PBL #1- COLOESSEUM

The problem based learning assignment group one (Phil, Remo, and myself) had was structured towards the Roman colloseum. The following is the PBL situation:

The Big Contest

Part One

Sam carefully maneuvered his motorcycle between the cars in the parking lot next to the International office. He is a man on a mission; the latest university budget cut has left his group with little money to run a program very dear to his heart, the “International Business and Technology” program. There is no money what-so-ever to travel; meanwhile his group members had set their eyes on the Eternal City “Rome” as their next destination.

Sam was in a reflective mood, he just came from the tribunal meeting where he had a serious discussion about keeping the program alive. However, without a travel abroad experience, his will have to limit their activities to seminars and discussion. He predicts that most of the members will drop out if the international travel component is eliminated. Sam‘s group wanted to raise money, but did not know how? They have heard of the cut in the international grants for travel but they did not feel that bake sale can make-up difference to help them in their travel expenses. After all, the trip to Rome will cost two thousand dollars without food. They could go on the diet…. But even that is not sufficient!!

As Sam stopped by the International office, he noticed a sign about a competition posted by the Association of Professionals for Preservation of Heritage (APPHS). The APPHS is trying to raise the awareness of school students of all ages of professional careers in preservations of heritage by providing exciting resources that stimulate their interests. The association is phasing-in a new program about international and historical architecture, construction and culture; it has announced a contest for college students to develop resources for school students about the subject in the Eternal City, Rome.

Resources on Construction in Rome for Children of all Ages

Prize is $5,000 in scholarship- The scholarship will be used for exploration of archaeological sites involving Historical Structures.

Guidelines:

1. Develop Authentic and Engaging Educational Resources (in any form) that stimulate the interest of school students in historical architecture, construction and art in Rome and excite their inquisitive minds of the culture in Rome at that time.
2. Although the entire roman heritage is addressed, the focus will be on the Colosseum project
3. Resources shall include but are not limited to art, history, technological solution to building design and construction problems.
4. The research of the heritage shall link the history to the present and future
5. The proposal shall extend to methods of dissemination of the resources to school children.

Selection of winning proposals will be based on the proposal strength in engaging the school children, fostering their interests in conservation of heritage professions, and the proposed resources and their methods of dissemination. Oral Presentation will be given in front of a committee of professionals on Tuesday October 28. The committee encourages the students to be creative in their proposal presentations.

Part Two
At University Hall

The next day, Sam, Angel, Antonio, Sarah, Matt and Andrew are discussing the subject at lunch at one corner of University Hall cafeteria. “Look dude”, said Antonio, “my major is Spanish, I have taken some Gen Ed classes in History and Culture, but repairing the steps of our back porch is my only and last experience with construction projects”. Sarah mumbled “I am a Business major, what do I know about the subject? I am just interested in traveling.” Matt remarked kiddingly, “I am a techie I may be able to contribute in the technology area but the Roman did not have computers then!” After a heated discussion about the subject Andrew stood up and said “hold-off you guys, we each have our own strength and we all have done research, it is all about research, isn’t it..” “No!!” quickly interrupted Matt, “it is also about putting together a successful proposal and delivering it.” Angel who remained quiet during the entire discussion, raised her head and said “I really think we can do it and have fun on the way!! There are zillions of materials available on the subjects, all we have to do is to assemble the information, make sure of its accuracy and document it, then deliver the proposal in a creative way. That should be lots of fun!!”

Finally, Sam puts an end to the conversation: “look guys, this will give just about $1000 a piece to go to Rome, isn’t that the destination we discussed last term. So.. OKAY!! We have been at this now for a whole hour, let us vote. How many are willing to take the plunge and pull their weight.” Sam, Angel, Matt, and Andrew raised their hand. “OK!! Let us meet on Saturday and draft a C-Map and make some plans.”

Reflection:

1) I learned a lot about the Colosseum since it was the basis of our PBL. I learned about the history of Rome that includes the Colosseum. I also learned a lot about the sport of gladiator fighting, such as the origin and the type of people involved. I learned about the other kinds of games displayed at the Colosseum. Through my teammates, I learned a lot about the construction of the structure and the basic construction of the arch since the arch is the basis of the Colosseum. I also learned about the Veradum, the spectators sun protection. There was a lot of information about the Colosseum that any source that I went to, I learned something new.

2) The three of us read through the PBL and decided that we needed to create some sort of presentation that could be interesting for all ages. Using the PBL as a guideline, we created a c-map to show all the ideas and topics that were related to the Colosseum. From there, we split the categories so each one of us had a few things to research. Since we had to have a presentation for all ages, we needed to simplify things enough for younger ages to understand but also not too simplified for the older pupils.

3) It helped a lot to work in a group environment. There are so many categories that the Colosseum has that in order for most, if not all, the information to be covered it is necessary to do research in groups. All the members in my group did their share of the work and if one of us found information for someone else's category, we gave it to that person.

4) The overall PBL experience was new to me and I did not know exactly how to approach this type of learning. To me, the problem was a bit difficult to figure out exactly what was wanted. Our presentation had the necessary information but it probably wasn't the best format for the problem. After having experience with one PBL, it will be easier for me to work on the next one.

Presentation slides:



In our presentation, we used a scene from the movie Gladiator called "Maximus the Merciful" to show gladiatorial fighting. The following is the Gladiator trailer that includes gladiator fighting scenes: