Self-guided learning?

I am extremely excited and relieved to find we're starting a new 'unit' in Design Lab; self-guided learning.

We can work in groups of 3 or less to go through the Design Thinking process and solve problems of our own. Hopefully, working in a group will help me push myself to be more efficient and organized.

If you've been reading my blog, imaginary other side of this conversation (Neil Hilborn, anyone?), then you might remember that the Design Lab class redesigned our classroom as well as the Middle School East library through the DT process.

Both redesigns were relatively successful.

Now, it's our turn to choose what we'd like to redesign.

The class has some pretty darn awesome ideas, like redesigning gym in the high school, designing a way for high school students to deal with stress and unhappiness, finding a way to alleviate child hunger in the USA, find a way to develop internet access for those in developing countries, etc.

Of course, I took the opportunity to work on COMMotion some more.

I haven't been able to do so up until now, so having class time to learn more about communication, how art affects cognitive processes, embodied cognition, etc, is a real blessing.

PLUS I get to work on it with two of my friends, both who are interested in chemistry, art (fine arts as well as dance), and equality.

Needless to say, I AM SUPER EXCITED!!

We created a Tumblr blog (which you should definitely check out at https://communicating-in-motion.tumblr.com/), and we're going to be presenting our ideas/projects to the class tomorrow in something called an "Elevator Pitch".

In an elevator pitch, the group gets 90 seconds to make an impact on the audience and convince them that their idea is absolute genius. More or less.

This is my group's rough draft:

COMMotion Elevator Pitch

What’s the issue?
There are many social issues and inequalities that are prevalent in modern society, even though we don’t encounter them every day.
Racial and gender inequality, poverty/income inequality, drug addiction, mental illness, environmental problems, internet addiction, etc.
It gets worse:
Words are too adversarial; the history behind our language gets in the way and prevents us from discussing prevalent social issues. Most of the general public in developed countries is not blind to the problems that surround them, but they don’t know how to change anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yrg7vV4a5o
Glimmer of hope:
Other methods of communication can break through that mental barrier and impact the public in a much more direct way
Novel Solution:
We have to turn to art in order to spread awareness and solve these problems.
Studies in cognitive science have linked learning directly to the body and how we experiences the world around us. Embodied cognition is a field that explores the role of the environment in developing cognitive processes (Remember Mr. Heidt’s “name each shape” warm up? Good example)
If learning and thought is a dynamic process that works best when the student is actively engaged, then we can use art and movement to spread ideas and educate the public.
Dance, music, fine arts
Influence the community and spread ideas through:
Blog (COMMotion)
Dance choreography posted to Youtube/various social medias
Credible Authority:
Irina Koleva: Founder of COMMOtion, teaches Bulgarian Folk Dance, studied embodied cognition through dance in 2015-16
Priya Ganesh: Retired AP chemist (lol), Bharatanatyam dancer, musician
Rachel Canigiani: current AP chemist, AP art student, programming student
The Vision:
Use/spread our knowledge about how cognitive processes are affected by movement and the environment to educate the educate the audience about various social issues/inequalities.
Through choreographed videos and music that are made to elicit an emotional response from the viewer
Art that opens the viewer's’ eyes to the issues around them.
Inspire the audience by painting a picture of how your approach will make the world/your world a better place and improve education (yours or all of us.)

This project is still focused on my Passion Project from last year, which is why our group project is called COMMOtion, but the research and designing we'll be doing will place much heavier emphasis on the cognitive side of communication and will back up what I've been trying to do with COMMotion so far.

It'll provide reason and purpose behind the dances I've choreographed so far, and those that I'll choreograph in the future. That's the goal, at least.

We will test our ideas by using the high school's Winter Showcase, which I'm directing, as our prototype. The showcase's overall theme is "Kids Can Do Great Things", and will include fine arts, song, dance, short scenes, poetry, and sign language.