Complex Problem Model

It has been quite an experience trying to wrap my head around this complex model project. After I finally chose my topic, I began to brainstorm how I would model my problem: Students not involved in extra-curricular activities don’t perform as well at school. I decided to use a concept map to begin to brainstorm my ideas. The complex problem that we modeled in class together about War helped me to understand how to start to model a concept. Through building upon concept maps or flowcharts, it is easier to make progress and develop a working model.

When creating my concept map, I focused on the effects that may result from not participating in extracurricular activities.



Although I came up with a lot of ideas, I still needed to figure out how these concepts all related to one another. I decided to organize my concept map into four main areas that show the effects of students not participating in extracurricular activities:
1. Real-world experiences
2. Opportunities for responsibility (individual and group)
3. Interests, talents, and abilities
4. Levels of social, emotional, and healthy behavior



After I organized the concept map, I planned to create a flow chart to show the effects of not participating in extracurricular activities and the steps that could be taken to try to solve this problem.



After beginning my flow chart, I realized I had no idea how I would continue with this model. I couldn’t wrap my head around it and felt completely lost. I also didn’t think I had enough research or data to support the information that I was trying to display in the flow chart. I decided to scrap the flow chart. I needed better data!

To truly model this problem, I decided that I needed to compare the effect of extracurricular activities on student performance/success for different Chicago Public Schools. After searching for quality data, I found the CPS website to be very helpful. This website listed statistics for each of its schools. The factors that I included in this comparison were school type, # of students, ethnicity, socio-economic status, average days absent, average ACT, meets or exceeds state standards, participation in extracurricular activities, and enrollment in college. I used Excel to organize and compare this data.









I also created separate tables to compare extracurricular participation with several different factors. Some of the trends I found were:
1. Schools with white students as the predominant ethnicity had the highest extracurricular participation (92%).
2. Students who are involved in extracurricular activities tend to have fewer absences.
3. Students who are involved in extracurricular activities tend to have higher ACT scores.
4. There seems to be a correlation between more student absences and a lower numbers of students meeting or exceeding state standards.
5. There is a correlation between high extracurricular participation of students coming from schools with fewer low income students.
6. Charter/Selective schools have higher levels of student participation in extracurricular activities.

This model isn’t complete. There are still some factors that I would like to compare. I would like to explore the relationship between the causes of low extracurricular participation and the effects that not participating in extracurricular activities has on students. I would also like to explore the possible solutions for attempting to solve this problem. I am not sure if this problem can be solved, but I think I have created a good foundation in attempting to identify and explore this complex problem.

List below are some of the sources I used:
http://www.answers.com/topic/extracurricular-activity-3
http://www.academicleadership.org/student_research
http://www.hcausa.com/media/Case-for-Extracurricular-Facilities.pdf
http://socialworktoday.com/ezine
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs95/web/95741.asp
http://www.cps.edu/Schools/Find_a_school/Pages/Findaschool.aspx
http://mywebspiration.com

Mini-Unit Reflection

The process of creating a mini-unit of a complex problem to use with my students proved to be quite challenging…which I suppose was the intent. I started by considering important topics that I cover throughout the year. I wanted to choose a topic that the students would be interested in and could foster exploration and meaningful learning.

As I considered topics: inventions, the impact of a natural disaster on the food web, and endangered animals, I knew I had to pick a topic that would really hold the attention of the students. Naturally, I decided that exploring the impact that a natural disaster would have on a food web in the students’ local environment would be the best choice. This topic would relate to the lives of the students, seeing that it is something that occurs in their local environment. It would also hold the attention of the students, because they all find natural disasters to be a very interesting topic, as we have already studied tornadoes and icebergs this year.

The plan for my mini-unit was the have each student choose an organism to research that exists in our local environment. The student would then create a table (database) to organize the characteristics that were related to the organism. This information would later assist them in creating a food web for their organism and a flowchart showing the impact (cause/effect) that a flood would have on the food web.

After the students had the information in a chart, they would then create a food web to show the relationship between their organism and the organisms in the level below it that it eats.

Next, the students would create a flow chart, showing the impact (cause/effect) that a flood would have on the food web. This flowchart would correctly organize each organism of the food web into producers, herbivores, and/or carnivores. The possible impacts of would be listed for each organism and would list possible ways the organism could adapt or survive. The students would then draw arrows to create a food web on the flow chart. This would be a powerful visual, because it would show not only the food web and relationship between the organisms of each level, but also the impact of the flood on each student’s food web.

After each student had created their own food web and food chart, we could compile all of the students’ information. Together, we would first create a food web to show the relationship between all of the students’ organisms. A flow chart would then be created to show how a flood would impact all the organisms in our class food web.

Originally I had planned for the students to create a food web and flow chart of 10 + organisms in small groups. I realized that this would be too difficult for my students. It would be hard for them to make these kinds of connections on their own. This is why I decided to have the students do their own mini-project before we came together as a whole group to compile our information and create a food web and flowchart that represented all of the organisms of the students. Although this would still be challenging for the students, it would present them with a problem that they could work at solving. Through trial and error and connections between the flow chart and cause/effect activities we had done earlier in the year, the students would be able to work through their problems.

This assignment has allowed me to challenge myself, while finding a project that would challenge and motivate my students, as well. I am excited to try this mini-unit in my classroom and to observe the student thinking and problem solving strategies that go into attempting to solve this complex problem. Hands-on activities, such as these, provide students with powerful learning experiences that relate to the real world and require them to apply their prior knowledge when going through problem solving steps.