Our 6th-grade students are currently working on an MYP (Middle Years Programme)unit that focuses on three ATLs (Approaches to Learning), one of which is Practicing Collaboration Skills: Practice Empathy.
The unit sets out to teach this ATL across a wide variety of experiences, one of which was a practical activity done these past two weeks.
The Statement of Inquiry for the unit is The creative development of innovative products designed to function for an individual's needs, can help lessen inequalities. Through the inquiry process students will be researching designing, developing and testing their 3D solutions for mobility challenges. It can be difficult for students to understand these challenges if they have never experienced them so we set out to give them a few mobility challenges of their own.
This is what two students had to say about that experience.
"This activity made us see how people with disabilities struggle to do things that for us are not complicated but for them are very challenging. It also made us feel disappointed because sometimes we make jokes about those topics when it is a very serious issue. What we did see was how disabled people lived their normal lives. We did this through some “games” which helped us understand what people felt.
We felt very stressed and frustrated because we couldn't do simple things like write our name or even get a cup. We think that we did this activity because it was going to be fun and to reflect on how people with disabilities live their normal lives. This made us feel guilty because we sometimes complain about little things when people with disabilities wish to have legs, arms or other parts of the human body. We hope you reflect on these issues and think about how people live their lives missing a part of their bodies that make their life complicated.
The question we have to ask you is what would you do if you were them? "
Thanks.
By Gabriel Cañenguez and Adriana Guzmán
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