Quadrant D is a term from the Iowa Core that we are trying to emphasize within our schools...getting our students into the highest form of rigor and relevance as well as critical thinking skills. Take a look at this example from Ms. Krogman's math class last week:
Problem: You have been hired to work for the Daredevil Adventure Company. This company offers rock climbing, sky diving, "extreme skiing," and cliff diving adventures to the public. To keep up with market demand, the company's board of directors decided to add bungee jumping to its offerings. The company has several sites planned for bungee jumping and each site is at a different height. Your first assignment involves working with a group of three other employees to simulate the testing of the drop height for a bungee cord that optimizes the thrill of splashing in a pool of water without actually hitting the floor. Using only one action figure (Barbie/Ken doll), your task is to determine for various heights above the floor the number of rubber bands that allows your action figure to come as close to the floor as possible (for maximum thrills) without causing any type of injury or fatality. Put simply, your goal is to get a splash without a crash!
The students were engaged and seemed to enjoy putting their basic skills to work by applying them to this new situation. This is what we are trying to do by moving to Quadrant D...put some real world applications into our subject areas so our students are challenged to think at high levels...
Some of the comments from students: "I enjoyed this activity because it taught the use of graphs and applying the data to the graph to predict the outcome of the experiment." "I liked that it was something new and got us out of the regular setting." "I liked this activity because it was different than just taking notes and we got to work in groups." "I liked the Barbie experiment because it was something fun to do and it didn't seem like you were really working but having fun instead." "It was a good sense of teamwork and cooperation." "I think this was great to see and show us how math is used and applied in the real world."
Sounds like Ms. Krogman's students were getting the point of the activity very well. Thanks for stepping out and trying something to challenge our students at a high level. Any other examples of Quadrant D activities lately? Add them to the comments button below.... Anyone want to comment on the benefit of this type of learning?
Thanks for taking the time.
Supt Herzberg
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I appreciate our school system focusing on higher level critical thinking skills. As I went about my work this week (I work in Marketing), I thought about how there are some tasks that you can hire just about anyone to do. I can train someone in a day how to pull a report and just feed me data. I also don't need people who just memorize information because in the age of technology, that skill is being replaced by computers that have up-to-date information available in seconds. What is most valuable to me are people who can look at a vast array of information, analyze it, summarize it, and use it to make good decisions. This involves high levels of critical thinking skills. As an employer, I would rather see students learning how to go about solving problems (not just memorizing a pat answer), analyzing information, thinking of multiple solutions to problems and the pros and cons of each, and thinking several steps ahead about what impact their decisions could have. Education used to be about knowing the right answer, but the business world is often about figuring out what the problem is, what factors influence it, what the possible outcomes could be, and how to analyze vast amounts of changing information. Students with good critical thinking skills will find themselves with an advantage over people who just want to follow a certain formula to arrive at a simple answer. Business, whether it be manufacturing, farming, marketing, health care, etc. all value critical thinking skills.
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