Spotlight on Strategies

After having trouble trying to decide what strategy to choose, I finally decided to go with problem solving. In my classroom right now, we are, as you know, working on our Mission to Mars challenge. A big part of this is problem solving. My students have a set goal they are working toward, with me as a facilitator. They have to use their problem solving strategies in order to figure out what elements their habitat must include. Another reason I went with problem solving is based around the push of the CCSS. Common core pushes for students to be able to not only solve problems, but to explain their reasoning. Because of this, I feel teachers should be integrating more problem solving into their curriculum. 

With today's technology being so ever present in our students' lives, it is important that we use that technology in our classroom as a part of our every day routine. When problem solving, there is a lot of research that must be done. When I was in elementary school, we had to go to encyclopedias to find the information we needed. (I remember copying pages out of an encyclopedia for my senior research paper.) Today, students can simply ask Google or any other well-known search engine for their answer. However, true problem solving can't be figured out by asking a single question.

Using digital media to enhance problem solving not only gives students an edge in their research, it also has the potential to tap into resources that most students, myself included, never knew possible. Next week, my 6^th graders will be talking to an expert from NASA about their project. They have been researching and planning their habitat for a week and are excited to be able to ask someone who may have many of the answers they need. They will be writing questions they want to ask the expert before they actually talk to him. They will then have their video call and learn the answers to their questions. My hope is that the answers that are given will get them thinking and steer them in a direction I could never have done.

Digital media and problem solving go hand in hand in the sense students have access to more information than they ever knew possible. Using this information when problem solving can lead them in a whole new direction.