Throughout my practica, I have worked to foster creativity in a number of my classes. In my 391 practicum, my coaching teacher had gotten the students to start an Interactive Science Notebook in which they would write their notes and create interactive study tools. I continued using these notebooks while I taught and I got to design fun activities for the students. I encouraged the students to use my template only as a guideline that they should put their own unique spin on to make the study tool more personalized to their learning. By asking the students to make it their own, I was also encouraging critical thinking and collaboration as students were allowed to work with their peers, discussing ideas and results. They worked together to create study tools that were meaningful to them while still covering the course material.
In my 491 practicum, I encouraged collaboration during work periods by allowing students to get up and move desks to sit with different people. They were allowed to discuss their thoughts and come together to determine answers. A project I had my students complete was a depiction of what science means to them. This was a very open-ended project in which the students were allowed to choose from a number of presentation mediums. They got to pick how they wanted to relay their opinion whether it be in a PowerPoint, poster, video, etc. This project allowed the students to demonstrate their creativity while engaging in self-reflection. In this practicum, my students were encouraged to be creative on a number of occasions when they were asked to design their own experimental procedures. I gave them the list of supplies that would be available and the goal of the experiment, everything else was up to them. This required students to be creative by thinking of what they wanted to see happen or what kinds of tests they wanted to perform. Designing their own procedures also allowed for a lot of critical thinking as they had to keep the end goal in mind as they designed; they had to think of how they wanted to conduct the experiment in order to get meaningful results. I encouraged students to share their procedures with their peers to provide each other with feedback and suggestions which allowed for more comprehensively designed procedures.