Category: 1:1 Learning
Sunsprint Learning Journeys
The final component of our Sunsprint journey is the presentation of each student’s learning journey. Over the past term all students involved in the Sunsprint Challenge have been gathering information piecing together their journey from the very start of the year until the UNSW Sunsprint Challenge last September.
This is quite a long process sorting through all the photos and videos taken throughout the construction phase. A few weeks ago all students submitted a draft presentation for viewing and feedback and are now in the process of submitting their final presentations for viewing.
Coding in Religion
For the last couple of weeks my Year 7 RE class have been using Scratch to create a dilemma story for our current unit. The boys had never used Scratch before but found it very easy to pick up after we watched a couple of short tutorials to start the process.
It has been interesting looking at them play around with the blocks to create a narrative that highlights the steps for making a correct moral decision. The boys have worked in groups with each student creating part of the narrative. The goal is to bring all the parts together in one presentation. This is a complicated process and at this stage only one group has managed to work out the process.
Here is a small sample of one presentation being worked on. The final presentations will be added shortly.
Maths Assessment Task Reflection
Well after our first ‘non test’ assessment task it is time to reflect on what happened and how the boys did.
As mentioned my class is the bottom of five classes. In the first two assessments of the year a few boys out of the 16 in the class were ranked at the bottom of the cohort while the rest were spread between the bottom and lower middle of the cohort. As a group they are not the ‘bottom 16’ of the cohort. They were at the start of the year but have worked hard to improve.
In this task the students were required work though three exercises from the text book to cover the necessary content that would be explored in the task. This was done over three periods and teachers were directed to complete the exercises so all students had been exposed to the same content.
This is the first issue. Obviously some students would not be ready to engage with that level of content and what is done in class is a complete mystery to them. They may connect with some basic content but the three periods are a blur. I know most of my class were not ready for what was in the three exercises so I selected the parts that I thought they could engage with and we looked at the basics around those concepts.
After the three lessons were complete the pre-task was shared with the students. This is in a previous post. The students worked in groups to complete this. They ended up getting two periods in class to work in their groups and then another period working individually on the task. They were then to finish the task in their own time before the assessment.
Second issue: Not enough time was devoted to this process. Most of my class did not bother doing anything with the task outside class time. Having been through and checked out each student’s work it was evident that even allowing for the fact 5 marks were on offer for completing the task they could not get it done. This surprised me a little but given a number struggle with completing homework I should have expected it. Next time I would like to see the Learning Log have a greater value and time weighting. Only a couple of my class responded to the teacher feedback component in the task. I really needed to sit with each group and walk them through the process for the whole task to ensure they completed everything. Overall the work that was presented was quite good and I feel if we had been given more time on this process the work in the assessment task would have been better.
Once the pre task component was completed the assessment task was shared with the students and completed in class. At the end of the period all students had to email a PDF version of their work to their teacher. Generally this was a smooth process although a couple in my class could not get this done and I had to go back into the Teacher Dashboard (Google Apps) to retrieve their work.
There are a few things to improve on but on the whole I think it was a great success and something we can build on across all year groups. Hopefully this is the start of a new way of assessing our students in Mathematics. Tests still have a part to play but a blend of assessment forms enables you to see different types of thinking and gives better feedback into your student’s understanding.
Overall my class performed quite well. As a group they performed as they do in tests with my better students doing well and the strugglers still finding the whole process tough. These are the boys who need one on one support when tackling all assessments. It will be interesting to see how we do compared to the cohort.
A copy of the pre-task can be found below.
Maths Assessment Task
Having recently completed the Year 8 Assessment Task in our Year 8 Maths classes it is time to reflect on how well the process went.
My class is the bottom class of five classes in Year 8. Being a relatively small group this means the students who find Maths a challenge are able to get more individual time during classes. This model has been very successful at the College and while these types of classes can prove a ‘challenge’ in terms of behaviour and motivation with the right teachers involved they can also be very rewarding experiences for both teacher and student.
I am very fortunate to have a wonderful group of boys in my Year 8 class who are all keen to improve their skills in Maths. They work hard and always try their best in every task so they were very keen to do well in this task given it gave them a different way of demonstrating their learning. They also felt less ‘test pressure’. Having done the pre task they all felt confident that they could undertake the task and do a good job.
The assessment task went well. The boys came in and sat at their allocated desks. They were given an A4 sheet of grid paper and the shapes they were to cut out had been part of the Google Slide presentation shared with them just before the period.
Once they had cut out their shapes they got straight to the task. They had to create 20 questions relating to the shapes they had cut out and then provide answers by manipulating, measuring, combining or transforming the shapes they had cut out. It was very interesting watching them negotiate the task and struggle with creating their own questions.
Maths Assessment Pre Task
This year our Maths department desided to make a major change to the way we assess students in Maths. Previously all assessments have been in the form of formal examinations across Years 7 to 12. This year both Year 11 and Year 8 will complete one assessment in a different format.
We are currently in the process of working through the Term 3 assessment task for Year 8. The task is built around the completion of a ‘polygon puzzle’ using the iPads and Google Slides.
The first phase of the assessment involved three periods of teacher directed instruction. This involved working through three exercises from the text to ensure the students had background knowledge to enable them to engage with the task.
Phase two was a group task involving teams of four students completing a ‘polygon puzzle’ and an associated ‘learning log’. This was in effect a ‘trial run’ for the formal assessment task. The students used their iPads and Google Slides to complete the task. While the task was completed in groups each student had to complete an individual Google Slide presentation.
The Google Slide presentation had been created by our Maths Coordinator and shared with the students via Teacher Dashboard which is a facility that sits alongside Google apps. Each teacher is able to access individual presentations and make comments directly in the Google Slide presentation providing feedback to students on their efforts.
This part of the task proved very effective and put the students in a good position to complete the formal assessment task. This component of the task was worth 5 marks which ensured all students made an effort to do their best and complete all parts of this first section.
More Minecraft Exploration
As the year came to a conclusion in RE my Year 8 classes were looking to continue their exploration of Minecraft as a means of expressing their learning. Our final unit, ‘The Influence of Jesus’ provided an opportunity for them to be a little creative and we decided to build our unit around the Temple of Jerusalem with a focus on the events in Jesus’ life that occurred in and around the Temple.
The boys certainly gained an appreciation for the efforts back in the day to build such a mammoth structure. Recreating the temple in Minecraft took some doing and required the groups to be quite large. We did a fair bit of research into how the building developed from Solomon through to Herod the Great.
Throughout the unit we looked at the impact Jesus had on those around Him as well as the lasting impact He has had on our society in general. The boys finished with a short presentation as we ran out of time. The idea was to embed Jesus and the Temple of Jerusalem highlighting the impact He had at each of the significant events. We were hoping to narrate each step but time got the better of us.
The use of Minecraft continues to surprise me. The amount of time and effort the boys put in was amazing and the conversations that took place about how the Temple was built, where things took place etc., were interesting to listen to. Creating a virtual world really gets you to ‘live the experience’ and in turn helps build a deeper understanding of the topic.
Here is a sample of what we achieved. The boys used Instant Alpha in the Pages app on their iPads to edit the images and then overlay them on the images of the Temple.
Using Tellagami and Minecraft in Religion
Last Term we used both Tellagami and Minecraft to explore the different people and ministries that exist within our Catholic faith. This was part of our work in the Year 8 Religion course.
The students used Tellagami firstly to explain the roles of a Pope, Bishop and Priest within the Church. They then moved to the work of their local parish. Here they used Minecraft to recreate the parish church. They then used Tellagami to walk through the building and explain some of the ministries that operate within the parish.
There were a couple of small issues around editing out the Tellagami symbol that appears at the end of each Tellagami creation but on the whole the students produced some very worthwhile creations. Here are two samples.
For more of the great presentations created visit our Year 8 blog.
Carbon Fibre Innovation
Our Year 9 Sunsprint team have spent countless hours learning how to use carbon fibre in the construction of their car for this year’s Challenge.
They have fortunately been able to link up with an expert in the field outside the College. This mentoring process has allowed the team to not only access facilities but also be exposed to a wealth of knowledge from a specialist in the field.
This project is a great example of the possibilities that can occur when you allow students to participate in authentic learning experiences.
Here is a little of what the team has been up to this week.
2013 UNSW Sunsprint Champions Unveil Their Car for 2014
2013 UNSW Sunsprint Champions Unveil Their Car for 2014.
It is always rewarding to see a project through to its completion. This project however is continually surprising us with the directions it takes our students. Last year we were blown away by our Year 8 team when they took out the UNSW Sunsprint Challenge. Traditionally it had been older students who succeeded based on the level of skill and understanding needed.
Changes in the ability to source components have meant that younger students are now able to compete with the older students. Design and a little bit of good fortune now play a bigger role in deciding the winner. With that in mind our champion team have decided to push the boundaries a little.
Most cars at the 2013 National Championships in Melbourne were made from balsa. Indeed the winning car was identical to our car and it was only a little bit of bad luck that cost us a higher placing. This year the boys have decided that carbon fibre is the material of choice!
It is amazing that only two years ago this group of boys were struggling to build a car from plywood and now they have designed their car using CAD software, printed parts on a 3D printer, made rubber moulds for the carbon fibre and built what looks like an amazing piece of technology.
The most common response I get from the boys is, ‘I have learnt so much’. Cannot say I hear that around our classrooms very often. I wish I did!
All this started from a small project embedded inside an initiative using a project-based approach to learning. This year we have three teams competing and hopefully developing a love of learning. It has been a wonderful journey for all involved.
Innovation in Learning 