Speaking of hives, honeycombs, and hexagons...
Students get excited when they explore new frameworks for discussion and critical thinking. Learning becomes so much more engaging when you're presented with new opportunities to share your knowledge and understanding of various topics with your peers. We introduced a new critical thinking and discussion framework to students this week called Hexagonal Thinking, with the goal of inspiring students to think deeper about their learning related to the structures and functions of plants and animals.
Hexagonal thinking is a flexible, tactile approach to getting students thinking about connections they might never otherwise make while making a conceptual understanding of ideas visible. Here's the gist. In small groups, students are provided with a set of hexagonal tiles, each tile containing different ideas or words written on them. They work collaboratively to arrange so that related tiles are next to each other - essentially building a web of connections. This strategy is designed to get students engaged in discussion and negotiation of the tile placements. As they move the tiles around, it prompts them to consider connections that they hadn't previously discovered. This approach challenges students to demonstrate higher levels of understanding by explaining the relationships between ideas using evidence.
The Hive was BUZZING with curiosity and excitement. We observed groups of students making deep connections to their learning and asking each other relevant and meaningful questions during their discoveries, while others grappled with complex ideas and questions. In a debrief, we shared our community experience and discussed ways to make this type of thinking work even better. Regardless of the successes or failures experienced, we all agreed that hexagonal thinking can be a very powerful thinking tool. They're looking forward to using this framework again with other units of study.
This week's guest bloggers reflect on their experience. Enjoy!
Something that my group and I found challenging about this experience was choosing the first hexagon because there were so many possible starting points. Trying to find one keyword that connected with 6 other words was difficult. Even though this activity started out challenging, we found a way to make it work and connect our thinking in the process. @Seafoam-da-Seawing
One of my "AHA!" moments was when we were trying to connect the hexagons and my group came across the word "robot". I was so confused because I couldn't figure out what that word had to do with honeybees. Someone in our group said that if we don't protect bees that they may have to have robots help pollinate flowers and collect nectar because the pollination process can't stop. @cheerqueen
The hexagonal thinking experience helped me make deeper connections about honeybees. I could see what others learned and we could talk about what we didn't know. One of my group members explained something that the rest of us didn't understand and it made sense. @LightningDragon
I loved the hexagonal thinking activity because it was like solving a verbal puzzle, which is a new type of puzzle for me that was challenging, but fun. @Potato.
My favorite part of the hexagonal thinking activity was how we got to use what we know about honeybees and stretch our thinking. One example was when I was puzzled about how robots connect with honeybees. My group talked and we shared what we knew with each other and I knew how to solve my question. @puppyonline
An "AHA!" moment that I had during the hexagonal thinking experience was when we came across the word "waggle". Our group had trouble figuring out what it meant and we were almost going to give up and just not use the word. We decided to go back to our resources and see if we missed something that we didn't catch the first time. It turned out that we missed the fact that 'waggle' is a certain type of dance that bees do to communicate! It was great that we were able to overcome a challenge and learn something new at the same time! @WritingGod
I really enjoyed working with my team during the hexagonal thinking activity. They helped me understand a lot more about honeybees. Some of the connections we were trying to make were hard for me. My group members really listened to me and my ideas (even if I was wrong). I want to give a shout-out to @hockeykitty and @soccerqueen6 for being really helpful and for making this a fun experience. @SoftballPiggy
What I enjoyed most about the hexagonal thinking activity was when we were talking together and helping each other understand how the words were connected. Some connections I could not understand, but @Seafoam-da-Seawing and @ChickenNugget would share their thinking with me so that I could understand it better. When we got to do a gallery walk of the other groups' connections, we got to see how differently how the other groups thought about what they knew and the different connections they made. This activity definitely helped me learn more about this topic. @Burt
I enjoyed quite a few things about this experience. First, a shout out to @SoccerPro1 for always trying to find different places to connect words and experiment with where our group could place each word. This was very helpful. Also, when the time was up, we got to do a gallery walk around the room to see the results of the other groups' hexagonal thinking displays. Overall, I think hexagonal thinking is a great way to show your learning. @writingmachine
Hexagonal thinking helps you make deeper connections to what you are learning. When you have a chance to explain your thinking, you are teaching someone else in your group what you know and how you understand it. Someone else can do the same for you. @Sunflower
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