We are very excited about our March Madness interdisciplinary unit! We will be using the excitement and hype of the NCAA basketball tournament as a vehicle to teach our concepts. Each student will draw a University / College. The students will be given class time together to research their Universities and work on their display. However, extra time will be needed (homework.) Students will be supplied with the poster board necessary to display their research, calculations, and results. Each poster board must contain the information listed below. The scoring checklist must be affixed to the backside of each poster. Extra copies of the checklist and other information along with links to the online web pages will be available and also may be printed from the page on our website at http://meyerisland.inspiringteachers.com/March%20Madness.htm
The center section will contain the information about your university. The name of the college should be written boldly on the panel. Students must make an illustration of the university symbol, mascot, or campus landmark. AT THE MINIMUM, students must creatively show facts from each section of the CollegeNET research data (Admissions & Financial Aid, Campus Life, and Academics.) Two (2) Graphs are required illustrating the student body profiles of gender and race / ethnicity. Charts including information such as entrance requirements and tuition / fee and room & board, intercollegiate men’s & women’s sports, and other extra curricular activities are required. Finally, listing ten college majors (offered by the college) and which you might be interested in should also be located in this section. Presentation should be neat. This section will count as a Social Studies grade.
Language Arts: Each student will write a descriptive narrative about the journey from Laingsburg, Michigan to the city where your college is located (ex. The University of Purdue is in Lafayette, Indiana). The narrative must include the major roads / highways / interstates taken and a minimum of three sights that can be visited along the way. These sights may be natural landmarks (mountains, rivers, etc…) or human features (Mount Rushmore, the Arch in St. Louis, etc…). Spelling, sentence structure, and grammar count! When the project is complete, each person will make an oral presentation about their posters to the class.
Science / Physical Education: Each student will determine their resting heart rate, minimum and maximum target heart rate, and blood pressure. Rates will be graphed using either a bar or line graph. In a paragraph, the student will write the steps they followed in the procedure and interpret the data from their graphs.
(See back of sheet for more information)
Math: For the math part of the NCAA interdisciplinary unit, students must include the following items in their final display.
1.) Record the points scored by each team, for each game played in the NCAA basketball tournament. (This chart must also be displayed on your poster board. The scores for each game will be posted in Mr. Meyer’s Room & in the main hallway.)
Geography: Each student will plot a travel route they would drive from Laingsburg, Michigan to their college / university. Using various map resources, students will include a printout of their route. Such key elements of a map, such as a legend, compass rose, and scale bar must be included. Also, each group must display the distance from Laingsburg, Michigan to their college / university. Show your work on the poster illustrating how this distance was determined.
Extra Credit may be added to your posters by including up to ten “famous” alumni who went to that college / university. You may also TASTEFULLY add maps or other graphics that give more information about your college / university. Neatness counts, so take your time and do your BEST!
The culminating activity of our NCAA unit is for the students to “have their cake and eat it too!” Following the conclusion of students’ presentations we will celebrate with cake and ice cream on Friday, April 13th.
FINAL DISPLAYS ARE DUE Wednesday, APRIL 11th!