High School STEM Part 2

By: Apostolos Gatzas

Standards Based Objective :

​(0.07.00) The students were told that they would be reverse engineering a device and that
they would investigate how reverse engineering can help students complete a task given to
them.

Classroom Management:

​Starting off the day (0.00.19) stretching and the same routine as Part 1, students punch the
day away and (0.04.40) Students started their daily introductions were they said their names,
what they wanted to be when they grow up, if they were ELs, and finally stating that they would
be successful. This routine gives students structure and a reset for the class to begin on a
positive front. The instructor also said (0.02.11) "we're setting habits" implying to the students
have control over their habits, good and bad. As the class discussion to introduce the lesson
topic the students seemed to participate well and the questions being asked all linked back to
the topic of study and were open ended in a way that made students think more abstractly.
(0.12.10) Friendly banter between the instructor and students about how Mondays are hard, but
this project will "wake them up". Shows that the classroom environment and management are
positive and respectful. The project itself had routines that were established throughout, that
students seemed to follow with ease. Even the close of the assignment was the same as the
last lesson, closing with a group reflection on what they learned. This is a great habit to get into
and the inclusion of it in this lesson and the last demonstrates that this is a regular classroom
routine. Having students reflect on what they learned gives students agency over their own
learning and allows them to make adjustments to their approaches during other lessons.

Student Engagement:

All students participated in the morning warm up, of punching, counting, and introductions
which wasn't related to the topic at hand, but serve as a nice reset for students to all be on the
same page at the start of the lesson. The instructor (0.11.40) discusses learning strategies and
highlights the importance of note taking. He tells them to draw the device to help them,
demonstrating that notes are more than just words. He follows this later toward the end of the
lesson, by asking students if they felt like they took good enough notes, and if that maybe they
needed to take better notes next time. (0.44.22) "Details are important" and it is important to
take good notes for your team.

Type of Lesson:

​This is a cooperation lesson, several times throughout the lesson good communication and
cooperation skills are emphasized. One student responsible for the note taking, made students
dependent on each other to complete the lesson. The way the instructor designed this activity
was to make sure that students needed each other to succeed.

Engaging Students in Critical Thinking/Higher Order Thinking:

The first discussion question (0.06.40) "what is reverse engineering?" allowed students to
think critically and use their own experiences to answer the question that was related to what
they would be doing in the class. Students were free to explore the different areas of problem
solving before going on the the task at hand. The instructor also placed huge emphases on
communication and the many ways of communicating meaning, (i.e. drawing, gestures, etc...)
(0.48.00) Students work on their reflections of what they learned and how they can improve for
the next time. This makes students look back on their work and critically think about where they
might have gone wrong or done better to have a more successful result.

Key Takeaways:

The key takeaways from this lesson and the first one is that it consists in activities, like warm
ups and reflections, that help students start and end the lesson in a productive way. I really like
the reflection of what students learned for both the students to look back on their work, but also
for the instructor to make adjustments to future lessons as an informal assessment.