It was the most organic PBL I have seen: we had a genuine problem and the students were charged with fixing it. Our school became a STEM school this year and we needed a way to identify the change. I frontloaded the kids with logo lessons and started the discussion about what we wanted our logo to say about us.
Should we keep our school colors of blue and gold? What about our mascot, the Stallion? Does every element of STEM need to be represented? I called in the Professionals and was thrilled when Wes Stobbe, a designer with Pearl Izumi agreed to come speak to our kids.
Wes brought an impressive selection of his work, on cool sports gear, print, and electronic mediums. The kids were engaged and full of questions. One of the most important things Wes did was help the kids think through the message graphic design sends.
Our art teacher was next, and she led the students in designing a logo that was to be put before The Panel. The Panel consisted of our Art Teacher, our Principal, the owners of Top Shelf Printing Company and Wes Stobbe.
These are two of our finalists, as drawn by the students. The Panel met and chose the winner. The Printing company was able to digitally recreate the logo for us and we then sold t shirts and hoodies with our new logo.
The best part of the PBL? It solved our problem! The students LOVE the new logo, as much as they LOVE that it was created by a 3rd grade student in our school. The kids designed, discussed and weighed in on this entire process. I would have to say they owned it from start to finish.
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