Problem Solving Approach - Lab Reflection
This week in AEE 412, our class completed the Problem Solving Approach Lab. This lab was maybe our most challenging one yet, as we had 20 minutes to teach students and guide them through a problem solving activity. The problem solving approach is one method of instructional delivery that allows students to identify a problem relevant to their lives and work to solve it and/or generate possible solutions. Agricultural education is well-positioned to provide unique and interesting problems for students to work through, as so much of the work we do related to things we can see and observe in the natural world.
For this lab, I designed a lesson that I plan to teach in the Horticulture course at Athens. The essential question for this lesson was "What role does soil nutrient management play in horticultural production?". I am excited to be teaching this course at a school that has greenhouse facilities with a hydroponics and aquaponics system. Often times when students hear "nutrient management", their minds may go directly to agronomy and field crops. However, ensuring the plants within the greenhouse have essential nutrients is critical too, especially with a Spring Plant Sale on the horizon. I anticipate having exciting conversations about the nutrients in potting soil and in hydroponics (where plants are grown without soil) throughout the Plant Life Cycles & Environment Unit.
At the start of the lab, I had my students review an example soil sample report from a PSU Ag Analytics lab and discuss the differences in managing the plant's growing environment between horticultural (in our case, greenhouse) and agronomic (field) settings. Then, I gave students information on a number of different plant nutrient deficiencies and conditions such as under/overwatering and fertilizer burn. I had placed photos of plants exhibiting symptoms of these conditions around the room, and the students were given about 10 minutes to move around the room and be a "detective" working to determine what was the matter with the plants.
This is an example of one of the plants...any guesses as to what the problem is here? If you're curious, the answer is at the bottom of the blog :).
Overall, I think the lesson went pretty well! My students were good learners and completed the activity to the best of their ability. It is not an easy thing to diagnose plants based on observable symptoms, but my hope is that this lesson will allow students to take steps that will help them to address real-life problems in the greenhouse when they see them.
As I look to improve my instruction, I will work on giving instructions as clearly as possible for my activities without overdoing it or talking too long that students begin to lose interest. It can be a hard balance to find when you have complex activities, but I am grateful for the opportunity to practice this in the lab. I also will work to present the information on the plant conditions in a clearer format, as I received some feedback that the information packet was hard for students to process. One neat thing about the packet was that I used ChatGPT to help me pull together the information, showing the value of AI to teachers who can refine it and use it effectively.
For now, I am back to unit planning and lesson planning as I look towards the semester ahead. There is a lot of work to be done, but I get excited thinking about the good times and meaningful learning experiences ahead over the coming months.
ANSWER: The tomato plant in the photo was experiencing a phosphorus deficiency, which can be observed by purple coloration, especially at the ends of the leaves.
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Brandon,
ReplyDeleteI thought your lesson was super engaging and the problem-solving approach was set up really well. I have also found giving instructions to be difficult during our past few labs. One suggestion I received was to have students reexplain your instructions after you do to check for clarification. I have found this to be a good way to gauge what students actually understand from what you say. It's also a nice opportunity to hear student voices after feeling like you, as the teacher, have been doing a lot of talking.
Brandon, I found your lesson plan to be very interesting and a great way to set up a problem-solving approach lesson. I think that we all struggle with giving instructions, however, I think we are all learning to "chunk" information better as we move throughout the semester. I am excited to hear about how your students handle this lab. I also really liked your hand-out and think that students could use this as a resource throughout their entire class!
ReplyDeleteBrandon, I really enjoyed your problem-solving lesson, which made me refresh some horticulture knowledge! It was great that you started with the differences between plants in the greenhouse and crops in the field before trying to diagnose plant deficiencies. This definitely helped us see the importance of this process and how we build from the topic step by step. As for clarity, I also really struggle with this aspect. We know what we are trying to say, but our students do not. It also never comes out the way we had planned. So, how do we explain it in a way that the students can understand with little questioning? A suggestion that was given to me during my lab was to have the instructions either on the screen via PowerPoint or on a handout for students to see and reference during the problem-solving activity. Just remember to keep it simple with bullet-pointed lists because students' attention spans are small. You could also have some students respond back to you with the instructions to check for comprehension. Overall, this will continue to take practice in order to get the hang of it, which these labs help with. Can't wait to see what you do next!
ReplyDeleteI briefly watched some of your lesson on Edthena, and I feel like you accomplished an enagaging and organized lesson (if you could link the lesson plan there or on this post I'd love to check it out). Clarity seems to be one of the biggest challenges when introducing a new format of teaching. The concepts behind these types of lessons are clear to us but can be confusing to our audience. But overall, I think you performed well on this lab!
ReplyDeleteHey Brandon! It was awesome to see that we had chosen very similar topics with similar approaches to giving students an opportunity to learn. Comparing our lessons, I found things that I am going to work on being on the other side of your lesson. I hope that applies to you as well! It was a great lesson and I liked that you had the directions and instructions in three different places; the worksheet, on the board, and verbally. As we've learned, stating things three times helps students' understanding and I think you did a great job of it. It has been awesome to watch you grow as an educator all the way from Minnesota to now!
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