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In education, we cherish success and fear failure. But not every learning experience is a success right away, in fact failing and making mistakes and then learning from them is the norm rather than the exception. In this symposium, we present different perspectives on how failure can contribute to constructionist learning and teaching, examining how learners identify and address failures in their designs and how distinct approaches to failure can support learners in collaboratively creating personally meaningful projects. Taking a holistic approach to failure—that incorporates cognitive, social, and affective factors—we argue that failure should play a key role in constructionism and present different perspectives for finding a more productive stance that turns failures into rich opportunities for constructionist learning and teaching.
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Twenty Things to Make with Biology.
A 1971 memo by Papert and Solomon introduced twenty things to do with a computer which became the foundation for constructionism. In this paper, we propose bringing constructionist activities into making with living materials. Significant developments in tools and methods have turned biology into a design science: it is now possible to make things with biology—or biodesign— rather than just observing processes and behaviours. Our list of twenty things to make with biology includes examples from making colours, toys, games, insulin, batteries, sensors and more. In the discussion, we review how making with biology addresses key affordances of constructionist learning: “tinkerability,” the ability to experiment; “perceptibility,” the immediacy of feedback on learning process; “expressivity,” the personal customization of products; and “usability,” the ability to use learning designs in everyday contexts. We conclude with an overview of accessible and affordable tools available to K-12 education.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1840933
- PAR ID:
- 10201764
- Editor(s):
- B. Tangney, J. Bryne
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of Constructionism 2020
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 551-559
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript
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