My reaction to the assigned article is ...

that the authors were right about many things. Students typically understand concepts much better when they are able to make real world connections, like with the sprinkler and the amusement park. However I think there was one aspect of the article that was absent that should have been present; how the activities went in the authors' classrooms.

I was disappointed that they choose not to discuss the students' reactions to the activities or the students' performance on the activities as compared to the more traditional assignment. I think it would have been interesting to do this a more of a comparative study. Students could have tried the more traditional activities and then the more real-life activities . Or have one class try one assignment and another class try the other assignment. This would have given the authors more concrete information about the success of less traditional assessments/assignments.