Jigsaw 21st Century Style

I like the idea of the jigsaw model for class learning. It sounds great in theory, but I often find it is hard to make it work for practical reasons.

This year I had the idea to do something a little bit like a jigsaw but to make it a little more 21st century style. My classes are each divided into four teams. Each team has 7-8 students. So I already had my “jigsaw” groups set. My students were begging for a challenge, so I devised the Epic Fronts Project.

Each team was assigned a type of front (cold, warm, stationary, or occluded). The project had four components: video, handout, song, and assessment questions. The teams could choose to work on everything together or break the pieces down and have a couple of people work on each section. We had only briefly talked about the types of fronts in class before the project began, so students spent the first day learning about their front. They then wrote scripts, songs, and handouts in preparation for filming.

Here is the handout I gave to my students explaining the project. We spent two weeks working on the project and then shared the videos in class. Finally, the students had a quiz in class from the assessment questions the groups provided.

I think this worked really well, and I will do something like this again. We did have a few technical video problems, but we were able to work through them.

Here are a couple of my favorite videos:

This one tried to emulate Bill Nye the Science Guy videos:

This group mixed did a great job with the music. Recorded separate tracks for the two vocals and the guitar and then mixed together. It has a great music video feel.

You can see all of the videos that we were able to export and upload on my YouTube Channel.

Have you ever tried anything like this before? Or, do you have another way to re-imagine  the jigsaw lesson? Please share!

By Janelle

Space geek, science nerd extraordinaire. That's me! Want to know more, visit the About page.

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