"Show Me" Missouri's Temperatures

The four seasons video was a great example of how a teacher can integrate multiple technologies into one lesson/unit.  Digital media was used to play Antonio Vivaldi's four seasons.  This piece of music not only provided the students with a culturally rich experience, but it also served as a jumping off point for the lesson.  One of the things I liked was how she used both low and high tech approaches to the same subject.  The graphic organizer on the board was a great way to promote student involvement from that would carry over for the rest of the lesson.   Also, the know, wonder and learn chart was a great way to gauge previous student knowledge and formulate relevant, student inspired questions. It also gave students a concrete expression of what they learned throughout the lesson.  This could be important to students who like to see results from the work they do.  Although this video is a little dated, it still was able to show how the internet can be used as a tool to gain a wealth of data.  The students took the temperature data they found and entered it into excel.  The only thing that puzzled me about the video was the lack of graphing done in excel.  I think that it was great that the teacher had the students create spreadsheets to organize data, but I feel as if she missed an opportunity to familiarize the students with another valuable tool. 

Virtual CEO

Capital Plus allowed the students to see how pricing differences affect demand, and therefore the quantity of a particular item in stock. It also allowed the students to track revenue and profit while controlling their virtual business.  This activity was engaging and the students had a chance to see supply and demand in a real world setting. It also empowered the students by giving them complete control of their own virtual business.  A potential weakness of this program is that students may just follow the directions on the worksheet and invest no serious thought into the ideas presented.  However, that its true for many worksheet assignments given out in any class.  One other possible flaw is that it may give a false impression that demand is an easy thing to track. 

Hungerford could have added tentative time-line for certain goals on his lesson plan, but given that fact that he was teaching at an alternative school where there was sporadic attendance, it may have not been necessary.  I believed that the lesson plan needed a few in-depth discussion questions for the students.  Things that probe deeper into the material and ask them why they saw what they saw.  I also feel that the concept of gauging demand was oversimplified.  Questions related to this process may have been helpful for the students as well. These questions could also be used to gauge student learning, along with the discussion and student websites.

When Hugnerford asked for short and long term goals for the student corporations he essentially was modeling good business practices.  It also helped frame student thought on the subject, which aids in the retention of important concepts.