Rainfall Task

This task was designed by M. O. as part of CITE204 Instructional Design course (2020-2021 Fall semester) targeting primary school students. Contents of this page:

• Task & The Learning Environment

• Principles of Authentic Learning

Rainfall Task and The Principles of Authentic Learning

https://sites.google.com/view/weeklytask/home-page

Authentic learning is an instructional strategy that enables students to relate what they are taught to real-world problems or applications. Authentic learning is characterised by the application of real-world tasks. Involving students in solving real-life problems provides them with more knowledge and motivation. Interdisciplinary learning is another characteristic of authentic learning. Students get an opportunity to analyse situations from different viewpoints, obtain several solutions, and make an informed decision based on the answers provided (Watagodakumbura, 2016).

The aim of this project was designing a learning environment based on the principles of authentic learning. This project is designed for the 4th class students and students will need to do some tasks in order to complete this project. Firstly, the students are required to develop their own rain gauge in order to measure the rainfall, secondly they need to measure the amount of rain each day for one week, finally at the end of the week students are required to present their weekly graph which shows the amount of rainfall each day.

The Scenario

We have 33 students in our classroom and as you know our homes are from different regions. For instance, some of your friends live in Karakol, some of you live far from the school such as Alanici and Yenibogazici. Sunday night the weather forecast for the Cyprus is announced as rainy whole the week. Does the rain fall the same to each district? We can measure the rainfall and compare the amount in each district.

The experience will be precious for the students to relate science and mathematics in this project. We have been learned measuring the volume of fluids in the science lesson in theory and also creating graphs in mathematics lesson. Moreover, this week will be rainy and this is a good chance to use the learnings in real-world application.

Functionality of each item

Students can listen the weather forecast for this week using the web-site which is developed especially for this project.

Principles of Authentic Learning and Their Application to This Project

‘The Rainfall Task’ project and its learning environment is designed based on the nine principles of authentic learning, as provided by Herrington et al. (2010). The principles of nine elements of authentic learning and characteristic of authentic activities are stated below and their application to this learning environment is also described.

1- Authentic contexts that reflect the way the knowledge will be used in real life

A scenario has been created for the students in order to provide an authentic learning environment. In this scenario, students are the investigators who measures the amount of rainfall. The knowledge has been learned in the classroom and students will use this knowledge to measure the volume of the fluid (rain).

2- Authentic Activities;

2.1 Real-world relevance

The weather has been cold and cloudy, the weather forecast told that whole the week will be rainy. Measuring the volume of fluids has been learned in the lesson, so measuring rainfall can be a good authentic activity for the real-life situation. A web-site has been created in order to give the context to the students.

The teachers are warned by the course-book to avoid oversimplification of the context; however, the age of the students are young so I preferred to simplification the context. I did not give direct information about the topic but I have uploaded some videos to the web-site which helps students to understand the importance and implementation of the topic.

2.2 Ill-Defined, Requiring Students to Define the Tasks

Students are expected to organise the work which is workable for them in order to reach the desired goal of the task. Therefore, the task requires students to create a rain gauge and there is no limit of material which they can use. After they design and create their measuring tool (rain gauge) they can start the task. The task lasts for one week and students need to observe the weather, collect the data with measuring the rainfall and after one week they are required to create a graph which shows the weekly rainfall. The last step of the task is that the students are required to present their graph and show the rain gauge which they have created.

2.3 Comprise Complex Task to be Investigated by Students over a Sustained Period of Time

The task needs investigation and some complex steps in order to finish, so students cannot finish it within a couple of hours or days.

2.4 Examine the Task from Different Perspectives, Using a Variety of Resources

Students will be expected to use different perspectives and variety of resources to finish this task. For instance, they need to observe how the professionals measure the rainfall and then create their own measuring tool. Moreover, they needed to observe and measure the rainfall during a week. Then, they needed the analyse the data and with that data needed to create a chart in order to present it.

2.5 Integrated and Applied Across Different Subject Area and Lead beyond Domain- Specific Outcomes

The task is integrated with different areas. For instance, measuring the volume of the liquids has been learned at the science lesson and also making graph has been learned in the maths lesson in the classroom.

2.6 Authentic Tasks Create Polished Products Valuable in their Own Right rather than as Preparation for Something Else

The teacher will coach the students at critical times and also students can use the discussion board to help each other.

3- Provide access to expert performances and the modelling of process

This task has a clickable item which is on the web-site and it shows that how the professionals measure the waterfall in the world. Therefore, the students have the opportunity to watch the experts how they perform and also before creating the measuring tool they have an opinion how it will be.

4- Authentic activities provide the opportunity for students to examine the task from different perspectives, using a variety of resources

Students can watch the videos that have been uploaded to the web-site so they can see that there is not only one way to measure the rainfall. At this point they need to decide what resources will they used to develop the measuring tool. They can make more research before creating the measuring tool, and also they are free to choose which graph will be used in order to show the collected data. Understanding the importance of measuring the rainfall is another perspective of this task. The students live at different regions so the data will be different. At the end of the task, students can discuss the relation of the rainfall and its impact to the environment.

5- Authentic activities provide the opportunity to collaborate

Students have opportunity to make groups who they live close to each other. They can work as a group at all the steps of the task however, they can work as an individual. The students will be provided with the opportunity to use the discussion board to communicate each other or help each-other when they face to any difficulty (see Figure 8). After presenting their task in the classroom, students will discuss about the place which has been most rained.

6- Authentic activities provide the opportunity to reflect

The students can use the discussion board in order to reflect each other. If they choose to work as a group, they also have an opportunity for the social reflect each-other. There is a contact place where students can get in contact with the teacher (Figure 8) to share their ideas and their thoughts with the teacher.

This section allows the teacher and the students reflection. Therefore, during the task students have a chance to reflect each-others` work and also have a chance to reflect with their teacher during each step of the task.

7- Authentic activities promote articulation to enable tacit knowledge to be made explicit

At this element of authentic learning, students will present their work to the classroom. They will show their measuring tool, which they have created and also will present their work with a graph. The presentation depends of the students’ choices. They can just use paper to show the graph either they can use technology to support their presentation.

Furthermore, the students will have opportunity to share their work for external audience as well. Due to their preference students can use the school newspaper or school’s social media accounts to share their work.

8- Coaching and scaffolding by the teacher at the critical times

Scaffolding during this task will be done by both students and by the teacher. The key thing to consider is the teacher is not giving direct answer to the students however, the teacher will help the students to find the best possible action to solve the problem.

There are few critical steps for this project. First critical step is designing the measuring tool, which will be used to collect rain. Teacher should coach students to make sure the students have developed a useful measuring tool. Second critical step is controlling students if they can transfer the data into graphs. Teacher can support students here with some videos.

9- Authentic activities are seamlessly integrated with assessment

The assessment will be made during the process of the task. Teacher has a rubric which will help to evaluate students’ performance. The key point is testing the skills and the knowledge of students in real world situations. Therefore, there are some critical steps of this task. Critical steps are creating a measuring tool, measuring the rainfall every day, converting the data into a graph and present the task in the classroom.

Conclusion

In traditional learning situations students remain passive recipients and knowledge can be remaining as inert. Authentic learning allows students to transfer the knowledge into real world situations. At this point `rainfall task` is designed to give students opportunity to transfer their knowledge into real life situation. By providing students the opportunity to test in real life situation, also let them to understand the relevance of the content with the real life situation.

Reference List

Herrington, J., Reeves, T. C., & Oliver, R. (2010). A Guide to Authentic e-Learning. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge.

Watagodakumbura, C. (2016). Education from a Deeper and Multidisciplinary Perspective: Book Venture Publishing LLC.