Awesome school assignments
Jan. 19th, 2012 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sonoranrnWhile chatting with Jesse today, we discussed some of the cool school projects we did over the years, pre-college. Some were in G/T programs, but there's no reason I can see not to use them in "regular" classrooms. I know I've got a few teachers who read my blog so thought I'd share.
I did two mock-archaeology digs. The successful one of the two involved several different classes. Each class created a "primitive people" and made or supplied artifacts, mostly made out of clay but there were some donations from home -- old bones, teeth, chipped bowls, etc. We took them out to a designated area behind the playground and carefully buried them in layers. A few weeks later we went back out and dug up the other class's artifacts using "proper" archaeology techniques and tools. We roped off the area with string into a grid so we could note where each item was found, used little shovels and screens and brushes, etc. Then we took all the items back to the classroom and tried to learn what we could about the culture we'd discovered. It was super neat. (This was 3rd grade, I believe.)
I think it was in my 4th grade G/T program where were created a dichotomous guide for a group of imagined animals. We had to come up with a dozen or so creatures, name them (both common and scientific) draw them, figure out what they ate, what kind of environment they lived in, etc. and thereby have a list of differences one could use to determine what kind of animal it was they had seen. We had to organize it all into a guide that was spiral bound for us. (I wish I still had it; don't think I do.) So the first page said something like, "Does the animal fly? If so, go to page 2, if not, go to page 5." Then at page 2 it would say, "Does the it have claws?" (A good example of such a guide can be found here.)
Again in 4th grade G/T we created model houses for a super-windy, sandy planet. (It doubled as a lesson in aerodynamics.) We took coat hangers and bent them into a strange shape, then stretched panty-hose over them and spray painted them white. The hose came smooth, organic shapes to them that allowed sand and wind to (mostly) move up and over. We took them out to the sandbox with different wind making devices (fan, blow-dryer, etc) and studied where the wind and sand swept over it and where it gathered, then determined where we would put the door, etc.
5th grade G/T had us make a movie. Not a big deal today, but I'm talking quite a few years ago. We took two books (in my groups' case they were Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and combined them (kind-of) to create a new story (our movie was "The Adventures of Becky's Boyfriends"). We wrote the script then divided the group up into cast and crew. We built our "sets" our of butcher paper mostly (so more backdrops, really) and made or found some simple props. The teacher filmed our finished project and showed it to other groups. We watched theirs as well and wrote film critiques.
6th grade in Texas was middle school, so the program changed to more of an AP-light thing. No more bussing to another campus for a day of cool ass projects, just G/T versions of classes all the other students were taking. Nothing jumps out at me from 6th grade except my social studies teacher who taught us about disease (and specifically the plague) using black gummi rats and black-light powder (to show the spread of contagion by physical contact). We played ring-around-the-rosey as an education tool, too.
The rest of middle school and all of high school don't bring anything super cool to mind. I did take a criminal law class my senior year and we got to do a mock trial at the courthouse in front of a real judge, which was kinda nifty.
Jesse mentioned an assignment he had in history where each student had to come up with an scientific advancement. That would have been tough, but neat.
I know there were more, especially from my G/T program. I'll add them on in comments if they come back to me.
I did two mock-archaeology digs. The successful one of the two involved several different classes. Each class created a "primitive people" and made or supplied artifacts, mostly made out of clay but there were some donations from home -- old bones, teeth, chipped bowls, etc. We took them out to a designated area behind the playground and carefully buried them in layers. A few weeks later we went back out and dug up the other class's artifacts using "proper" archaeology techniques and tools. We roped off the area with string into a grid so we could note where each item was found, used little shovels and screens and brushes, etc. Then we took all the items back to the classroom and tried to learn what we could about the culture we'd discovered. It was super neat. (This was 3rd grade, I believe.)
I think it was in my 4th grade G/T program where were created a dichotomous guide for a group of imagined animals. We had to come up with a dozen or so creatures, name them (both common and scientific) draw them, figure out what they ate, what kind of environment they lived in, etc. and thereby have a list of differences one could use to determine what kind of animal it was they had seen. We had to organize it all into a guide that was spiral bound for us. (I wish I still had it; don't think I do.) So the first page said something like, "Does the animal fly? If so, go to page 2, if not, go to page 5." Then at page 2 it would say, "Does the it have claws?" (A good example of such a guide can be found here.)
Again in 4th grade G/T we created model houses for a super-windy, sandy planet. (It doubled as a lesson in aerodynamics.) We took coat hangers and bent them into a strange shape, then stretched panty-hose over them and spray painted them white. The hose came smooth, organic shapes to them that allowed sand and wind to (mostly) move up and over. We took them out to the sandbox with different wind making devices (fan, blow-dryer, etc) and studied where the wind and sand swept over it and where it gathered, then determined where we would put the door, etc.
5th grade G/T had us make a movie. Not a big deal today, but I'm talking quite a few years ago. We took two books (in my groups' case they were Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer) and combined them (kind-of) to create a new story (our movie was "The Adventures of Becky's Boyfriends"). We wrote the script then divided the group up into cast and crew. We built our "sets" our of butcher paper mostly (so more backdrops, really) and made or found some simple props. The teacher filmed our finished project and showed it to other groups. We watched theirs as well and wrote film critiques.
6th grade in Texas was middle school, so the program changed to more of an AP-light thing. No more bussing to another campus for a day of cool ass projects, just G/T versions of classes all the other students were taking. Nothing jumps out at me from 6th grade except my social studies teacher who taught us about disease (and specifically the plague) using black gummi rats and black-light powder (to show the spread of contagion by physical contact). We played ring-around-the-rosey as an education tool, too.
The rest of middle school and all of high school don't bring anything super cool to mind. I did take a criminal law class my senior year and we got to do a mock trial at the courthouse in front of a real judge, which was kinda nifty.
Jesse mentioned an assignment he had in history where each student had to come up with an scientific advancement. That would have been tough, but neat.
I know there were more, especially from my G/T program. I'll add them on in comments if they come back to me.
