BOX 9.1 Bringing real-world problems into classrooms Step:3

 Step:3

BOX 9.1 Bringing real-world problems into classrooms

Kids in a high school math class in Tennessee just watched a video adventure from the Jasper

        Woodbury series on how architects work to solve community problems, like designing safe places        for kids to play. The video ends with this challenge to the class to design a neighborhood playground:

Narrator: Trenton Sand and Lumber is donating 32 cubic feet of sand for the litter box and is shipping lumber and fine gravel. Christina and Marcus just have to let them know exactly how much they will need. Lee's Fence Company is donating 280 feet of fencing. Rodriguez Hardware is providing a sliding surface, which can be cut to any length, and swings for children with physical disabilities. Rodriguez's employees want to get involved, so they are going to put up the fence and help build the playground equipment. And Christina and Marcus are landing their first jobs as architects, starting in the same place Gloria did 20 years ago, designing a playground.

Students in the classroom help Christina and Marcus by designing swings, slides, and sandboxes, and then they build models of their playground. As they solve this problem, they are faced with various topics in arithmetic, geometry, measurement, and other topics. How do you draw to scale? How do you measure the angles? How much gravel do we need? What are the security requirements?

Assessments of student learning showed impressive advances in their understanding of these and other geometry concepts (eg, Cognition and Technology Group in Vanderbilt, 1997). Additionally, students improved their skills to work with each other and communicate their design ideas to real audiences (often comprised of interested adults). One year after participating in these activities, students vividly remembered them and talked about them with pride (eg, Barron et al., 1998).

classrooms with communities of practitioners in science, mathematics, and other fields (Barron et al., 1995).

Various computer and video-based learning programs are in use today for many different purposes. The Voyage of the Mimi, developed by Bank Street College, was one of the first attempts to use video and computer technology to introduce students to real-life problems (eg, Char and Hawkins, 1987): the students " they go to the sea "and solve problems in the context of learning about whales and the Mayan culture of Yucatán. More recent