Submitted by: Rachael Toy & Jay Golding
Collaborators: Kourtney Bostain, Shannon Hyman, & Janis Jones
School: Byrd Middle School
Summary
How often are we asked to collaborate with others to produce a small part of a bigger project? How often do we ask this of our students? How can we empower students to work in teams to find, evaluate, and creatively share information? In this project based lesson we started with an identified need for the 6th graders at Byrd Middle School. They were having a hard time understanding Atoms and the Periodic Table of Elements and their teachers needed a new and exciting resource that they could use to reteach this information. Who better than the all mighty 8th grade Physical Science student? Read on to find out how we empowered our students to help accomplish a real-world task and share information with a global audience all while supporting the development of students confidence levels and ability to effectively work with their peers using 21st century tools to create an original work.
TIPC Ratings
Target: A large portion of this lesson was centered around research. Students were provided with the opportunity to select the most appropriate tools (digital and non-digital to help students make connections between print and virtual sources of information) to select, evaluate, and use information. They were responsible for applying modern research strategies and assessing the accuracy and using information. The information students gathered was centered around a real-world need (our 6th graders were not performing well on an identified topic and needed additional help) then used to accomplish a real-world task (6th grade Science teachers needed an engaging resource to help re-teach a unit).
Target: Communication and collaboration were also major components of this lesson. Students were the driving force behind their own work and had to continually collaborate with each other to accomplish the task at hand. Students were provided with the opportunity to form their own teams, had to use self-selected technologies to create an original product, and were responsible for evaluating the work of their team as well as other teams. Students collaborated using class discussion boards, drop boxes, and blogs in and outside of class. In addition to sharing information with group members and classmates the final product was used to communicate information globally (peers at BMS as well as virtual visitors online).
Approaching: Throughout the lesson student had to apply research methods and critically think about the information they found individually and as a group. They had to work together to produce a product that offered a solution to an identified “real-world” problem at their school and reflected on their process. We think this lesson is at the higher end of approaching and on the way to target and could be enhanced through additional open-ended questions that use higher-order skills.
Target: In this lesson students creatively used information they found through various searches to create an original work to share with their peers. They had to collaborate with each other to create a product that offered a solution to an identified real-world problem/area of need.
Student Artifact
Class Glog 1
Class Glog 2
Class Glog 3
Class Glog 4
Museum Box
