PBL Showcase ~ Winter 2023

DQ: How can I properly defend an argument using evidence? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA & Social Studies/History

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, analyze text structure, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, fact & opinion, point of view, using text evidence, making text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students were tasked to determine the verdict with proper defense based on information from Edgar Allen Poe's The Tell Tale Heart. Essential Questions included: What is an argument? What do you need to defend an argument? What does it mean when someone says, “guilty of premeditated murder?” What is “innocent by reason of insanity?” 

DQ: How can we use different methods to solve problems that require double digit multiplication? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Math & ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, problem & solution 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: The students had to help the elves in Santa's workshop. They had to use the area model and lattice method to solve various problems in order to help the elves keep up with the demand for new toys or to help Santa's elves prepare enough baked goods. Then, they had to determine if each task was possible by Christmas Eve, based upon the problems that they had solved. 

DQ: How do we develop a mindful confidence to provide a creative and technical skill set in today’s ever-changing world? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Fine Arts, ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies/History, LOTE, Physical Education/Health, & Fine Arts 

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, making inferences, making predictions, point of view, problem & solution, developing vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness 

Task: To build a deeper exploration into the confidence of oneself and how to use art to recognize the world around us. We will encourage visual problem solving through many disciplines within art to provide a strong knowledge base. Students will develop aesthetic and technical art work in many types of media to demonstrate their understanding. Students will use these creative and technical skills to apply to any pathway in life. 

DQ: How can we promote our business at a local trade show? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: CTE, ELA, Math & Fine Arts

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, draw conclusions, fact & opinion, main idea & details, point of view, problem & solution 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness 

Task: Students from various high schools across Long Island’s East End had the opportunity to sell their products and network with other Virtual Enterprise students, administrators, teachers, and business professionals.

Over the past few years, the Virtual Enterprise course has become very popular at Comsewogue High School. In the class, students have the chance to run their own virtual business. Students gain real world experience, and assume professional roles within their own Management, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, IT, and Design departments. As part of the course, students become leaders and continuously develop in demand skills that are needed to find success in life after high school.

DQ: How does chemistry relate to our food? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science, Social Studies, ELA, & PE/Health

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, cause & effect, problem & solution, making predictions 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Problem Solving, Communication, Collaborate 

Task: Students were asked to take their biochemistry knowledge to examine how cheese is made by altering the temperature and pH of milk. 

DQ: What is a family?

Interdisciplinary Studies: Social Studies/History, ELA, & Fine Art

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, making predictions 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity 

Task: Ms. Campagno's class listened to Sesame Street: Family Song without sound. The students then discussed the different things that they saw throughout the video and made predictions on what they think they will be learning about. The class then listened to the song again with the sound. Ms. Campagno put the word family on a chart and the class was tasked to brainstorm what comes to mind when they hear the word family. We had a class discussion about families and how they all have similarities and differences. The class then listened to, The Family Book. After listening to the book, students shared the members of their families and who lives at home with them. Students were then tasked to create a portrait of their family and label their family members. Students presented their portraits to the class when they were finished. 

DQ: How did the Pilgrims use nature to survive? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Social Studies/History,&  ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, making predictions, problem & solution, making text connections - to self, text/media, world  

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students used real objects to discover how items found in nature were important for the Pilgrims' survival.They brainstormed and learned how Pilgrims used things from the land to make shelter, furniture and other items needed for survival. They discovered how they found food by hunting, fishing and planted gardens. Children then choose an item Pilgrims used to write about independently. 

DQ: Which store circular provides the best shopping options for planning Thanksgiving dinner? Can you stay under the $100 budget? & There was a shortage in helium and there are no floats for the parade! With the given materials, how can you solve this problem? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Math, Science, Social Studies/History, & ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast  

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students planned and budgeted a Thanksgiving dinner. Students brainstormed what would be the best Thanksgiving meal. Students used circulars to shop for their feast. Students answered questions to practice adding/subtracting decimals. Then, given art materials, students were tasked with creating a character-inspired balloon for the Thanksgiving Day parade. 

DQ: How do land and water work together? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science & ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, cause & effect, making predictions 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Critical Thinking 

Task: The students were tasked to work in partner groups to create their own mountain-like landforms from paper. Once the students created their landform they then had to trace the highest points using a dark colored marker. The teacher then sprayed their landforms with a spray bottle filled with water. After about 6 squirts of water "rained" onto their landforms the students were able to watch how the water flowed through the land. As a result of the experiment students were able to observe that the "rain" created "rivers" which flowed down their "mountains" to the base of the paper. The class noticed that water flows from an area of high elevation to an area of low elevation. 

DQ: How should I dress to impress for an interview? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: CTE, ELA, Social Studies/History, & Fine Arts  

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, draw conclusions 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Self and/or Social Awareness 

Task: The task was for students to create an outfit appropriate for a Business Job Interview. It should have included the primary garment (suit or dress), along with accompanying shirt or blouse, belt, shoes and appropriate accessories. It should also include expected grooming styles. Students were to agree and assemble the outfit and present it to the class along with being able to defend their choices. 

DQ: What drives an author to create stories? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA & Social Studies/History 

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, author's purpose, connect themes, arguments, perspectives, draw conclusions, using text evidence, making text connections - to self, text/media, world 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students discovered teh artist behind the literature.  Essential Questions Answered: Who is Edgar Allan Poe? What were some key/important events in his life? What did he write about? What do you think drove him to write about the things he did?  

DQ: How can we upcycle to benefit our community? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: ELA & Science

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, cause & effect, main idea & details, making inferences, sequencing, making text connections - to self, text/media, world, developing vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Self and/or Social Awareness 

Task: During this unit, ELL students in Mrs. Rand and Ms. Rubenstein's class read about recycling and upcycling. There is an introductory presentation followed by guided reading and various leveled assignments in stations including spelling/vocabulary station, speaking station, writing station and Chromebook station. Students create an upcycled project of their choice to gift to a family member or friend. Additionally, students create a background project, which one year included a plan for collecting t-shirt donations to sew upcycled t-shirt bags, with the help of Mrs. Surdi, to be donated to St. Gerard's food pantry. Another year, students created a plan to collect used tire donations to build an upcycled tire garden to extend the space in Jackie's Garden.  

DQ: How can baking be compared to a series of Chemical Reactions? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: CTE, Math, Science, ELA  

Instructional Skills Discovered:  cause & effect, draw conclusions, making inferences, making predictions, sequencing 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Collaborate, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress 

Task: The student worked on learning how starches, emulsifiers, grains, sugars, heat and time all combine to create a series of chemical reactions. The outcome was batches of Chocolate Chip Cookies. 

DQ: How can we present our Business Plan to a panel of Professionals? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: CTE & ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered:  compare & contrast, draw conclusions, fact & opinion, problem & solution, developing vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Life Management - time, risk, stress, Self and/or Social Awareness 

Task: On Wednesday, January 11th, students in Mr. Ketterer's Virtual Enterprise courses pitched their business plans and showcased their startup companies at the Annual VE Regional Tradeshow Exhibition held at Long Island University.  Over 1,500 students for high schools across Long Island had the chance to pitch their companies to a panel of industry professional judges, as well as the opportunity to network with other Virtual Enterprise students, administrators, and corporate professionals.  This year, students are running three successful firms: Gym Warrior, USecure, and SimpleCycle. In class, students work to gain real world experience that covers all aspects of running a successful business. 

DQ: Can we prevent or slow the growth of mold on our food? 

Interdisciplinary Studies: Science, ELA, Math & Social Studies/History

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, making predictions, problem/solution, developing vocabulary 

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking 

Task: Students worked in teams to brainstorm and test how different variables would affect the growth of mold on certain foods. Black pepper, cayenne (red) pepper, sugar, and vinegar were our variables. Each team measured and recorded the growth of mold on a graph over 12 days. They tested the variable on a piece of bread, a slice of banana, half of a strawberry, and an apple slice dipped in water and sprinkled with either black, pepper, cayenne pepper, sugar, or vinegar. We had some really exciting results. The cayenne pepper had signs of mold the quickest, while the food with vinegar never grew any! .

DQ: Where do we see angle pairs in the real world?

Interdisciplinary Studies: Math, ELA

Instructional Skills Discovered: activate prior knowledge, sequencing, making text connections - to self, text/media, world, developing vocabulary

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Creativity, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving

Task: At the start of the project, students were exposed to real images of street maps in New York City. They compared the streets with angle pair terminology and discovered that the streets and avenues mimic the parallel lines cut by a transversal diagram introduced in class. Then, students were asked to create their own "Angle City" following certain mathematical guidelines. They had to brainstorm creative city and street names while making sure the components of their cities aligned with the required angle pairs.

DQ: How can we successfully establish the difference between needs, wants, values, opportunity cost, & scarcity?

Interdisciplinary Studies: CTE, ELA, Social Studies/History

Instructional Skills Discovered:  activate prior knowledge, compare & contrast, problem & solution

Life/Career Skills Enhanced: Communicate, Collaborate, Creativity, Problem Solving

Task: Prior to this activity, students had to write 10 items they would like to bring with them on a deserted island. Then, students had competed against each other on what items they would need if they were stranded on a deserted island. They were placed in groups where they worked together as a team. Here is the catch: Students in each group must all agree on each of the item before they put it on the list. If one student disagrees, then they cannot put it on their list. In the end, the best group that won received a prize. This activity goes back to needs, wants, values, opportunity cost, and scarcity.