Exploring the Problem Solving Approach

 This weeks lab was all about the problem solving approach. We were tasked with coming up with a lesson that used problem solving skills. I decided to give my students a problem that I know all too well; choosing a good feeding program!

For this lesson I started off with bellwork. Each student was given two sticky notes. On the first sticky note I asked them to write down one thing they know about nutritional requirements and on the second sticky note I asked them to write down one question they still had. Once they were finished I asked them to stick their sticky notes on the chalk board. This allowed for me to see all the similarities that students had in their answers. 

Next, I showed a behind the scenes video at Purina. The goal of this was to help students understand that there is a lot of research and science that goes into creating feeds and supplements. 

After the video, I introduced the activity to the students. I started off by giving them their "mission". 

Then I went into detail on how they are going to accomplish the mission. I wanted to make sure that the instructions were clear, simple and not too detailed so I presented the information in bullet form. 

After introducing the instructions, I asked if the students had any questions and then broke them up into teams of 2-3. Each team received an animal profile card, and the feed + supplement options. 

While the students were working I walked around the room to see if any teams had questions and to make sure everyone was heading in the right direction. When I came across a team that was heading down the wrong track, I didn't give them the right answer but instead asked them to rethink their answer and gave them a few clues. Each group had to pick a base feed along with at least one supplement that was right for their animals situation. An important thing to remember when facilitating this activity is that there are multiple possible answers but students must be able to defend their decision and why they choose that over other things. 

 Once everyone was done, I had each group present their answers and give reasoning behind their decision. In a larger class, I would probably do this activity in the form of stations or only have a few groups present their findings. 

The biggest challenge I faced when creating this lesson, was developing scenarios for species that I am unfamiliar with (i.e. lambs) and then coming up with what I think would be the right answer. Luckily Megan received the lamb scenario and was able to guide me in the right direction as she has raised lambs before. 

Overall, I found this lab to be one of my favorites so far!