Well I just completed my problem based lesson, perfect timing! I decided to use the online interactive simulation called Gizmos, think virtual manipulatives. It's a web-based program through explorelearning.com. I signed up for a trial membership. Very worth it. They're fun and easy to use. They're challenging concepts done through inquiry and exploration.
I teach 3rd grade for Saturday School. I have a small group which gives me a great opportunity to find out which methods work and don't work for specific kids. I decided to focus on two different concepts in math that really give my kids trouble; graphing and function machines. Below are the learning objectives for both lessons
Function Machines:
- Write a function rule based on an input-output table.
- Create an input-output table for a given function.
- Find input and output values based on a function and/or an input-output table.
- Identify bar graphs, line graphs, pie charts and scatter plots.
- Learn to title and label graphs properly.
- Plot bars, points, or regions accurately on a graph.
- Interpret what is shown on a graph.
- Recognize positive and negative relationships from scatter plots.
SMARTboard!
I added the SMARTboard into the lesson. It was a perfect way for the kids to interact with each other during the simulation. They ended up learning from each others comments and "mistakes". The use of the SMARTboard was a huge success. I actually did it mainly so I would have an easier time of getting it on video. This is the first time I've ever used it for something like this, to interact with a website, and I would definitely do it again. It was the first time these particular kids were able to use the board. They loved it.
Looking back on the lesson I know exactly what I would change. I may even go back and do it again next Saturday. I'm not sure if it was partly because this was the first time the kids had used the board and I thought I had to give more direction....or maybe that's just an excuse. I should have "stayed out of it" more. I should have let them explore more. I was way in the classroom mode and I didn't let the kids take full advantage of the experience. Don't get me wrong, it went well but I think that with the few kids I had, they could have had a much different experience with it if I would have shut up more.
Also, during the graphing lesson I could/should have asked some of the questions differently. I saw this as I was watching it back. I could have explored the analyzing part more in depth and I think I could have given them a different perspective on it.
There were some things that went well. At first they didn't seem to really understand the concept of the pie chart but once they were actually able to begin manipulating it themselves according to the data, they really had an "ah ha" moment. I love those. The same thing happened with the plotted point graph. This is the one graph where I felt they were beginning to understand analyzing a little better.
All in all it was a well worth it experience.
Nice to see someone else using Gizmos. We had it at May for a year. Turns out there were really only 2 teachers that utilized it hard, so the principal let the subscription expire (it actually is a substantial cost to purchase). The two teachers that used it focused more on the science simulations. They both found the students were able to stay engaged this way.
ReplyDeleteNever thought about using it with the ActivBoard (Promethean's IWB). We've used it with laptops, but not the IWB.
If you were serious about trying it again on Saturday I might even suggest letting the kids pick out the simulation they would like to manipulate. Once they've had a chance to freely "play" with the application it will be that much easier for you to engage them next time on the content that *you* want to focus on.