Artefact

Well after a lot of umming and arghing I finally decided what my artefact was - A Creative Workshop involving props.
The workshop was a practical way of my peers discovery what I had learnt along the way during my inquiry.
They entered the room and each were given a blank piece of A4 paper. They sat down and I explained a little about what we do in the dance department and how arts award 'fits in' with the school. I had a display board behind me that I had made to assist with my talk.
I then asked them to give me back the piece of paper in any way they wanted but it couldn't look exactly as it did now in their hand. They all looked a little puzzled at first and then each person started folding and creating a different way and making their own version of the A4 paper. No one did the same as the person next to them and they seemed to enjoy being creative.
Next I put on some music and asked them to move around the room moving as the music told them to. The didn't like this exercise and ended up walking around in circles saying they were not dancers - I don't believe dance was even mentioned!!This exercise made them feel uncomfortable and they seemed much happier to be sat back down.
I then moved back to my display board to ask them what creativity meant to them. I got a variety of responses:

From here I then spoke about how we expect our own students to 'think outside the box'. I then gave them in 2 groups a box each with various props inside and asked them to be creative. At first I think they thought it was a test. The all looked at the box like it had a right or wrong way of doing the exercise. After a few minutes they all got stuck in and both groups seemed happy in their own creative bubbles. Both groups came up with different pieces even though they were given the same items. Group one did still life and group 2 did a artistic sculpture of the props.
I asked them what they learnt from all the exercises during the workshop and they came back with:
anyone can be creative
you need a stimulus to help
you can working independently but with guidance
creativity can help confidence grow

From here I then went back to the final talking point. My 'data dolly's'!!

Each dolly represented part of my inquiry and my colleagues like the fact I had tried to be 'artistic' even though they know i usually shy away from drawing and colouring as I feel I am not very good. I chatted about each area of my inquiry and then fed back to them my findings about how arts award assist with creativity, confidence, leadership and independent learning and how these skills can be transferred to other areas of education and life.
At the end I asked if they had enjoyed the workshop and they all agreed to be active and to be creative intertwined with discussion helped to put the meaning across and the points sunk in better then a power point presentation which is the usual format used in our setting.
I now would like to develop the workshop further, to adapt it slightly and then use it next year to encourage students and staff to get involve!!