Student's Choice

Recently, I was charged with a very exciting, super awesome opportunity.  I was given permission to pull some of our high achieving students from their science class (after they finish their work, of course) to let them work on....whatever they want!  The only criteria is that this work is productive and helps bring them to the next level and prepares them for high school and eventually college.

I brought these students together to discuss the possibilities.  I told them that I want it to be fun, engaging and productive.  I told them they wouldn't be graded on the projects they choose and we can discuss the opportunity for extra credit in the future but I want the emphasis to be on the experience rather than "credit."  The students need to bring to me ideas or concepts they want to further explore and tell me whether or not they would prefer to work in a big group, small group, or individually.  They started rattling off all kinds of ideas and I'm excited to see what they present to me.  I have seen some awesome projects from students when given an opportunity like this.  If the students have ideas but are unsure of how they'd like to execute them, I have some websites I'd like to utilize:

Illuminations is full of lots of model-based math activities that are structured in a way that would elicit deep understanding and a higher level of thinking than most procedural or fluency based math worksheets.

Teach Engineering is another website full of model-based engineering activities that my students might find fun to explore.



I really can't wait to see what they bring to the table and I will update their progress once we decide on a project or projects they choose!