When I began teaching science (back in the ‘70’s), we had lab books with prescribed materials, methods, and procedures to follow. Students had questions to answer, tables to fill in, and later a lab report to write. The lab report usually had a prescribed format, with little room for creativity. It was all about the data!
How different things can be today!
I ran across this example of a short project-based assignment from a teacher blog in Idaho
Today, I was reminded about the importance of giving students time to discover. I posted three questions on the board: How might water displacement help us find the density of a rock? What is the difference between weight, mass, and density? How could you use metrics in the answers to the above questions? I allowed them to use any of the tools, that we had available, to help them with these questions.
5 minutes into the assignment: students were pulling out rocks, graduated cylinders, scales, iPads, cups, water, and ice. Some students had started to draw sketches for hypotheses, while others were looking up definitions for needed vocabulary. Each of the six table groups, started to compile a mini-presentation to share with their peers.
30 minutes in the challenge: Keynotes/Powerpoints, demonstrations under document cameras, and tutorial videos were being created and put in to our work flow space in Edmodo.
Wow! An hour into this assignment, and the students are begging for 30 more minutes. As I look around, all thirty students are fully engaged and thinking. I was reminded about the importance of taking a step back, as the teacher, and allowing the students to have time to satisfy their natural curiosity.
How can YOU turn one of your prescribed group activities into a more open-ended problem or project? How can YOUR students use technology to answer the questions that you used to answer, using your classroom computers, iPads, etc.? How can they use technology to record their activity? How can they use technology to collaborate, present, and share their findings with you, their classmates, their parents, and the world?
Sorry, I’m not going to answer those questions for you. I’m going to leave it open-ended and marvel as you satisfy your natural curiosity! J
Like you, I am available, however, to answer questions and give guidance. Do you have a particular project that you would like to try, but are struggling with how the technology incorporation would work? Let’s collaborate.
Do you have a great example of a project, or an APP that you think everyone could use or adapt to their subject area? Let me know. Or better yet, use your technology to create, present, and share it. We can make it happen!
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