The idea of designing a lesson that could allow students to be personally engaged and involved sparked an idea in my teach team to focus on systems of equations with stained glass windows. In this lesson, we start off by giving a brief history of stained glass windows and showing examples of artwork done with stained glass. Next, we would let students design their own windows using a system of equations as their blueprint. The quadratic would serve as the outline of their window, then students could add their own lines that intersected the graph to form a system and split their stained glass windows into different portions. Finally, once students are done building their window and solving for their system algebraically, they are given the opportunity to create a crest or symbol they could include on their art piece. With a diverse classroom, the intention was to provide students of different backgrounds an opportunity to share something meaningful to them. So once the planning portion is complete, students are given materials, such as construction paper, tissue paper, glue and scissors to actually construct the window they designed. With any time left at the end, students could then present their windows to their peers, sharing their equations, points of intersections, and significance of their crest. The crest design process was intended for students to take ownership over their window so that they could precisely construct their work and later take it home to hang up or keep in the classroom to exhibit their work.

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      My team conducted this lesson in an Algebra II class. While students submitted their crest designs and began constructing their windows, we saw that almost all students were engaged in the activity and took their work seriously. Many students included symbols that were meaningful to them, as seen in the examples of student work. After calculating the math and moving onto their window, one group of students was very determined to get the right colors and sizes for their artwork. This interaction is worth noting because in previous lessons these students were often disengaged or off task. But through this lesson, many students demonstrated the same change in attitude as they proceeded with the activity. Overall, the students worked collaboratively in their pairs, were focused on making their designs, and were eager to finish their window. We did run out of time for most students to finish their work, but it was great to see how many students wanted to take their windows home for the weekend to finish.

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     In order to improve and increase opportunities for equity and agency, I would provide more resources of artwork to explore, include time to brainstorm ideas of a crest with their partners or individually, and collect a request for any additional supplies students may want to include for their window. With this, I would want to emphasize to my students that their crest could also be symbolic of a piece of their culture they may be proud of or something that represents a piece of their personality. These are important aspects of each student’s lives and should be appreciated and acknowledged in the classroom. Since students are also grouped in pairs, diversifying some of the groups may be socially beneficial for students, especially if they are able to discuss the significance of their crest.

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    This lesson includes aspects of Maker Education that I hope to include more into my classroom. Maker Education provides students with the opportunity to interact with the lesson by making their own product that connects with the lesson content and provides student agency and creativity to drive the project. Here, students were excited to make their own windows and share something important to them. Learn more about Maker Education and my journey with UTeach Maker here.