Hole In One

 Why would I ever antagonize the caretaking staff, especially considering how hard they are working lately with all the extra COVID-19 precautions?

I didn't mean to, but Project-Based Learning is messy!

If you recall, I was fortunate to receive a donation of golf putters to use in my physical education program. The students developed their own putting techniques based on the advice of kindergarten teacher and avid amateur golfer Mr. Tong. After we finished our golf unit in gym, Mr. Tong faced off against our best student putters in a tournament. Technically, Mr. Tong won, but he created a "trophy" and gave it to the top student in the tournament. Thank you so much, Mr. Tong, for a thrilling end to our golf unit in gym. The competition was intense but super-fun!

The thing is, golf influenced other areas of our curriculum. As the students practiced putting, they wanted to add more challenges, such as hills and ramps. We created "chipmunk-sized" golf courses on our desks with marbles, popsicle sticks and various loose parts as a fun break after a particularly grueling test.

This inspired us to design and create our own mini-putt golf courses that we could use ourselves.

We connected this with our math unit around area of shapes and with the Grade 5 science unit on forces acting on structures and mechanisms. We also added a bit of visual arts / media as well as some drama as I took on a "teacher-in-role" as a Home Depot employee. Students knew that if I wore the orange apron, Home Depot was "open" and they could request materials for building their golf courses. The only pre-requisite to acquisition was providing the dimensions and the area of the type of material they requested.

I was absolutely awed by the energy and effort that my students put towards these projects. Everyone was able to submit something, which is quite impressive when I look at my statistics for regular homework completion. Students begged to stay in at recess and after school to build their courses. 

Here are the finished products, with the names of the students digitally covered to protect privacy.

I'm sorry that we were unable to keep the golf courses out - as you can imagine, 22 mini-putt courses in the hallway created quite the unintentional obstacle course. We only had a single day to play them before we had to throw them away or take them home. I'm glad I was able to take photos of the courses themselves, the courses with the creators, and videos of most of the courses being used. It was a wonderful way to end our most-unusual 2020 school session.