Our Low-Budget Cardboard and Glue Makerspace Experience

Earlier in the year, some students were struggling when putting together a Chinese Dragon for a social studies presentation. They wanted to find a way to attach a large fabric sheet to a cardboard box in a way that allowed for adjustability and easy removal, but secure enough to hold everything in place for the […]

Posted by milesmac on June 6th, 2017 | No Comments Posted in Pedagogy, Projects

Early Human project evolution: project based, self regulation, understanding by, as told in design Microsoft Sway

I used Microsoft Sway to share some thoughts and learnings from an inquiry based/hands-on/place/based/problem-based learning experience focusing on early humans and self-regulation using some elements of the Understanding by Design framework.

Posted by milesmac on October 30th, 2016 | No Comments Posted in #GDPI, Pedagogy, Projects

Curriculum Integration in Action: Ancient Egypt

Curriculum Integration "Maybe we can embalm the frog after we dissect it," said teacher candidate Matthew MacLeod as we sat to plan out his first teaching block with my grade 8 class. Over the next twenty minutes we tied together every subject area into a learning unit - it was one of those synergistic (when […]

Posted by milesmac on November 18th, 2012 | No Comments Posted in Projects

Why Learn History when you can DO History

Two words: SOCIAL ARTIFACTS Why do we teach world history? So students can answer a daily double on the fertile crescent? So students will know when what happened to whom? Most curricula have "Cluster 0" outcomes; over-arching skill development focusing on process in the context of whatever content each unit happens to present. These are skills like, […]

Posted by milesmac on October 1st, 2012 | 3 Comments Posted in Pedagogy, Projects

"Don Cherry's Jacket" Fabric Art

What do you do with a bin full of fabric samples? Fabric collages, of course. Lovely pieces illustrating creative landscapes and abstract patterns. Right? Not this year. Because it is hockey season and we're nearing the Stanley Cup finals, we decided to adorn Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry with some new threads. We found this […]

Posted by milesmac on May 28th, 2012 | No Comments Posted in Projects

Minecraft 06: Lessons Learned doing History with Minecraft in the Middle Years

  Shortly after embarking on the project with our donated set of non-networked laptops, students asked if they could bring their own devices. A few students even figured out how to get an old WiFi router I had kicking around to serve as a hub for their server hosted on a Nintendo DS. Other students […]

Posted by milesmac on February 10th, 2012 | 5 Comments Posted in Gamification, Projects

Minecraft 05: Students Start Virtual Project Based Learning

"Reconstruct an ancient Greek structure to scale. Later, you will take a visiting student on a virtual guided tour explaining everything you know about the building and its' purpose in ancient times. Your visitor should be amazed at how smart you are." That is the educational Minecraft project, in a nutshell. There aren't a lot of criteria. I […]

Posted by milesmac on January 9th, 2012 | 1 Comment Posted in Gamification, Projects

Cut & Paste Old School

Scissors, Glue and Paper. How many hours of fun can you have cutting and pasting things? I know my son has gone through dozens of rolls of tape in the last few years. I have vivid memories of the old Five periods per cycle I am responsible for an Art class. For the last two […]

Posted by milesmac on December 21st, 2011 | No Comments Posted in Projects

FORE! Desk-Sized Mini Golf HoleProject. Front 9 in room 3, back 9 in room 2

Here is a project I put together with my former teaching partner, Linda Benson. We were looking for a quick but engaging hands-on project that integrated many subject areas. It ties together Math (scale, proportion, surface area, integers), Science (light: law of reflection) HERE is the document we circulated to the class after creating the […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | No Comments Posted in Projects

Project Based Learning: Early Humans

Having tired of the evolution charts and polysyllabic mouthfuls of species, I suggested to my grade 8 students that we try something different. I proposed we do a SimSurvival project within which we would learn about human evolution and the rise of civilizations in an open simulation. The scenario is simple: for whatever reason, some […]

Posted by milesmac on December 14th, 2011 | 6 Comments Posted in Pedagogy, Projects
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