higher order thinking – iLearn Technology

Plus Happy Numbers: Free Monthly Math challenges for the primary classroom

April 21, 2018Kelly Tenkely1 Comment157794 views

What it is: Plus Happy Numbers is a free kindergarten through second-grade site with monthly math challenges. Teachers can sign up for a free classroom account and assign the monthly math challenge for students to solve. The challenges are designed to tap into higher-order thinking skills and build problem solving cognitive skills like visual spatial thinking. Students each receive their own login so that individual progress can be tracked and reported back to you. Plus Happy Numbers is designed to be used on any device that you have in your classroom including iPad and Mac (via Safari), Chromebook, PC and Andriod (via Google Chrome). Each lesson comes with audio support for early or struggling readers. Students simply click on the speaker icon for audio directions.

How to integrate Plus Happy Numbers into your classroom: Plus Happy Numbers makes for an excellent math center activity for your students. Each lesson comes with visual modeling of a concept, on-screen manipulatives, immediate feedback and remediation of errors, and adaptive scoring that provides just the right amount of practice a student needs to master a concept. Plus Happy Numbers is a great place for students to build mathematical thinking indpendently while you work with smaller groups of students or one-on-one.

I appreciate that Plus Happy Numbers goes beyond computational understanding and seeks to create students who think, and approach, problems like a mathematician by building number flexibility, problem solving, and higher-order thinking. Plus Happy Numbers can be used as a supplement in any k-2 classroom. Each month, a new Challenge of the Month is designed to stretch students’ mathematical thinking and problem solving skills. As students successfully progress through a challenge, the difficulty of the problems increases. Student progress is saved so they can pick up right where they left off. At the end of the month, you can print out a certificate of completion.

Obviously a 1:1 environment is ideal, each student can work on these challenges simultaneously. If 1:1 isn’t your reality, fear not! The individual student login means that you can bookmark plus.happynumbers.com on classroom devices so that your students can login to their account. In this scenario, use Plus Happy Numbers as a math center rotation in your classroom. The challenges are broken down so that students can complete a challenge in as little as 2-8 minutes. If you have a projector-connected computer or interactive whiteboard, you could also complete challenges as a class, discussing each challenge as your students progress through and giving students turns to solve at the board.

Tips: If you already have a Happy Numbers account, you are already on your way to using Plus! Just use the same login information and you are ready to start assigning challenges.

Robot Obstacle Course

June 17, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments4234 views

What it is: Robot Obstacle Course is an excellent introduction into programming for young kids. Students are presented with an obstacle course made up of colored blocks and keys. Students must program the robot to jump over the obstacles and pick up the keys to complete the course. Through the obstacle course, students are introduced to basic programming language and learn how to think like a programmer. The obstacles get progressively more difficult and more variables are added.

How to integrate Robot Obstacle Course into the classroom: Robot Obstacle Course is a fun way for students to get an introduction to programming skills. The Obstacle Course includes a lot of logical/mathematical thinking as they decide which variables to adjust to get the robot through the course. For students younger than third grade, consider completing the courses as a class using a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard. Talk through each problem and ask students to offer possible solutions before you test out your robot. For older students (third through fifth grade) the courses can be completed independently on classroom computers or in a computer lab setting. As students test solutions, discuss why the solution works, or how the solution should be adjusted for the robot to preform successfully.

Tips: This game will put students observational skills to the test! If you don’t have time for a full game, this is a great thinking activity for those few extra transition minutes in the classroom, project the activity on the board and if they are ready for the transition (for example lining up) they can come up to the board and test their solution on the way to the line.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Robot Obstacle Course in your classroom.

TED Talk Tuesday: Tim Brown urges designers to think big

June 15, 2010June 15, 2010Kelly Tenkely3 Comments3823 views

Today’s #edchat discussion on Twitter was all about training kids as critical thinkers. I believe that we are losing students as critical thinkers because in our current model of education, where we are standardizing education with tests, we teach kids that there is one correct answer to every question. We limit their thinking to what we have already determined is an acceptable answer to the question. This is extremely limiting. Critical thinking means that we aren’t satisfied with the easy answer, we think about multiple solutions to the problem and even think of additional questions. We approach a problem differently, more creatively.

In today’s TED Talk, Tim Brown talks about his journey in design and his tendency to think about problems on a small scale, limiting himself to the obvious answers and a single solution. Design wasn’t always this way, design used to be big. Design thinking solves problems and works to create world changing innovations. It seems to me that there is a strong correlation with what Tim refers to as Design Thinking and what we call critical thinking. Roger Martin calls this integrative thinking, the ability to exploit opposing ideas and opposing constraints to create new solutions. Isn’t this what we are asking our students to do when we are looking for critical thinking? What we really want students to do is think as designers. When I watch children who haven’t yet entered the classroom, I notice a strong correlation between the way a child thinks and the way a designer thinks. They are questioners, tinkerers, and are never satisfied with one solution.

Design thinking could be our model for critical thinking in the classroom, but beyond that design thinking could be our solution to reform in education. Exploiting opposing ideas and opposing constraints to create new solutions.

Design is human centered, it starts with what humans need or might need. It means understanding culture and context. From destination to active participation that is meaningful and productive. Value is added through collaborative experiences and not through monetary gains alone (think Twitter). In times of change we need new thinking and new ideas. We are in the midst of massive change and we need to rethink what we accept as basic fundamentals. We need new choices because our current options are becoming obsolete. We need to take a divergent approach and come up with something that hasn’t been done before. What is the question we are trying to answer? What is the design brief for education.

The first step is to start asking the right questions. (I think #edchat does an honorable job of this!) What are the right questions?

Goldburger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines

May 14, 2010May 14, 2010Kelly Tenkely7 Comments8968 views

What it is: I am always finding fun activities on PBS kids site, today I ran across Goldburger to Go! Rube Goldberg designed machines that made simple, every day, tasks into complicated activities with the help of his contraptions (think Wallace and Gromit). The students task is to design a machine that will help serve lunch. The machine isn’t working properly and students must discover which pieces of the machine need a little tweaking. As students complete the machine, they can test it out and get hints and clues about could be keeping the machine from working.

How to integrate Goldberger To Go: Rube Goldberg Machines into the classroom: Students are fascinated with machines that work together to perform tasks. Goldburger to Go is a fun way to challenge your students to think about cause and effect and to consider how all the working parts operate together. The puzzle game is a good way to get your students thinking about and discussing different types of energy. Use this website with the whole class using an interactive whiteboard and discuss the types of energy as they occur. Walk your students through the scientific process as they hypothesize what is going to happen and experiment with adjusting the machine accordingly. The website also lends itself nicely to studying different kinds of simple machines. The built in hints help guide stumped students in their thinking. Goldburger to Go would make a fun center activity or even to play individually in a computer lab setting. This is one of those thinking games that my students could spend hours playing.

Tips: Students can create and build their own real-life Goldberg machines with fun activities and suggestions found here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Goldburger to Go: Rube Goldberg Machines in your classroom.

SuperThinkers

December 3, 2007Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment4258 views

What it is: SuperThinkers is a website that encourages students to become thinkers as opposed to memorizers. The goal of SuperThinkers is to teach children how to think by creating connections, look for meaning behind facts, and analyzing in order to understand. Even reluctant readers enjoy using this site to read for meaning. The Peetnik Mysteries are stories that the students read and interact with. In the mystery game, students use common tools such as maps, phones, and phone directories to follow up on hunches to solve the mystery.

How to integrate SuperThinkers into the classroom: SuperThinkers includes quality mysteries from author Peter Reynolds. Use SuperThinkers as part of a larger mystery unit or as a reading activity that encourages logic, problem solving, critical thinking, cooperative learning, analysis, pattern interpretation, mystery solving, writing, observation, sharing, discovery, imagination, self determination, reflection, and opportunities for self expression. The mysteries take about 30 min. to solve and would be best utilized in a computer lab 1 to 1 setting or as a whole class with a projector. The mysteries are popular with students, even the most reluctant readers enjoy working with the mysteries. The Peetnik Mysteries can also be used to teach students how to create a time line, compare and contrast skills, and as story starters.

Tips: Be sure to visit the Educators section of SuperThinkers for curriculum tie-ins, lesson plans, and posters.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using SuperThinkers in your classroom.