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Moonshot Thinking
Moonshot Thinking in the classroom would be achievable by creating an environment where students are not afraid to try new things, but most importantly fail. Failure is THE MOST important tool to discovering new things. Students are almost always afraid to fail. As a teacher we need to foster the idea that failure is the key to success. We learn from our failures. If you look at all of the most amazing inventors, they will all tell you of their failures and how many times it took them to find success. Also if you add the idea of Growth mindset, students will be able to open their minds to the possibility

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Moonshot Thinking

A Quote From the Video:

“These aviation pioneers were figuring it out as they went. No one knew how to build an airplane or even fly an airplane.”

When hearing that, I thought to myself,  “What inspired or influenced the Wright brothers to want to build an airplane, not knowing how to fly one?”

Some people do not start out with a passion to be innovative. Sometime we need to start with what makes us sad to start with Moonshot Thinking. Elementary students, for the most part have hobbies and likes. I want this community of learners to think about what makes them sad and frustrated. Then, think about “How might they create something good out of that negative emotion?” That’s my new starting point for students.

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Children are born to Moonshot Thinking. When I work (rarely) with kindies and younger students, they have this passion, this creative energy that can't be stifled. But by the time they reach me in Grade 4/5, something has shifted during their development at school. I try to inspire their creativity, but I find myself fighting against their preconceived notions of "what school is" and "how to be successful at school," which are mostly "be quiet and listen to the teacher." Despite their natural inclination to Moonshot Thinking, I have to deliberately work to teach my students that it's okay to take the lead, take risks, and follow their passion. By their intermediate years, many students have become cautious of passion projects, because they have come to understand that success in school means coming to the same "right answer" that the teacher has, and investigating their passions with abandon means risking venturing out of that safe zone, where they will always be successful as long as they repeat what the teacher wants to hear. Encouraging Moonshot Thinking means finding that delicate balance: guiding, supporting, encouraging, and reassuring my students that they are doing the right thing, without seizing control or making choices FOR them if they are struggling to venture outside the "safe zone."

For me, encouraging Moonshot Thinking means helping my students to overcome their preconceptions and understand what SCHOOL is in a whole new way.

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My favorite quote in that video was, "When you find your passion, you are unstoppable, you can make amazing things happen." I think that helping your students find their passion is really the key. Giving them multiple opportunities to tap into different curiosities and different ways to show their work is a step toward finding their passions. Switching your PBL's up so that you are not always falling back onto the same ways to present and share the project or the same way to research will also help students find their passions. Finally, to help encourage Moonshot thinking, a teacher must always invite those sort of responses in their classroom. Let students be dreamers and encourage them to share those dreams. Allow everyone's thoughts to be encouraged and accepted by others in a safe environment. That is what I believe will invite Moonshot thinking with my students.

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I can create Moonshot thinking by guiding my students into inquiry with the understanding that PBL's are fun and  challenging. The PBL is more about the process of learning, researching, collaborating, presenting and making it relevant to their lives. I hope I can model the process and admit to failures and learn from them as we work together.

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I can create Moonshot thinking by guiding my students into inquiry with the understanding that PBL's are fun and  challenging. The PBL is more about the process of learning, researching, collaborating, presenting and making it relevant to their lives. I hope I can model the process and admit to failures and learn from them as we work together.

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My project is about modeling weather for colleges around the country. To create moonshot thinking, I want to make it clear to my students that they can get into some of these amazing colleges around the country. A lot of students think they are limited to local community colleges or the nearest Cal State's. By having them talk to alumni and admissions officers around the country, I'm hoping they will realize how doable it is to get into top-tier universities.

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I can encourage Moonshot Thinking in my classroom by going there myself. I'm very concrete so thinking outside the box and the what if's are really hard for me. Practicing and making the point to work on this as an individual and in my classroom can give students the freedom to believe that they really can make things happen and when you couple that with PBL....it gives them a catalyst to do some really cool things. The thing I love about PBL Is that it fosters creativity and when you get student creativity stirring.....amazing things can happen!

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The first thing I can do to create Moonshot Thinking in my classroom is to be certain that embark on PBL.  It is a must!

Another way to encourage this sense of endless potential is to embrace the what-if's.  My students make me roar with their worries and scenarios of disaster when trying to do something new.   They are not always rational and sometimes their worries are more important to them than the learning.  They are sweet and I always reassure them.  But now, I would say that we should embrace them with a Moonshot Thinking Mindset.  If they think anything can happen we okay and go ahead anyway and risk, and explore and try.  Eventually the positive what-if's worries will replaced the and they'll see potential pitfalls simply as potential. We need to do our part to make Moonshot Thinking be known as thinking.

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Moonshoot thinking for my question: How are Nobel Prize winners different from the general public would be to show students that great things are possible. My end result would be to encourage students to follow a passion that will guide them to make a difference in the world. I believe that PBL or Genius Hour will encourage students to work together and it will give them time to work on something amazing and maybe they would be awarded a nobel prize.

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I think my elementary students have the power to imagine the unthinkable and the impossible. Too often they face the "not knowing" and give up. Encouraging them to never let go of an idea, but to put it on hold until they can figure out how to achieve it is the best advice I can give them. We can work towards achieving the impossible, but we can definitely work on never giving up on it.

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I like the idea of my students being leaders of their own thinking and ideas. So many of them this past year just wanted to give up and take the easy way out. I feel they need to be faced with more challenges and I am hoping that if they are the ones that choose those challenges based on their passions and interests they will have the determination to persevere and solve a problem that is meaningful to them.

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I can create Moonshot Thinking in my 3rd grade classroom by allowing conversations that solicit "Why? or Why not?"  Instead of cutting students off for veering away from the lesson at hand I can guide my students in discussions that apply what is being taught.  Then give students an opportunity to exercise their ideas through collaborative projects.

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Students are so afraid to fail. They have been given F's and told that failure is unacceptable. Moonshot thinking gives them the freedom to work and fail forward. They can learn from failure instead of being punished for it. I love the idea of "yes," and "yet." Athletic coaches have used this for years. "You can't do this yet." With hard work and dedication you will be able to do it. I have a poster in my room of very famous people who failed in their life ie. Ben Franklin and Einstein. I also have a poster of a young baseball player that says, "everyone was a beginner once." The PBL project gives them the freedom to fail and learn, instead of being punished for failure. There is a poster that I think I need to get for this year that says, First Attempt In Learning.

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Moonshot thinking is the game changer for a PBL project and for students to stay invested when their idea gets hard. I don't want my students to be scared off from ideas because they think something is impossible or out of their reach. I want them to stay inspired and ready to dream big and see their dreams possibly become a reality.

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My students can go as far and crazy as they want with PBL units. That's the beauty of PBL. There's no real end or specific answer I am looking for from my students.  They can research as in depth as they're capable of.  I like that there's no real "minimum" so that students do just search for the correct answer and stop there.

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PBL is the perfect vehicle to encourage Moonshoot Thinking. Students are liberated to research topics that interest them and then, as an extension, can be asked to think about what they want to do with the information they've learned-- How can they use what they've learned to make a difference?

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My project is for students to examine the question, how does conflict causes change? The culminating project is for students to collaborate in groups to create video answering this questions using historical evidence from the revolutionary war period. However, the real potential I see to encourage Moonshot Thinking is by implementing a once a week Genius Hour in my classroom.

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My project is to create a class trip on a budget to Haiti to present to the school. Many magnet schools in our area visit other countries. However, no regular ed public schools travel. Because the gap in resources is so large, I would like my students to feel that they have the same opportunities as other schools and could be heard and supported by the school district.

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The end-game of my project is to convince local leaders how, if at all, to clean a brownfield for the building of a mall.  It's a very "hot-button" topic in our community.  I want my students to know they have a voice in their city.  From taxes to traffic to tourism, it's a multi-faceted issue that will impact them in numerous ways.  They should be able to have a say.

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Our project is "Should we ban water bottles from our school?" The students will discuss how plastic is harming our environment.  We can discuss if and how we can totally get rid of plastic in our world.  I can just see how the students will love this discussion.  Usually we are focused on "reality" and that we can never get rid of plastic.  I can't wait!

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I love this term! My students do need the encouragement to believe their ideas matter and deserve the opportunity to take world challenges and propose intelligent, creative, purposeful solutions to global issues. I plan to use this idea in my opening "hook" as a means of encouragement that their ideas matter. 

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I love this term! My students do need the encouragement to believe their ideas matter and deserve the opportunity to take world challenges and propose intelligent, creative, purposeful solutions to global issues. I plan to use this idea in my opening "hook" as a means of encouragement that their ideas matter. 

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In my classes I try to foster moonshot thinking in several ways (at least I am hopeful)
1.  Allow students to take greater responsibility for their education by stepping to the side as an academic facilitator who is along for their educational ride along side them.  When students take ownership of their education they have a connection and interest in what they are learning.
2. 20time projects.  This year I entered into the realm of 20time projects and the results have been astonishing!  The students truly made a difference within their own communities within not only their educational setting but their personal lives as well.  The fact that the topic and outcomes are completely student driven truly allow them to own their projects.
3. The power of yes and yet. Most of my students enter my classroom feeling the need to ask for permission to inquiry or take academic risk but I have tried to remove that hurdle by relying on the simple response of yes.  When connected with the power of the word yet..  I have allowed my students to inquire beyond the superficial and truly dive into a topic so that they own that adventure.

B. Cauthers