20/20 Challenge

Challenge 20/20: Twenty Global Problems


I am very much interested to sign up for the 20/20 Challenge and would like to work on integrating the global problem on "Maritime Safety and Pollution". This is perfect for our Sharing the Planet: Waste Not, Want Not unit in 4th grade. Its transdisciplinary theme is an inquiry into the rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution. The goal is for students to understand that communities have the responsibility to manage finite resources to positively impact our quality of life. We will be learning about how we pollute our planet and how much this has affected other living things causing too much damage to the planet and extinction to some animal species. Considering that this prevailing problem doesn't only happen in Mexico, it will be a great learning experience to hear from students and teachers from other countries what pollution has done to their country as well and come up with a solution together. 

Collaborating with other students will develop higher level thinking skills as each group will learn from each other. It will also develop oral communication and positive social interaction as they learn to work well together. It will also promote good relationships between races and openness to diversity as both teams come up with alternative problem solutions, resembling a real life social or even employment situations. 

Advertisement

My group mates and I did an advertisement to promote the use of electric fans. The idea is to stress out the negative effects of global warming in an entertaining manner. We wanted the advertisement to serve as an eye-opener and expose the perils of mankind's recklessness therefore the images we chose were appropriate for this purpose. The contrast between the images of the  how beautiful earth was and images of how much we have destroyed it contributed to the message. The polar bears having a sweet time because of the cooling power of the electric fan is very humorous. We are targeting the general public as our audience.

Daniel Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation

http://pixelnase.deviantart.com/art/Creativity-is-boundless-75543114

After watching the video, Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation, the questions that came to my mind were the following “How can you not reward kids, 4^th graders for that matter, if their motivation is to please the very high demands of their parents who in return, give them rewards? If at ages 10-11, most of them have not learned the value of self-motivation and finds self worth with the amount of rewards they get? How can you deprive these generation of 4^th graders a comfortable habit or even a culture?

But thinking through it and reading more articles I realized that constant gratification in the form of rewards could actually do more harm than good.  It can limit what creative minds can do by focusing on the reward ahead instead of the task at hand. If we shift our goal as educators to nurture creativity and develop creative knowledge from teaching mechanical skills, both parents and students should be educated on the importance of intrinsic motivation.  Teachers should create a learning atmosphere where motivation is around the desire to have autonomy, mastery and purpose. Majority of our students are rarely allowed to choose their path, they are often coerced or persuaded based on others expectations. A change of habits of mind should be promoted by allowing students to take risks, make mistakes and celebrate lessons learned from these mistakes. We should educate based on creative capacities and not on academic abilities by structuring classes, student assessments and classroom activities to promote self-motivation as a habit. #PA3a

Additional Resource: – Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

Making Traditional Projects VS. Project Based Learning

In PBL, teachers serve as co-designers, guides and facilitators providing students with different possibilities to gather answers. PBL creates a challenge to align the need-to-knows with standards focusing both on content and skills used, making the activity totally engaging. Skills such as effective presentation as students are to present to a real audience, working in groups and problem solving are essential. While in traditional projects, hard work has already been done even before the project is accomplished. Teachers hold students accountable for the grades that they will get while in PBL, teachers serve as coaches guiding students to make connections. Traditional projects require all students to go through the same steps producing the same final products and teachers are deemed to have the right answers while PBL provide differentiated scaffoldings and engagements allowing variety in final products. Students are also empowered to get the right answers from the web. 

Assignment PA2b

An Introduction to Project-Based Learning

I’ve always been a believer that in teaching and learning all the verbs should be handed down to the students by the teacher. Some of these verbs are respond/answer, act/perform, investigate/research, design/strategize, achieve/accomplish, and present/display among a list of so many. Students in my classroom are expected to "learn by doing". I realized that my definition of PBL is the same before and after watching the video An Introduction to Project-Based Learning. Now, instead of calling such learning as “student initiated projects/activities” I’d be using the universal term for it.

I can therefore conclude that I have been teaching through PBL in my classroom for quite some time now. One example of which is, my students for the past 3 years have been publishing children’s books. These were sold at ASF to raise funds for scholars. They were taught the process of book writing and were expected to write an original story with a moral lesson. They were to do in depth research about characters and settings. They also worked with an editor through Skype or communicate with him via email and share their project through Google doc. We also did a classroom activity called the “Travel Fair,” where students took the role of travel agents. They were to act as a citizen of a country assigned to them and learned everything there was to know about that country in order to promote it.

As part of Unit of Inquiry final projects, students in 4^th grade at ASF are required to come up with an opera, where every aspect of it is an original creation of the students. 5^th graders also work on an exhibition, showcasing a comprehensive study of current issues that leads to solutions to global problems. 

Infographic

Infographics are fun visual representation of data that students will find highly amusing. It will ease the pressure of trying to understand and analyze data as they will be presented in an artful manner that young learners can relate to. It is fun and at the same time stimulating. It is also thought-provoking where interesting discussions arise as students dissect texts and images. It is a great way to fuse graphic design and data handling.

Magazine Cover Design

Using http://www.magcover.com/, I designed a magazine cover that would cater to DIY fanatics. The publisher of this magazine is Homepage, an independent and privately held publishing companies. It is the home to some of the world's best-selling hobby and leisure magazines. The intended audience are creative housewives and husbands, single men and women who are looking for hobbies that can be lucrative, furniture makers and DIY fans. I would like my readers to take the magazine home, collect them, and regard them as a very useful manual that is worth keeping and handing down. 

The cover shows a step-by-step image of up cycling a table. It immediately appeals to DIY-ers because they can easily relate to it and get an idea from it. The font of the headline is a classic design similar to what the magazine features, classic designs. The color, earthy and natural represents wood which is one of the most beautiful and practical material to work with. The font size is perfect for the size of the picture, not too overpowering but big enough to be easily noticed. 

If I were to give two adjectives to describe this cover design it would be motivating and resourceful. The magazine is supposed to motivate people to create and not be afraid to experiment.

Representation, Stereotype and Bias

Stereotype

This magazine ad is an example of stereotype. It shows a group of women all dressed in "power suits". Our society believes that to represent a powerful, modern, working woman, she has to be dressed in a way the fashion world dictates. Clad in black and trimmed suits apparently represents her most. 

Representation

This magazine ad is an example of representation because it is trying to portray order in the midst of chaos. This ad is trying to tweak the fact that the life of a mom is glamorous instead of showing that with all the responsibilities that come with housekeeping, an inexperienced mom would find it difficult to cope. Drinking vitamin water will not change the difficulty that parenting entails.

Bias

This magazine ad is an example of bias in society. Fashion has dictated that a beautiful woman should be skinny, tall and blonde. It has become a universal point of view that a woman who has a rounded shape, a bit heavy and average in height is not considered as "beautiful" in the fashion world. Such biases brings forth insecurities, "it hurts not to be beautiful!" 

Codes in Media

The Technical Codes found in the media samples were:

MOVIES

Symbol: "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" had a lot of colors and animation. The objects, like different kinds of foods were made to be very attractive and fantasy-like, bringing the audience to dreamland.

Technical Jr.:The camera zoomed in on the major food groups and main characters.

Symbol: "Series of Unfortunate Events" used a lot of shades. Dark colors like gray, black and green were used to symbolize gloomy and sad emotions and situations. A lot of visuals such as thorns, swirls and shadows were used to show confusion, pain, and fear.

Technical Jr.:The camera zoomed in and out, wiped and swiped rapidly, keeping the viewers interested and guessing what is happening next.

TV COMMERCIALS

Symbol: The Wrigley's TV commercial made use of familiar junk food that most viewers have already tried, making it easier for the ad to convince them about their negative effects.

The catch phrase "Eat, Drink, Chew Extra" has a chant-like rhythm that is easy to remember. The commercial also used a popular song "Bad Boys" changing the lyrics to "Bad boys, bad boys, what ya gonna chew when he comes for you". It sent a message to the viewers that eating all these junk food will cause tooth decay or bad breath therefore chewing gum was a necessity.

Technical Code Jr.:The camera zoomed in on the junk foods that were supposed to be attacking or enticing the woman that made an emphasis on the "villains". A close up on the woman chewing gum saved the day.

Symbol: The Nolan Cheese commercial was very humorous. The typical mouse trap was used to show a typical rat looking for food and getting trapped along the way. But he redeemed himself towards the end when he got stronger after eating cheese. The way strength from eating dairy was portrayed was effective.

Technical Code Jr./Written: There was a blackout in the middle of the commercial right after the rat ate the cheese to show suspense. The music "Rocky" made it exciting for the audience to watch the rat do weight lifting. The catch phrase "Seriously Strong" worked perfectly with the images.

MAGAZINE ADS

Symbols: The Wendy's hamburger showed a superimposed picture of a hamburger. Using smaller fonts and having the drink behind it made the hamburger look gigantic.

Written: The buzzwords went well with the image like "Baconator" showing tons of pieces of bacon popping out of the hamburger and "Smaller is better works only for gadgets" emphasizing the appetizing and filling size of the hamburger.

Symbols: The Farm Fresh Produce ad used a colored photo of the vegetables against a black and white background photo of the city. This effectively expressed the message that no matter how polluted or routinely life in the city can be, there is still a possibility to have something fresh and out of the ordinary.

Technical Code Jr: The use of colored and black and white photograph showed a clear contrast between fresh and shiny to drab and boring.

Media has a such strong presence in our daily life. We are actually living in a media saturated world where all the things that we see affect us emotionally, socially and intellectually. It is therefore an important skill for learners to be able to analyze and undertand how media can be both deceiving and beneficial. This skill will allow our 21st century learners become effective and critical producers and consumers of media messages.

LESSON PLAN

Objective: How are food marketers crossing the line between advertising and entertainment to engage young consumers, and why does this concern children’s consumption in daily life? To what extent are product-related games, quizzes and apps making children both recipients and tools of marketing? In the lesson below, students look at various forms of advertising, then keep logs of the ads and other branded content they encounter over the course of a week. The students will reflect on their experiences researching and how they will become different consumers.

Materials: Computers with Internet access, projector, links to examples of advertisements and commercials. (see links below)

Warm-Up: Display the following three-question quiz on the board/projector.

1. It is conservatively estimated that children influence more than $_______________ in food and beverage purchases each year in the United States.

a. 10 million

b. 50 million

c. 50 billion

d. 100 billion

2. In February, the McDonald’s sites HappyMeal.com and McWorld.com received a total of ______________ visitors, around half of whom were under 12.

a. 7,000

b. 70,000

c. 700,000

d. 7 million

3. General Mills’ Lucky Charms site, with virtual adventures starring Lucky the Leprechaun, had __________ visitors in February.

a. 27,000

b. 57,000

c. 157, 000

d. 227,000

(correct answers: 1. d; 2. c; 3. d)

Reflection: Have students answer the questions with table groups. Ask students if they find any of these numbers surprising.

Lesson and Activities:

Activity A

A. Show the movie title sequence.

Ask the question, "What were the feelings you had while watching the movie? List them all down on the board or chart paper.

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events

B. Show the magazine ad. Ask the same question, "What were the feelings you had while looking at the ad? List them all down on the board or chart paper. 

C. Show the Magazine ad again and play the movie at the same time. Alternately show the ad and the movie making sure that you give an ample amount of time using the music from the movie as a background music to the magazine ad.

Ask the same question again, "What were the feelings you had while watching both at the same time? List them all down on the board or a piece of paper.

D. Compare your lists and discuss the similarities and differences.

E. Show the TV commercial

Wrigley's Extra Chewing Gum

Ask the students to describe the commercial. Ask the question, "What is the message of this TV commercial? Is it effective? What are the benefits of using images and music altogether to relay a message?

F. Do steps A-E for Activity B with the following media samples.

Activity B

Movie Title Sequences:

Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs

Magazine Ad:























TV Commercials:
Nolan Cheese Commercial

G. Compare the results of Activity A and Activity B.

H. Show the Wendy's ad again and play the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs movie at the same time. Ask the question: How did your feelings change about the magazine ad? List down answers on the board or chart paper and discuss the differences from the list made in Activity A.

Activity C 

Poll the class. Ask for a show of hands for each of these questions, and tally responses on the board:

• Have you ever played a game, taken a quiz or used an app related to a food, drink or other product?
• Have you ever “liked” a product on Facebook? Ask some students to share which products they have “liked” or tagged online. List them on the board.

What do you notice about the list? Have you asked your parents to buy these products? Were you already consumers of these products?

Reflection:

Look around the grocery store. How does the junk food aisle differ from the produce section?

What are some of the marketing techniques you see in the grocery stores?  Are they efficient?

What restaurants are you attracted to at a food court and why?

How do you think things are different today than they were when ads were only in print, display, radio and television?