Technology Design Briefs

Design Briefs

Coming up with a solution to a problem is not as easy as you think. As we grow older be become aware of key things to look out for when analysing a problem. For primary aged students, however, the investigation process has just begun, they have not developed a full understanding of the problem solving process and it is in the classroom that they have the opportunity to explore and practice these skills.

We analyse problems as we go, so as teachers, we need to demonstrate the steps to begin to incorporate this kind of thinking into students learning. These skills will develop over time, as a teacher we should aim to develop these skills over time.

As students language improves, so do their higher order thinking and problem solving skills.

Design Brief Problem for today: Design a frog that jumps!

Look for extensions in the activities to increase their thinking about the problem.

There is no wrong answer. No idea is a bad idea. There is only opportunity to experiment further and continually develop on their ideas. Continuous thinking, into continuous learning.

Whole class discussions will enable different ideas to be seen, analysed and evaluated. It is a great way to highlight that students will all have different ideas yet they all solve the problem at hand.

Quizzes and other activities

www.quia.com/web


Quizzes - see www.quia.com/quiz/2513812.html
Activities - see www.quia.com/hm/668170.html

These activities will engage students in their work, being both the seeker and distributer of knowledge. Focus on spelling, grammer and other literacy concepts can be highlighted and the games can be changed and edited to fix any errors that come along the way. Quizzes such as the Multiple Choice Quiz entice students to create questions from knowledge that they have found or know. They can be fun, informative, challenging, however you would like to see it being used in your classroom.

Students can email their friends, parents, other family members to use.

What we were shown was only a small amount that this website can offer. It will be fun to explore this site later on and think about just how much these ideas can be incorporated into the classroom.

Working with children in special schools, puzzle and activities that do not rely heavily on the written word would work really well. Connecting images with words, one-to-one correspondance with counting and other things like that. Ready made games may not focus on the skills that you are looking to teach and programs like quia.com allow teachers to personalise their learning tools to utilise the strengths of their students. It is definately something to come back to while on rounds next.