project-based learning Archives

20 Mar 2019

No Classes & NOTHING BUT ESPORTS For A Week

The school I teach at does something called Project Week where students don't have any classes and they have all week to explore something they're interested or passionate about. I worked with a group of students who were interested in doing something with esports. Part of their project was to put on a Super Smash Bros Ultimate tournament. Super big thanks to Game Over Videogames for letting us host the tournament for free at their location! Check out the local retro-gaming shop in Austin, TX. https://youtu.be/uIDAVzgexAE Check out what the University of California - Irvine is doing at the collegiate…

19 Feb 2019

Building COLLISION AVOIDANCE Robots in Middle School Robotics

I vlogged our big competition day for our collision avoidance robots in middle school robotics. If students had a head on collision or fell off the table, they were out. https://youtu.be/PtE-7p1rUZw Self-driving cars video I introduce the project with ▷Task: Create a bot that avoids other bots & obstacles in the field. Must utilize at least 3 sensors (touch, color, gyro, ultrasonic) Must incorporate screen text, sound, and lights. Must be autonomous. ▷Rules: If your bot hits another bot or obstacle, you’re out. If your bot is bumped, you’re still in unless it’s a head on collision Starting placement can…

22 May 2017

Entry 32 – Statistics & Gender

Well the last week of learning new content has come to a close. We'll be reviewing in all classes next week and then finals week. PRE-ALGEBRA My students are just about done with their statistics project that I talked about last week. Got a lot of positive feedback. It was really one of the best ways to do this content as it really isn't hard to learn mean, median, mode, and range, nor is it too complex to learn how to do a box plot or histogram, just the process of watching a video of someone go through it and…

16 May 2017

Entry 31 – A Middle School Statistics Project

So we have one week of content left in our classes, a week of review, and then finals week. We are winding down. PRE-ALGEBRA STATS PROJECT In Pre-Algebra, we just finished our percents unit, which was pretty short. It could've actually been a part of the previous ratios and proportions unit (as I had them create proportions to solve all of the percent problems) but I just opted to make it it's own one-lesson unit. Last year I started to get into compound interest and it was OK but didn't have the time to really do that this year. So…

05 May 2017

Entry 29 & 30 – “I Learned More In The Last 45 Minutes Than I Have This Whole Semester”

Didn't reflect last week. Had a big, fun retreat weekend and left right after class on Friday. It was with Sara's residency program. I made a fun video that has nothing to do with school that I'll just place right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NliF41lAmHM Onto the school content: PRE-ALGEBRA We finished up our ratios/proportions unit last week and students took their summative test on Monday. Our last lesson of that unit was using proportions to find the missing side of a similar figure. The opening question ended up being not as effective as I had hoped: I chose this one because I…

24 Apr 2017

Entry 28 – Middle School Math Research Projects & Proportions

Long time no update! This is the practically first week of just normally scheduled classes in over a month. 1st week of March - student led conferences on Thursday/Friday so no school (link to last years conferences discussing our philosophy on it) 2nd week of March - Project Week (link to what I did for my own project week) 3rd week of March - Spring Break (link to my time in San Diego!) 4th week of March - Project Week Presentations on Thursday/Friday (link to a video of what the students ended up doing for their projects) 5th week of March -…

12 Apr 2017

Entry 27 – 6th Grade Fractions Project

Tried a new project this year to close out our fractions unit. I talk about how I set it up, how it went, and feedback from students on what worked and didn't. It involved finding fractions in recipes and converting them up to 3 1/2 times the amount of ingredients for a big family gathering as well as cutting them down to half the amount of ingredients for a smaller party for friends. Here's the rubric: https://goo.gl/T6BhXn

10 Apr 2017

Entry 26 – Project Week 2017

A few weeks ago, we did Project Week. I've written about this in the past and I made a video for this year's projects. Each year at Headwaters School, students get a chance to take a week off of regular classes to explore an interest of their choice. Here's what students explored in 2017. Headwaters School - www.headwaters.org Music by: Arp - https://arproject.bandcamp.com/ Mokhov - https://mokhov.net/

04 Feb 2017

Entry 22 – Six of the Biggest Mistakes Teachers Make

This week's prompt: What do you think is the biggest mistake(s) teachers make? I think the best way to go about answering this would be to reflect on many of the mistakes that I've made in my own practice. 1. Feeling the need to be in control. I know in my first year of teaching, I made such a concentrated effort to make sure everyone was following the rules all the time and that they would definitely know if they fell out of line. If things got too loud, I felt I was losing control. If students starting goofing around,…

16 Jan 2017

Entry 19 – Let’s Get A Math Exhibition Going

We're trying something new at my school this year; a Math Exhibition of sorts. Students will explore a math topic or concept and give a visual presentation. We actively avoided 'math fair' because that sounds boring. But MATH EXHIBITION! Sign me up! We do something somewhat similar to this each year with Project Week. The difference is that Project Week has students explore ANY topic of interest for a week and then present on it. They get a week off of school to do it. The video below by yours truly sums it up: https://youtu.be/Ysvz2XeEg90 So as a math team…