Embedded Files
Problem
Many of our projects have the intention of being true “PBL” tasks, but we have struggled to meaningfully integrate the math standards with the real-world problems. While projects will start with a good real-world connection, they slowly morph into more “dessert” projects that have students moving through a checklist of items versus building engagement towards a task that models projects they may have in their future careers.
This section of students has also struggled a lot with discussion and engagement, both whole-group and peer-peer. We want our students to be working more collaboratively and to turn to each other for questions and support, more than just to the teachers.
Hypothesis
If our unit is grounded in a real-world project that includes student voice discussion and external accountability through presenting prototypes to industry partners, then student engagement will increase, as measured by qualitative student feedback, participation trackers, and competency scores for final performance tasks.
Target group
My target group is my D band Geometry class, because there are several students in that class who have already verbalized that they are not “math people” or that they have always struggled with math. Certain students have additionally verbalized the challenges they feel when math involves variables. I am hoping that finding ways to make the concepts more real-world applicable will support their ability to engage in challenging problems and make the skills more tangible for them.
Planning & resources
Planning
Melissa (our partnership coordinator)! We met with Melissa early as we were building out our unit plan to hear some of her ideas for opportunities to loop in industry partners. She then emailed and set up introductions with a few different partners & that’s how we found Vivian!
Vivan Ho was our industry partner for this project. She met with us 1:1 over Zoom to plan her involvement and then also introduced the project for our students alongside giving her background experience in the design industry. She is working with us to provide feedback for our students’ final designs.
Resources
Teacher Made Materials
Data collection
Data collection
Baseline data
At the end of our first unit we gave our students a Google form survey to gauge how they perceived their success in the unit and also if / how the performance task affected their engagement. (Note: this PT also started with a stronger PBL lens, but I think veered off in implementation)
Measuring success
We measured success through student responses to Question 10 on the baseline survey and Question 10 on the end-of-unit survey. We also looked at benchmarks and final performance task ratings.
End-of-unit survey (coming soon!)
End-of-unit survey responses (coming soon!)
Overall findings & impact
While we saw some increased engagement in the lessons immediately after the project introduction, we struggled to sustain that engagement through the end of the project. I think that if we had a clear project / pitch presentation day set in advance, where students knew they would present to select staff, and possibly to other industry partners, we could have created greater accountability.
We did see greater recall of the project task & design process after the launch with our industry partner, Vivian. Students were able to easily remember & reference her discussion topics as they started their own design process. It was extremely helpful that Vivian walked the class through multiple of her own logo designs, so they could see the steps of her thought process and interactions with clients.
Actionable steps
If you want to use this strategy in your classroom, I recommend …
Planning:
Think about what cross-disciplinary opportunities there are - talk with other teachers on your grade level & see what they’re doing!
Talk with Melissa about ways to get industry partners involved & set up calls with them to see what their ideas are
Have the ways that industry partners will support planned in advance (we were planning as we went in the unit which I think was challenging for all parties / meant that things weren’t as smooth as they could have been)
Implementation:
Plan to launch the project with industry partners - have them talk about their experiences and frame the steps of the project by drawing parallels to the real-world
Align the steps of the project to the design process
Consider how your industry partner can provide feedback at least twice in the design process (you can add them as a teacher to your Google Classroom!)
Have a presentation / pitch day where you invite in other staff members & industry partners if possible
Priyanka Katumuluwa | priyanka.katumuluwa@uamaker.nyc
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