Project Based Learning Reflection

I looked for some potential ideas for a math project based lesson and here is a potential activity that students could perform.

Math Project

I can see project based learning helping with student engagement, as long as the project was something of interest to a student. I also see how it would help integrate technology into a lesson and help students be more connected with the material.

The essential question is the driving force behind the project, so it will greatly impact student interest and engagement in the lesson. It also sets up the types of assessments that students could complete to show mastery of a particular topic, which impacts the quality of assessments that students return.

Problem Based Learning

The activity "A Bad Day for Sandy" reframes my understanding of PBL in that I see it leaves a lot of open ended questions for the students to investigate. Without really requiring a lot application of formulas or specific skills, students can work on answering questions and focus on defending their answers with reasons.

A unit project would be quite an undertaking. If you could find ways to start units with guiding questions and problems that students progressively answer as they move along a unit, then I could see incorporating problem based learning in for students. My guess, though, is that this is a time consuming and difficult practice to pull off.

IBL Reflection

1) Inquiry allows for ownership of the learning for students in that it relies on students using what they already know about a concept and encourages them to develop and investigate questions that have for a particular topic. Students are more likely to be invested in what they are learning as they ask their own questions about a topic, leading to them taking ownership of their learning.

2) Inquiry displays respect and honor of the learner by validating the questions the learning might have and providing the opportunity to research, investigate, and answer those particular questions.

Constructivism Reflection

1) I found the activity to be easy to navigate. The questions were clear and some required more analysis than others. I think some more context or background on the writers and the articles, such as the ambassador, would have made it easier to follow. I wonder how students would interact with the site and what they would to if they got stuck on a particular question?

2) The goal sets the direction of where you want your students to go, so it definitely has an impact on the tools used. The biggest advantage the tools offer students is the ability to collaborate in and outside of the classroom. Also, for my lesson in particular, the online website desmos provides students with an interactive graphing tool to utilize, which provides them with visual representations of data. This allows students to focus more on the analysis of the data instead of its creation, where some students could become frustrated or lost.

Collaboration and Learning Activity

1) I have not used collaborative tools in my classroom. I didn't really have a lot of knowledge of the various tools, so that prevents me from using them with my students. I think I am going to try using a padlet with my students, I will have to work on how this can be applied for a math class.

2) Content curation could be very beneficial for students by providing them with a single spot to access information on various topics. Potentially, I could see myself "curating" various units of study for students to access, manipulate, and add to, in order to help them better understand their material.

3) These tools enable students to pull materials from various resources on the web, including videos, images, and articles. Traditionally, students would only be able to pull information from textbooks.

Understanding by Design Activity and Reflection

Here is a link to my essential questions for a unit on exponential functions in Algebra 2:

Essential Questions

In terms of the Juicy Geography activity, I think an essential question for the project could be:

How can we as students use models to explain the impact of natural/global forces on human civilization?

Open Education Resource Reflection

Here is the link to my class website that includes a lesson with OER links. (DeFelice Website --> see the June 8th lesson in Algebra 3-4 Calendar)

1) The main impediment to the widespread adoption of OER content by classroom teachers is the relevance of the content to teachers' lessons. While it is very helpful to have available resources for students and teachers to access, I can see individuals struggling with applying the content to what is being learned in the classroom. Particular strategies or lessons may be taught or explained in a different way than how a teacher presents information. Students may also have a hard time accessing and navigating the variety of resources that are present. Another issue is student desire and motivation to complete the work associated with using resources.

2) One advantage of OER is its accessibility to all people and the ability to update information more quickly than with traditional textbooks. It also provides educators with resources for lesson development and extension activities to help support students.

3) This model frees educators from the restraints of using particular publishing companies. Teachers can more readily collaborate over various resources and apply what they feel is appropriate for their particular classes, not what a textbook think is appropriate.