation and previously oversaw learning programs at the Ontario Science Centre. He also has 16 years’ experience with the Toronto District School Board.

On the first day, a series of community building and collaborative activities built up to an introduction to the design thinking. Design thinking is a vital process that comes into play throughout the UTS program, enhancing creativity and innovation through a process of experimentation and collaboration, while promoting teamwork and communication. Students had the opportunity to get to know the broader class beyond their cohort as they worked together in small groups to engineer solutions.

Their first challenge was to design a sled for children to evade the wolf in the children’s book, The Three Little Pigs, and students generated some very innovative ideas, and then brought them to life by building prototypes. This week isn’t so much about the what as the how ‒ using empathy and listening to each other, while rooting their design process in sustainable, equitable and inclusive solution-making.

Tuesday brought a new challenge tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure Healthy Lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, as Mr. Velasco asked students to create a device that surgeons could use to remove diseased tissue from the body. They moved through the design thinking process from brainstorming to sketching out their ideas to using the materials available to create a prototype of their device, and then refine it. 

Later in the day, some groups gave an elevator pitch of their solutions to the group. 

For the rest of the week, the learning went outside, with students travelling on Wednesday to Treetop Trekking in Brampton to take part in Call of the Wild, conquering various challenges together in the great outdoors to achieve common goals. From the bear paw relay to the cube to land skiing and more (see photos), students collaborated together and laughed together. On Thursday, the fun continued at High Park with more group activities and a picnic.

While the entire week was grounded in fun – these are F1 students after all – the purpose was serious. The connections our F1 students forged and the vital communication and design thinking skills they developed will help carry them successfully through their next five years at UTS and beyond. And maybe even help make a difference in the world.

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