Mr Varty’s S2 Science class have recently been learning about plastics as part of the Chemistry Compounds unit that they have been completing. One of the learning intentions from this lesson was that pupils should be able to identify the name of a plastic when provided with the name of the monomer. Pupils were formatively assessed using Tarsia cards that required pupils to work collaboratively with their peers to match the correct monomer to the polymer that it could form. If successful each side of every triangle would have a correct match. The following video shows two groups working on this activity.
Here is an example of one groups cards that were about to be formatively assessed.
Tarsia cards for any subject or activity can be made using the software from the following website that can be accessed by clicking here.
Fantastic! I’ve downloaded the software and made a ‘Naming Compounds’ puzzle for our S3 Chemistry course at St Kent’s.
OK so science are now pinching the wonderful maths resource Tarsia. Only joking!
Tarsia puzzles are a great way to encourage collaborative working in class. I use them a lot as a “revision” resource before moving further into a topic e.g. before moving on to sine rule/cosine rule we would have a tarsia “session” on some basic trig.
One word of warning. Do not “over egg the pudding” with tarsia puzzles in every lesson/topic/subject. The students will quickly get bored. Oh and leave yourself a bit of time for cutting out the puzzles. it takes longer than you think.
You can download the software at http://www.mmlsoft.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=12 though I am not sure you can do this in school.
For some excellent pre made maths tarsia puzzles go to http://www.mrbartonmaths.com/jigsaw.htm