Hawaiian School Carnival: Sixth grade Students work with a budget and fundraising to plan a Hawaiian themed carnival that supports a technology center for the school. The problem the students face is how they will fundraise the rest of the money they need for the event. This problem incorporates different subject areas including math (numbers and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, probability), language arts, social studies, and fine arts. An overview of the project was laid out along with questions that will help prompt the students and also for the teacher to use to assess and check progress of the kids along the way. There are lesson plans included that introduce and teach about each of the math sections mentioned above. As the students work through the problem, they will be assisted by the lesson taught. Adaptations for children with special needs and challenges for those who need something extra were stated and discussed. Students would be assessed by the provided materials.
Strengths: Good outline of what standards will be met, lessons that will be used to teach students the skills that go along with the problem and I appreciated the inventive solutions to challenges and adaptations. Tying in Hawaiian culture from textbooks, internet and discussions, creating a PR campaign, writing a business letter and being involved in their community through discussion and newspapers is a create way to incorporate language arts and social/emotional standards into this project. Adding art into the project will allow some students to be successful through that area.
Needs Improvement: problem not state entirely and does not clearly state what the goal or problem is for the students. Doesn’t make clear if students are planning, budgeting or fundraising.
Assessment: The rubric was very detailed and well thought out. There was a separate one for the portfolio part and the oral presentation. I think using a rubric is a good form of assessment because it allows students to be more successful. They can receive different points for different areas, so that if one part is bad, the entire grade doesn’t reflect that.
Building A Playground: Sixth grade students will build a playground which will require them to have knowledge and practice skills in the following areas; geometry, special reasoning, numeric thinking, statistical thinking and measurement. The community will be involved whether it is speakers coming in to talk about playgrounds and the town or students interviewing people to get more information.
Needs Improvement: The section on process standards could have been more specific to the problem at hand. There was no assessment created, just what could be done. I did not understand what the importance of the day five lesson was. It was an interesting idea but I thought it was slightly irrelevant and written poorly. At the same time day seven lesson seemed irrelevant as well. Each day was started with guiding questions, but I thought part of problem-based learning was for students to think of these questions when they stumbled upon them and thought of them themselves.
Strengths: The breakdown of each day of the lessons and problem solving time. The incorporations of other subjects in this problem were strong.
Assessment: I think looking at journals and logs is a good assessment but there was not formal way to assess them, where was the rubric or checklist. Without having a rubric, it does not provide clear expectations for the students, they won’t know how they can do well, or where they stand when they turn in their project.
Overall:I felt that the Hawaiian School Carnival was a more engaging problem than the playground for the grade level of kids. Both were relevant but I’m not sure how interested middle school aged students would be in playgrounds. Both problems allowed students to use prior knowledge but also gave them opportunities to learn new information through lesson, self-guided research and team work. In both problem sets, there were positive and challenging questions that would guide students to get to their solution. I thought overall it was in good form and structure of problem-based learning.
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