ABOVE: Students in Mrs. Teresa Meredith’s fourth grade class at Loper Elementary participate in the Ford Museum for American Innovation’s Model i curriculum tasks. | submitted
Local students aren’t just learning about Henry Ford this year, they’re innovating like him, too. It’s all thanks to the Henry Ford Museum and Mrs. Teresa Meredith, who has been a museum Teacher in Residence this past year.
After a summer stint at the Dearborn, Mich. museum, Meredith brought the “Model i” - “i” for innovation - learning framework back to her Loper Elementary fourth grade class.
“We were encouraged to do a project or to find a way to include more innovation in our classes,” she said.
Of late, her students have been collaboratively considering the intersection of classroom layout and student needs, and pondering problems they discover. They first looked at classroom photos from the 1940s through the 1960s and discussed features in those spaces.
“They noticed there was no technology as they know it,” Meredith said. “They noticed the globes and maps hanging around the rooms. Today, we use technology and just Google the map we need, or a teacher assigns or shares a map digitally.”
Students also noticed the all-male engineering class photos and all-girl home economics classes, complete with sewing machines, stoves and sinks. They quickly noticed the rows of desks, opposed to the group seating in their Loper classroom. Students then discussed how these arrangements met the needs of students at the time before wandering their own classroom looking for areas needing improvement.
“The analyzing of our classroom and recommendations for the new space really had them talking. They were looking at photos of the new space in great detail, to the point of looking for the electrical outlets,” Meredith said.
They brainstormed in groups, shared and presented possible solutions to problems such as placement of the iPad cart and location of the pencil sharpener in a congested area of the room. Solutions were then presented to the class, walking through the steps of innovation. Only the last time, implementation, remains.
The lessons go beyond classroom layout.
“My students are growing in confidence and are beginning to understand the value in failing forward: failing, but not giving up, learning from failures and doing better moving forward,” Meredith said.
She applied for the Ford fellowship last year and was one of approximately 20 to be accepted, the only one from Indiana. She then spent three days in residence at the museum and Greenfield Village, where the cohort explored various curriculums and Model i lessons.
“My biggest take-away was a reminder of the importance of open-ended questions, of teaching students to try to solve problems, and when they fail, to keep working and trying,” she said. “I think we, students and educators alike, have become so test-driven, we have forgotten the value in teaching students to 'fail forward.' There is value in not giving up. That's where the learning occurs. When you persevere, keep trying, and with every fail and revision, you get closer to the answer or to the goal.”
Meredith said she appreciated being treated as an educational expert, and enjoys seeing positive results this year with students. She’s noticed they’re not as hesitant to consider open-ended questions and review and revise their work.
“Overall it was a very rewarding experience, professionally and personally,” Meredith said. “I'm so glad I said yes.”