3/24 Class Reflection & Project Update - Lexie

Reflection from Class

Well class was interesting tonight.  The problem we worked on was difficult for me and took a good 15 minutes or so to wrap my hands around it.  Because this was an area that was outside of my comfort zone, it took me a while to understand the problem and determine what I should do.  Before we separated into groups, I was so confused I didn’t even know what questions to ask.  Once I understood that I was trying to find the density of each type of material from the cross section, it began to make sense.  My group was very helpful, but for the first 10 minutes I was a little confused on what they were doing.  Once we started going good, we ran out of time and couldn’t finish the calculations.  If we were given this problem again or an additional 15 minutes, I’m sure that we would have been able to finish it. 

After we finished working on the problem, I started to think about how I could adapt it for my class.  I think that if I did this problem, I would start by giving the picture of the cross section, the area, and the densities.  That way they were required to estimate the area of each item in the cross section and then find the density of each of them. 

Update on Project

I actually finished my project!  My students did a great job of working together and creating their 3-dimensional plant cells.  The best part of the project was the communication that was done in the groups.  On the first day, I had a pair of students that refused to talk to each other.  By the end of the project, they had figured out how to communicate (even though it wasn’t much) and had a really good plant cell.  From the project, I realized that my students struggled more with surface area and volume than I thought they would.  I plan to spend more time practicing this skill with them.  When I do this project again, I know that I will have to spend time before the project begins on practicing the Surface Area and Volume.