Tuesday, May 5th, 2009

Today we began our exciting HEALTH unit.

Health has so much useful information for our students, however can sometimes become a bit monotonous. To fix this problem, we have decided to learn a bit differently, through project-based learning.

As the students entered the room yesterday, each was given a small slip of paper with a random number, 1-7 on it. Thus, our groups were formed. All of the ones together, twos together and so on. Each group was assigned one of the seven important chapters that we have left. These groups will now become "experts" on that topic. They will have Tuesday, Thursday of this week, and Monday, Tuesday, Thursday of next week to work on their group projects.

In this assignment, each group was given a list of specific tasks that they need to make sure they include while "teaching" the class. The will be graded on a rubric that will be posted later this week, based on how well those tasks were completed.

Friday the 15th, Monday the 18th, and Tuesday the 19th the groups will do their presentations for the class. Each presentation should be at least 20 minutes long, and no more than 30 minutes long. On Friday, we will complete presenting if necessary, and take a quiz over what we've been taught.

I am, as are the students, very excited about our projects. Research shows that retention of knowledge is much higher, when it is "self-taught" or when a students becomes and "expert" on a subject. We've done something similar this year, with great success.

Keep looking for specifics on each groups requirements later this week.