Gr 12 PAT - Phase 1

Thank goodness for long weekends. I have finished marking Phase 1 of the Gr 12 PAT and have had time for reflection. What is clear is that the learners did not research their subject, and many created stupid questions. So many had the question ‘What will happen if all the appliances are switched off?’ Well, the answer – they CANNOT all be switched off – what about the freezer and security system? I had hoped that the work would be checked by someone who could think! I had hoped that by the time they reached me basic errors would have been corrected.
Marking this phase took a great deal of concentration and thought, and time. I have changed many many questions, and the learners will have to fix many more questions now in Phase 2. Well I am glad that the learners at least have begun.
It was not a good idea to have marked this with a 'let us see how weak/clever the learners are' attitude as the work is being marked in phases. They have to start and this got them going. My grade average was 66%. When the marks are accumulated the weak and bright learners will be obvious.

Gr 12 PAT Phase 1

I have started marking my Phase 1. It is obvious that many learners have not done their homework and read about the subject. Some of their questions are wrong, and the places where some find the answers are equally wrong. They seem to use 'survey' as an information source in the wrong places. Grrr!

I note that the rubric does not go into quality of the questions, or if the learners labeled their questions correctly. That is fine. We must stay with the rubric! But we can tweak the rubric and use an improved one with the grade 10s and 11s. At least we have got the kids working! I did like the table format for doing the work.

Gr 12 PAT Phase 1

For the PAT you have to find a solution to a local resource problem and present the solution to the local municipality. You need to investigate various solutions, and present them all showing the best solution for the local municipality.
When you do phase 1, you should have done a great deal of background reading and thought of 4-5 possible solutions to your problem. In phase 1 you plan how to get full detailed information about all of the solutions. This information must be proveable, i.e. the name of a person who made a statement, the results of a survey to prove a point, the URL where you found a fact. In order to get enough details to solve a problem you need to ask questions on at least 4 levels.
The application packages are not important yet – they will become obvious as you collect the information. We create clear questions so we do not waste time, so we know that we are investigating things that will help us solve the problem.
Second year students doing the CAT ACE course at CPUT were given the PPTs Information management and the PAT and Phase 1, and the Gr 12 PAT instructions. They had to do their PAT on printer problems in the CAT class using the rubrics from the Gr 12 PAT. Here are 3 examples of their Phase 1 – Shah, Van der Berg and Van Staden. Look at the Description of the task, Main question and then the Questions. All of the examples have good points!