4th grade teacher, Cheryl Ives, who teaches at Glen Allen Elementary and 3rd grade teacher, Matt Caratachea, who teaches at Crestview Elementary are both Henrico 21 W-I-N-N-E-R-S! I am so proud of their hard work and they proved to be master teachers last night at the Henrico 21 ceremony when they walked across the stage to receive their award.
Mrs. Ives’ H21 lesson plan won for the Communication and Collaboration category.
Lesson Summary:
“Ouch! That hurt! Where is my armor? Arrows are flying! We need to protect ourselves from these Virginia Indians.” After studying Jamestown, and hearing the predicament of the original settlers, students were placed into groups and given materials to construct a fort. The fort needed to be fortified and long lasting. Learners were advised that they would be critiqued by peers and maybe even Jamestown itself! Engineering, knowledge, cooperation, and leadership skills were needed to produce this product. Who will emerge as the group leader, and which fort will be selected as Jamestown’s top model?
Lesson Development:
Students put themselves into groups of 3-4 and were given a bag of materials and a sturdy piece of tagboard to build their Jamestown fort. After working for 30 minutes, students were told that they could barter materials with one another for extra materials they might need. After another 15 minutes, students were told they could then barter with the teacher. Communication, collaboration and problem solving were put to the ultimate test!
Once forts were complete, students took pictures of their fort and we combined all pictures into a collaborative Google Doc. Students then pulled up the same Google Doc with the pictures of the forts and commented and asked questions about each other’s forts. Check it out:
Students then took another picture of their fort using an iPad and uploaded their picture to the app called, Screenchomp.
As a group, students annotated and explained the reasonings for the specifics about their fort construction and we sent the Screenchomp movies to Jamestown itself! A Jamestown official watched the movies and provided feedback to the kids about their work. What a FUN lesson! To get this full lesson plan, click {HERE}.
Matt Caratachea’s lesson won for the Critical Thinking and Problem Solving category.
Lesson Summary:
“Global warming, a hole in the ozone layer, toxic waste, widespread pollution. Environmental issues are not something that we should just sweep aside. The only way to make sure our planet survives is to tackle these issues head on. We will become environmental activists over the next few days. Your task as environmental activists is to take your knowledge of simple machines to design and market a new invention to help alleviate an environmental issue of your choosing.” After hearing the authentic task, the students were asked to design and market an invention to help alleviate an environmental issue of their choice using their knowledge of simple machines. After a brief review on simple machines the students picked their groups and chose which environmental issue to address. As a class we came up with a list of research questions that could apply to every environmental issue. Using the student generated research questions, the groups chose the issue and questions on which to focus. The students recorded their answers and selected which technology tool to use when creating their marketing advertisement: Pixie, Photo Booth, or Comic Life. In the student selected groups the students collaborated with one another to design their invention using their choice of technology: an iPad app (they could choose between 3 apps: Drawing Box, Drawing Free, or Concepts), or Pixie on the computer. The groups then made an advertisement marketing their inventions and were able to choose from Pixie, Photo Booth, or Comic Life to complete this task. In this advertisement the groups explained how their invention works, the price of the invention, and why people should buy it. The advertisements also had to reflect their knowledge on simple and compound machines. After the students finished their advertisement the final products were posted on our class blog for the public’s evaluation. The students concluded the lesson by completing a self reflection on our class blog.
Here is a student sample that was showcased at the Student 21 Fair last night:
The Ultimate Building Protector from Julie on Vimeo.
To get this full lesson plan, click {HERE}.