Discipline: math ( science)
Time: 30 -40 min
Theme: geometric figures; rectangle
Pedagogical goal: strengthening the knowledge about geometric figures in general and in particular learning about rectangle; the development of ability to discriminate, to recognize and to name the geometrical forms
Type of lesson: mixed ( consolidating and learning)
What children know:
OTSM-TRIZ tools:Robot game, the game "My friends", Morfological analysis
Children will sit randomly in all class space. among children are placed obstacles (different objects) Each child will receive a geometrical figure (square, circle, triangle, circle) with a certain color (red, yellow, blue) and a certain size (large, small).
we use a modified version of the Robot Game
game rules: displacement on demand (left, front right, rear), describing the figure using geometric shape, color, size, use a specific sound when they meet an
obstacle that prevents the task. Each child will be the coordinator and then a member who fulfills tasks
Robot game (diversified)
For the beginning teacher is the coordinator. I ask a child (X) to perform commands (left and right, front, back) so to get to another child (Y).The Y child must describe the geometric figure that has. (example: I have a large red square). then the X child takes the place of Y child and became the coordinator for Y child. Y child guided by coordinator (X child) will arrive to another child (Z child) and so on until all children will describe geometric figures that have. Only one has a rectangle. He will not know how to call his shape will be helped by the teacher and thus introduces the notion of rectangle. (speak about it)
The next step is the game “my friends” some children will change their geometrical figures previously received rectangles
The game My Fiends:
Each child are seated and have a geometrical figure (square, circle, triangle, rectangle) with a certain color (red, yellow, blue) and a certain size (large, small). The pupils have to pay attention to teacher' requests, come in front of others and perform a task.
Examples of teacher' requests:
• My friends are all those who have a circle (task: they have to jump on one foot)
• My friends are all those who have small geometrical figures ( they have to sing a song)
• My friends are all those who have red big geometrical figures (they have to go squat)
• My friends are all those who have small triangle (they have to run)
• My friends are all those who have big yellow rectangle (they have to jump like a frog)
• My friends are all those who have 4 angles geometrical figure (they have to walk on heels)
• My friends are all those who have blue small 4 angles geometrical figure(they have to crawl like a snake)
• My friends are all those who have ...
(number of tasks varies)
The evaluation: Morfological analysis
Children will receive sheets with a table.
name: roof, building, window, door.
values: circle (red, yellow, blue), rectangle, (red, yellow, blue), triangle, (red, yellow, blue), square(red, yellow, blue).
Children need to create a home and to describe it.
My house door is yellow small triangle (there are 2 triangles and thez can discriminate the size using the comparison), a window is a red square, the second window is a red rectangle, the roof is a large yellow triangle and blue circle building.
Reflection: In the original ROBOT game two people were actively involved and the others are supervisors. The changes I have introduced are for all children be actively involved. MY FRIENDS game seemed too static for kindergarten children (they can not concentrate and can not be captured attention for a long period of time in static activities) so I introduced the motion tasks.
Comments
thanks for the post and welcome to this forum.
A few questions.
1. How would you define what children learn in the original Robot game? Are you sure all these learning aspects are preserved in the modified version you've described?
2. How would you define what children are learning playing 'My friends' game?
Thanks.
my goal was the consolidation of knowledge about geometric figures and placing the rectangle (like new)This means that students must come into contact with as many tasks, geometric information possible; for this reason I changed the original game making shorter the route. Idea was to get faster as many geometric figures to describe them.
In the friends game children ‘ll use the thinking operations, especially, have to analyze geometric figures received, compare them with those of other colleagues for knowing if them fall into group. They'll assimilate knowledge in a logical manner, will be able to use knowledge in different contexts and thouse informations will be more solid and sustainable.
I think there's at least one important difference when you compare the classical Robot game with the version you rescribed here.
One of the aims of the Robot game (in its classical version) is for children to learn to create more optimal algorithms. It's not only about giving the right command in terms of knowing left and right, but also about achieving the result by giving as few commands as possible. The children are always asked to reflect on how they've performed and see what could be improved.
To be honest, I am not sure this part is preserved in your version of the game. I understand that you wanted to change the game to involve the whoe group at once (and this seems reasonable), however I think we should think about possible ways of preserving the reflection part of the game as well. What do you think?
Re 'My Friends' game. As well as in all other thinking games used in the OTSM-TRIZ context, here we've got a specific thinking aim. Normally it's connected with this or that aspect related to the use of the ENV model. From the point of view of the development of thinking, I believe it'd be a good idea to clearly understand which aspect of the ENV model we're trying to deal with and how we evaluate if we've succeeded. That's why I asked you about what you thought the children were learning. I believe that the more specific we are when answering this question, the more useful it is.
the game my friends teach children to form groups according to various criteria ( name of features and values) ex: element=geometrical figure, name of features= shape, color, size value= square, circle, triangle, rectangle; red, yellow, blue; large, small
In the end of game children can understand that the same element can have different name of features with different values or the same name of features with different values and the evaluation is using the Morfological analysis.
it's not about who is more right :) Of course, we're all free to use any material in any way we find appropriate. The purpose of my comments on this side is normally to help the authors develop thinking skills of learners as we understand it in the context of OSTM-TRIZ education. And here one of the key aspects is whether we help the pupils become better thinkers by developing tools for thinking / algorithms. Getting them to think (whether it's about geometrical shapes or sth else) is good but it's not enough for helping them become better thinkers. For the latter aim, it's essential that we are working at a metacognitive level as well, i.e. the level whether the pupils think about how they think. And this is the level of algorithms.