Exploring the Growth Mindset

In 5th grade Explorations, we kicked off the school year exploring the human brain and the concept of having a growth mindset using a program developed by Khan Academy. We learned that inside, our brains are made up of connections between neurons, dendrites, axons, and synapses, and that these connections are actually strengthened in situations when we learn new things. 

We learned that mistakes are learning experiences that also strengthen the connections and networks in our brains, and have committed to listening to our growth mindset voice over our inner fixed mindset voice. After completing our exploration into the concept of growth mindset, students are choosing how they want to share their “take-aways.” So far students are working on compiling glossaries, making booklets and pamphlets, writing stories, creating collages and word clouds, creating hand-drawn and digital illustrations…and the creative list of ideas continues.

Remembering what we learned about growth mindset will come in handy as we prepare for our next exploration alongside the Global Problem Solvers team (https://gpstheseries.com/en-us/). We will follow this team of teenagers from around the world as they seek to solve a global problem–in this case, learning about Malawi and the local effects of the global water crisis–and apply everything we’ve learned about growth mindset as we explore potential solutions and delve deeper into project-based learning this school year. 

~Courtney Lee