Phase+2

What problem would your team like to address?
Our students do not believe that learning can be cross-curricular, and they have difficulty understanding how rules can be applied to many different situations. Students often ask “Why am I learning this? I won't use it again.” We want to prove to them that one topic can be applied in other areas of their learning experience.

Does a technology-based method offer a solution with sufficient relative advantages?
Since students are “Digital Natives,” they will be more likely to be engaged in learning if we utilize technology that they are familiar with. By creating a cross-curricular lesson that incorporates technology, we can encourage students to understand how topics can be stretched to include all areas of learning.

Our schools do offer computer labs and carts with laptops for checkout, so the expense is negligible. However, there are many teachers at our schools who also need to use the labs and carts, which makes getting a lab or cart difficult, especially for a week-long unit. Also, there are three times during the year when MAP testing is using the labs and carts, and there are none available for teachers during those weeks.

We are implementing several pieces of technology in our lesson. We are using a video from YouTube to get students "hooked" (engaged) in the lesson, and then at the end we are going to utilize a WebQuest to help students gain a deeper understanding of how children with siblings that have autism can help them function in society. We believe that these pieces of technology will strengthen our lessons as well as offer a solution to the problems listed above.