Thoughtful Teaching
It is clear that Nancy is a flexible and reflective teacher—she changed small parts of the plan as she started teaching it the first time, and she has clear ideas for improving it. Nancy found a need to modify the scoring guides and the timeline for completing the project. Also, she found giving students a choice between the more rigorous engineering strand and the genetic disorders strand didn’t work out. She assumed the more advanced students would choose the harder work, but given the choice, all students opted for the genetic disorders investigation.

Encouraging Rigor
Nancy quickly saw a need for real samples of student work. She says, “In general, my mock student samples were almost useless. I expected much more from my real students than what I showed in my mock-samples, so I could only present those as examples of poor quality work!” Now that she’s taught the course, she has authentic student work to show next time. She says good examples will be especially helpful to students who are new to project learning—those students who have little sense of how to drive their own learning or lack the habits of mind that allow deep, independent study. Linda wants all her students to engage in rigorous work, and she thinks good examples will go a long way in helping her impart high standards.

Limited Access
When Nancy taught the genetics lessons last year she had to overcome an inflexible lab schedule. Nancy’s students didn’t have access to the computer lab during science class, so she arranged for them to work on the project during a different period, under the guidance of another teacher. Late assignments and work quality issues could have been avoided if scheduling had allowed her to work with her students in the lab. She looks forward to having access to the lab during science class when she teaches the project again.

How Learning Changes
As she developed the unit portfolio, Nancy integrated science with different curriculum areas—research, writing, speaking and, of course, technology. With the aid of PowerPoint*, students were able to make illustrated oral presentations—a big change from the short papers they used to write. Nancy thinks this is a better culmination for a unit of study—instead of writing a paper, students prepare a speech, support it with multimedia, and in the process, impart their knowledge to others. Students’ work was well received and when classmates made comments at the end of a presentation, they were generally supportive and complementary.

Looking Ahead
Nancy has used the skills she learned in her technology training to plan more science projects. She says, “Probably the greatest benefit came from being able to plan the lessons during the Intel® Teach course. Once I knew it could happen, I adapted the strategies I learned for use in other areas. I found these techniques fit lots of topics—my sixth graders did planet study that resulted in presentations and newsletters. Eighth graders did the genetics projects, and 6th and 7th grade students created presentations on a science project of their choice.”