SHIELDS ENGAGED

I spent the better part of my spring developing and implementing an engineering project with 5th graders. The kids designed and constructed small kinetic sculptures and then documented both their products and the design process using some computer technology developed at my workplace. It was popular with students and I felt like I had taught them some small lesson about problem-solving.

Lowell Monke's Charlotte's Webpage in Orion Magazine made me revisit that lesson and question my combining of art and technology simply for the sake of my work. Reflecting back, I wonder if all that work with computers outweighed the headaches that went along with using them. Perhaps I will think differently about using computers in the classroom in future. It's so important for kids to get out and see things first hand... a point made clear during a recent visit to Nova Scotia.

"What's Starbuck's?" is not a question that should be asked by a 15 year old. I mean, it's everywhere! You can think it's good or bad or whatever, but you should know that it exists. Does turning these kids onto computers and the internet channel them exclusively from a world of car seats in minivans shuttling between soccer games and dance recitals into a world populated by spreadsheets and email without a chance to look at leaves and fish and birds in between? Is the advantage of my generation simply that we are too old to have had computers and educational software at home when we were three? Maybe it is. I remember playing in the dirt, exploring swamps, riding bikes. It was fun. Do kids do that now or did Amber alerts and PS2 consoles change the whole experience?

Take your kids outside and show them the bugs under a rock. Even the Malden River looks good sometimes.