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On December 4, four classes from McKee PS participated in a STEAM learning opportunity at North York Central Library. The students and staff from McKee PS were joined by Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow who came to see the students’ exciting work firsthand.
The learning opportunity aimed to establish a connection between students in Toronto and Kyiv, Ukraine through a collaborative, STEAM-themed mystery kit exchange.
Students were presented with a design thinking prompt and were challenged to devise a prototype using materials provided by the library. Students were asked to build one of three things - an instrument, a robot or a model of a living thing.
Students then curated an activity kit that extended the challenge to their counterparts in Kyiv, encouraging them to design their own prototypes in response to the same prompts, using materials selected for the kit. Activity kits also included a photograph of the prototype created by students here, and a letter from the kit creator to the kit recipient.
Following the program, Toronto Public Library shipped all created activity kits to their partners in Kyiv, who will in turn engage groups of students in similar design thinking challenges throughout 2024.