Lesson Plan

Choosing a College: Understanding the Outside View

Grade Level: 6-12

Length: 45-60 minutes

DE Domain: SD TP VAR

  • Identify outside information that could be helpful in understanding college options.
  • Update current thinking based on information from a variety of sources.

This lesson engages students in understanding how researching the outside view can provide valuable insights to guide their planning and decision-making in the college application process.

Focus Standard:

  • TP.4 Use probabilistic thinking when making predictions and evaluating real-world contexts.

Supported Standard(s):

  • SD.4 Gather and analyze information from multiple sources to evaluate decision options.
  • Online access for research
  • Optional: a list of suggested websites for researching information

Lesson:

Engage (5-8 minutes)

  • Ask students to come up with two things in their lives they are 100% sure of.  Then list two things they are not 100% sure of.
    • The goal of this question is to introduce the idea of thinking about things as having a likelihood of happening and that is rarely 0% or 100%
    • Discuss how thinking about the likelihood of events happening in percentages can be helpful.
    • Share the following statistics:
    • Discuss how knowing this information could be useful as they explore college options.

Apply (30-40 minutes)

  • Introduce students to the inside view and outside view as a way of framing their understanding.
    • Typically, when people make predictions, they tend to focus only on the particular details of that specific event. In this case, it might be using what you already know about a specific college to predict if it could be a good fit for you. This is called focusing on the inside view. But by focusing first on the outside view, or information about how other similar situations have gone before, we can make more probabilistically precise predictions about our present situation. 
  • Together, generate a list of questions that they could research by investigating the outside view for colleges they are considering:
    • What percentage of students are accepted?
    • What is the transfer rate?  4 year graduation rate?
    • What is the average starting salary after graduation?
  • Have students select a college of interest and research the outside view for the questions generated.

Reflect (5-7 minutes)

  • Bring the class together to discuss key takeaways from their research.
  • Suggested Questions:
    • What information were you able to find?
    • Did any of the information you found shift your thinking about a college?  Why or why not?
    • How can understanding the outside view help us make better predictions?
  • End with a quick self-assessment where students rate their confidence in the college selection process and any additional support they might need to succeed.

Differentiation:

  • Provide structured questions or prompts to help students who may struggle with open-ended reflections or discussions.
  • Offer more challenging scenarios or deeper exploration of probabilistic thinking for students who excel and need more complexity.
  • Conduct individual or small group check-ins with students who may need extra guidance or support in understanding the concepts or applying them to their own college selection process.
  • Pair students with peers who can provide support or insights in helping to understand concepts like probabilistic thinking.

Optional extensions:

  • Students referencing outside information in their discussions or reflections when considering their college options.
  • Thoughtful questions to guide their research on different college options.
  • Students making connections between the lesson content and their personal experiences.
  • Students expressing shifts in their perspectives or new considerations that have emerged from their research.

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