The Go For Gold! assignments went out to all the grade 10 pre-cal classes in the school yesterday; due next Friday. On Monday all the grade 11 pre-cal students will get theirs to be handed in the following Monday. That will give everyone a week to do their own preparation for the final exams.

Some of you may be wondering what's a Go For Gold! assignment?!? The idea is to get the students to focus all their energies on learning. Here's how it works:

I reproduce an old exam, slap a cover page on it, and tell the students that they have a week or so to do the whole thing. It's worth 5% of their class mark. (In my class anyway. Other teachers handle the marks differently.) They're allowed to get help from each other, other students in other classes, me, other teachers in the building as often as they like. They can even submit it early, ask me to review it and check if there are any errors. If there are they can redo the work until it's perfect. Here are the Assignment Conditions from the cover page:

• » You Must Get 100%

• »You must solve all questions perfectly showing all work; even for multiple choice questions.

• »You may get help from the teacher as often and as much as you like.

• »All work must be presented clearly, neatly and easy to read.

• »Anything less than EXCELLENCE is unacceptable!

Remember, luck has nothing to do with it.
It's all about doing your best!

This is a little different from how I did this last year. Firstly, I was the only teacher doing it; now there's three of us. Also, last year they could only get help from me. This year we've decided to blow that right open and let them get any help from anyone, any way, any time. The stakes are a little higher though. There are only two possible marks for this assignment: Excellent! (100%) or Unacceptable (0%).

The school is buzzing, the kids are excited and after only one day they're working hard at learning. Ba da ba ba baaaa, I'm lovin' it! ;-)

Update

The grade 10's are talking about Go For Gold! in the chatbox tonight. Some of their comments:

Mathy
6:39 PM Jan 12, 2006 IP 79:88

woah, im getting sucked into the "go for gold" i just cant stop :P

omg
7:38 PM Jan 12, 2006 IP 77:26

haha same here

........

janet
10:11 PM Jan 12, 2006 IP 161:156

I started on the go for gold assignment, and it's really not that bad! I am liking it so far.. except, I haven't reached the long question part yet...

Cool.