Wall Artifacts

The systems on the wall

The systems, routines, and pieces students made, used, and revised — on the wall and at the stations. Most only worked because students had to keep changing them.

Research Unstuck Wall

Purpose: Give students a set of steps to try when research stalls, before asking an adult.
How students used it: When stuck, students worked down the steps: re-read the question, check the gap table, try a different source, ask a partner. The steps stayed on the wall.
Why it helped: Getting unstuck stopped depending on the teacher being free. Students kept moving.

Question Triangle

Purpose: Sort questions by type so students could tell a quick-fact question from one worth an inquiry.
How students used it: Students placed their questions on the triangle and chose which ones could carry a line of inquiry.
Why it helped: It stopped groups from building an inquiry on a question that had a one-line answer.

X Journal

Purpose: A weekly homework journal where students tracked their own Exhibition thinking.
How students used it: Each week students wrote what they had done, what changed, and what they were stuck on. Entries fed back into the wall.
Why it helped: It kept individual thinking visible inside a group project, so quiet students did not disappear.

Cornell Notes

Purpose: A shared note format for research and interviews.
How students used it: Students took notes in the Cornell layout, then wrote a summary in their own words.
Why it helped: The summary step stopped copy-paste research. Students had to say what a source actually meant.

LOI Poster

Purpose: Make each group's central idea and lines of inquiry public on the wall.
How students used it: Groups drafted, posted, and revised their LOIs. Other groups and mentors could read and question them.
Why it helped: Writing the lines down exposed gaps a group could otherwise ignore.

Our Bigger Connection TDT Card

Purpose: Connect each group's inquiry to the transdisciplinary theme.
How students used it: Groups wrote how their topic linked to the bigger theme and pinned it near their LOIs.
Why it helped: It kept narrow topics tied to a larger idea, which mattered for the Exhibition.

Project Map

Purpose: An A3 poster holding a group's central idea and lines of inquiry, with mentor advice, new questions, and new evidence added as they came in.
How students used it: Groups pulled up a chair to the map every few days. The routine was fixed: add one sticky, move one sticky, take one away. They ran tape between stickies to show how a piece of evidence, a question, or a piece of advice connected back to a line of inquiry, the central idea, or the TDT poster.
Why it helped: Moving and connecting the stickies kept students accountable for what they actually knew. The map showed their conceptual understanding of the topic, not just a stack of facts.

Sticky Note Connection System

Purpose: Show how thinking was changing and how groups' ideas connected.
How students used it: Students added, moved, and linked sticky notes across the wall as ideas changed.
Why it helped: Sticky notes kept the wall current instead of frozen. Moving a note was a record of a decision.

What We Need to Find Out

Purpose: A thinking routine where each group listed everything they still did not know about their topic.
How students used it: Groups wrote their open questions on a poster and kept adding as they read and talked. The list of unknowns grew before it shrank.
Why it helped: It made the gaps visible and fed straight into the Research Gap Table. You cannot fill a gap you have not named.

Research Gap Table

Purpose: Line up each line of inquiry against the evidence the group had and still needed.
How students used it: Groups turned “What We Need to Find Out” into a table: each line of inquiry against the evidence they had and the evidence still missing. The empty cells were the to-do list.
Why it helped: Research got a target. Students looked for what was missing, not just more.

What Are We Learning Poster

Purpose: Keep the group's message in one sentence everyone could repeat.
How students used it: Groups wrote and posted the one thing they wanted visitors to understand.
Why it helped: It stopped a station from drifting into decoration with no point.

TAG Feedback

Purpose: Give feedback that leads to a change: Tell something, Ask a question, Give a suggestion.
How students used it: Students used TAG when testing each other's stations and posters.
Why it helped: Feedback should lead to change. TAG made feedback specific enough to act on.

Presentation Station Design Map

Purpose: Lay out the physical station: where the poster, evidence, and visitor activity go.
How students used it: Groups drew the station layout before building, then adjusted it after testing.
Why it helped: It put the visitor's path first, not the decoration.

Station Test + Fix List

Purpose: Turn test feedback into a checklist of fixes.
How students used it: Testers found problems. The group wrote each as a fix and checked it off when done.
Why it helped: Vague worry became a list. The group knew exactly what to repair.

Exhibition Readiness Check

Purpose: A shared list to decide whether a station is ready.
How students used it: Groups checked station, evidence, poster, and speaking roles against the list and fixed gaps.
Why it helped: “Are we ready?” became a list instead of a feeling.

Mentor Meeting Reflection

Purpose: A short reflection a group wrote after each mentor meeting.
How students used it: Groups noted the advice and named one thing they would change before the next meeting.
Why it helped: Advice only counts if it changes something. Writing it down made the change a commitment.

Not a Display. A Record of Thinking.