Summary
Students worked in collaborative groups of two or three to develop their idea. Their pitches/ads were posted on the teacher’s blog and voted upon. The products with the most votes were chosen by our fictitious investor, Mr. Jones. The results from the online poll allowed the students to reflect upon their work. Students were given the authentic task: “As a producer your job is to create products that consumers can use in their daily lives. Mr. Jones and his company are looking for a new product to sell. In order to present your product, you must: research goods, determine a good to produce, design your product, determine the natural, human, and capital resources that will be needed, if applicable, identify your resources that are scarce, make a model or prototype, create a presentation for Mr. Jones. Your group submissions will be viewed by the world and the best products will be bought by Mr. Jones.” Before starting their designs, student researched using primary sources, such a toy designer from Japan, and secondary sources, such as Pebble Go.
TIPC Ratings
This project is Ideal/Target in Research and Information Fluency. Using student created questions, students interviewed an architect (professional visited classroom) and toy engineer in Japan (Skype session) and used information from these primary sources when designing and building their project. Students also utilized secondary sources, like Pebble Go. The students used their research to design and market their product.
This project is Ideal/Target in Communication and Collaboration. Students worked together to address an authentic task. They communicated with a toy designer in Japan using Skype and their advertisements were posted on the teacher’s blog. The teacher embedded a poll in the post to get feedback from others outside the classroom. Students used this feedback to reflect upon their work.
This project is Ideal/Target in Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. Students generated their own questions to guide research with primary sources and utilized this information when designing their products. They had to choose which digital tool to use to advertise their product. They had to make a persuasive appeal to sell their products. Students used the voting results from the blog to reflect on their work and set goals for future lessons.
This project is Ideal/Target in Creativity and Innovation. The students were given the choice to make any good. They were able to choose their technology tool: ActivInpsire, Keynote, Pixie, or Photo Booth (video camera). Student products varied and displayed risks to support their work. Students reflected on their choices.
