Kristianstill

Having taught PSRE yesterday morning I tried a technique that I have rarely used, the pretest. The students had a new research topic and I decided to test the students knowledge before we started the activity. We hard two board scribes who had the task of displaying what the group already knew about buddism.

We had a raft of great information, the position of enlightenment, robes, shaven heads, religion, peace, zen gardens, ‘Yoda’ yes the little green Stars Character. A great introduction to the research activity. During the lesson I told the students about the Marathon Monks. The Tendai Monks run 52.2 miles daily for 100 consecutive days, on the pathway to spiritual enlightenment, that is in addition to their daily chores! How would our students respond, with disbelief.

Marathon Monks

Next year we have to work with large data sets. As a department we need to gather these large data sets but I am confident that these could be found within school subjects. Even better it could be about the students themselves. Surely Science, PE or Humanities, even Maths, gather data about the students? After watching our new ICT teacher bring several tape measures to his interview lesson to measure the students physical height, weight, foot and hand length, head circumference, the engaging power of ‘real’ data is not an opportunity we can afford to miss.

So how to collect LARGE school data sets and what data to collect. I know my good friend Tom Barrett would advise a Google Spreadsheet used as a form. Indeed I have already set up a Google form for Art for feedback and for collecting information on DVDs. Then there is SurveyMonkey, kwiksurveys looks promising. Ideas anyone on how to, and what to gather?

If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.