Comments on: Feltron Post-Mortem

By: Mini Feltron Folly | Maths is Not a Spectator Sport

Mini Feltron Folly | Maths is Not a Spectator Sport — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 22:27:50 +0000

[…] world, but at least make it a bit interesting? Which is why I love Dan Meyer’s mini Feltron idea. It gives students the opportunity to collect data that is relevant to them, analyse it a s they […]

By: Track(ing) the tips « A Recursive Process

Track(ing) the tips « A Recursive Process — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:48:22 +0000

[…] me to keep statistics about other parts of my life, and I ended up ripping off Dan Meyer’s Feltron Project. My Applied Math class will be recording their information for their Feltron project for the next […]

By: My Own Personal Feltron « Barefoot Physics

My Own Personal Feltron « Barefoot Physics — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:08:46 +0000

[…] Dan Meyer’s project giving students the opportunity to do the same […]

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:44:19 +0000

I’m pretty sure I ran that graph through Adobe Photoshop.

This project is fun for classes young and old, though you may decide to vary the constraints a little for the younger set. I did this in all of mine.

By: Elissa

Elissa — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:05:57 +0000

Dan,
Which class did you do this in? It seems like more than one class would be too much, but fortunately, you don’t know those words.

I was thinking this could possibly an appropriate end of the year assignment/project.

How did you make the graphs for days out of the month that you blogged? Are those from Excel?

By: Simon Oldaker

Simon Oldaker — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 06:56:57 +0000

Well, I realise I’m getting in very late here, but this really blows me away. Partly because, once again Dan, you have written about school in an amazingly eloquent and insightful way. Thanks. Also because, if anyone did this around here (and wrote about it so well), they would be fÃªted as a hero and invited around to talk about their project, maybe even to give courses. You, on the other hand, have simply analysed, evaluated, learned and moved on.

Why the difference? Are you folks in California so focussed on ‘teaching to the test’ that there isn’t space for messy, creative, hands-on learning? Or is Scandinavia (where I am sitting) so focussed on positive learning experience that we have forgotten our responsibility for teaching long lists of hard skills? I don’t know, but the contrast amazes me.

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » The Feltron Project

dy/dan » Blog Archive » The Feltron Project — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 20:27:24 +0000

[…] [BTW: the post-mortem.] […]

By: Mr. Sadler

Mr. Sadler — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 18:17:36 +0000

I know I am getting late into the discussion but a few comments (or obvious observations) I would like to agree with that Dan said.

#1) students computer skills not as high as we think they are. Kids can text message and use cell phones and ipods, but skills like saving files and changing directories and Excel aren’t obvious. When I started teaching I thought what Dan thought (that these are things that the kids will know coming into your class), but I still have to go through them year after year.

#2) 45% handing it in: one of the potential difficulties with this project is the fact that students have to track their activities for two months to get the data. I realize the purpose was to give the students ownership over their work and to make them feel that this was their project (as undoubtedly took place for those that submitted it), but tracking your daily life is not as easy thing.

#3) You took a risk and it didn’t work out as much as you wanted to. You know what Dan, most people wouldn’t be able (or confident enough or whatever) to take a month risk on a project. Since you truly believed in it, I know that you will have done lots of reflections on how to improve it next time (if there is a next time as you say).

As usual, your blog inspires (even when things don’t go your way)

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 18:48:49 +0000

I teach an intro to stats class and read your project with interest. I have done similar projects of those described here, but with a difference: I try to have the students survey and analyze a topic that is interesting and meaningful to the school. For example, we recently completed a School Safety Survey whereby each student surveyed 5 students each from different grades, we compiled the data and students analyzed it individually in Excel. We were able to identify key problems at our school (for the whole school and broken into middle and high school). When we have learned all graphing techniques, we will be posting the results on poster graphs for all to see and it will be included in our newspaper. Our faculty and admin were also interested to see the results.

Second, I have found conducting an individual project on a topic of the student’s choosing successful. I assign weekly parts of the project with drafts and final versions due. There must be 2 variables to investigate and the data must be readily available from a reliable source. Analysis is through Excel. This culminates in a final presentation with appropriate graphs and meaningful summaries of findings.

Each year I have been able to refine these lessons, striving for hands-on or real-life applications and ideally, interdisciplinary. I find there is so much to fit into my semester course it is difficult to parse things down! I feel satisfied knowing that this is the only class where students come out with a very real and applicable knowledge of Excel and stats that they utilize in other/upper classes.

By: dy/dan » Blog Archive » An Unfortunate Aspect Of NCLB

dy/dan » Blog Archive » An Unfortunate Aspect Of NCLB — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:26:59 +0000

[…] of my department, I must shoulder a good amount of blame for my time-sucking, standards-unaligned Feltron Project, which sunk a lot of my Geometry students, I’m positive. The fact is this: if we post the same […]