Students will compete in an Organelle Campaign. Students will have to argue that without their organelle, the cell and its organism will collapse. Students are arguing this in hopes to win the title, “The Most Important Organelle in the Universe.” Students will first compete against others on our academic team before competing with others on other teams in a grade-level competition. Students will have the opportunity to choose how they will deliver their arguments: speech or poster and pamphlet. The speech will be recorded and edited on devices of their choice, and the posters/pamphlets will be either digital or paper. However, the delivery of the content to the students is all digital. Students will refer to a “To-Do List” Padlet for their step-by-step instructions, then refer to a class wiki page to access the Choice Board, Group Assignments, Rubrics, and Tech Help Tips.
The goal of this project is to have students realize that ALL organelles are important, as the cell cannot survive without any of the organelles because they all have a very specific purpose. To achieve this goal, students will use a variety of technology to communicate and express themselves using digital media of their choice.
5 Comments
Elizabeth Brown
11/20/2016 08:33:37 pm
I think that it is wonderful that you gave your students an option on how they wanted to present why their organelle was the most important. I believe that giving them a choice helps motivate them in creating a great product. I also liked how you created a Padlet page to ensure they new what steps to take in creating their presentations. Is this a topic you have already discussed with your class? Or was this an introduction to this topic? The only thing I would suggest is implementing the project and its resources all in one place, so that students don't have to jump from website to website. Maybe your students can handle the multiple pages, but many of my students would become confused. This could be the lack of computer time they receive though. It wouldn't be hard to implement everything they need on your Padelt page or the Wiki page. I believe this is a great project and I could see many of my students being very engaged with the process. They are very competitive so the fact that they are working to convince everyone that their organelle is the best is a motivator within itself.
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11/21/2016 11:51:08 am
Hi Sarah,
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Nicole Bell
11/26/2016 09:10:39 am
This looks like a amazing project! Not only did you give students a choice in how they displayed their learning but but you make the project competitive to further interest your students. The technology that you used really helped support student learning and the extension for students who made a 100% is a great motivator because it takes their great work outside the classroom. The one thing I had a question about is how would or did you re-mediate this project for students? Do you have any struggling or students with learning disabilities in your classes that could have benefited from remediation?
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Matthew Rice
11/28/2016 08:41:05 pm
It is clear that you have a strong understanding of effective lessons and how engage the middle school student. As I review your lesson, I found multiple things to comment on. I think it is great that you were able to create a task that allows the students to gather information, reason and communicate their reasoning. This type of planning is definitely aligned with the new Georgia Standards of excellence. The competitive nature of the task allows for students to take a personal interest in succeeding and being the organelle to win. I really like that you have a checkpoint control system in place. The fact that students must receive a 100 on the rubric prior to moving forward allows you, as the teacher, to assess your students quickly and effectively throughout the process. I think this is very important to do for all students, especially for students are leading their own learning. I thought it was great that you are providing your students with a choice of delivery (speech or poster). This is a great way for you to provide a differentiation based on learning preferences and really provide the students with an opportunity to put their best work forward. Another positive thing I took away from your lesson are your tutorial videos for tech help. I thought this was a great way to provide quick and easy support to your students without stopping the flow of the lesson for other students.
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AngieCorn
12/1/2016 06:36:35 am
Wow! This is a great project. I like the competitiveness that it creates between the students. Middle school students are always about winning and they love to compete against each other. You did a great job laying out your expectations for this project and making sure that your students understood what they were doing. I like how you gave the students a choice on how to present their project. Do you use this project to introduce a unit or to finish it up? I think a good thing to add would be a vote at the beginning of the project to see which one is more important and then after the presentations take another vote. You could use this to check for understanding of the concept.
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