Higher-Order Thinking Playground: Engage in Critical Creative Thinking Integrations and Resources!

Outline

Objectives
Provide hands-on opportunities to explore a variety of higher order thinking activities that cover numerous curricular areas will be found throughout the playground. Playground resources will include links to free resources so participants can easily integrate activities into their classroom.

Interactive Tables will host the same integration activity the duration of the playground giving attendees time and opportunity to interact with presenters and the activities, strategies, resources they share.
Presenters will guide educators through a variety of higher order thinking activities.

Each table will have mini hands-on activities for participants to work through and resources that allow participants to easily integrate activities into their content. These interactive tables allow participants to dig in and “Think” just as their students would do.
Presenters will provide resources for these quick and easy thinking integration through the combined resource doc provided in the digital tote.
Table Integrations which may be included are:
PBL
Creative Design
STEAM
AR/VR integrations
Questioning Strategies
Robotics
Computer Science
Problem Solving and Design
AI Integrations
Creative Communication
Higher Order Thinking Games both online and hands on

Presentation Stage areas will be used to showcase the "how to", the questioning strategies, and more in depth activities to demonstrate the importance and impact of infusing higher order thinking strategies and activities. These mini presentations will include a variety of convergent and divergent thinking, questioning strategies, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Computational Thinking pillars, engineering concepts, etc. Each presentation will provide guidance and resources for their topic as they demonstrate a variety of questioning strategies to inspire thinking and move students beyond finding a right answer.

Presentation Stage areas 1 and 2 will have 3-4 presentations around a Variety of Higher Order Thinking Integrations and Resources.
Topics areas which may be included
Curricular areas like ELA, Math, Science and Social Studies
Computational Thinking
PBL
Building Breakouts and Escape Activities
STEM and Engineering Design
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Creative Design
AI Integrations

Outcomes

Full description of all presentations listed below can be found at: https://tinyurl.com/HOTPlygrnd26

Interactive Table Sessions include:
Gamified Learning Adventures: Boosting Engagement Through Puzzles and Play 
Amanda Harris and Melissa Adkins

AI Mystery Theater: Designing Inquiry Lessons That Engage, Challenge, and Inspire 
Paige Horton and Jennifer Graham

Stuffed with Intelligence: Teaching AI Concepts Through Microbit-Powered Plush Animals  Steve Dembo

Code in Motion! Connecting Classroom Coding to Real‑World Problem‑Solving   
Wendy Hedeen

The Ozobot Rollercoaster: A Hands-On K-12 Cross- Curriculum Adventure   Emily Thomas

Visible Thinking for Deeper Learning 
Greta Sandler and Stephanie Howell

“Promising Best Practices: Lessons Learned from Teachers around AI and Classroom Implementation 
Matt Winters

AR Across Content   Jaime Donally and Sedalia Cox-Kee

XR Group Immersion: Higher Order Thinking for
Grades K-12 and All Content Areas   
McKenna Akane

Lightning Maker Lab Frank Donally & Elliana Donally

and...

Presentation Stage 1

12:35 Quick & Easy Activities for HOT Critical Creative Thinking Transformations and Puzzle Activity Julie Jaeger

1:15 Competitions to Challenge Student Thinking  Gwynn Moore & Johannes Sparks

1:55  “FREE” Higher Order Thinking Curricular Resources Julie Jaeger

Presentation Stage 2
12:30-2:30
Experience CTE HOT Shots: Rapid-Fire Strategies for Rigorous Classroom 
Lindsay Foster and Renee Henderson  
Jump in and explore these hands on activities below:
1. Projects: Straw Bridges and Straw Geodesic Domes (Civil Engineering: Structural Integrity & Optimization)
2. Project: Tongue Depressor Catapults  (Mechanical Engineering: Precision & Iteration)  
3. Project: Paper Circuits  (Electrical Engineering: Systems Thinking)
4. Project: Running a School Printing Service (Business Information Management (BIM): Real-World Integration)

This playground promotes and recognizes that depth and rigorous learning opportunities infused engage students and are instrumental to student growth. Providing attendees with experiences, strategies and the resources they need to infuse higher order critical creative thinking opportunities for their students with a focus on easy to implement and free resources to help get them started is the goal.

Participants will:
• Engage in multiple activities, formats, tools, and applications they can use with students to promote higher order and critical creative thinking.
• Receive access to the resources needed to implement activities
• Explore and experience questioning strategies that engage them and their students in the higher order thinking process.
• Leave with strategies and resources needed to infuse higher order thinking into content and process of learning.
• Experience problem based integrations, makerspace integrations, computational thinking integrations, creative applications and more.

Interactive Tables will host an opportunity for attendees to interact with presenters and the activities, strategies, resources they share. Presenters will provide a quick and easy integration along with resources to guide educators as they continue their growth using higher order thinking activities.

Presentation Stages will be used to showcase the "how to", the questioning strategies, and more in depth activities to demonstrate the importance and impact of infusing higher order thinking strategies and activities.

Supporting research

Higher-Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) in Education Teaching Students to Think Critically
https://www.thoughtco.com/higher-order-thinking-skills-hots-education-3111297

TeachThought
https://www.teachthought.com
Characteristics of a Critical Thinking Classroom
https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/critical-thinking-classroom/

Ian Byrd https://www.byrdseed.com
Creativity: From Dull to Creative Ian Bird Gifted Educator and Presesnter http://www.byrdseed.com http://www.byrdseed.com/tag/creativity/
ByrdseedTV Free units
https://www.byrdseed.tv/category/free/

How to Increase Higher Level Thinking Alice Thomas and Glenda Thorne http://www.cdl.org/articles/how-to-increase-high-order-thinking/

Blooms Taxonomy http://www.bloomstaxonomy.org/Blooms%20Taxonomy%20questions.pdf
Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom (Use

Brain-Based Learning and Neuroeducation to Differentiate Instruction) 2nd Edition
by David A. Sousa (Author)

Howard Gardner Multiple Intelligences https://howardgardner01.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/443-davis-christodoulou-seider-mi-article.pdf