This WebQuest is intended to be conducted through collaborative and cooperative pair work, using the Internet in order to complete the assigned research and tasks.
Students will determine the cost that neighbours will pay for building a fence that separates their yards. They will have to use the Pythagorean theorem, convert measurement and pricing units from SI to imperial and determine an equitable means for sharing the cost.
Mr James has just moved to Cyprus from England and has settled in beside his Italian neighbour, Ms Diana. Mr James needs to build a fence between their two yards to keep his dog out of his neighbour’s yard. Being on tight budgets, both of them want the job done well but neither want to pay for any extra costs. Both would like to have the job done quickly so they decided to choose pre-manufactured panels (available at select hardware stores). As their friendly neighbour, you offer to help them calculate the length and cost of this fence and determine how much each of them should pay. Each neighbour has emailed you their property line measurements but they each gave you different measurements for the fence line!
Your role is to research the cost of building the fence and make a recommendation for sharing the expense with Mr James and Ms Diana. Explain your calculations, choices and rationale. To calculate the cost of the fence per neighbour, consider:
1 metre = 3.2808 ft 1 foot = 0.30480 m |
If you add all the expenses (the materials purchased, the materials and labour provided), what proportion will each person pay?
Pythagorean Theorem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6RfgP-AHU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVrkLIcA2qw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkT6rVE8qo
Units of measure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdT3GlcA5D0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wQYWUKruoQ
A comprehensive approach for whole problem
How to build a Fence?
https://www.skil.co.uk/step-by-step/how-to-build-a-fence.html
https://www.homedepot.com/c/ah/how-to-build-a-fence/9ba683603be9fa5395fab90a485b4ce
https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/install-a-wood-fence
Salaries in Europe
https://www.reinisfischer.com/average-monthly-salary-european-union-2020
https://www.pordata.pt/en/Europe/National+minimum+wage+monthly+figure+(Euro)-1640
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Hourly_labour_costs
Material Costs
https://www.leroymerlin.com/
https://www.praxis.nl/
https://moderator.bg/
Throughout this WebQuest, the following mathematical processes are specifically addressed:
This WebQuest is oriented to develop these students’ competencies:
Practice with your pair.
Each student makes a presentation that answers these questions:
In this section we will not dive very deep into the underlying educational theories about evaluation and testing: there’s too much out there than we could possibly cover in this small project report.
Instead, we want to concentrate on procedures that enable both students/pupils and their teachers to establish if the learning goals of the Webquest were achieved and, if so, to what extent. We recommend teachers make use of a combined evaluation procedure, that consists of:
For instance:
This kind of assessment seems more subjective than it actually is: in his standard work on testing and evaluation (and much more), simply called Methodology (1974), Prof. A.D. de Groot described how consistent the student’s self-evaluations appeared to be: when asked again after 5 or 10 years, their evaluation would almost be the same. De Groot advised teachers to use the learner report as a start for joint evaluations, striving for consensus between teacher and student/pupil about the learning outcomes and their value for the learner, but also compared with the learning objectives as stated in the curriculum.
The learning achievements are visible in the output produced by the students: it is physical evidence: reports, answers to questions asked in the Webquest, presentations, and performance during presentations (preferably recorded). The teacher completes an evaluation grid stating clearly what the learning outcomes for the student/pupil are. The categories in the grid can be modified by the teacher to cover more precisely the content of a Webquest.
>We advise teachers to use the grid to start a joint evaluation discussion, aiming at consensus or at least understanding between the teacher and the student/pupil about the learning outcomes: were they achieved (as planned in the curriculum and communicated before the Webquest started) and to what extent? To communicate the learning goals clearly before any learning activity starts, is a transparency requirement that is widely acknowledged in the educational community. The history of making learning objectives explicit goes back to the evaluation ‘Bible’ by Bloom, Hastings and Madaus: ‘Handbook on formative and summative evaluation of student learning’ (1971), a standard work that also served as inspiration for the earlier mentioned Prof. De Groot.
The procedure also applies when students/pupils have worked together on a Webquest. The teacher will ask questions about individual contributions: ‘What did you find? What part did you write? How did you find the illustrations? Who made the final presentation?’
All the evidence (of learning efforts and outcomes plus joint evaluations) is preferably stored in the learning portfolio of the student, or in any other suitable storage system (folders with written or printed documents, online collection of files, etcetera ).
Changes in personal points of view and feelings are harder to value and here the consensus between teacher and student/pupil about experiences during the learning process provides essential insights.
The grid below gives an example of how the evaluation of the learning process and achievements can be shaped: what kind of reactions to the Webquest does the teacher expect and how valuable are they? Is the teacher capable to explain the value or score allocated to answers or presentations given by pupils? Does the pupil/student understand the evaluation outcomes, and does he/she agree? If an agreement (consensus is not possible, it is still the teacher who decides how to value the student’s work.
Please note that the text in the grid addresses the pupil/student directly: this is important and it is in fact a prerequisite for using such an evaluation grid: it is specifically meant to enable a discussion of learning results between teacher and student and not to communicate learning achievements of learners to others who had no direct role in the Webquest.
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
t: +357 2466 40 40
f: +357 2465 00 90
e: scool.it@scool-it.eu
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
t: +357 2466 40 40
f: +357 2465 00 90
e: scool.it@scool-it.eu
The European Commission’s support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
t: +357 2466 40 40
f: +357 2465 00 90
e: scool.it@scool-it.eu
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