how long?

[amykmurphy]

When you do the "mini challenge" with your students, how long do you allow them to plan, work on it, and present it?

[awatson]

I haven't ever done a mini-challenge.  Do you?  Are they helpful for your students?

[maggie.matthews]

I have had it work in about a day... I think it is a good check-in with the students. I typically collect part of the challenge (script for the movie, marketing for soap, dossiers for CSI...) early and this is a good first draft!

[pretzej]

Hi, all!  I do them for a day - sometimes even just as a thought exercise as HW and discussion w/ or even just about the rubric the next day.  I have to admit, though, it is the first thing to go if I feel like time is tight (though it probably shouldn't be...).

[Eisenkraft]

Let's remember the intended purposes of the mini-challenge:
Practice:  students get to practice the challenge and get a sense of what is really demanded of them.
Feedback:  students should share feedback with other student groups.  It is at the mini-challenge that students find out that certain approaches are not nearly as "fun" or "entertaining" or "humorous" as they may have anticipated.  Other students find at the mini-challenge that some groups are taking this very seriously and that they should get their act together.
Remove some of the mystery:  Students can see how others are approaching the challenge and can pick up ideas from other groups.  It will also help them to focus on the future chapter lessons and gives these a framework.  Having some students stumble on the lower stakes mini-challenge will help them succeed at the higher stakes final challenge.
Engineering/Tech Design:  the design cycle expects that there will be refinements as one moves around the components of the cycle.