Summary
After learning about drawing and writing trigonometric equations, students are asked to pretend that they are meteorologists and analyze data after Hurricane Sandy. Students were asked to pick any city from the NOAA tide station list and were suggested to look at the day before or after the hurricane strike. They were asked to download the information received from the tidal sensors and analyze the data through Microsoft Excel. There was both predicted and observed data from which the students had to produce their own scatter plots and write their own equation that best described their own particular data. Students were asked to write a short essay describing what they learned, how they created their equations, how accurate their equations were to their data, and why this was the case.
TIPC Ratings
This lesson was Approaching. The teacher designed a challenge that promoted synthesis of resources to address the authentic task of learning about tides and harmonic motion. The teacher provided the website, but the students chose the data to further examine, research, and manipulate.
This lesson is Developing. Students worked in self-chosen groups and collaborated to manipulate and understand the data. The communication and collaboration were limited to in-class discussions and interactions.
This lesson is Ideal/Target. This lesson was centered around students diving deep into authentic data, manipulating it, and thinking critically about what exactly they were doing or discovering. Students were asked to justify their choices in a reflective essay and use their own ideas (non-teacher led) to solve the problem.
This lesson is Approaching. Students were allowed to make a choice on place and time, but they were required to use Excel. They synthesized their research, communicated and collaborated with one another, and applied their critical thinking skills to solve the problems and interpret the data.
Student Artifact
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Contents:
- Lesson Plan, Student Artifacts, Lesson Resources
