Submitted by: Justine Lawson
Collaborators: Suzanne Whitlow
School: Three Chopt Elementary
Summary
Students will become archaeologists as they “dig” through information about Virginia’s past. This lesson was created to reinforce research and problem solving skills as a part of VS.2 and the study of Virginia’s Indians. This is the introduction that students received:
You are an archaeologist! You have spent the past few years working at various archaeological dig sites researching life in Virginia. Your discoveries and research earned you an invitation to present at this year’s Virginia Archaeology Conference. The theme of the conference this year is “Virginia’s Indians Past and Present”. You will work with your archaeology team to discover information about Virginia’s past and then share it at the conference as a keynote speaker.
Students research Virginia’s Indians, choose a topic that interests them, and collaborate with a team of students to produce a presentation for the “2011 Virginia Archaeology Conference”. Students decide what they want to know, where they will find the information, and how they will present their information to the rest of the conference. Students use the class blog to post summaries and questions about their presentation to spark interest and to reflect and comment on presentations after the conference is completed.
TIPC Ratings
Students are working independently to research their topics of choice and synthesize the information into one product. They must combine prior knowledge with current reserach to solve an authentic problem. This scores in the Target area for Research and Information Fluency.
For Communication and Collaboration this project is in the Target area. Students are working together on self-formed groups with self-selected roles to produce a presentation. They reflect on the process frequently and set goals for future growth. They communicate with one another via class blog to share ideas and ask questions. The products are shared with others via class blog as well.
This scores Approaching in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving by using an authentic open ended task for students to solve using multiple digital tools.
The creativity in this project scores Approaching level. Students synthesized their research and collaboration to produce different products.
