Kristina Buenafe - Teacher, John Quincy Upper School
Content Area(s): Mathematics
Background / Bio / Educational Philosophy: In Arlington, Virginia born and raised ... but in Boston, I now spend most of my days / Teaching math, running, relaxing all cool / And doing some blogging outside of school I teach at Josiah Quincy Upper School (the first International Baccalaureate School in Boston Public Schools). I lead the 11th & 12th grade team, teach IB Math Studies and Advisory, co-coordinate the IB Diploma Programme, co-coordinate Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS), oversee after-school programs, coach debate, and coach Running Club.I tinker with recipes just as much as I tinker with lesson plans. I love finding math in the real world. I enjoy incorporating new educational technology, debate, and project-based learning into my classroom. I love learning from and contributing to the vibrant community of education bloggers.
Background / Bio / Educational Philosophy: In Arlington, Virginia born and raised ... but in Boston, I now spend most of my days / Teaching math, running, relaxing all cool / And doing some blogging outside of school I teach at Josiah Quincy Upper School (the first International Baccalaureate School in Boston Public Schools). I lead the 11th & 12th grade team, teach IB Math Studies and Advisory, co-coordinate the IB Diploma Programme, co-coordinate Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS), oversee after-school programs, coach debate, and coach Running Club.I tinker with recipes just as much as I tinker with lesson plans. I love finding math in the real world. I enjoy incorporating new educational technology, debate, and project-based learning into my classroom. I love learning from and contributing to the vibrant community of education bloggers.
CAPSULE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: Students will work in groups to design and
build three-legged chairs from recycled materials. During the first day of the project, students
will come into the classroom to find that all the chairs have been removed and
that they must act as engineers to create new, three-legged chairs. Students will work through the engineering
design process as they ask about constraints, imagine designs, plan, create,
and improve their chairs. The groups
will compete to see whose chairs can hold the most weight, then redesign their
chairs to see who can achieve the greatest percent change in weight held.
This project will start in the beginning of the
year, after class rules and expectations have been established. Students will continue the project to gain
experience with the engineering design process and apply concepts that they learn
within the first two units (e.g., planes, perimeter, distance, angles, and
slopes of lines). For example, they
could create scale drawings of their chairs that identify angle measurements
and dimensions. They could also make
subsequent redesigns based on geometric properties and ergonomic principles.
Download copies of my implementation plan, classroom activities, EBL strategies, or related curricula below.
Three Legged Chair Plan | |
File Size: | 162 kb |
File Type: | doc |
engineering-based_learning_as_a_pedagogical_approach_for_teaching_stem_classes.pdf | |
File Size: | 9403 kb |
File Type: |