Weeks 7 & 8, November 27 - December 8
Day 1 - We worked on CDA #7 - Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities to Support College and Career Success. If you were absent, there are some worksheets you could do at home. Check with Mr. Stratton.
Project Based Learning - Edutainment
Intro - In this class we do a lot of informal project based learning, but with this activity we're going to step it up a little bit. It's likely this will be our last activity of the semester, and this activity will serve as a final project similar to what you would do for an advanced degree. With a quality PBL experience there are 8 essential elements that we will try to achieve. They are:
We will achieve the goals listed above by creating educational toys. We will be using the engineering process to design and build the toys. It should be a fun and educational activity.
- Knowledge and Success Skills - Students build competencies valuable for today’s world, such as problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity, and innovation, which are explicitly taught and assessed.
- Challenging Problem or Question -Project work is focused by an open-ended question that students understand and find intriguing, which captures their task or frames their exploration.
- Sustained Inquiry - Students are engaged in an extended, rigorous process of asking questions, using resources, and developing answers.
- Authenticity- At its core, the project is focused on teaching student’s important knowledge and skills, to solve authentic “real” problems.
- Voice and Choice - Students are allowed to make some choices about the products to be created, how they work, and how they use their time, guided by the teacher and depending on age level and PBL experience.
- Reflection - Students should have the opportunity to reflect on what they are learning, how they are learning and what they have accomplished.
- Critique and Revision - The project includes processes for students to give and receive feedback on the quality of their work, leading them to make revisions or conduct further inquiry.
- Public Product - Students present their work to other people, beyond their classmates and teacher.
We will achieve the goals listed above by creating educational toys. We will be using the engineering process to design and build the toys. It should be a fun and educational activity.
Schedule -
Day 2 - Introduce the activity, begin the design work.
Day 3 - Choose partners, brainstorm ideas for an educational toy you can make. The toy will be for young children.
Day 4 - Generate ideas and explore possibilities for the design of your educational toy. Firm up your design, including sketches, then present your toy design to another group and get their feedback. Record in your journal what the other group said about your design. Revise your design as necessary, then compile a list of materials necessary to make your toy. Please be specific describing the materials you need - include quantity needed, size, color, etc. If you aren't specific you may not get what you need. Present your design and material list to Mr. Stratton before the end of class.
Day 5 - We watched a video about making materials stronger.
Days 6, 7, 8, 9 - We worked on making toys. At the end of each class period students were supposed to log in their engineering journal what they did that day to help make the toy.
Day 10 - Students are to finish up their toys, and make a journal entry regarding what they did on the toy. Students are also assigned to take a few minutes to prepare for their presentation on Monday. The outline for the presentation is below.
Day 2 - Introduce the activity, begin the design work.
Day 3 - Choose partners, brainstorm ideas for an educational toy you can make. The toy will be for young children.
Day 4 - Generate ideas and explore possibilities for the design of your educational toy. Firm up your design, including sketches, then present your toy design to another group and get their feedback. Record in your journal what the other group said about your design. Revise your design as necessary, then compile a list of materials necessary to make your toy. Please be specific describing the materials you need - include quantity needed, size, color, etc. If you aren't specific you may not get what you need. Present your design and material list to Mr. Stratton before the end of class.
Day 5 - We watched a video about making materials stronger.
Days 6, 7, 8, 9 - We worked on making toys. At the end of each class period students were supposed to log in their engineering journal what they did that day to help make the toy.
Day 10 - Students are to finish up their toys, and make a journal entry regarding what they did on the toy. Students are also assigned to take a few minutes to prepare for their presentation on Monday. The outline for the presentation is below.
Students will be required to keep an engineering journal that will be used to describe their activities and record their ideas, etc. If used as intended the journal will be a resource to them as they work through the engineering process for their toys, and it will also be a significant part of their grade. So, students should do their best to utilize their journal each and every day of the activity.
Be sure to include the information you gather and generate as we work through the steps of the engineering process. Plainly label each step of the process in your journal so I can easily see your work and award points accordingly. You will be awarded points for each part of the assignment.
1. Your first and last name, and period.
2. Statement of the problem.
3. Brainstorm ideas for a toy that teaches.
4. Generate ideas. You may use the links below to help you. Identify 2 or 3 possible solutions, then think them out. Is your idea do-able, relevant, appropriate?
5. Explore possibilities. Make sketches that you can use to share your ideas with others, then get some feedback from others regarding your ideas. Include in your journal the names of those who critiqued your ideas, and what they said.
6. Materials list. Put together a list of materials that you will need to make your toy. Get the list to Mr. Stratton so he can have the materials available for you.
There will be additional points given for recording your activities each day as you build your toy. Plainly label each day's activities by including the date at the top of your entry.
As you review the toys in the sites below record in your journal any ideas you can use in your toy design. This would be for step #4, above.
Toys
http://happyhooligans.ca/70-awesome-toys-make-kids/
http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/57237/80-diy-toys-make
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2049243,00.html
http://dodoburd.com/best-toys-and-gifts-for-kids
1. Your first and last name, and period.
2. Statement of the problem.
3. Brainstorm ideas for a toy that teaches.
4. Generate ideas. You may use the links below to help you. Identify 2 or 3 possible solutions, then think them out. Is your idea do-able, relevant, appropriate?
5. Explore possibilities. Make sketches that you can use to share your ideas with others, then get some feedback from others regarding your ideas. Include in your journal the names of those who critiqued your ideas, and what they said.
6. Materials list. Put together a list of materials that you will need to make your toy. Get the list to Mr. Stratton so he can have the materials available for you.
There will be additional points given for recording your activities each day as you build your toy. Plainly label each day's activities by including the date at the top of your entry.
As you review the toys in the sites below record in your journal any ideas you can use in your toy design. This would be for step #4, above.
Toys
http://happyhooligans.ca/70-awesome-toys-make-kids/
http://kidsactivitiesblog.com/57237/80-diy-toys-make
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2049243,00.html
http://dodoburd.com/best-toys-and-gifts-for-kids
Preparation for Your Edutainment Presentation
- Everyone in your group will participate.
- You will take 3 to 5 minutes for your presentation.
- There will be 3 parts to your presentation:
- A. Presentation of the toy. Show us your toy, and describe it with enough detail so we can understand what it is, what it does, and what it teaches. If your toy is a game, describe how to play it.
- B. Presentation of what you learned in designing and building your toy.
- Tell us what you learned about educational toys by doing this activity.
- Tell us what you learned about designing, organizing, and implementing a project.
- Tell us what you learned about how you learn.
- Tell us what you learned about how your group functioned. Did you organize your group with a specific task for each person? If so, tell us how that worked for you. If you didn't organize your group tell us how that went.
- Tell us what you learned about how you work in a group.
- C. You should also share:
- What you would do differently if you were to do this project again.
- What you would change in your product/design/idea if you had more time (one day, one week, one year).