Today I had the chance to work with a co-operative Jigsaw learning strategy in a virtual environment with grade 8 students for a lesson for International Day of Women and Girls.
I began the lesson by asking students to list in the chat in Google Meet the name of a female working in STEM that was Canadian. The students listed a few examples such as Marie Curie. Then I asked students if they could list the names of any males working in STEM and the list was longer. I asked to students to think about why that was.
Next, I shared this document with students and explained that they would be placed in groups to work together to learn more about one of women in Science. Students were then divided into 5 groups and given a link to a video or website to read about a Canadian Women in Science. After reaching out to my professional learning network on-line, I narrowed a long and wonderful list down to: Eugenia Duodu, Jennifer Green, Katherine Jin, Roberta Bondar and Jasraj Chahal. Students were divided into 5 break out rooms in Google Meet and given 20 minutes to each prepare their own information using this organizer.
After 20 minutes, students returned to the main room together to check in. At this point, students were placed in new break out room groups where they became the “expert” on the women they studied to share with the new group. They also had a chance to learn about four other Canadian women in STEM.
To conclude the lesson I used this interactive video Nearpod lesson on Why are there so few women in computer science? Students also had the chance to watch this video recording from the Ontario Science Centre.
I will definitely use the jigsaw method again with students in a virtual or even hybrid learning environment to engage students and allow them to work together.