Algebra II Quarter 1 Project: Linear Programming Business Model
In the first quarter, the Algebra 2 class I have been working with completed a benchmark project to showcase their knowledge of concepts covered up to that point in the school year. This project was partner based, and contained both individual and group requirements. Each individual was responsible for applying linear systems of inequalities to a business idea in order to develop a linear programming model. This model would then be used to determine an optimization equation to help decide how many of each type of product their business would produce. This project was completed over a period of two weeks at the end of the quarter, and it was submitted electronically in a final compilation of the partners’ choice.
The project was broken up into intermediate deadlines in order for the students to pace themselves in their completion of the work. I found that these deadlines were extremely helpful for the students, not just for timing, but I was able to provide feedback to all of the groups throughout. This allowed for the final benchmark submissions to be higher quality work than I believe I would have received had the students not been given any feedback during the process. I found that it was challenging to provide positive feedback that was meaningful in advancing their project further than what was simply expected. All feedback should be descriptive, but with positive feedback, I found that providing students with thought provoking questions push them to consider a task in a more advanced way. Thus in my feedback process, I tried incorporating as much of this descriptive effective feedback as I could.
|
Your browser does not support viewing this document. Click here to download the document.
|
Another challenge I found with this benchmark assessment was the grading aspect of the final submissions. Because of the nature of a project, grading can seem to be more subjective than objective. I feel that in general, detailed descriptive rubrics can help to remedy this situation. However, the rubric for this project contained various levels of how students met the expectations that were made up of multiple scores. For example, a student could be considered “Approaching Expectations” and receive a score of 13, 14, or 15. We further broke down this rubric into score by score meanings for each of the five subcategories in the rubric. Without providing those broken down descriptions, it was very difficult to determine what constituted a 13 versus a 15.
Overall, I found that I enjoyed this project-based assessment that I was at first a bit skeptical on. In my experience, I was used to the more traditional unit test and quizzes in order to demonstrate my knowledge of the content. However, students were able to show creativity and applications of the skills learned in class instead of simply solving problems for a grade. One improvement I would make for this project in the future would be to incorporate a formal presentation aspect at the very end. While this may cause some anxiety or nerves to students, I feel that communicating ideas and knowledge is a very useful skill for students to have. By orally explaining the mathematical process and business model, students can truly show that they understand their steps and present that to others.
Overall, I found that I enjoyed this project-based assessment that I was at first a bit skeptical on. In my experience, I was used to the more traditional unit test and quizzes in order to demonstrate my knowledge of the content. However, students were able to show creativity and applications of the skills learned in class instead of simply solving problems for a grade. One improvement I would make for this project in the future would be to incorporate a formal presentation aspect at the very end. While this may cause some anxiety or nerves to students, I feel that communicating ideas and knowledge is a very useful skill for students to have. By orally explaining the mathematical process and business model, students can truly show that they understand their steps and present that to others.