This week, in my CEP811 class, I had the challenging task of re-imagining my instruction and creating a lesson plan using my “makers kit”. In my previous blog post I gave an outline of how I would use the “MaKey MaKey” in the classroom in a high school Economics lesson plan about entrepreneurship. This week I will give you another activity/lesson (used as an extension to the previous lesson) using the MaKey MaKey and I will connect it to one of the learning theories that we have studied throughout the masters program.
There are dozens of learning theories that exist in the education world today. The concept that resonates most strongly with me is experimental learning. This concept allows the scholars to be involved in their learning and take charge of the process. Our environment is constantly changing and teaching with environmental learning strategies allow learners to attain adaptive skills that are beneficial in all areas of life. There is a biological connection between a physical “hands-on” experimental learning approach that allows us to remember and recall the content learned. In John Ratey’s book “Spark”, he talks about this principle of connecting movement to a discipline helps our memory (Ratey, 2008, p. 42).
Bransford, Brown & Cocking describe experimental learning or teaching using “hands-on” projects as a successful tool to give students opportunities to experiment, create, and share the knowledge obtained in their book “How People Learn: bran, mind, experience, and school” (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000, p.13).
This tool can increase retention and help students take control of their learning. It also makes teaching concepts a lot more enjoyable and interactive for both teacher and student. The learner and educator can come together to create the content and still meet the state standards.
“David Kolb and Roger Fry (1975: 35-6) argue that effective learning entails the possession of four different abilities: concrete experience abilities, reflective observation abilities, abstract conceptualization abilities and active experimentation abilities” (David Kolb on learning styles). Students can retain and use the content when they are actively engaging in it. The learning model they presented implies that learning is a continuous action and does not begin or end with the teacher (in a classroom). Teachers that can facilitate learning and hit on all four abilities allow students to take charge of their learning and become better creative thinkers.
Experimental and participatory learning is such an effective way of facilitating learning. It is a very desirable approach in teaching in my discipline. In economics, many concepts need to be shown. It is a social science, so there are rules and laws that may be tested. This makes experimental learning an excellent method to use in the classroom. According to Project New Media Literacies, this approach will provide “heightened motivation and new forms of engagement through meaningful play and experimentation” and will lead to authentic and meaningful learning experiences.
The participatory culture allows students to create, collaborate, and share the learning that they have experienced. By combining my Entrepreneurship lesson (project) and the extension activity below, students are participating and experimenting these economic concepts and discovering the objectives independently (without a textbook or teacher-lecture). New Media Literacies described this method of teaching as a “participatory culture” in this video:
So what are the results like when using participatory and experimental learning?
Henry Jenkins described a scenario in which he provided a participatory framework of instruction and used many methods that allowed students to experiment and collaborate with each other. In his blog post, “Shall We Play (Part II)”, he describes the results as “a rich array of imaginative ideas which showed a deep understanding of the core concepts and information running through the class. Students listened with the idea that they would be applying what they learned in this creative and playful process”. This method of learning gives students a voice and a space to learn and create. It spurs creativity and encourages collaboration.
In my task, I will use these strategies to apply them to my high school economics class. In the previous lesson, I gave students a time to create a product using the “MaKey MaKey”. Students acted as entrepreneurs and had to discuss the different factors of production they needed to produce the product. Then, they had to create a commercial in order to create a demand for their product and present it to the class.
In this extension of the activity, students will look at the “costs: fixed and variable” in order to determine output. Students will experiment with how to maximize output and how to analyze the data using “marginal analysis”. Lastly, students will work together to create a production schedule, act out the labor function in an assembly line (using their made product with the MaKey MaKey), and discover the “Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns”.
LESSON PLAN FOR ECONOMICS CLASS:
- This lesson is created as a follow up to the previous Entrepreneurship lesson, but may be used on its own to facilitate learning of these concepts.
Objectives:
Students will experiment to discover economic concepts of the Law of Diminishing Marginal Returns, Marginal Analysis, and production methods – assembly line – that go into suppliers/business’ decision making. Students will experiment with MaKey MaKey kits to focus on marginal analysis: How many workers should we hire to maximize production?
HSCE(s):
- 4.1.2 Marginal Benefit and Cost – Use examples and case studies to explain and evaluate the impact of marginal benefit and marginal cost of an activity on choices and decisions
- 1.2.3 Investment, Productivity and Growth – Analyze the role investments in physical (e.g., technology) and human capital (e.g., education) play in increasing productivity and how these influence the market
Materials Needed:
- Laptop cart (classroom set of computers)
- 6 MaKey MaKey kits
- Items from the thrift shop (From previous entrepreneurship project lesson plan)
- Play-dough, bananas, aluminum foil, forks/spoons, etc. (conductive material)
o OR if you did NOT do the previous entrepreneurship lesson you could try something interactive such as:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQuVCB6WzOo – Human Piano
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ6uv-FhyTY – Human Drums
Time Needed: 1 class period
Procedure:
Bellringer: As students enter the classroom ask the: How do you know how many workers to hire? Does more workers always mean more output? (Students should write their answers in their notebooks before the class activity starts.)
- Students are in Inventors groups (5 students per group)
- Each student must have a role in production/Conducting the charge
- Students experiment to decide how many workers would be the best to maximize output.
- Students start graphing:
- In the beginning we have our fixed costs (before we hire any workers).
- i. With 0 (zero) workers we get 0 (zero) output
- ii. Add one worker (labor)– Record data of output
- iii. Add another worker (labor) – record data of additional output
- iv. Add another worker (labor) – record data etc.
- v. Continue until all group members are laborers
- At this time, the addition of the 4th and 5th worker should be decreasing Marginal Returns and possibly NEGATIVE Marginal Returns (If not – continue adding workers with the entire class to show this principle)
- If not doing the “Extension/Entrepreneurship project”, provide the HUMAN DRUMS simulation. Students must complete a simple beat in 1 minute (as many times as possible)
- You might even try this activity with something like “Banana Bongos” or “Banana Space bar” and have each student have to add their hands on the banana.
MAIN IDEA: Eventually adding workers will decrease output because there is limited space and “Workers will be in the way of each other”.
- Students work with group to discover what the ideal number of workers would be to maximize output.
- Draw Graph and reflect on how we could hire more workers and keep the marginal benefits
- Only way is to add more resources (more bananas, wires, connections, ect.)
- Discuss findings and share results with class (include graph and chart)
ASSESSMENT/Debrief
- Students should discover the three stages of production: Increasing Marginal Returns, Diminishing Marginal Returns, and Negative Marginal Returns.
- Students should make a chart, graph and reflection on their experiment. In the chart it should look something like this: (The X-Axis will be # of workers, the Y-axis would be output/efficiency)
REFERENCES:
- Ratey, John J. (2008) Spark: The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain. (page 42) Little, Brown & Company. New York.
- John Ratey, MD. is an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has studied neuroscience, learning, and physical activity in his practice.
- Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school: Expanded edition (pp. 1-78). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Retrieved January 17, 2014, from: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309070368
- Tangient LLC. (Project New Media Literacies).Participatory Learning And You (P.L.A.Y.), (2014) “The 5 Characteristics of Participatory Learning (CPLs)” [Web Resource] Retrieved from: http://playnml.wikispaces.com/PLAY!+Framework
- Jenkins, Henry. Shall We Play (Part II). (2011). Confessions of an Aca-Fan- the official web-blog of Henry Jenkins. University of Southern California [Web Resource] Retrieved from: http://henryjenkins.org/2011/05/shall_we_play_part_two.html#sthash.bZvCXFt1.dpuf
- Kolb, David A. & Fry, Roger. ‘Toward an applied theory of experiential learning;, in C. Cooper (ed.) Theories of Group Process, London: John Wiley [Web Resource] Retrieved from: http://infed.org/mobi/david-a-kolb-on-experiential-learning/
Winning in Education 