Assignment #4: Using a simulation to teach

For this assignment, you will produce a lesson or unit plan to meet prescribed B.C. curriculum goals using the Plant Tycoon simulation.

To begin with, reflect on the experience you had with the simulation in class. Plant Tycoon has some elements that might be very useful for interdisciplinary teaching, for reinforcing lessons taught in a traditional fashion, or for assessing how well students can transfer knowledge and abilities developed through other forms of teaching. However, the complexity of the interface, the and the nature of learning-by-doing experiences in general (both computer and non-computer based) present challenges that have to be carefully considered and managed in your curriculum planning.

Taking into account what you understand about these challenges, and using the Prescribed Learning Outcomes on the B.C. Ministry of Education's web site as a guide, choose a grade level, areas of the curriculum, and set of outcomes to focus on.

Give consideration to the following issues:

• What goal do you want students to achieve within the simulation?
• What limits will you place on how they can meet the goal?
• Will students work individually, or in groups? Why?
• Will students work cooperatively, or compete against each other?
• How much class time will the activity take? Will this time be spent in one large lump, or spread out over an extended period?
• What computing resources will you need? (please be reasonable)
• What materials will your students need, other than computers and the software itself?
• How you will evaluate whether your students have learned what you set out to teach them?

Organize your plan using the following general headings:

Curricular Goals

List the prescribed learning outcomes that you will be working on. Explain why you think these are good objectives to meet using the simulation.

Required Resources

List the resources (other than what you would normally expect to find in a classroom) you will need to carry out your plan successfully.

Activities

Most of what you write should be under this heading, and should take the form of a first-person narrative. Explain how the lesson or unit will play out, how everyone will be involved, what they will need to think about and do, how long it should take them, and so on. Be sure to answer all the questions given above.

Assessment

Describe how will you know what your students have learned. Will you use some kind of test? Evaluate submitted work? Perhaps you will use students' performance in the simulation itself as a kind of "test". What performance criteria will you use to evaluate them?

Rationale

Explain how the activities you have described relate to each of the targetted curricular goals, and how your assessment will demonstrate that these goals have been met. Also, explain why you have chosen to use the simulation in the particular way you have (e.g to begin or end a unit), other options you considered, and why you rejected these in favour of what you have done.

Evaluation Criteria

Your assignment must be word processed. A sufficiently detailed plan should be around 4 pages in length, using single-spaced, 12-point Times font. Plans will be graded on the following criteria:

• Clarity: Can I understand from your description what it would look like in the classroom?
• Completeness: Have you considered and taken into account all of the design issues mentioned in the assignment text?
• Fit with prescribed curriculum objectives: Are you clear about which of the precribed learning outcomes you are working toward, and does your plan fit these?
• Full use of the technology's potential: Does your design demonstrate that you have thought deeply and carefully about the educational potential of the simulation? Be sure your plan does not call upon the software to do things that it cannot do!

Note: You should try your ideas out on the software. Plant Tycoon can be found here.

Submitting your Work

All work should be submitted by email to David (bell@sfu.ca).