I began the Structures and Forces unit with my sevens by introducing their first project- the Leaning Tower of Textbooks. I have used the same activity in the past, but not in the framework of PBL and not with the same lens of student competencies (AKA 21st century skills). As this is the second year of operation of my new school, I wanted to see what my sevens internalized from a year of PBL and competency work under their belts. I also wanted to see if the learning was different when the tower challenge was presented to them in PBL fashion. The students did a fabulous job and demonstrated reflective thinking on what they were learning. It was indeed a deeper level of learning for them than my former students, based on the conversations we had and the analysis of the success and failures of each structure tested. Having a driving question, creating questions we wanted to answer, and other aspects of the PBL model created a framework to take the task to that higher level for the students. It was more than just a fun activity that they had to debrief at the end.
The students also did a good job working on their collaboration competency. We co-constructed criteria on what effective collaboration looked like and students self reflected on how well they met the criteria at the end of the process. The act of making the competencies so transparent and upfront with our students has been beneficial to them. I am looking forward to diving into our next project. I know my students will do great things!
Leaning Tower of Textbooks
No comments:
Post a Comment