Project Managers in Science Class

With the need to provide quality feedback to every student multiple times per week, I have looked for ways to make my classroom more efficient.  In my chemistry unit this year, I am having students elect project managers for each road map.  Similar to Trump's show Apprentice, the project managers are not exempt from the learning but have an added stake in the game.

The election process was interesting.  Some students declined their nomination on the grounds of not feeling comfortable leading a larger group.  Other students quickly identified the fact that they were needing to be focused on keeping their own act together.  Finally we were able to elect our project managers.

In this instance the PM is responsible for assigning elements to students for our Periodic Table Challenge. The PM is also responsible for constructing and managing the bulletin board that is going to be one of the outcomes of the project.  Each day the PM has one management task to complete and a set of updates to share with the small groups in the room.

I quickly observed some notables. Students were much more concerned with not losing their assigned material when it was given by a peer vs. when I assign it.  Additionally, they tend to listen to their peers more attentively than me when the PM is giving instructions to the 3-4 person groups.  Go figure....I relate to people my own age much better than those 20-30 years older than me.

I also observed the project managers learning leadership skills.  Having to mange their leadership position as well as their individual roles.  PM's were also learning ways to hold their peers accountable as well as provide them with the information they needed.  When placed in the role of PM they quickly abandoned their tell me and I will memorize it attitude and swapped it with a desire to challenge their classmates to find the answer using their road map and search and find skills.

After this road map, we will elect new PM's in class giving others an opportunity to stretch themselves.  It is interesting that we complain about student's inability to lead on HS Sports Teams yet their only exposure to leadership is through one student council rep per grade.  Once again we need to get out of the way and allow kids to lead and innovate their experience.

All of this has allowed me to work with students on content understanding, learning targets, formative assessment, intervention, and quality feedback.  Meanwhile my PM is doing a wonderful job of managing the logistics of the relevant task kids are working on.