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Investigations and
Other Activities
Assessment
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Investigations and Other Activities
The tentative timeline for the problem based unit is 2-3 weeks, based on
the materials available to students, amount of time needed for students to
complete investigations, guest speakers planned, and field trips taken.
Opening activities: The
activities to open the unit are designed as a prelude to the concept of
progress and to set the stage for the driving question:
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"In what way has
progress transformed
our quality of life
in Indiana
in the last 150 years?"
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(4 days)
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A
field trip to Conner Prairie, located in
Zionsville, IN will open our unit. As many of our students have
little to no background knowledge of Indiana, the county in which we
live, or U.S. history, the field trip will give them their first glimpse
at early life in Indiana, and give them a bank of ideas to refer to once
the project has been presented to them. Before the trip, students
will be briefed on what the trip will be about. They will be asked
to form small groups and predict what they will
see on the trip.
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Following
the field trip, the class will participate in a
debriefing session and discussion about what they expected to
see, what they saw, what surprised them, what they liked, their favorite
part of the trip.
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Once this background knowledge is flowing, to introduce the actual
project, students will view an instructor-made
PowerPoint presentation made with digital photos that were taken
both the day of the field trip by teachers and students, and previously
by the teachers, highlighting some of the differences between the life
that we experienced at Conner Prairie and the life that we live day to
day in the 21st century.
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Students will generate a list of possible topics
to investigate during a Brainstorming activity
using Inspiration software with the teacher around the driving question.
Then the concepts that students generated will be posted around the room
and students will complete a "Walk Around"
activity, and add sub-concepts, and stake their claim on the
subject of their investigation.
Investigative and creative activities:
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"In what way has
progress
transformed our quality of
life in Indiana
in the last 150 years?" |
(7-10 days)
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Students will participate in a
Web Quest scavenger
hunt, which will give them a refresher in searching for information on the Internet. They will be searching a variety of
websites that will be useful to them as they are developing their
projects, on topics related to Indiana history. As a follow -up,
they will complete a cross word puzzle.
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Students will be required to maintain a list of
websites that they find as they investigate their topics.
They should be continually added to a list of favorites and e-mailed to
the teacher at the end of the unit.
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Students will create and present a poster timeline
of events related to their topic of study. When students present their timelines
to their classmates they will describe when, during this time in
history, they would have wanted to live and why. (Rubric)
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Students will research a Hoosier from history
whose life, invention, creation, position or action is related to their
topic of study. They will create a poster or role play presentation using other media
(students' choice) that includes dates of birth and death, three
additional facts about the person's life, one or more pictures or graphs, and the person's
impact on progress in Indiana. (Rubric)
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Students will visit the local history room
of the Crawfordsville Public Library.
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Students will find and interview a member of the community
who is knowledgeable about either the historical aspect of the
topic that they are researching, or the progress that has been made
since the late 1800's. They will prepare a list of questions,
about which the student will conference with the teacher, and a
post-interview reflection in addition to the answers to the questions. (Checklist)
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Students will participate in a video-conferencing experience with Vision
Athena named "Doctoring in the Wilderness." The content provider
is Oasis. This is a personal narrative of a pioneer doctor during
the first part of the 19th century. Students will write a a short
evaluation after viewing the presentation.
Culminating Activity:
(3 days)
Once students have completed their investigations and other
activities, they will combine all of those pieces to create a 15 minute
PowerPoint presentation of their findings.
They must include aspects of the other creative projects that they have
previously completed and other information, pictures, and/or graphs that
they have generated. (Rubric)
Follow-up Activities:
(optional 1 day)
Students
will have a Fishbowl discussion in which
they predict what kind of progress will take place in the next 150 years
and how our quality of life will be enhanced or diminished. They will be
required to give input and opinions on their topic of study and comment
on those of the other groups. Each discussion group will have a
moderator who has a list of teacher generated questions to keep the
conversation flowing if it lags.
(Example questions and assessment by participation
points)
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