School Feltron Report

As we approach the end of the school year and classes are thinned out for various practices and events, I realised that I won't get much regular teaching time over the next three weeks. This morning I decided to introduce my Year 8-10 group to the work of Nicholas Felton, namely his annual reports. Although most thought he suffered from some sort of OCD, they did pick out useful and interesting facts and information about his life; how far he travels, where he eats most etc.

None of them could see where this was going.

Wowed by the beautiful info-graphics and under the threat of algebra worksheets I convinced the class that over the next two weeks we will keep track of where we go, what we eat and any social activities, at the end of which we will compile the information and create our own Feltron report. Using individual and combined data they will all get the chance to create graphs and charts, which will be put on display for the end of term Praise service.

I have the added benefit of using Foursquare to check-in as I go; the kids however will be limited to a notepad and pen, although some of the more tech savvy plan to send text messages to themselves. All the information will be put into a spreadsheet on their Google docs account, with Google maps used to calculate distance travelled. Tomorrow we'll make a Google Docs form to help enter the data and start discussing the types of charts we can create to display the information.

Although not pure maths or directly on the syllabus, this should help them develop a more real world understanding of what can be done with data and graphs as well as learn some useful IT skills along the way.

Let me know what you think, or any suggestions on other information that could be gathered or things to do with it.