Thursday, December 13, 2007

Problem Based Learning Project/Final

Yesterday, I gave you the guidelines to your final project. I was thrilled to see the level of excitement that the majority of you were expressing. I'm glad that you are getting into it. I wanted to post a brief overview on here, so that you may have a place to seek answers and post questions. Together we will get through this.

Questions: How can we work to insure that acts of intolerance no longer continue at Riverside High School, in WV, The US, or the world? In other words, what can we do to make a difference?

Overview: You and a partner will be responsible for researching an act of intolerance and the prevention of intolerance. This project will consist of more than just a one-sentence answer. By the end, you will have produced a multimedia presentation that takes the audience on the journey that you went on to find the answers to the questions and solve the problem.

This is not a project to promote intolerance. It is a project to help us understand and learn how to prevent such instances.

After watching 'Hotel Rwanda" many of you were impressed at how ONE person, Paul, was able to make such a difference by saving the lives of 1,200 people. Now is your chance to prove again that it only takes one person's actions to start a wave.

Exploration: You will explore different forms of intolerance that we see on a local and world-wide level. You will explore the history behind these acts, and the actions of the individuals involved. You will narrow your research to one particular act. This is the research based part of the project. Once you have thoroughly researched the act, it is your job to creatively find a solution or a way to education individuals to see that this no longer happens again. You are being asked to attempt to fix the problem.

The Journey: You will submit in writing a summary of your journey, from brainstorming to solution. You will provide detailed information as to what you researched, your findings, and eventually the solution. This summary will be typed and all material will be cited. Lessons on citations will come soon.

The Presentation: Power Point, Video, Computer Generated Pamphlet, etc. This is your chance to share your research with your classmates and the possibility to benefit from seeing their research findings. The same resource requirements apply to your presentation as it would if you were writing a typical research paper. Therefore, you will need to include a reference or work cited portion to your presentation.

-7-10 mins in length
-answers the question
-shows research

Graded on:
-completeness and length
-quality of information
-creativity
-organization
-use of sources
-diction
-presentation skills
-works cited format
-minimum of 3 sources
-minimum of five citations
-works cited
-MLA/School Guidelines
-must have at least 2 non-electronic sources


Talk to each other to help generate ideas. Many of you already know the direction you are wanting to take. That's great! Any questions or comments, feel free to email me or post to the blog!

3 comments:

Chez said...

I wanted to take a moment to let you all know how proud I am of all of your beginning efforts on this project. I believe that you all have decided to work on projects that suit you and speak to each of you individually. Good job. It will make the project so much more worthwhile for you. Keep up the good work!

Melony Carey and Chrissie Wagner said...

Hi, Chez. I am Melony Carey - I teach Latin in Muskogee, OK. This year I received a grant to study the Rwandan genocide in relation to the Roman slaughter of the Carthaginians and the Jews at Masada. My students in Latin III read some of the Roman writer Seneca and Left to Tell by Imaculee Ilibagiza as they also read Heart of Darkness and The Poisonwood Bible in their AP English Lit class. They then watched Hotel Rwanda and we are now at the synthesis of the grant. My brother-in-law is coming to speak - he was a relief physician sent to Rwanda during the last month of the genocide and is just now starting to be able to talk about the experience.
But, I was looking for a summative project and I am so happy I came across your site. I have been corresponding with Dr. Ben Kiernan at Yale who is a specialist in genocides and gave me some good insight into the indicators that a genocide is about to transpire, as well as some outcomes of his research, but I couldn't imagine a way to utilize the info until I saw your blog.
How did your students' project work out? If you see this, I'd really appreciate any insight you can give me. Thanks for your help.
Melony Carey
Muskogee High School

Chez said...

Melony,

I'm so glad to have read your response. I apologize that it has taken me this long to respond. We recently started a new semester; I know you understand.

The grant that you had and the way you utilized it sounds just awesome! What a neat idea.

The project that the kids completed turned out really, really well. They kids were very compassionate, passionate, and dedicated to the topics that they researched and work with. Many of the kids are continuing their "solutions" even after the classes has ended. I'm so proud of them. They are "paying it forward."

If you have any other questions or comments, you can email me at: hmcchesney@kcs.kana.k12.wv.us

Thanks so much,
Heather "Chez" McChesney