GUIDING PRINCIPLE #4 - Children get more engaged when working to solve real-life problems

Children get more thoroughly engaged when working to solve real-life problems. 

For a younger child, this can be as simple as:
"Oh no, I broke my shoelace and I don't have another one.  What can I do"
or
"Oh no, that character in the story can't find its mother!  What could it do?"
or
"How could we make a house that would be just right for the cat/dog/hamster/etc."

Children often like to think of many ideas when they feel that there is a real problem to be solved.

For older children:

Example 1
My Grade 3 & 4 students (7 to 9 years old) got really engaged in a multi-week project when I presented them with this scenario:

• We have received a message from the Canadian Space Agency asking for our help.  They are thinking about sending a space ship with hundreds of people to the nearest habitable planet in the solar system of Kepler 42b.  We have been asked to:
• design a spaceship with all the rooms and areas that people will need
• plan what supplies they will need to bring
• figure out how to feed everybody
• make a plan to keep everyone healthy
• decide how many people we can carry on each spaceship
• plan structures for the people to build when they get to the new planet

Example 2

In another project, we read about a girl in a wheelchair who wasn't able to use her neighbourhood park because it wasn't wheelchair friendly.  Our task was to design a brand new playground that was completely wheelchair friendly.  This includes:

• suitable surfaces for wheelchairs to roll easily
• new, safe equipment designs
• a surrounding landscaped garden with raised beds 

Example 3

I had a student who lived for skateboarding, but resisted all academic work in school. Coincidentally, I found a news article about an older student who lobbied his city councillor to build a skate park in the community across the road.  So, our new mission was to design a brand new skate park for our community!  (Students who were not interested in skateboarding loved the chance to design a new playground for the elementary school.)