Class size: 37 students
Grade Level: Ranging from grades 9 through 12
Location: Hollywood, FL
This lesson came up in the middle of testing season which ended up displacing the usual classroom location and cutting the class time from 90 minutes to 45 minutes unexpectedly. I chose to show the class the first of the two videos in the lesson plan to motivate their research and our discussion of technological innovations. Due to testing, I did not have the chunk of time I expected to view the video before the school day started. The video was a little bit longer than the videos that had been shown earlier in the curriculum. The students got a little anxious halfway through.
Throughout the first half of the school year, I had instigated a “show and tell” moment in class every Monday. We called it “New Technology Monday”. The standing assignment was that you had to come into class on Monday with some new-to-you piece of technology to share with the class. The caveat being that in order to share, you also had to explain how this innovation either helps or hurts your local community. Because of this, the research and subsequent conversations and journaling were smooth. If the class had not been doing that for the first half of the year, it might not have been that smooth.
Transitioning directly from the gamelab lessons in Unit 3, this provided a great transition to get the students thinking about their creations as products that could affect the world around them. I would strongly suggest considering doing this during the first half of the year and (of course) make time the morning of each lesson to preview those videos…