Quenching My Thirst For Knowledge

Salvete omnes. In my last post I introduced an increasingly popular education concept known as a flipped classroom. As I’m sure you, my sweet reader, have realized by now is that I am a very curious person. I always enjoy try out the new technology, or the new ways to use already existing technology, that I discover as I am working my way through my graduate studies.

So I hope it does not surprise you to learn that after I posted my previous blog entry, in which I gave a general introduction to flipped classrooms, that I went out into the wilderness of the Internet to try my hand at creating a lesson for a flipped classroom. It was during this journey that I was lead to TED-Ed.com, where I was able to create and publish my lesson.

It was a relatively easy process. I searched through the videos provided on TED-Ed, and with the topic of Roman engineering and technology on my mind I settled on the idea of creating a lesson on aqueducts. Really I think choosing the video may have been the most difficult part and it was only difficult because I am extremely picky.

From there, the format of TED-Ed’s lesson creation is easy to follow. I set directions, created questions for both multiple-choice answers and discussion, and included additional resources for my students to check out.

For this lesson I focused on the Cultural Understanding LOTE standards. Specifically, performance indicator - LOTE.LA.2.1.A.A: Students demonstrate knowledge of some aspects of Greco-Roman culture and selected facts of daily life, myths, history, and architecture. And, performance indicator - LOTE.LA.2.1.A.B: Students recognize manifestations of antiquity in the modern world.

Now you may be wondering, “How can I assess to see if students are really doing the work and the learning objectives are being met if students are doing all this work at home?” . As always, dear reader, you bring up an excellent question.

If this were a more language focused lesson, I could assess student understanding by dividing students into small groups or pairs and ask them to utilize the new grammar, syntax, or vocabulary in a conversational setting. However, because this is a lesson focused more on engineering and technology, those are the skills I would like to assess. Following this lesson, I could ask the class to lead a more detailed discussion about how aqueducts work and problems that the Romans ran into while using them as well as expand on the discussion question from the TED-Ed lesson. 

Another way I could assess their understanding of aqueducts would come a little later in the year after we learn about a few other ancient Roman technologies. I could break students into small groups, provide them with materials, and ask them to build a miniature, and if possible working, replica of the technology, in this case an aqueduct. Then they would present their aqueduct project to a class of younger students or we could hold a Roman technology day, similar to a science fair but much more Roman, and invite their parents or guardians to come see the technologies we learned about in class.  

So without any further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present to you my flipped classroom lesson of Roman aqueducts! Ta-da!!