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The Student-Run News Site of Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Keeping you WIRED in to all things Westside.

Westside Wired

The Student-Run News Site of Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Keeping you WIRED in to all things Westside.

Westside Wired

The Student-Run News Site of Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Keeping you WIRED in to all things Westside.

Westside Wired

Honors pre-calculus students experience personalized, “game-ified” learning

Honors+pre-calculus+students+experience+personalized%2C+game-ified+learning

Students in honors pre-calculus are experiencing a different type of learning for chapter seven, their last chapter before finals. Honors pre-calculus teacher Kevin Koch, or in this unit “Agent K”, has created materials for his students to learn the information in the means of solving a mystery.

“We are doing a unit on conic sections which has been personalized and game-ified all at the same time,” Koch said. “Basically students are able to work at their own pace through the material and as they complete their tasks basically their goal is to find missing mathematicians that have been kidnapped.”

This unit takes place inside and outside of the classroom, allowing students to work at a pace best for themselves. Sophomore Sean Sindt sees this as a fun way to learn the information.

“We’re all agents and Mr. Koch made himself a secret identity of Agent K, and he’s got emails and a twitter profile and everything for it,” Sindt said. “Basically we’re just going over chapter seven but we’re learning it through a game. [This style of learning] is pretty fun to me. Since we get to do it at our own pace it means I don’t have to sit in class and go through lectures and stuff I can just do it on my own.”

Once the students crack the mystery, they may potentially earn prizes.

“I don’t think anyone’s finished yet, but we might get a reward [if we crack the code],” Sindt said.

Koch see’s this personalized, “game-ified” unit as a way for students to have freedom with the unit’s material.

“Sometimes seeing a little video or seeing a couple notes about something is enough to trigger the memories that they can get by and they don’t need me as much,” Koch said. “That’s been one of the big pushes in the districts, to allow students more freedom and just a way to create that.”

Good luck to the honors pre-calculus agents as they continue working to solve the mystery.

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The Student-Run News Site of Westside High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Keeping you WIRED in to all things Westside.
Honors pre-calculus students experience personalized, “game-ified” learning