Summary
Suppose you were on a boat with several peers in the middle of the ocean and a hurricane blows the boat off course. Your boat was destroyed upon collision with a deserted island where you and your peers are left stranded. All of your cell phones were washed out to sea, never to be used or found again. You are forced to inhabit this island. In this lesson, the teacher asks the students, “How will you survive?”
TIPC Ratings
Ideal-Students generated their own research questions about the basic needs of a human and what makes a good map. They selected tools, such as library books, search engines (see the search engine Symbaloo compilation link in artifacts folder), atlases, and textbooks, to use to find the information. The students were not limited to these research tools. Then they assembled and organized their information to address the authentic task, which was creating a survival map of the deserted island.
Students formed teams and chose roles to address the authentic task. They used Skype to share and collaborate with another class and reflected on their communication through the question and answer session on Day 6. The reflection of all categories went beyond the classroom through the website todaysmeet.com per the students’ choice over Padlet, blogs and other mediums.
Students were given an authentic problem to solve, which was surviving on a deserted island. They had to generate and respond to questions to solve the task. They used diigital tools of their choice to answer the questions they generated. The students went beyond the classroom by using Skype to communicate with a middle school class and gathered more information to solve their problem and/or by using todaysmeet.com. Students were given the choice of which tools to use to reflect on their work. Students reflected on their roles as critical thinkers and problem solvers after the Skype session and were given an opportunity to improve their maps.
Students synthesized their research and went beyond the assignment parameters to find new solutions to the authentic task, which was surviving on a deserted island. Students reflected on the innovative process on Day 6 through the questions asked during the class discussion which included their ideas for how they could have made their maps better.
