Reflections
Janel:
This was an extremely challenging but rewarding project for the students and the teachers. It was especially rewarding to see the students make their "pitch" presentations on the final day. They withstood challenging questions from expert panelists and received powerful feedback. Also, electricity was taught and learned well because there were so many ways for students to learn the concepts. Students not only learned the material well, but they had to apply it to unique situations, thus solidifying and deepening their understanding.
The financial plan was extremely challenging for the students, so one might allow more time for students to complete this part. According to the project timeline, finance math began in week 7, but it would be better to start it in week 5 if at all possible. In order to begin the first major step of the financial plan, Finance the Bottom Line (Appendix II.3.10) and Cost Break Down (Appendix II.3.11), students need to have nearly finalized the materials they will be using in their prototype. So, begin designing prototypes as early as possible and consider moving the first Prototype Review one to three weeks earlier.
Mark:
In humanities the subject material is the hook. Students are surrounded by the media but rarely question it. This project opens their eyes, and authentic questions about consumerism come flooding out. Creating the marketing campaign taps the kids' creativity but also helps them to understand how carefully crafted advertising is. One of the great benefits of this project is that it helps students develop economic literacy and prepares them to be critical consumers.
If I were to continue to do this project, I would develop the academic richness by going deeper into basic economic issues. The students would spend more time looking at different economic systems by reading Engels, Marx, Smith and Locke and questioning basic assumptions about capitalism and socialism. It would be a good idea to bring more advertising professionals to help assess the students' campaigns as their work develops.
Supporting Diverse Learners
There are many ways that this project supports diverse learners in math, physics, and hmuanities. Working in groups of two or three, students are able to help each other on a daily basis and learn from one another. As a result students' strengths are exercised through peer teaching, and weaknesses or areas of struggle are nurtured in a safe environment.
The project also engages many modalities for learning. Students are asked to build prototypes, assemble models of their company's building, draw pictorial diagrams, draw perspective diagrams, problem-solve with pencil and paper, use computers, read various materials, complete hands-on experiments, project plan, and keep everything organized! As a result nearly every "intelligence" is called into play, which helps reach the strengths of nearly every learner.
The language of math and science is new to every student, so whether a student is a native-speaker or English language learner, new terminology must be acquired. We used various approaches to assist students though this challenge, such as providing real examples of the various electric components (switches, batteries, resistors, etc.) so students could see and hold the object they were learning about. Content vocabulary was especially challenging during the financial math, so the terminology was taught explicitly and then used on a daily basis so students were surrounded by the vocabulary. When students were working on portions of the financial plan, exemplars were provided to support them as they learned.
Another support for students is the frequent check-ins. Rather than having a single final due date for the prototype, there were four Prototype Reviews where students gave mini-presentations to show where they were and what progress they were making. After each review, students had a week to return to trouble shooting, re-designing, and revising their work. Procrastination and last-minute work was practically eliminated and the quality of products vastly improved by using these formative assessments.