Summary
As a way for students to deepen their knowledge and understanding for the concepts of earth’s structure and sedimentary rocks, students were required to design their own sedimentary rock using different materials. Students were given specific criteria that their design had to meet. Throughout the process students were encourgaed to stop and critically think and reflect on the process and collaborate with their group about what was working well and what wasn’t. A student blog was kept to give students a way to communicate and collborate with their peers and teacher in and out of school. Students began by assessing their knowledge of the topic, and brainstorming and mapping out ideas to create their own design briefs. They then worked to construct the rock model using predetermined materials while completing a midway check on the class blog to assess how the process was going, make adjustments and changes and reflect on things they had learned up to that point. The final stages were to reflect together on their successes and possible failures with design, look at changes that could have been made, and evaluate the knowledge and experiences they had gained from completing project. Students evaluated their projects with a rubric and were required to present reflections to class and answer questions from classmates about design. Teacher filled out rubric as well to assess final design.
TIPC Ratings
Research and information fluency was not the focus of this lesson as students were required to rely on previously learned curricular materital to work collaboratively as a group and think critically to create a model that met criteria for the design brief given. Therefore a score was not given for this area.
From the beginning of the project, students were engaged in different tasks that encouarged their communication and responses through our class blog. Students had opportunities in and out of classroom to respoond to questions posed by the teacher and other students about topic. Teacher faciliated discussion within groups throughout construction by posing questions to encourage their ongoing reflection of what was happening and how things were working. Groups participated in opportunities for both individual and group reflection as part of design process. Students also had to explain, detail, and reflect on the process they went through with their group and how they worked together to meet requirements. They were required to present rock model to class and answer questions about design choice as well. Students were assessed on the ability to complete tasks as a collaborative group and the success of their design depended on effecitve communciation and collaboration.
Students were required to engineer a design based on particular criteria. This encouraged them to think independently and with their peers to plan for the best solution for their design. Students had various opportunities through pre planning “thinking” sessions, posts on class blog, project construction and final reflections with group and teacher to critically think about their model and how to best overcome challenges they faced in meeting specfic design criteria. Students had to brainstorm solutions to model when challenges were faced. Teacher directed questions during design encouraged stduents to stop and think about the process and Through the class blog, students posed questions and communicated with other classmates as well to reflect on their own roles and participation in project. They worked with their group and used a rubric to evaluate and assess their own design and look at ways they could have approached design differently. Teacher evaulated design with rubric as well.
Students had the opportunity to create their own designs based on certain criteria. They were constantly engaged in project throughout the whole process through their disucussion, problem solving and construction. They were able to plan and apply their knowledge of a sedimentary rock to engineer their best reprensentation. They worked together through planning sessions to decide which plan best met the groups needs and met the criteria required. They were required reflect on both the final product and the whole process of building on the class blog. Through their video presentation they were required to listen and respond to feedback and questions from peers about design.
Student Artifact
