The Quadrilateral Unit of Geometry is usually my least favorite to teach.  While there are very cool properties of quadrilaterals and their interconnectedness, it is SO MUCH information to teach (not to mention so much information for the students to learn and remember).  Last year, I came up with the idea to have my students make a music video highlighting the various properties of quadrilaterals.  This was inspired by watching videos like these at home with my two young children.

This year, I took it one step further.  I made this Unit a Project-Based-Unit in which I led with the Music Video project and instead of teaching them all of the properties, I gave them large pictures of each quadrilateral.  With many tools available to them (rulers, patty paper, protractors, etc) they were instructed to figure out what was special about each of these shapes through direct measurement and investigation.  They had two weeks of free work periods to find what was special about the shapes, to make lyrics that incorporated what they found for a song of their choosing and to record their music video.

Only two of the six groups finished on time.  This continues to remind me that our students have a really hard time with self-pacing and open, free time.  Fortunately, the groups that didn’t finish on time were still able to produce something by the time the “Share” period was over:  Some had to do a live performance because of technical difficulties, and some had videos that showed amazing potential but that were ultimately disappointing due to time running out.  Two groups asked at the last minute (i.e. 15 minutes before the project was due) if they could have an extension.  To be fair there were no extensions, instead I told them they had to pull something together and “Make it Work!” to reference Tim Gunn.  The girls worked like crazy in those last moments and I could physically see their adrenaline pumping in the form of sweat, labored breaths and rosy cheeks!  While I certainly didn’t want the end of the project to go this way, I think it’s important for them to know that some deadlines are hard and to feel the urgency and teamwork needed to pull things together quickly.

I highlight here two videos that I think were nicely done for two different reasons.  The first is simply just fun to watch.  They had great visuals, choreography, and they clearly had fun with this project.  While their lyrics had some issues, the video matched the spirit I was hoping to see in this project.  The second video shows successful teamwork.  These girls split up the work nicely and put the effort in at home (or even in the car!) to complete the video on time.  Their lyrics were awesome.  While I wish they had a bit more passion and creativity, there is something about the raw nature of this video that just makes me smile.  Finally I share this video that clearly has technical issues.  This group created lyrics to a song by Macklemore and Kesha’s song, Good Old Days.  Their lyrics are awesome and I love that they chose this modern song which combines melody and rap.  If they could have executed this, it would have been amazing.

Finally, the students did have a fairly traditional test in which they could have their lyrics printed to use as a study guide.  Overall, this was a fun project and I’ll definitely do again, but perhaps with more check-ins so that the kids can finish and execute their amazing ideas on time.