renaissance synthesis task

[Dan Lyndon]

For all you medicine through time people out there I have created a higher order thinking task on the renaissance here. Pupils have to work in pairs to produce a 2 slide PowerPoint presentation on either Pare, Vesalius or Harvey and then in groups of 6 have to merge their material and write an introductory slide summarising each individual. The material comes from the webpages on comptonhistory which are from the BBC Medicine through time website (thanks to Andy Walker for archiving them on his historygcse.org website)

[Guest]

For all you medicine through time people out there I have created a higher order thinking task on the renaissance here. Pupils have to work in pairs to produce a 2 slide PowerPoint presentation on either Pare, Vesalius or Harvey and then in groups of 6 have to merge their material and write an introductory slide summarising each individual. The material comes from the webpages on comptonhistory which are from the BBC Medicine through time website (thanks to Andy Walker for archiving them on his historygcse.org website)

Looks good Dan .. one I will certainly use, recommend and link to

Your students may also find it useful to use my lesson page on the Renaissance Medicine in their preparation for this activity

http://www.educationforum.co.uk/renaissance.htm

[Dan Lyndon]

Indeed they will, and in fact I nicked the idea from that very page!!!

[Guest]

Indeed they will, and in fact I nicked the idea from that very page!!!

You have structured the activity far better however

I notice someone on the Mister Men Forum has complained about the number of Google ads - are they talking my site or yours do you think?

[Dan Lyndon]

Are you lurking Mr W? I am not sure what they meant - i have hardly any adverts and none on the page I linked to so it must be yours, capitalist pig.

[Guest]

Are you lurking Mr W? I am not sure what they meant - i have hardly any adverts and none on the page I linked to so it must be yours, capitalist pig.

Smirking rather than lurking would perhaps be more appropriate

It has become rather staid, pompous and preachy over on the Dark Side don't you think?

[Dan Lyndon]

I shall make a distinctly diplomatic 'no comment' here

[Guest]

I shall make a distinctly diplomatic 'no comment' here

Indeed there would appear to be a great deal of "no comment" currently over there

Getting back on topic - could you explain why you decided to instruct students to construct a 2 page ppt and then merge material with others? What are the benefits of encouraging this sort of activity over the rather predictable one I planned?

[Dan Lyndon]

This gives access to higher order thinking - it is a synthesis task - once the pupils have produced their own in pairs they have to merge their slides and as a group come up with the key points in a summary introductory slide. The merging is relatively straightforward but hopefully there should be good discussion for the new slide.

[Guest]

This gives access to higher order thinking - it is a synthesis task - once the pupils have produced their own in pairs they have to merge their slides and as a group come up with the key points in a summary introductory slide. The merging is relatively straightforward but hopefully there should be good discussion for the new slide.

I think you could also make a case for it being an evaluation task too.

http://www.educationforum.co.uk/HA/bloom.htm

[Ed Waller]

At the risk of being accused of having a Mr MenTality...

Does putting three two-page ppts together equal synthesis? Had these been three ppts about the same person which as a group they were tasked to produce a four-page ppt about that person I'd consider it of higher order thinking, and probably involves evaluation as part of the process.

[Guest]

At the risk of being accused of having a Mr MenTality...

Does putting three two-page ppts together equal synthesis? Had these been three ppts about the same person which as a group they were tasked to produce a four-page ppt about that person I'd consider it of higher order thinking, and probably involves evaluation as part of the process.

Hello Mr Topsy Turvy

Yes, if they have time and space to discuss and combine ideas to form a new whole.

I think whether they do this properly or not rather depends on the teacher and her/his interventions and management of the lesson.