“It’s not what you look at that matters. It’s what you see”- Henry David Thoreau
The Spark Studio project room is buzzing with energy. Learners explore materials, gather piles of objects, ponder their next creation, question each other about their ideas, and narrate their thinking processes as they arrange and rearrange their projects. The table beside the learners presents a buffet of everyday recyclable objects: cardboard, egg cartons, paper towel rolls, lids from applesauce pouches, and rolls of colorful tape. The goal? Unleash the power of creativity by untethering play from a specified outcome.
Young children are masterful practitioners of divergent thinking—the ability to spontaneously generate many possible solutions to a problem or challenge. Research shows that divergent thinking is at its peak in children 4-6 years old and then drops by 60% by age 10. This incredible potential to freely generate ideas and experiment with many possibilities becomes lost and devalued in favor of more convergent thinking in which one solution is the goal.
The Spark Studio project room is designed to foster divergent thinking. Instead of toys or objects that have a specific, predetermined purpose, learners use a variety of loose parts. Loose parts are natural or manmade objects that are open-ended and can be used in various ways with no expectations. They allow the children to do the thinking as they experiment with possibilities. Autumn, with its acorns, multicolored leaves, fallen sticks, and seed pods, presents natural opportunities for play with loose parts, as Spark learners will discover in Session Two.
Often, when presented with these and other objects, such as buttons, jar lids, or packing peanuts, learners will ask, “What are we doing with this? What is this for?” These are precisely the questions we love to hear as learners practice creativity in a judgment-free space instead of trying to conform to one solution or end goal (usually provided by an adult).
Divergent thinking with loose parts also enables learners to practice building relationships and working in large and small groups. Sharing ideas with others, testing hypotheses, and having room to try ideas that ultimately don’t work are key components of the project room learning design. In session one, learners began circulating through the group, asking if anyone minded if they contributed an element to the group project; this consideration for the broader community was entirely learner-driven. When learners are free to think divergently and practice sharing, listening to, and giving and receiving feedback on new ideas, they build the foundation for lifelong learning and discovery that is central to our mission at The Village School.
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