Ben's+Thoughts

Google Group with Engagement

0) Parallels with our Master’s Program... About a year ago, the staff at my high school received training on Apple’s “Challenge-based learning model”. This essentially posses a challenge to a student and gives them the creative and innovative freedom to research and present on whatever connections they see fit to the topics in class. For my students, this involved the charger, a solar panel, and the Sonlig project mission statement. It was interesting to see how the students connected with the material since it took them about a week or so to figure out exactly how the project fit in with the world around them. Even after that week, some still had questions that revealed misinterpretations and misconceptions that were good to hammer out before the deeper parts of the curriculum. This challenge-based method of engagement is one that my students had practiced before with a project about “traffic”. Again, each student offered a unique way of connecting themselves with the word which allowed us to talk about and split into groups to make project teams. However, this process is one that is familiar to the Sonlig Project Team, because in fact, our entire Master’s degree program is structured in a way to foster innovative connections with what we are most curious about. From the beginning 1) Discussions with students, take notes about events -One of my students enjoyed the project so much that he came to me and asked if he could do a research project for his English class on what we were doing. The project is a 10-15 minute Public Service Announcement on a topic of their choosing. That student will be spending their own time with me after school hours to discuss the project.  2) Discussions with Principal and Staff- some students aren't ready for it. -Our school has an Essentials of Physics class that 3) Interactions with students and the curriculum notes -Student (Cody) said I wanted to do a project about you guys, but I know more about Music, so I’m going to do that instead because it will be easier. What does this say about our students? They seem to always want to take the easy way out, isn’t that human nature?

4) Interactions with BCS students and the charger for the first time. 5) Students want to do a research project on Sonlig 6) Research pre/post surveys

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During the course of our time with the sonlig project and even throughout the year, my students became more engaged in the material that they were studying. Their ability to develop research questions improved. {show proof}