Student and Educator Training

Kata in the Classroom (KIC)

Please note that this course is currently only offered to the schools within the Brownsville Independent School District (BISD)

Kata in the Classroom (KIC) is a hands-on exercise to introduce the scientific pattern of the Improvement Kata in school classrooms. It is targeted at Middle School Science teachers, but is used in a variety of K-12 and even College educational settings. Kata in the Classroom involves the activity of assembling a 15-piece cardboard jigsaw puzzle several times, and experimenting with ways to do it faster.  

The KIC exercise combines a practical scientific pattern (the “Improved Kata”) with techniques of deliberate practice, to help make scientific thinking a teachable skill that anyone can learn. Teams of students (a) establish a baseline, (b) face a Challenge, (c) develop a next Target Condition on the way to the Challenge and (d) conduct experiments toward that Target Condition. While the students are engaged in a challenging game they are simultaneously being introduced to a scientific meta skill. KIC helps teach universal STEM skills for achieving challenging goals along uncharted paths: (1) Scientific and Creative Thinking – generate and refine solutions to obstacles through experimentation (2) Collaboration – work in a team to accomplish a next goal on the way to a larger challenge (3) Communication – organize thoughts, data & findings, and share them effectively.