This year, students in Grade 6 and 7 are taking classes in Applied Design, Skills, and Technologies (ADST) as part of the new BC curriculum. Through ADST, students have the opportunity to design, build, and experiment with new technologies. They learn to test, reflect and modify their designs and then share their designs with an audience. Throughout the experience, students better understand the design making process through class discussions, design journals, and self-reflections.
Students choose from six ADST modules and take three different modules over the year based upon their choices. The modules include Yearbook with Mr. Reimer; Shadow Puppets with Ms. Webb and Ms. Grundvig; Dream it, Design it, Build it with Mr. Camp and Ms. Ling; Clothing Conscious with Ms. Regan and Ms. Chevreau; and Tree-preneurship with Ms. Comeau.
For the shadow puppets module, students played with traditional shadow leather puppets from China and Indonesia and learned more about the 2000-year-old history of this endangered art form. Using a large white screen and an overhead projector, students had fun exploring the properties of light with simple paper puppets and small objects. Over the next few weeks, they will work in small groups to design and build their own puppets, write a story based on a folk or fairy tale and then create a shadow puppet play for the primary grades using light, shadow, and music.