Alicia Calcagni, GBP Student Survey says: Greater Boston Project: 100 points. This week we got the opportunity to recreate Family Feud in our classroom. Our “families” were our CAP project groups, and playing this game was a great way for us to bond and get to know each other. As many of you know, an important aspect of The Greater Boston Project is collaboration, and this class always makes sure we are learning how to collaborate in a fun and exciting way. At the start of class, all of the students filled out a ten question survey containing questions that related to our life in and out of school. These questions were the survey questions for the game. Right off the bat, the game became very intense. Each group was given a piece of paper to write down their answers for each survey question. If you looked around the room after the show host (Mr. O, of course) read the question you would see all of the groups huddled around a piece of paper quietly whispering, so another group would not hear them, ideas of what would answer the question best. In other words, you would see all group members collaborating to determine the right answers. Creating this competitive environment, made getting to know our group mates a lot easier. The CAP project continues for the rest of the year, and we will need to be able to effectively communicate and make decisions with the same people for the next four months. It is extremely important to be able to problem solve as a group, and challenge or support different people in your group's opinions to make the best project. It may be surprising, but playing Family Feud helped us develop those skills as a group. For example, One question was, “Name different suburbs of Boston, not including Needham.” I was thinking, “Oh no, our options are endless.” The groups were faced with a challenge: picking five suburbs out of a lot that would reward them with the most points. For a while my groupmates and I discussed back and forth what suburbs should be on our list, and after erasing, rewriting, then erasing and rewriting again we finally all agreed on what we thought was the perfect list. Looking back on the game, the skills we used to answer the questions are the same as the ones we will use to succeed in our CAP Project. This was a great way to kick off our project and get to know our peers in a easy-going environment. GBP students compete in their CAP groups for Family Feud glory (Photo by Ms. Tincher).
Gwen Marcus, GBP Student
The biggest and most exciting aspect of GBP is the Community Action Project, otherwise known as the “CAP”. After proposing our own topics and voting on those that we were interested in, we finally received our CAP groups just over a week ago. In that week alone, we’ve already made many discoveries about our project. My CAP group, which is focusing on improving the graduation rates at Chelsea High School, quickly started our research, and were surprised to find demographical data that differed from our preconceived thoughts. For example, we originally thought that the cause of the low graduation rates was the quality of the schools, but our early research has already showed that, depending on race, graduation rates can range between 50 and 84.5%, which completely changes our ideas for solving our issue. Now, we have to take the research we've done and use it to change our plans in order to better achieve our CAP goal; we're focusing on finding more possible reasons for the graduation rates, rather than jumping in based on an original assumption. Based on this experience, I wouldn't be surprised if other groups find out that their problems are also caused by different things than they imagined. To me, this was a clear indication of how quickly we should dive into our CAP -- it hasn’t even been two full weeks, but we already have so much more information to research and consider than many originally considered. As the research goes on, the more exciting the CAP gets. Each person gets to put their strengths to use by doing different types of research (like math/statistics, social issues, background info, etc), and the result is a very well-compiled and in-depth set of information. In my group, I focus mostly on researching and analyzing statistics (like historic graduation rates, poverty rates, and other demographics about Chelsea), while the other members focus more on contacting people in Chelsea, finding out offerings of the school district, and compiling all the information together in an organized manner. It's also exciting in the sense that we are getting closer to solving a real world problem, rather than just researching for a typical school project. With CAPs, even though we’re not even two weeks in, the research is already interesting and feels purposeful. GBP students and teachers help out at the Greater Boston Food Bank. (Photos by Ms. Tincher) Michaella Callahan, GBP Student
A huge aspect of GBP is learning ways to help make the community better. Last week our class took a field trip to the Greater Boston Food Bank. It was a great experience to be able to see what goes on behind the scenes at the food bank and assist in the process of it. Prior to the trip, we did an in class preparation activity looking at statistics of people affected by hunger in Massachusetts. In this activity we found that last year the Food Bank collected enough food to feed approximately 54,000 people. They are able to make that possible with the help of over 25,000 volunteers. The company is working to increase the distribution of food in order to provide at least one meal a day for everyone in need in the eastern Massachusetts area. When we arrived to the food bank we walked through a huge room with food stacked to the ceiling. It was surprising how much food this company is able to collect for people in need. After a brief introduction to the GBFB, the workers took us into the room where the food is organized and assigned us different roles. The different roles were re-stocking boxes, unloading the food onto the conveyor belt, separating the food into categories, weighing the boxes, and loading the filled boxes onto a forklift. It was really hectic organizing the food because it was consistently passing by on the conveyor belt and we had to be able to separate it into the correct categories. We also had to be sure there were no opened packages and no expired food. However the hard work was worth it because of the reward of helping others. Afterwards we had a quick debrief and learned that we had packaged about 8,000 pounds of food (which, we found out, was more than the students in the Period 5&6 class!). Competition aside, it was shocking to learn that we packed that much food in a short amount of time, and goes to show how much can be accomplished when you have a group working cohesively to solve a problem. This field trip allowed us as GBP students to immerse ourselves in a situation similar to the CAP that we will be completing over the course of the next few months. The lesson of this field trip relating to our CAP is that one person can make a huge difference. The Greater Boston Food Bank started with one person handing out food from the back of their truck and expanded into a huge company with the help of donations, drives, and financial contributions. The hopes of our CAP project is that we can start something that others will be able to expand upon in the future in order to help the community. It was a rewarding feeling to be able to help those in need and knowing that we were making a change. Jill Montesano, GBP Student It is no doubt that surveys help others learn more about a specific group of people, whether marketers are trying to find the hottest trends, schools are trying to learn more about students’ drug use habits, or researchers are trying to understand if people's sleeping habits have any correlation with their late night device use. Surveys can be interesting, informational, and helpful for researchers and the people reading about the studies done.
What people often overlook about surveys is creating and analyzing one requires a thoughtful process. Surveys are created not only to be helpful and fun but also to find a trend or correlation of two factors. It is important when a survey is complete to take the time to compare answers which usually means creating graphs and drawing a conclusions from them. Surveys also have to be clear and direct with the audience, and have to be created based around who is going to be surveyed. There are many factors that go into making surveys and with our class activity we got some practice with creating successful surveys.
Rachel Kingston, GBP Student
Sitting in a classroom for three hours can be extremely challenging for any high school student. At Needham High on A days the students of The Greater Boston Project, Periods 1-2 get to be together from 8am-11:20am-- that’s a long time for a group of 17 and 18 year olds to be in one place! Besides our 20 minute homeroom break, we stay within the room except for occasional bathroom breaks. But the teachers in GBP are realistic about our ability to do almost 3 hours of work, and realize to capture our attention for those two periods they sometimes need to throw in something fun and different, not connected to our class curriculum. A few weeks ago, the teachers set up a fun game to break up the long class. The class was split in half into 2 teams and both teams sat in a line facing each other. Students at the beginning of the line would wait for Ms.Tincher to flip cards from a deck and once they saw a red card they would pass the squeeze down the line waiting for the last member in line to press the button and beat the other team. All other teammates were required to hold each other’s hands and given simple rules: no talking, no looking- just squeeze the person’s hand next to you when you felt a squeeze on your other hand, like a chain reaction. The idea behind this game was to have everyone pay attention and be one part of a bigger chain; everyone had a role and each person had to perform the task as fast as possible so the team would be successful. As with any collaboration task, you had to rely on others to succeed. These kinds of activities allow us to step away from the traditional classroom, and learn collaboration in a different way. The games allow us to relax and enjoy each other during those long blocks, and give the opportunity to bond as a class form new friendships, too. It really does achieve another form of collaboration by exploring different ways people can be creative. We can learn things about each other that usually we wouldn’t know going through the basic school schedule. Ally Hickey, GBP Student Since the first week of school, GBP students have been given group members to work with on specific long term projects. An average student has done many individual and/or partnered class projects in their high school career, but I would say that the amount of long term tasks we have in GBP take the lead. Through the repeated planning needed to accomplish the projects, GBP students have become very accustomed and good at executing them. Our group projects all start off with everyone searching for their name on the board, eager to see who they are partnered with. Group members then find a space in the room to discuss how to start the project or, if necessary, make sure to introduce themselves. Most of the time, there’s a leader, or at least someone who believes they should be. This person usually initiates a discussion about what tasks need to be done and what one would have to do to accomplish them. Next, each partner is paired with a task. These tasks usually include specific time periods or areas of research. Of course, there’s usually someone who decides that they “do better work at home,” but some other member inevitably brings them back to the reality of needing doing at least something productive in class. I believe that we have all learned at least one valuable lesson by working on group projects and that is to make good use of the time provided for our projects. Why would you waste your own time to work on something you could have done in school? Time management is key in any group project. After all research is done, some kind of product must be made, such as a visual media artifact or even a skit like in this week’s Propaganda Project. This week’s group members must create a skit on one major issue of controversy from the pre-revolutionary era of Greater Boston. This is where the creative students comes out and help to make the research enjoyable and engaging for other classmates to learn about. In every group, there are creative and less creative people but each are encouraged to review each other's work so everyone is involved in each par and ready to share it with the class. Although GBP is only ¼ of the way done, I think many of my peers would agree that with the number of group research projects we do in this class, we’re all on our way to being professionals. GBP Students collaborate on group projects in class. (Photo by Ms. Tincher)
Tyler Stratford, GBP Student In the Greater Boston Project, one of the goals is to be able to receive and give feedback. Being able to accept criticism is an important part in being a good group member and individual worker. The most recent project we received feedback on was our Term 1 Portfolios. To do this, we did a few rounds of a “Portfolio Fair” using an inner circle and outer circle. The inner circle put their portfolios out on display while the students in the outer circle moved around from project to project to see the work of their fellow classmates. The goal was to observe what other people had done to help give ideas for the next term portfolio. Each of us received some feedback on our portfolio from students and teachers. Another goal for GBP is for us as students to improve our visual communication skills. By allowing us to view the work of our classmates, we were able to see other options for how to organize or present information; sharing ideas with our classmates helps to get everyone’s creativity flowing. It also allowed us to see a variety of different technology options there are to help with presentations. We were able to check in with each other to learn how to use the different presentation programs. For people who aren’t as talented with other sites such as Prezi, they were able to see and ask questions on how to correctly work Prezi or any other sites, like Piktochart or Weebly, used to create their portfolio. After viewing every student’s portfolio, the class was exposed to variety of options that they may not have been aware of before the portfolio viewing. Finally, this activity also helps with the GBP goal of collaboration. Collaboration is a major aspect of this class; being able to receive help from your teachers is one thing, but knowing that your classmates can also be as helpful as your teachers is important. This activity was a great way to learn from our fellow classmates and learn from their expertise. Now that we have idea’s on what to do for our next portfolio, we can now reach out to a fellow classmate and try something new in Term 2. GBP Students review their classmates' Term 1 Portfolios. (Photos by Ms. Tincher)
GBP students work in groups, hands tied together, trying to put together puzzles. (Photos by Ms. Tincher) Tom DeSouza, GBP Student
In the Greater Boston Project, one of the goals of the class is being able to work well with new people. However, in order to work well with someone new, you have to know how they work. One of the recent ways we revealed our work style in GBP was with a collaboration activity that involved string and puzzles. Each group was given pieces of string to tie to each other's wrists and a puzzle to complete. The groups were competing with one another to complete the puzzle the fastest; however, talking wasn’t allowed, arguably the most important factor in order to collaborate easily with group mates. So, how were the groups able to complete or even start the puzzle without talking? Some groups started with laying the pieces out and finding and separating the pieces that had edges, while other groups would work together silently to find where pieces fit. The hardest challenge was trying not to talk when the teachers were roaming around the classroom. Some people communicated by sign language, or trying to get the attention of a group mate by snapping fingers or pulling on the the string. Another major complication was the string. We couldn’t pick up pieces without feeling the tug of the string as another student went in the opposite direction. People had to work together by coming up with a strategy. One group used the strategy of each person only using their right hand to pick up the pieces, while another group never took this approach and simply struggled. But through all the pain of group members pulling each other's strings and having to deal with back pains from bending and looking down at the puzzle, what was the take away from the activity? The purpose of this collaboration activity was to demonstrate how important communicating with group members is in order to create a great project. In my group, the process of completing the puzzle was very slow but once we were allowed to talk after a certain period of time in silence, we were able to complete the puzzle much quicker. In order to work effectively with one or more group members, communication is key. GBP students collaborate on group projects in class. (Photo by Ms. Tincher) Mark Walker, GBP Student
Most school projects are left in the hands of the students to figure out the problems at hand and get to a final product. But even when the project is finished, the presentation is done, or the answer is right, it is always good to look back on how the pair or group worked together. Were there any apparent strengths or weaknesses, pros or cons? In The Greater Boston Project, after we do a major project students are asked to reflect on the collaborative work of themselves and peers in the group to assess the functioning of themselves and the group as a whole. We reflect on questions about our peers along the lines of, “How vocal was this person?” and “Did they complete their portion of work?” When reflecting on the group as a whole we are asked questions like, “How was the work spit up?” and “Was criticism given and, if so, how was it taken?” The reflections on these questions are then passed along to the GBP teachers for them to review and compare with others in the groups and their own reflections on the students. Later, group by group, we are called to meet with one of the three teachers to go over the reflections. These meetings are are majorly a group discussion and teacher instruction on what was good and bad about both the project and, more specifically, the collaborative work that led to it. Helping the us realise our strengths and weaknesses allows us as students to improve ourselves in our group work for future projects. The hope is that these future projects will run smoother, be more efficient, and result in greater overall successful after each meeting. Personally, through this process I think I have learned more about what really goes into a group presentation. Before, I felt that all it took was the information on the subject at hand and for the group to put it in a slide show. However, by participating in these group meetings and having to reflect back on how everything went, I have learned that there is a lot more to the process. Communication is a huge part of collaboration, not just in making sure people know their portion of work, but also in communicating along the way about how a group wants the presentation to flow and what should be put in or taken out. I have learned that time has to be taken to sit down and thoroughly go through every aspect of a presentation as a team. Without these reflections I would think something like, “The presentation was a bit bumpy but we got it done” and leave it at that. Looking back and analyzing each piece of the project through collaborative reflection and discussion allows us to improve instead of just moving on from it without learning. Maria Galatis, GBP Student Starting a new project with someone can always be a little difficult or overwhelming at first, especially if you don’t know your group mates well. So what’s better than starting off with a collaboration activity? That’s exactly what we did in GBP to kick start a new project. In this activity, two people were sitting back to back; one person was handed something to write with and on, and the other person was handed a drawing. In my group I was the one with the drawing. At first glance I thought “This is too easy.” I began to explain what was in front of me to my partner, and what started out as an easy drawing became extremely complicated. I attempted to explain where lines began and ended but I couldn’t fully get the correct wording. What I thought was the top was different to my partner. It was difficult to be exact on where each shape was placed and how to fill them in. I had to fight the urge to turn around and point to exactly where everything should be. However, when I was done explaining I thought my partner’s drawing would be an almost perfect match to the original. When my partner revealed what she had drawn I was sincerely surprised. I realized that I forgot small important details, for example counting how many dots there were in the circle, or explaining exactly where and how the rectangles were drawn. Without the small details the drawing seemed completely different. One of the great things about GBP is within a ten minute activity students were able to understand their and their group mates strengths and weaknesses. I thought this was a perfect way to start a new project. Within a few minutes you were able to know what your capabilities were and what you had to be cautious of, as well as your partner. Communicating the small details are crucial to projects and making sure each member is on the same page. This class is less about individual work, you have to be able to work well with others in different circumstances. Knowing more information about your partner made going into a new project feel much less overwhelming. Right: GBP Students collaborate with their project partners to replicate a drawing, using nothing but their own communication skills.
Left: The original drawing given to one of the two partners in the Back-to-Back Collaboration Challenge. Photos by Ms. Tincher. |
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