Sunday, April 04, 2010

PSA project idea

In our city once a year about this time, the art of the students from our school district is displayed in a building downtown. Apparently, the people that work in that building say it's something they look forward to every year. All grades from K-12 are showcased. I went to see it last Friday and was inspired by all the creativity. I'm even thinking of taking some art classes this summer.

There were all sorts of techniques, and being an art know-nothing, I don't know (shocking) the names of the styles. But. There were things made with aluminum foil and blackened; there were things painted on cloth. There were pictures and then an overlay of an overhead slide with another component to the drawing. Very fun to browse. One technique intrigued me, so I thought maybe I could incorporate it into a project for my kids.

They could create a PSA (public service announcement) for some things you never want to do in math or always want to do in math. For example, (x + 3)^2 = x^2 + 9 OBVIOUSLY in many of my students' minds. My thinking is that if they spend time making the PSA, and they're hanging up around the room and other students look at them, then maybe the correct thing to do will be triggered in their minds when they need to use/perform the math task.

Anyway, I made a mock up of an example today. I guess I'll think through the specs and see if it's something feasible.







Posted by at

4 comments:

  1. MathOughts6:49 PM

    I really like this method. It includes it's own graphic organizer! Plus it works well with signs other that all positives, like 4x^2+17x-15.

    Very cool new BFF!

    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Julie Reulbach8:40 AM

    This is a very creative idea! You could have the class brainstorm to come up with all different PSA's. Then, each student could do a different one. OR, if it is a very important PSA, several students could do the same one so it is seen several times throughout the room. You could integrate this with the art dept.

    Thanks for the idea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. untilnextstop10:38 AM

    Love it. Do you have a handout that explains how to do this to the kids? It looks like they created two separate posters before cutting them into strips and pasting. Is that true??

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shireen Dadmehr10:05 PM

    Hi Mimi. This is actually one I did to see what the mechanics were. I didn't end up assigning this project (yet?) to students, so I don't have a handout. You are right, though. I made 2 pictures and measured a large manila folder (flattened out), and did some math to see what width I'd have to make the strips. Then I scored the manila folder at the intervals and folded and cut the strips and taped them on.

    Ms. Cookie

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)