Adventure Learning YouTube Videos

20 YouTube videos to inspire Adventure Learning for teachers and students. 

The Launch of the Adventure Learning Facebook Page

For a while now I've been thinking about how I can inspire other teachers to get their kids involved in Adventure Learning. Adventure Learning is something that I've been passionate about for a long time now. Over the past year I've regularly blogged and tweeted to share my own experiences and ideas. While I'm sure this has been of some use to others, it has been flawed in the respect that it's only my ideas that are being shared. 

I've created the Adventure Learning Facebook page to provide teachers with a place to share ideas and make connections with other like-minded teachers across NZ. 

You can find the Facebook page by clicking this link http://goo.gl/AD8Qkp 

Sparking Interest in Adventure Learning

I'm often asked by other teachers how they can start Adventure Learning in their own class. As mentioned in a previous post I spent the majority of the first term running group challenges. Following the group challenges I spent two weeks with my class looking at the difference between passions and talents, as well as sparking interest through other blogs, sharing items or photos/videos from previous years, I wonder questions, YouTube videos and by using Pinterest.


We got the name Adventure Learning from the movie Up. The name was inspired by the character Ellie and her passion for adventures. This was one of the first YouTube videos I showed my class, as they are all familiar with this movie. I then gave each child their own Adventure Book. 

This year (2014) the children in my class are designing a visual model for Adventure Learning, called Adventure Island. Each group will also receive an Adventure passport where they will earn badges for visiting the different places (stages) on the island. The six badges will be designed by my year 4 class. This hooked my class in as two of the boys in my class have just started cubs and brought the excitement of earning badges into our classroom. 

Scroll down for a smorgasboard of ideas I've put together that may help you to spark the excitement of Adventure Learning in your own class. 

• Create a class Pinterest account. This is a great way for children to find ideas and save them for later. What I love about Pinterest is how visual it is and how easy it is to use for younger children. A lot of the children in my class who struggle to search using Google have found this really useful. Here's a link to the start of our Pinterest boards http://pinterest.com/room2smarties/boards/
• As well as having an online Pinterest account we cleared a wall in our classroom and created a physical class Pinterest board too. To start with I pinned a few pictures on the board to spark interest in different topics. The kids soon started adding to the Pinterest board and it wasn't long before we took most of the photos I had put up, down. 

• We talked a lot about what our talents were, what we were passionate about learning more about, as well as the differences between talents and passions. You don't have to be talented at something to be passionate about it, but if you're really passionate about something you are more likely to become talented at it. We then wrote our talents and passions on giant beach balls. 

• One morning I put a few 'I wonder...' questions on the interactive whiteboard e.g. Why do glow worms glow? How are jelly beans made? How does kiwifruit get to the supermarket? From there Room 2 went away and wrote their own I wonder questions. They came up with some awesome questions. See the photos below. If you want to get kids started with a few have a look at the Suzy's World DVDs. I've got a few of my own that I picked up at the Warehouse for $10 each. Here's a link to the DVD titles and questions http://www.suzy.co.nz/suzysworld/Videos.asp#Vol14

• Watch the Coca Cola Let's Go Crazy YouTube clip. It's an awesome clip and a great way to inspire kids to choose an Adventure Learning topic that may help someone else in the community. 
• Share examples of previous children's adventure learning projects. You'll find lots of examples on my blog, especially if you visit the 'celebrating learning' label on the side of the blog. 
• Start a classroom Twitter board. My class uses Twitter online, but the Twitter board has been a great way for them to connect with other children in the classroom that they wouldn't normally have much to do with. I simply wrote a tweet asking Room 2 what they would like to learn about or create during Adventure Learning time. The love any excuse to write a tweet so this was a great way to hook them in. 

 

• Spend some time talking and coming up with ideas for what we can do when we get stuck with our learning. This was one of the most useful things that we did. At the start of the year a lot of my class thought that the best person to ask is the teacher. I asked all of the children who thought they were good at skateboarding to put their hand up. I then asked them if they wanted to learn about skateboarding for Adventure Learning if they would come to me? There was a lot of laughing before deciding that I possibly wouldn't be the best person to go to. Room 2 now know that they can ask each other for help because everyone is an expert at something, use the class Twitter board, tweet on Twitter to ask other children in other schools, use Google, email an expert, ask family etc. 

If you're wanting to read more about Adventure Learning/ Google 20% Time here are some links, as well as a couple of authors that are often referred to when discussing Google 20% Time. 

• Sir Ken Robinson - The Element (book) 
• Sir Ken Robinson - Are Schools Killing Creativity? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
• Dan Pink - Drive (book) 
• Dan Pink - interview about Google 20% Time http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa7_3T-q5ZQ&safe=active
• 10 reasons to give Google 20% Time a go in your classroom http://goo.gl/ZoLgr

YouTube clips 

Term 1 Group Projects

As mentioned in the previous post, the first term was spent doing Friday group challenges. The purpose of this was to teach the children how to work collaboratively, compromise, problem solve and take risks. It was also an opportunity to explicitly teach Room 2 how to plan effectively and reflect on their learning. An example of this was our Mexican Fiesta challenge. 


For our Mexican Fiesta Room 2 were told that their Friday challenge would be to make nachos. Each group was told that they would be given nacho chips, grated cheese, mild salsa and guacamole. They had to work out how to put the ingredients together to make nachos. In our classroom we also have a mini kitchen with a microwave and small oven, so they were able to melt the cheese if they wanted to. What would appear to be a very simple activity proved quite challenging to a classroom of 7 and 8 year old children.

Each group had to discuss in their group what they thought the best way to make nachos would be. There was a lot of debating and finally some compromising. Once they all agreed they began to work on their plans. Examples of these can be seen at the bottom of the post. The most important thing as a teacher is to step back at this point. One group came up and told me that they were going to put the grated cheese on the plate and melt it in the microwave. It would have been very easy to step in and tell them that they needed to sprinkle the cheese on their nacho chips and then melt it, but this would defeat the purpose of the group challenges. I simply asked the group what they would do with the cheese once it was melted on the plate. They gave me one of 'those' looks and told me that they would spoon it onto their nacho chips. I told them to give it a go. 

Room 2 had a lot of fun making nachos. I think it's safe to say that this was their favourite group challenge, possibly because food was involved! After making and eating the nachos each group reflecting on their learning. The group that melted the cheese on the plate decided that next time they would do it like one of the other groups and melt the cheese on top of the chips. I asked them why and they said that when the melted the cheese in the microwave it all stuck together, so it wasn't as easy to spoon onto the chips as they had thought. From observing other groups they also came to the conclusion that the cheese melted better in the mini oven than in the microwave too. Each group was able to identify what went well and what they would do differently next time. If time allows, it's also a great idea to get each group to share back with the rest of the class. Room 2 has also learnt to add more detail to their reflections. To start with when answering the question 'what went well?' they would write 'it was yum!' The response to 'what could you do differently next time to improve it?' was often nothing. We've spent a lot of time discussing what it means to reflect on our learning and why this is important. A lot of modelling and reflecting together as a class also took place in the first term. 

After spending a large portion of the first term on group challenges, we then moved on to sparking enthusiasm and ideas for independent topics. Here are some of the photos from the Mexican Fiesta challenge. 

How is a day of Adventure Learning organised?

Here is how I have organised Adventure Learning in my classroom over the past two years. I'm still yet to introduce sparkler sessions this term, but they're in the pipeline. Currently we are only running one sharing circle. My goal is for two to be running by the end of the term. At the moment the children are still learning what happens during this time so I feel that for now it's important that we all work on this together. We are really just starting to dive into our individual projects now. Video reflections are something else that are yet to be introduced also. Watch this space :)

Sparkler session (5-10 minutes)

A sparkler session is when a child shares a new skill or something exciting they have discovered that they feel might be helpful to others e.g. how to use Google Earth, an ipod or ipad app, an exciting website, something on ActivInspire, how to do something on the digital cameras or class blog.

Sharing circle (10 minutes)

Each group shares where they are up to and what their goal for this session is. I try to run two sharing circles and have a child lead these.

Exploring and Creating Time

 (An hour and a half on Friday)

This is when children work on their individual or group projects. During this time they can book a conference time on the whiteboard (if needed). 

Reflection time (10 minutes)

Each group briefly reflects on what went well and what their next steps are. 

What is Google 20% Time?

What is Adventure Learning (Google 20% Time)? 

Adventure Learning is based on the concept of Google’s 20% time, where employees are given 20% of their working week to work on projects that they’re passionate about. 50% of Google’s innovative ideas have come out of their 20% time, including Gmail.

Over the past three years I have given the children in my classroom 20% of their school week to learn about something that they’re passionate about. Projects have ranged from dancing, to learning about Ancient Rome or community based projects e.g. fundraising for the local S.P.C.A. Adventure Learning increases student engagement, enables learning to be personalised and sparks curiosity. Most importantly, it helps children to develop a love for learning.

Here is a YouTube clip about how Google thinks their 20% Time fosters innovation.