Meaningful and Relevant Assignments

A quickie via David Warlick:

Jakes told me about a project that resulted, where the health students were asked to do research on many aspects of their backgrounds, include their family health history, and to identify any specific health risks that they face. Then the students were assigned to research those risks and to learn as much about them as they could. After making themselves experts, the students had to learn what kinds of habits and behaviors they should be engaged in now, as preventative measures to their facing these health risks in the future, and to write up a plan. Finally, the students had to create a compelling presentation about what they had learned, and deliver the presentation to the rest of the class.

I think this is a great assignment - addresses the curriculum, but in a much more compelling and engaging way for the students. And - to top it off - it has some real benefit to the students and their families. I think we should all try to think of at least one assignment in each of our classes that we can make as personally meaningful to students as this one is.