Saturday 2 August 2014

The games have begun!

My Solver challenge has been active for three weeks now. I have been happy with its progress, although I have to admit it has been a lot of work on my behalf. My students have access to number puzzles, literacy and problem solving activities, they have opportunities to complete online challenges and develop skills by the use of iPad apps. I have checked and marked student work and participation every night, my belief is, if I don't have enthusiasm for the challenge then my students wont. Momentum is led by me. This is a link to the instructions that were given to the students. 
I have been using a google form to keep track of the points for each student, this has made the whole collation side of things much easier. This is a link to the leader board which the students can check to see their progress, it is updated automatically as I update the points.
http://thorley.webnode.com/solver-challenge/
Throughout the challenge, there are secret bonus challenges, one of these was to create an instructional video on how to complete one of the number puzzles. This is what one of my students created. I don't know what you think of it, but I think it is amazing, this is the work of a 12 year old armed with an iPad.
https://drive.google.com/a/dow.catholic.edu.au/file/d/0B_DZVkJ2JG_aNEVGZ0drd05HMDA/edit?usp=sharing
I have seen students complete thousands of questions on sumdog in attempt to gain SP, it has totally astounded me. This strategy wont engage all students, but it will engage most, I am not about to paint this as a perfect picture, but I know without this challenge there is no way I would have students completing number puzzles on the weekend and on pupil free days by choice. These are not set homework tasks, they are optional. I will keep you updated as we progress.

2 comments:

  1. Have you looked at "open badges" - google it. This is an international framework for rewarding people for all sorts of things. I was hoping to introduce it at the spotlight but they would work great in this comp.

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  2. Thanks, I'll check it out. I was looking at rewarding badges in Edmodo but this might be better.

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