As my first STEM class comes to an end, I'm reflecting on a project based lesson where students needed to conduct a classroom census. The purpose was to collect data that is collected in the real world. This was also placing an emphasis on statistics. The overall goal is to conduct a school wide census, and upload it to the national database. Here is the website where I got my ideas! Census at School They also have lots of problem solving you can do once you collect your school wide data.
I thought it would be a great idea to start small, so students could get the hang of gathering data and organizing it at the classroom level before we got the whole school involved. You can have the students do all sorts of charts, fractions, and so many other great math related things with all the data they collect.
Here is my reflection:
Were my students talking about the subject, or was I doing all of the talking and students were just listening to me? At first, I felt that I needed to explain every small detail, but once the students started, they realized that they needed a way to organize the data as they collected.
Were my students engaged at the beginning of the lesson? When I began introducing the activity, students didn't understand why we would want to do a census. After I had a few students do a little background on what a census is and what it is used for they were excited to get to do it themselves.
How much time did I spend reviewing homework, and how much time did I spend on new material? I usually spend about 15 minutes going over homework, but if students have questions I have been known to not move forward and spend more time on material as needed. I try to spend about 20-25 minutes, depending on class time, going over new material.
Did the students respond to “How” and “Why” questions? Yes, they weren't sure how to answer at first, but once they got the hang of actually explaining and not just saying yes or no they had much better answers.
Did my students have an opportunity to discuss and/or write about the topic? They did! After we did the class project I had students write about why a census can be used for math purposes and what other purposes it could be used for in our school.
What changes would I make next time the lesson is taught? I would be sure to give each group a bin to put materials in so that when they needed to go back to their projects, their materials would be easily accessible.
What steps do I need to take next in this topic? I think that now that students have the hang of collecting data, we could work on a census for our entire school, and get it entered into the Census at School website! Because statistics is a more rigorous skill, I want to spend more time in the fractions, percents category of the data they collect because that is a 6th grade skill that students can definitely benefit from!
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