The lesson? Learning coordinates and plotting them accurately on a graph. But rather than dry lecture, student learned this concept by laying out a real-life battleship type coordinate field on either side of a barrier, and then put down home-made cardboard ships onto the coordinate fields. In order to win, students had to figure out the location of the opponents' Flag Ship, record the coordinates properly in graph format on the board, and do so prior to their opponents sinking THEIR flag ship.
Students had to do all of the work in terms of figuring out how to plan their coordinate field, coordinate their attack plans, and successfully track their thinking on the board and on their grid. The teacher acted as consultant - and in that role, he responded to questions mostly with questions back to the students. The teams were encouraged to partner up and work together to problem solve.
A very fun day of learning. The best part? After talking about playing in 2 dimensions, students were then tasked to create a new variant of the game that would operate in 3 dimensions - this will be their work in the coming weeks. Once they hash out the details, the game will be played outdoors on a large scale grid.
I wish I had learned about planes and coordinates this way! The students were highly engaged, having fun, and best of all, it was clear that there was learning permanence resulting from learning by doing.
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| Students re-set the grid after the first round of play. |
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| Students collaboratively problem-solve how to best protect their ships while attacking their opponent by using their new knowledge about coordinates and planes. |