TASK 3. "TACCLE ACTIVITY" -THEORETICAL PART

 

o What subject is this task about? 

This task includes a cross-curricular activity. This type of learning occurs when a teacher integrates other subjects into daily lessons. For example, a science teacher might discuss the Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb, and the end of World War II when teaching about splitting the atom and atomic energy in a science class.

Cross-curricular teaching, or instruction that intentionally applies multiple academic disciplines simultaneously, is an effective way to teach students transferable problem solving skills, give real-world meaning to school assignments, and increase engagement and rigor, since they learn and work at the same two subjects and their competencies. It is so useful and they learn the contents better because one competence taught in one subject is reinforced by working the related competences of the other subject.

In this activity, both Sciences and Arts are combined in a cross-curricular activity. In order to work the Science competencies, the students have to create a encyclopedia about volcanoes, whereas, in order to work the Arts competencies, they have to include in the encyclopedia drawing of volcanoes and their parts made by themselves instead of including pictures from the Internet. Also, the activity should be developed in English so English skills won’t be evaluated but it will be useful to develope and improve them.

o What level would be appropriate for this? 

This activity, according to the book E-learning for primary teachers, is appropriate for students older than 8 years old, more concretely, for 5th and 6th primary school students. Although we realized when doing the activity that it was more difficult than we think, maybe for kids that are in third grade of primary education it would be a bit difficult. 

o What is(are) the objective(s) of this task following the Bloom Taxonomy? 

creating

Bloom's Taxonomy:

Is a structure for classifying educational objectives.

Bloom’s taxonomy was proposed by an educational psychologist Bloom and his colleagues in 1956 in which three domains of learning were identified.

The domains are: cognitive (mental), affective (emotional/feelings/attitude) and psychomotor (physical ability) skills.

The cognitive process dimension  (bottom up) begins from low to high order of thinking skills. 

The skills are: create, evaluate, analyze, apply, understand and remember.

Bloom’s taxonomy is aimed at helping educators identify the intellectual level at which individual students are capable of working.

This activity is at the top of the pyramid, because the children are going to create a Wikimedia using information to create something new and they will also make drawings that have to do with the topic of volcanoes since it is a cross-curricular activity The drawings will include information about volcanoes to integrate everything they have learned about this topic and they will make creative drawings using different materials, colors, formats… 

Sources:

https://lsme.ac.uk/blog/blooms-taxonomy

https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/

o What is the technology used on this task, and what is the technique/format this technology is focused on? 

The technology is essential to complete this assignment. The Internet and Google have been used to search for information and create the encyclopedia. Also, we have made use of online websites and apps like YouTube in order to understand better and know how to do a Pecha Kucha presentation. With reference to the technique and format of this activity, it is focused on storytelling, robotics, including diagramming and conceptual mapping, and adding images for the encyclopedia.

o What is the added value of using digital tools in this case? 

In this day and age, society is more globalized than ever before, so new state-of-the-art technologies are present in our daily basis more than we could ever have imagined. Therefore, education is a field in which technology is required and more and more teachers are including it in their teaching methodologies. Basically, the main added value if using digital tools in this case would be that encyclopedias nowadays are no longer made in paper so it is useful for children to start being in touch and working, in this case, creating an online encyclopedia because for their future it will be completely useful.

 

o What ethical problems could you (or your students or the parents) find doing this activity in the classroom? 

Several problems could be found when doing this activity in the classroom, for example, children could introduce ideologic ideas and thoughts in the activity that attack a certain collective group, ethnia, or other people’s ideas. Moreover, this information about ideologies could be dealt and introduced without being contrasted and without using scientific data, so the activity stops being didactic and educational and it becomes something counterproductive since it could be at a certain point offensive. In addition to that, parents also can be reluctant due to the fact that certain ideologies or thoughts that are contrary to theirs are being treated in class and their children are listening and getting to know about that.

o What changes do you need to make to allow your students to do it from home?

In order to allow all of the students to do it from home, it might be convenient to make sure that everyone has access to Internet and Wifi at home so as to complete the assignment as well as access to a laptop, computer, tablet or mobile phone to effectively do it without problems interruptions.

What is more, the teacher should deeply explain the process of how the activity should be completed and the main goals to be approached.

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