The Discovery of Competencies using the Mystery Box Challenge in PE
By Louise Sansano HPEC Regional Representative
Who hasn’t watched an episode of MasterChef Canada or any of those cooking shows and wonder how these skilled, creative and dynamic chefs are able to make and present amazing dishes with a box of mysterious ingredients?
While watching one of these episodes, I thought of my physical education students. What would my students do if they were presented with a ‘mystery box’ of equipment and were asked to make something fun, entertaining and ‘tasty’ for others?
So the following lesson was developed… The Mystery Box Challenge for grades 5-8. Students were put into groups of approximately 4-6 and given a box or a cart full of equipment and a task sheet. The task was to create a game with the equipment given. Now each cart had different pieces of equipment. For example one cart had a skipping rope, a scooter, a rubber chicken, a ball, hula hoops, and a few pylons. Each student had a role too: presenter/demonstrator, writer and reader. Now each role could have more than one student. After a few classes, students would then demonstrate their new game and then all the other students would have an opportunity to play their game after all had presented.
As we teachers are becoming more familiar with the competencies that Alberta Education has mandated, this lesson really touches upon many or not all of the competencies; critical thinking, communication, problem solving, collaboration, managing information, cultural and global citizenship, creativity and innovation and personal growth and well being. As stated on the Alberta Education website “students use and develop competencies when they encounter unfamiliar or challenging situations. Competencies help students draw and build upon what they know, how they think and what they can do.”
