Lately I've been rethinking the way I conduct my math problem of the weeks (POW). I find them valuable in that they best simulate math in the real work, they incorporate multiple skills and they provide an avenue for student creativity. At the end of a unit on geometric solids, I found inspiration on a pixelated image I found on a late night Google search (see above) and thought it would be interesting to have them replicate the scene given minimal information. Of course, there were some students who took the challenge and ran with it while others required more support. I was actually a good experience for me to sit alongside my students and create the project myself. I was slightly disheartened, however, when I had to give up my work to a student who damaged his. And with many projects, a two block project quickly escalated into a four block one, but I was encourage by my students' level of engagement and their tenacity.
The other big discovery from today from today was with learning a bit with
Three Ring. This app is great for documenting formative assessment and is well suited for projects such as this one. It affords the ability to collect images, notes and audio and attach them to individual students. These artifacts can be shared with students.
Future refinements:
- planimetric map of neighbourhood layout
- different colours
- extended
- incorporate with art
- spell out which elements (geometric shapes, trees, streets, etc.) should be incorporated
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| Students started this project from scratch. They had previously built paper cubes. |
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| There was an option to decorate the houses but this was not essential. |
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| A second shape, a triangular prism, was used for the roof. |
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| The prism and the cube formed the house. |
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| In addition to the house, students created a tree, a street and other features (e.g. streetlight). |
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