Yesterday students conducted lab where they had to figure out how long it would take each of them to walk to Clipper Magazine Stadium from PVHS. They could use the internet to come up with a hypothesis, but they had to actually measure their speed (or other essential data) to calculate their individual time. Inquiry labs are great and I think they worked really well and were engaged. Then came lab report time.
Lab reports are always difficult because you have students in a group who are trying to write one report as a group together, but they can only use one computer at a time. This is indeed frustrating, given that as of now they have no way to send the text to each other and they all have to crowd around one screen for the most part. This can also leave some students (non-leaders) hanging out distracted in the background, not contributing.
Hopefully, using Google Docs, which allows all students in the group to work on a shared document online all at the same time, will work out better. Also, once we have a gmail account for each student, they will have a better line of communication between them. I'll also be more able to assist and formatively assess their work. Here's hoping google starts soon.
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