A few weeks ago, a Grade 7 colleague and I cooked up this "brilliant" plan: As we were drawing to a close with our study of Ecology in Science, we thought it might be neat to assign the students a comprehensive, cross-curricular culminating task. They were to select an audience (a younger class, in grades 2, 3 or 4), and design and promote a "field trip" to our school's courtyard.
The assignment included media and written components for Language (students chose to design a poster, announcement or brochure advertising their proposed field trip, and wrote letters persuading the younger students or their teachers to come, or wrote explanations of what would be learned on the trip). Also included was a Science component (they had to prove -- in writing and through the details of their planning notes -- their understanding of biotic and abiotic interactions and in particular, the effects of human interactions on the environment) and even a Math component (they were asked to use the per pupil cost they had decided on to calculate how many classes they would need to process through their "trip" in order to pay for a new laptop for our classroom, or for a visit from Scientists in the Schools for three Grade 7 classes).
All great... until I ended up with a GIANT stack of marking which took over my life for three days straight!!!
In addition to the Science and Math components for two classes this weekend, I also had two class sets of math journal entries on square and cubed numbers to read and assess. Oh, and Alex and Simon were with me this weekend.
The assignment included media and written components for Language (students chose to design a poster, announcement or brochure advertising their proposed field trip, and wrote letters persuading the younger students or their teachers to come, or wrote explanations of what would be learned on the trip). Also included was a Science component (they had to prove -- in writing and through the details of their planning notes -- their understanding of biotic and abiotic interactions and in particular, the effects of human interactions on the environment) and even a Math component (they were asked to use the per pupil cost they had decided on to calculate how many classes they would need to process through their "trip" in order to pay for a new laptop for our classroom, or for a visit from Scientists in the Schools for three Grade 7 classes).
All great... until I ended up with a GIANT stack of marking which took over my life for three days straight!!!
In addition to the Science and Math components for two classes this weekend, I also had two class sets of math journal entries on square and cubed numbers to read and assess. Oh, and Alex and Simon were with me this weekend.
WHAT WAS I THINKING???!!!
Thank goodness my partner is currently out of the province, so I was able to incorporate her desk when space on the dining room table became scarce! ;-P
And truthfully, this assignment really does separate the wheat from the chaff... while some of the work is relatively superficial, a few outstanding assignments really demonstrate a deep understanding and real life application of both the science we've been studying since September and specific application of math problem solving skills. So, overall, I am glad I undertook it.
But... perhaps I ought to have waited on the math journals?
Thank goodness my partner is currently out of the province, so I was able to incorporate her desk when space on the dining room table became scarce! ;-P
And truthfully, this assignment really does separate the wheat from the chaff... while some of the work is relatively superficial, a few outstanding assignments really demonstrate a deep understanding and real life application of both the science we've been studying since September and specific application of math problem solving skills. So, overall, I am glad I undertook it.
But... perhaps I ought to have waited on the math journals?
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