December at William B. Ward Elementary School means it’s time for the #HotCocoaProject!
For the past several years, teacher Elizabeth Ponce, Instructional Technology Facilitator Jeannine Shields, and third-grade students have collaborated on a survey project identifying hot-cocoa preferences. But within that tasty topic are deeper lessons.
The project teaches the tenets of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics education) and how to investigate data. That vision pairs well with the third-grade math curriculum involving estimating, predicting, classifying, sorting, organizing, and representing data through a table, and analyzing graphic representations of data.
Ponce’s third-graders are in Ward’s Children's International Language Academy, a district-wide dual-language program in place for many years. They have been learning how to construct and interpret bar graphs. They’ve discussed the definition of a survey, formulating questions, and how to get and analyze results. Sample data provided an opportunity to ensure their graphics accurately and clearly conveyed information.
That set the stage for this year’s #HotCocoaProject. Students reviewed previous years’ survey responses, collaborated to identify what information they wanted to know and brainstormed questions to best learn about survey respondents’ hot cocoa preferences. Shields provided the know-how to create a Google Docs survey, which the public is invited to complete here. Responses already have been received from as far away as Thailand and Finland!
Look out for survey results in the district's future newsletter.