Submitted by: Elizabeth D. Layne
School: Brookland Middle School
Summary
Students absolutely LOVE to play games. From board games to video games, today’s student is totally addicted to gaming. With that in mind, this lesson was developed to play on students’ passion for gaming by asking them to help convince the principal in their school that games are an essential part of learning. As the lesson progresses, students work in collaborative groups to create an advertisement for their favorite game. The advertisement will depict the specific math skills that are required to play the game and persuade our principal to allow a game day at school.
TIPC Ratings
This project would not be scored in research and information fluency as the lesson does not lend itself to the category.
This lesson scores in the Ideal/Target range for Communication and Collaboration for both the teacher and the student. The teacher has provided a lesson that enables students to work together to create a presentation showcasing the Math in their favorite pastime, videogames. Students work together to select the game, find the math and then select the appropriate digital tool to present their findings. After they have presented they will reflect on the effectiveness of the presentation and make suggestions for future improvement
This lesson scores in the Ideal/Target range for Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. The teacher has challenged students to find examples of math in the videogames that they play and then present that information to the principal in an attempt to persuade him to allow students to play those games at school. This authentic task requires students to critically think on many levels. First, they must select a game that lends itself to multiple types of math. Second, they must find and document that math. Finally, they must put their findings into a presentation that will persuade the principal to allow gaming at school.
This lesson scores in the Ideal/Target range for Creativity and Innovation. The presentation portion of the lesson challenges students to create an original work that synthesizes both existing and self-generated understandings of the math found in the game they selected. Then using the presentation tool of their choice, including any software or Web 2.0 tool, students crafted a presentation using that knowledge to attempt to persuade the principal to allow a game day at school. In addition, students reflected on their presentations to evaluate their product and set goals for future growth.
Student Artifact
