Sadly not a diorama

Hardware Assignment

This is less of an assignment and more of a story. When I was a little girl going to W. E. Thompson Public School in Kincardine, one of the older grades made these dioramas in shoe boxes. They made alien landscapes and Texas and the forest and the Parliament. They were displayed in the library and all of the little kids (including me) used to look at them instead of picking out their silent reading books. We all looked forward to the day when we too would be able to create these marvels of construction paper, pencil crayons and glue.

Sadly, that day never came. I don't know which teacher it was who made the dioramas with their class in grade 6 or 7 or whenever, but they left the school before I got to make one. I got to write a book report instead. (Not the same at all, not that I'm bitter).

I always thought that it was a good assignment, but when I started teaching math and programming, I found that the diorama opportunities were limited. The number 5 doesn't find itself in an enviroment that needs describing with construction paper. This is as close as I am ever going to get. Humour me. Maybe even use some construction paper or glitter glue on the inside of the shoe box.

Assignment

Get 2 shoe boxes.
Get 2 pieces of the same type of old junky hardware. You can't pick the same piece of old junky hardware as someone else. (Example: If Joe picks harddrive, Sarah can't pick harddrive).
In one shoe box:
- Label the pieces of the hardware. Maybe 4-5 labels per piece. This could be done with cunning little flags made out of toothpicks and construction paper or with labels stuck directly to the hardware.
- Make a VERY brief description of how it works in the lid of the shoebox. A small child in grade 6 should be able to understand it.
- Put a title pointing out what it is. Make the title look sort of nice, colour it?
In the other shoe box:
- Make a "test".
- Do not put a title or a description in this one.
- Label all of the parts that you labelled in the other shoe box with letters (eg. A). Then, a teacher, who will remain nameless but teaches TIK2O8, could write a test like: What is part A? What is part B?

Marking

Level	Criteria
1	That is one ugly shoebox. The labels appear to belong to another piece of hardware. Where is the test shoebox?
2	Most of the labels appear to be correct. Managed to attach an ugly title and a wordy-hard-to-understand description of the hardware.
3	Labels are correct. Title is present. Description is correct. Second "test" shoebox is decent too.
4	Your shoeboxes don't look that terrible. Very clear labels. Ready to use with grade 10s.
5	Your shoebox is almost as good as Ms. Gorski's. (Ms. Gorski promises an impartial judge to decide this)
6	Your shoebox is as good as Ms. Gorski's. (as decided by impartial judge)
7	Your shoebox is better than Ms. Gorski's. Oh so pretty. The grade 10s will crowd around and say it is the best in the class.