Special Needs 2 - Creating Products to Assess Mastery in the Online Environment

The project I am choosing to write about is called Gardens and Functions and it comes from an Algebra I class.  The objective of the project is to have the student show that he/she can compare and contrast functions.  In the project students are to show what the dimensions of a garden would be if she had 50 yards of chain link fencing to use to build it.  The student has to show all the possible dimensions that could be used to create a fence that would have this much fencing.  The students are then asked to pay attention to the area of the garden because area determines how many plants can be grown.  So, after looking at the perimeter, the student then has to do all of the possible area combinations of the garden.  Then the directions say later in the summer the gardener decides to use the fence for rabbits.  So the student has to decide how many square feet of space each rabbit needs and then determine the best way to utilize the length of fencing to make this happen. 

The idea of this project is really good, and it is quite encompassing.  But I think for some students it would be quite overwhelming.  I do like how it incorporates many facets of this unit of material and if a student does this correctly, then I do feel like they would certainly be showing complete understanding of the material.  But for students with anxiety or who struggle with organization this would be a very difficult project for them to complete, at least all at one time. 

One way that I would consider altering this project would be to chunk the assignment for certain learners that would benefit from it.  I might even eliminate certain parts of the project.  As I stated earlier, it is quite encompassing and I think many students would be overwhelmed by this project.  Another option, if I didn’t want to eliminate sections of the project, would be to allow students to complete one part of two parts of the project. 

Another option for choice would be for them to complete the project instead of the written test.  As we all know, a lot of students are not good test takers for many reason – a big one being test anxiety.  If they had the option to do a project in place of a test they could really excel and show that they have learned the material even though they might not be the best test-taker.  If the student chose to do the project instead of the test, he/she could use one of the many free online math graphing tools available to them.  This would allow them to learn about a very cool online program while also showcasing what they learned from the unit.