Mithril Mining Expedition

" Mithril! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make of it a metal, light and yet harder than tempered steel. Its beauty was like to that of common silver, but the beauty of mithril did not tarnish or grow dim."

Said by Gandolf in Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein

In a previous post I lamented that I hadn't meshed my class game with any lab activities. Classcraft (which I use to help gamify my class) was a separate entity that worked solely as a behavior management tool and source of periodic fun. Recently I decided to integrate a lab with a Quest on Classcraft. I wanted to provide a narrative as well as a some form of impetus as to why we were doing the lab.

About five years ago when I started doing the "Mixture Separation Lab" I linked it to the task of helping Dr. Doofenschmirtz (of Phineas and Ferb fame) create a Homework-anator-ator. Students loved the concept. In the lab students needed to separate a mixture of iron, salt, and sand. This is a classic lab that many physical science teachers are familiar with that focuses on using physical properties of matter to separate a mixture using filtration, magnetism, and evaporation. Students also have the opportunity to experiment with lots of fun lab equipment including funnels, hot plates, and magnets.

Phineas and Ferb ceased to be part of the pop-culture fabric of teens and I needed a new trajectory to engage students in the activity. My class gamification story-line involves an army of goblins invading the Realm of Heroes which students populate. For this lab students extracted valuable salt and mithril from sludge found on a mountain in our Realm of Heroes. I made up a sludge that contained mithril (chopped up paper clips), potting soil, sand, and salt.

*In case you didn't know mithril is ferromagnetic.

I had posted a few Quests on Classcraft previously so I knew how they worked a bit. The narrative I provided was linear and students progressed as they completed the lab. Students worked in their Classcraft teams. I allowed large teams to split into small teams. I made one assignment on Classroom that I linked to the first Task on the Classcraft Quest. I only wanted one document to have to refer to for the entire Quest. The link from Classroom to Classcraft only worked. I couldn't figure out how to link the other class periods to the assignment in Classroom. Maybe if I did it one period at a time? One of the bothersome things was that I had to keep advancing students through the Quest as they completed sections of the lab. A side benefit was that I was forced to provide feedback at each step. Many students though progressed through the lab activity without progressing in the Quest. I purposefully don't link Classcraft with grades. They could do the lab with out referring to the Quest at all if they wanted. With both being interlocked progress in one, though leads to progress in the other.



For this lab I also wanted to make it more 3D and NGSS. I forced myself to allow students to fail. I allowed student inquiry to progress at their pace. I tried not to provide ANY answers. Students used Chromebooks to take pictures of different parts of the lab to include in their reports. I also had students do Claim, Evidence, Reasoning (CER) at the end. Allowing for this form of inquiry took a few more days than planned. Here is an example of student work.

Was gamification of a lab worthwhile? Were the hours I put in to develop and assess students differently worth it? Results are mixed.

Pros

• Increased reading by students due to using a narrative
• Quest in Classcraft seemed to increase engagement
• I had fun!
• Students used Chromebooks/technology in a new way

Cons

• More time flipping between two formats: Classcraft and Classroom
• No noticeable increase in learning from last year based on summative assessment results
• More time on lab meant losing other content

Students not ending up "finishing" the lab by extracting mithril and/or salt: pro or con?

Boiling off water to get salt takes time. Even after three days of lab time some teams still hadn't finished because a) they had misplaced their sample(s), b) their methods were faulty, or c) they goofed off too much and didn't stay focused. These are common problems but exacerbated by releasing more control to students. I didn't assess in my quiz at the end if they learned that they need to label ALL samples. I didn't asses whether they remember how to set up a filter apparatus.

I think I will attempt to do this again next year. I expect it will change mainly due to changes in Classroom and Classcraft between now and next school year. I will try and do another integration later this year but need to think about what lab I will do it with. Please share and questions or feedback if you've done something similar or want to try something like this.