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WELCOME! TO THEKATA IN THE CLASSROOM

EXERCISEv5.5

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INTRODUCTIONKata in the Classroom (KIC) is a ~50‐minute hands‐on exercise to introduce the scientific pattern of the Improvement Kata in school classrooms. It is targeted at Middle School Science teachers, but is used in a variety of K‐12 and even College educational settings. Kata in the Classroom involves the activity of assembling a 15‐piece cardboard jigsaw puzzle several times, and experimenting with ways to do it faster.

The KIC exercise combines a practical scientific pattern (the "Improvement Kata") with techniques of deliberate practice, to help make scientific thinking a teachable skill that anyone can learn. Teams of students (a) establish a baseline, (b) face a Challenge, (c) develop a next Target Condition on the way to the Challenge and (d) conduct experiments toward that Target Condition. While the students are engaged in a challenging game they are simultaneously being introduced to a scientific meta skill.

KiC helps teach universal STEM skills for achieving challenging goals along uncharted paths:• Scientific & Creative Thinking ‐ generate and refine solutions to obstacles through experimentation.• Collaboration ‐work in a team to accomplish a next goal on the way to a larger challenge.• Communication ‐ organize thoughts, data & findings, and share them effectively.

OBJECTIVES(1) The teacher has a positive experience with the simple, clear four‐step Improvement Kata pattern and uses the same pattern for other activities and projects during the school year. This is where student practice and repetition of scientific thinking comes from. Please consider where else you might apply the scientific four‐step pattern of the Improvement Kata with your students!

(2) Students experience initial practicing of a scientific, cross‐curricular, "life skill" routine that can be used to achieve challenging goals in a variety of situations. A main objective of the KiC exercise is to teach awareness that ideas need to be tested.

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THESE INSTRUCTIONS ARE A 'STARTER KATA'The steps and underlying principles of the Improvement Kata are broadly applicable. Once you've run the Kata in the Classroom exercise as designed (to get the thinking pattern behind it) you can adapt and use it to suit your situation and purpose.

KiC COMMUNITYWith your permission, I'd like to share your experiences with other teachers. Send me an email at kata.classroom@gmail.com. I'm interested in hearing from you with:

• Photographs of your running of the KiC exercise.• What you learn from conducting the KiC exercise, including suggestions for improving it.• In what ways you adjust the exercise to meet your needs.• Examples of how you apply the 4‐step pattern of the Improvement Kata to other student assignments, 

projects, etc.

CREATIVE COMMONS COPYRIGHT

The Kata in the Classroom (KiC) materials are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐ShareAlike license. You are free to copy, use, remix, transform, build upon and redistribute them as long as you note the source as katatogrow.com. However, these materials may not be used for sale in any form. Use them, adapt them, share them.

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MATERIALS FOR THE KiC EXERCISE

One Poster of the Improvement Kata Pattern, printed black & white and posted in view of all exercise participants (FILE = KiC Poster.pptx).

One digital stopwatch‐style timer that measures in seconds for the timekeeper on each student team.  A simple digital kitchen timer, "MyChron" student timer, smartphone or iPad all work well.

One KIT for each student team containing:

One 15‐piece cardboard Ravensburger puzzle. The puzzleis available online at http://tinyurl.com/scientific‐thinking.You can also reach that site via www.katatogrow.com

Ravensburger Puzzles is kindly providing a 40% discount onthe puzzle for teachers. Enter the coupon code KIC2016and your price is $4.20 per puzzle.

You need one puzzle for every team of 4 or 5 students.

One copy of the Baseline Form and Experimenting Form(FILE = KiC Forms.pptx)

One red pen and one pencil

The Reflection Questions CardOne card for each team member.(FILE = Reflection Card.pptx)

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ROOM SETUPA good student‐team size is four (4) or five (5) persons.  Each team should have their own table island with chairs. Place the chairs around three sides of the table, ideally with the side that's facing the projection screen not having a chair so no one has their back to the Powerpoint projection.

THE POWERPOINT FILEUse this PowerPoint file to conduct the KiC exercise. The PowerPoint walks you through the exercise step‐by‐step. In PowerPoint's 'Presenter Mode' the file includes teacher prompts, so you can read key steps and points to make directly from screen. The KiC exercise is easy to facilitate, and gets even easier once you have run it one time!

Before you use the KiC PowerPoint file please test the countdown timers that are embedded in it. They should begin counting down automatically when you are in the PowerPoint "Slide Show" or "Presenter View" mode. If the timers do not work you can try a different version of PowerPoint or a different timer.

The timer for the experimenting rounds is set for three (3) minutes. After you gain experience you may find a 2.5 minute (150 second) timer to be better for the experimenting rounds. An optional 2.5 minute timer slide is provided at the end of this PowerPoint file, which you can substitute for the 3 minute timer slide.

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THE EXERCISE BEGINS WITH THE NEXT SLIDE

What is a

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A  is a routine you practice, so it's pattern becomes an automatic habit that gives you some new skills!

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Today we'll practice the pattern of the 

It's a scientific routinefor achieving toughgoals 

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

1

2

3

4

THE FOUR STEPS OFTHE IMPROVEMENT KATA APPROACH

Poster

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

1

2

3

4

A FEW KEY POINTS• You don't have to reach the overall challenge right away.

• The path is not predictable or straight.

• You experiment to get to the next goal,which makes it scientific.

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For this exercise we'll build this 15‐piece puzzleseveral times, and experiment with ways

to do it faster

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Do the entire exercise without thepuzzle frame

Go ahead and build the puzzle one time!

Put the Frame Aside

• Take the puzzle out of the bag and study the picture.• Remove the puzzle pieces from the frame.• Put the frame back in the bag.• Build the puzzle once, without timing it.

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Choose a Team Name

Select a Data RecorderWrite your team name on the forms in the kit

Select a Timekeeper Each gets a stopwatch

THREE THINGS TO DO NEXT:

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TODAY'S GROUND RULES

(1) "START Position" =- Puzzle pieces shuffled in random order- Pieces face down in one stack- Hands flat on the table- No talking, you're ready to go

(2) All Teams Start Togethera. Instructor calls "START"b. Build the puzzle (talking allowed)c. Note the elapsed time on your form

(3) Don't Write on the Puzzle

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LET'S ESTABLISH ABASELINE TIME FOR YOUR TEAM

Record your times here

Use thisform

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Now let's dothe four steps of

the Improvement Kata

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

1

Step 1:UNDERSTAND THE CHALLENGE

15SECONDS

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Key Points About:UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE

• We often face challenges in life.  No need to worry, because you don't need to get all the way there right away!

• A challenge often even gives us a useful sense of direction.

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

Step 2:GRASP THE CURRENT CONDITION

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What was your team's last baseline time?

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• It's important to understand where you currently are, before you set your next goal. 

• Don't pull goals randomly out of the air.  A team should feel like its goals are meaningful.

Key Points About:GRASPING THE CURRENT CONDITION

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

Step 3:ESTABLISH YOUR NEXT

TARGET CONDITION

3

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• Break a big challenge down into smaller goals.

• Set an easier and closer goal that's on the way to your challenge. When you get there you can set the next goal.

Key Points About:ESTABLISHING YOUR NEXT

TARGET CONDITION

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What puzzle buildtime does your team want to reach by the end of today's class?

Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

LET'S DEFINE YOUR TEAM'SNEXT TARGET CONDITION

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We can do five (5) rounds of experimenting today

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LET'S ASK EACH TEAM

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DRAW YOUR TARGET CONDITION LINEON THE 'EXPERIMENTING' FORM

TC

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Conduct Experimentsto get there

Grasp the Current

Condition

Establish your Next

TargetCondition

Get the Direction orChallenge

Step 4:CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS

TO GET THERE

4

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• You never know in advance exactly how you will achieve a goal.

• We need to test the ideas we have.  A good way to reach a goal is to experiment rapidly.  Try something, see what happens, and then adjust based on what you learn.

• To learn from an experiment you should write down what you expectand what actually happens, so you can compare those two things.

Key Points About:EXPERIMENTING TO GET THERE

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HOW WE'LL EXPERIMENT3 Minutes per Round

Instructor calls "START"Build the puzzleNote the elapsed time on your form

Based on what happened, discuss whatyou plan to do next

Write ideas you want to test onto the form

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(Before)Write down the next ideas you want to test

(After)Write in how 

much the time changed 

compared to the last round

(After)Mark the elapsed

time

THE EXPERIMENTING FORMWhat to record in each round

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PLEASE PLAN YOUR FIRST EXPERIMENTWrite the ideas you want to test next

on your 'Experimenting' form

Write down the ideas you want to test

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AFTER EACH EXPERIMENTWE'LL REFLECT

After each round we'll ask one teamthis set of Reflection Questions

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GET READYFOR THE NEXT ROUND

3 Minutes per Round

Instructor calls "START"Build the puzzleNote the elapsed time on your form

Discuss what you plan to do nextWrite ideas you want to test onto the form

----------Time's up... Ask the Reflection QuestionsGet into START Position (timekeeper raise hand)

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What are the four stepsof the Improvement Kata approach?

Where else can we usethe four-step pattern ofthe Improvement Kata?

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A REFERENCE CARDon the back of your Reflection Card

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The timer for the experimenting rounds is set for three (3) minutes. After you gain experience you may find a 2.5 minute (150 second) timer to be more appropriate for the experimenting rounds. 

The optional 2.5 minute timer slide on the next page can be substituted for the 3 minute timer slide.

The timers were kindly provided by Mr. Emiel van Est.

Optional 2.5 Minute Timer

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