Constructionism is "A theory of learning that states people learn best when they build an external artifact or something they can share with others" (Orey, 2008). Constructionism is a way for students to work cohesively as a group, but at the same time, each task can be focused on the individual learner. In many constructivist activities, the product is only as good as the sum of its parts. Dr. Orey discusses the power of PowerPoint software in which you can have students model Project Based Learning in a cooperative creative activity that also focuses on each individual contribution. In doing research for many PowerPoint projects, students often have to accommodate to the new information they learn in order to retain their equilibration.
In Generating and Testing Hypothesis in Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Words, the authors discuss the use of web resources "in the form of interactive applets and simulations, that allow students to use background knowledge, make decisions, and see the outcome of their hypothesis, often in virtual situations" (Hubbell, Kuhn, Malenoski, and Pitler 2007). This section of the book really reminded me of the "Stock Market Game" played at my school. In Math, we assign stock market "teams" of 4-5 students, give them $10,000 of fictional money to invest in real life stocks. Through the use of background knowledge of individual companies, current spending trends, and just flat-out blind faith, students strategically chose and hypothesize the positive outcomes of their investments. Their progress is checked once per week and they compete with not only our school, but other schools from around the U.S. Once the project is done, the students have to present a PowerPoint project describing their wins or losses in this project. This whole experience is all about constructing their success. Whether they make money or not, the knowledge that these students have gained by doing this project-based constructionist activity, is priceless!
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Carman, the Stock Market Game sounds like a great project. One thing that I still struggle with in terms of project-based learning is time commitment. How much time does it take to do the Stock Market Game? It sounds very valuable, but is there any other math content that suffers, because of the time spent on this project? If all of our instruction was project-based would we have to take out some traditional content?
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with Bryan's comment.....I struggle with the time constraint problem though. There are so many wonderful things that I would like to do with my students, things that would be so meaningful to them; but I cannot because I don't have enough time. I had things in school when I was growing up that were meaningful and I learned so much from.....too bad we cannot find more time to do those kinds of things today. I don't think we would have to take out some traditional content, I think we could just use it in the project-based instruction. But, there might be some things that we'd have to teach traditionally.
ReplyDeleteCarman,
ReplyDeleteI really like the stock market idea and I think anytime that you can incorporate real world things then it's worth doing. It's always a balancing act to figure out how you can fit different things into the day, but some you just have to do.
Bhandy and Kim,
ReplyDeleteWe dedicate one whole class period each week to the Stock Market Game. It lasts until about February when the whole "Holiday Season" stock influx begins to slow down. Becuase of this loss of time, we definitely have to make up for it throughout the week. Luckily, we have a really gifted class who is able to do 1.5 math lessons two days of the week to make up for it. They are a really dedicated bunch of learners who embrace the challenge of this whole experience.
I also like your stock market game. Not only does it make your students think at a higher level, it also gives them some perspective on the "real world"
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