Chapter+5+Complex+cognition

Brad Smith - Chapter 5

This video is a movie clip from Apollo 13 where the engineers of NASA use problem solving/brainstorm/group think to solve the CO2 problem in the Apollp 13 ship. The video shows how multiple ideas presented in a short period can solve a problem in a much more rapid fashion than individual ideas. This thinking process is good for teachers when doing FBA/PBS and should be used to help modify modifications/adaptions in IEPs. []

The second video is an example of how Peyton Manning uses multiple forms of heuristics...he uses domain & general heuristics...like means-end analysis (make progress/field position), working backward (game plan - watching video of other teams), working forward (adjust to the defense and make a positive play) , and subgoaling (working each play of each drive...piece by piece) Go Lions! []

This is a Frontline video over autism and communication...if you might be teaching and working with these type kids...good video to watch. []

This video covers the principles of critical thinking...a mini-podcast principles of critical thinkingdoes a nice job of explaining may of the terms/ideologies involved with/in critical thinking...only five minutes. []

Lisa McKee Extensions ch. 5 The following link is to a website that is all about problem solving. There is a very informative 8 min. video that highlights the process of problem solving. There are also acronyms to help understand it better. It includes templates that can assist us in lesson planning and implementing problem solving strategies in the classroom.

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The following item that I am attaching is a newspaper project that I have assigned the students to complete. They were given the following rubric and instructed to create a newspaper over a Sub-Saharan African country that they chose. I have not told them how to do the newspaper but I have chosen to provide them some real examples of newspapers but they now need to create their own newspaper with divided sections in it. Students struggle with actually creating and doing or making something. We have taken notes, done some guided readings, looked at some primary sources over the material and now they will be creating their own to present to the class. I didn't know how to add a link so below is the given assignment. I am bringing a hardcopy of what was given to the students. You will be creating a newspaper for your country (the one you picked). You will need to name your newspaper and use the following rubric and guided research questions to help you. **//__This newspaper project will be due April 13, 2012__//** so you have one month to complete it. You will then present your newspaper on either April 16 or 17. This newspaper project will be a huge part of your 4th grading period grade. Some of the information can be combined to make one paragraph and section for the newspaper. As you know newspapers are divided into sections. For your paper you may divide the information into the following sections**//__: Government, Physical Features and Land (include capital), Important Statistics (reporting any of the percentages you find even though that information may be included in other sections with more detail), Education, Sports, Important Products and Natural Resources, People (include population and population density), Entertainment, Healthcare, Animals, Housing, Culture (include religion), Fun Facts. You will also be required to include pictures__//**, including the flag, in your newspaper just like a real one. These pictures may be hand drawn or printed from internet and glued on. You will also do an editorial piece that we will do in class together. Information to include in your newspaper: Capital of country: Countries or bodies of water surrounding or near your country: Type of government for your country: Leader’s name: Country Flag: Products Imported: Products Exported: Major religions practiced: Major ethnic groups (percentages): Natural Resources found there: GDP per capita: Per Capita Income: Life Expectancy: Infant Mortality Rate: Birth Rates: Death Rates: Literacy Rates(%of people age 15 and over that can read and write-can be included in education section): Things the people do for entertainment(Research what people do for fun and entertainment in your country and write a paragraph for a section in the newspaper): What is their education system like? (describe it and write a short paragraph about it for a section in the newspaper): Do they have proper and adequate healthcare (complete sentences for this answer explaining the healthcare system): Type of climate and weather (complete sentences for this answer explaining the climate and why it is the way it is): What types of sports are played there (make a sports section for your newspaper and include information about the various sports-you may even make up some teams or research some real ones and include scores for the sports section): What animals (if any) are native to the country (write complete sentences and describe the animals and their habitats and lifestyle): Physical features or landforms there (are there any famous physical features in your country? Describe the ones that are there or simply describe the land): Population and Population Density(you will write a short paragraph about the population, give the statistics if you find them about the percentages of the types of ethnic groups and include where most people live-the population density): A typical house is like what (research what the houses are typically like for most people in your country. Describe the house in a paragraph for a section in your newspaper): Special Traditions or Beliefs practiced there (what is the culture like? Do they have any special holidays or traditions they believe in? Write a paragraph and make a “Traditions’ section for your newspaper: Any other interesting information or facts that you found about your country?  Please have your parent sign the line below indicating they have read this assignment and will provide you with the necessary help that will be required to complete it successfully.  The next extension is a website that I found of another lesson plan of problem based learning it is a teacher's website that shows how he has gone from a teacher-centered way of teaching to a student-centered way of learning. The website provides pertinent links to help in preparing that type of classroom environment.

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The following website, The Buck Institute for Learning, offers tools and sample lesson plans to aid in providing problem-based learning opportunities. This site was full of rubrics and ideas that would benefit any classroom or discipline. If you are thinking of implementing this type of learning in your classroom, this site will help tremendously! Once on the link you can click on Tools and see the items offered. There is also a blog that you can see the feedback. There are also tutorials and model schools. One of them is Eagle Rock School and there is a link to it and then a short video providing information about what the school stands for and provides. It is an excellent example!

[|http://www.bie.org/index.php/site/PBL/pbl_handbook_introduction/#classroom]

extensions

Stephanie Green

This website has a video where the teacher teaches his students about metacogniton and what it means. I thought it was a neat idea, some student's learn best by putting it to music. It is amazing how many of the students in my first grade class have started to sing the books they are reading. []

I really like this site about metacognition because it gives you the tools in how to use it in the classroom. I work with first graders and sometimes I wonder if they would ever grasp concept like this at there age. I teach reading groups in the morning and the students I have are reading at a second grade level but are lacking skills for chapter books. I am going to try some of the ideas they offer for planning and monitor reading and see if it helps them at all. []

Here are some comics I found about Problem solving. Some of them I can so relate with/ I just thought they were funny.

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This website is about problem solving. It breaks down the different ways people problem solve and shows the steps. If gave alot of ideas on how to help people go about problem solving. []

Ty Merry

Two deductive reasoning snippits: the first is a snippet from the new Sherlock Holmes movie: @http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b3KM2p1nHs&feature=related

The second from an older yet fuller and better articulated Holmes:

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STEPHANIE HUBLER

For my first extension, I have copies of a Quick Flip Chart that I use often when planning lessons and during whole and small group instructional sessions. It is set up so that you can quickly flip to question guides that correspond with each level of Bloom’s Taxonomy. It can be used to develop all levels of thinking within the cognitive domain. To use it you just flip to the level of Bloom’s that you wish to challenge. Then, use the Key Words as guides for creating questions and tasks. You finish the question with the content you choose. Basically, it gives you sentence starters for questions. For each level, there is a description of the level, key words, and question sentence starters. I find this chart to be most beneficial when planning lessons ahead of time. However, I have used it “at the spur of the moment,” for instructional sessions, in which I hadn’t already planned for. I chose to use this because, after reflecting on past teaching experiences, I felt as though my questioning habits seemed to lean more towards the lower level of Bloom’s. In order to challenge the students more, I needed to expand my range of questioning to include all levels of Bloom’s. It seems silly that a small hand-held flip chart to have such an impact on teaching practices, but I really feel it has for me!

My second extension is to share a problem solving book with you, along with some extensions to use with it. This particular book is called Read It! Draw It! Solve It! by Elizabeth D. Miller (ISBN 0-7690-0158-0). This book is a 2nd grade level book, but 1st and 3rd grade are also available. Honestly, I’ve never used this book (because I’ve never taught 2nd grade) but I couldn’t find the one I was looking for. Either way, the other one is basically the same concept, just at a higher level! The book is a variety of math story problems and the idea behind it is to have the students: What I like about the idea in this book is it is, for the most part, a student-led activity. The teacher can function as a guide, but figuring it all out is the students’ responsibility. Another thing that is great about it is it allows students to make sense of the problem in their own way. Often times, when you try story problems with students, you get blank stares and students seem to just be waiting for you to tell them how to do it. When I first attempt these at the beginning of the year, I really don’t say much to students except, “What do you understand from the text?” I try really hard not to interfere unless someone really isn’t getting it. I also start with problems that I think they can be successful with so they can build up their confidence before moving to more difficult problems. As an extension, I also have students write at least 6 sentences (because they are in 6th grade) explaining their thought process and how they arrived at their answer. This is important because it reinforces their drawing and soon, with the new common core standards, students will need to be able to explain their answers in writing. Students should be able to write as many sentences as their grade level. For example, 6th grade writes 6 sentences; 5th grade writes 5 sentences etc.
 * 1) Read the problem and understand it.
 * 2) Draw what they understand about the problem.
 * 3) Use whatever method (charts, tables, graphs…) they choose to figure out the problem.

Evelynn Lape

1) Title: Humor and Metacognition Description: This is a short blog on humor and how laughing at your mistakes allows you to move on and try again. Link: http://asuedp540fall2004.blogspot.com/2004/10/humor-and-metacognition.html

2) Title:Meet Metacognition! Description: Blog by a teacher on metacognition (i liked the picture) Link: http://kiddiechat.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/meet-metacognition/ "...many teachers have a wealth of knowledge that they could be sharing but they lack the metacognitive skills to be a model of reflection for students."

This blogger's site seemed pretty interesting overall ( http://kiddiechat.wordpress.com/ )

3) Title: Metacognition Description: Teaches leads class in a song about metacognition Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNeQKk_1Bg8

4) Title:Theory of Mind.mov Description: metacognitive development in young children. learning the idea that people's thoughts are private, can be wrong, and are different from one another. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJkB6nrk1CA&feature=related

__**Joe Dumas**__

My first links are about allowing students to fail. As the chapter points out, the school environment wants perfection, and doesn't give students the chance to fail. Trial and error by its nature requires students to fail.

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Some Apollo 13 clips about problem solving and working backwards; “What you do when you don’t know what you’re doing "

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**Ann Creary**

While reading this chapter I thought a lot about our human metacognative processes as related to learning in the field of education. However, the chapter also forced me to contemplate complex cognition in animals. As my clips demonstrate, humans are not the only living beings with the ability to problem solve, reason, and think creatively (but I do think that humans are the only being that can think critically). After reading about animal cognition, I contemplated the following questions:

1) What can learn from these animals about human cognition? 2) Why do some animals have particular metacognition processes while others do not and what can this tell us about differential human metacognition processes? 3) Will we eventually have proof that some animals also have the ability to think critically or is this a unique human ability of the mind?

1) This link is a short clip demonstrating problem solving in chimpanzees. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySMh1mBi3cI

2) //Animal Minds//, National Geographic Magazine, Homepage and Article http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/animal-minds/virginia-morell-text

3) //Animal Minds//, National Geographic Magazine, Video Clip http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/video/player#/?titleID=animal-minds-1-aristide&catID=1

Gwynn John Seeley Brown talks about creativity and knowledge: • Play and innovation (9:51) – Curiosity. Problem-solving. – One room school as model, internet – []

• Tinkering as a mode of knowledge production (10:10) • []

• Imagination. Grounded truth.

• Peer learning • []