Blog Post 13: What Was Left Out?

Introduction

      In this assignment, I get to suggest a Blog Post Assignment, and then I am going to actually do it. Since the majority of our work this semester has been focused on Elementary Education, I believe there was a lot lacking for future secondary education teachers. I have been so excited about PBL, but I have been distraught because I have no idea how I am not only going to relate PBL to high school but MATH as well. There were only TWO high school math videos all semester. Mathematics is the most despised and dreaded subjects in all of high school by most students. I believe that this means that PBL in MATHEMATICS is far more in need, yet avoided, than most other subjects. With that being said, you can find my suggestion and work below.

My Blog Post Assignment Suggestion: Secondary Education/Math, PBL Lessons

Watch the following videos. What did you learn from them? Share the PBL lessons discussed and/or shown in them. Give us some examples of projects that you thought of that were inspired by or branched off of the ones in these videos.

1. PBL Math Webinar (29:12) BIE

2. Applying Math Skills to a Real-World Problem (10:59) Edutopia

Secondary Education/Math: PBL Lessons

PBL Math Webinar by Buck Institute for Education

      I learned several things from this video. You need to have not only real life problems but real live people involved. You can collaborate projects with other classrooms across the globe! I also learned that you need to not only have a driving question, but you need to allow students to derive their own sub-questions. You as a teacher can also have some sub-questions. I like how this teacher acts like they are a company that is taking care of clients and their problems. I think I am going to use this in my classroom. It will help them become enveloped in the process and keep them excited. This will keep them engaged and help the students learn. She even had "roles" assigned to the members of the groups(Manager, Designer, Researcher, and Quality Controller). I like this idea as well! Although, I think I will end up adapting it some. Here is a list of driving questions from the lessons this video had in it.
    - "How can you design a popcorn container that appears to contain
    more popcorn but costs less to produce for the theater?
    - "How can we help NWC parents select the best cell phone plan?"
    - "How can we increase a person's chances of winning
    fantasy football?"
    - "As a financial advisor, what would we recommend to a
    family moving to Sydney?"
    - "How can we design a home for the Cumby family?"
    - "What are the Young's options to save for their son's college?"
    - "What effect does population growth have on our society?"
      When watching this video, I thought about a project that would actually benefit me personally. I want to take my girls on a tour of the 50 states! I have been trying to personally organize this myself, but I think I'm going to end up getting help from a travel agent. This would be an amazing opportunity to get help from someone in my community! I'm sure that the travel agent I pay to organize my 3-5 summer plans would be willing to help out my students! I can give them criteria to meet a families hobbies, wants, needs, and budget. The groups can separate different aspects of planning a trip: weather/hobbies, budget, family size/activities, distance, and many more!

Applying Math Skills to a Real-World Problem by Edutopia

      I learned that it is super important to allow the student's to have a strong voice. I also learned that getting people in the associated career(s) volunteer their time to help increase interest and develop importance and understanding of the mathematical concepts. The lesson that was discussed in this video was "Schools for the Year 2050 Project." This video made me think about designing a town. They could use the same procedures that were in this video except make it on a larger scale. We could probably even assign different buildings to different groups.

I hope you enjoyed my blog post suggestion!
Jennifer L. Cole