What subject do we want, and what do we want our students to be able to accomplish when this unit is over?
UNIT TITLE:
DR: Global Warming or Climate Change
suggestion: Diversity of Life
(MB) suggestion: Interdependency of Life
UNIT FOCUS:
DR: This is a research project that can encompass standard research as well as hands-on experiments. The main idea of this project is to get a perspective on their country's contribution to GW, collaborate with the students in their classroom, and then share those ideas and contributions with co-collaborators in other countries. The focus should be a Global Perspective on GW from a scientific standpoint.
(MB) suggestions: In regard to the Interdependency of Life the unit focus could be the responsibility we share as members of a huge "life- community". In other words, it could encompass the notion "life" is a give-and-take proposition i.e. sometimes we are on the receiving end, sometimes the giving end. Balance.
TOPIC: Suggestion: the role of humans in the "life-community."
DR: Causes of Global Warming, Damage, America's Contribution (or add your country here), Effects on Ecosystems, and Taking Action.
POSSIBLE AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT?
DR: I suggest that students create a Google Earth Tour highlighting the different sub topics of global warming. Students will be broken into the Five Categories (causes, damage, their country's contribution, taking action, and effects on ecosystems). The final assessment will be a Google Earth Tour that highlights ten different places and events surrounding their Category. Each student can creat their own based on the research they did with their group. Each student will then embed their Google tour into the wiki page category to create a "textbook," if you will. This wiki could be shared by science teachers in different countries, and students could continue to add to it, highlighting that country's contribution to global warming as well as what their country is doing to prevent it.
Students could add comments to the following Voicethreads (Structural, functional and behavioural features of American or Australian Animals) or make one of their own;
http://vociethread.com/share/154981 (American Animals)
http://voicethread.com/share/118275 (Australian Animals 1)
http://vociethread.com/share/154947 (Australian Animals 2)
Comments (3)
Scott said
at 9:01 pm on Aug 7, 2008
We can go several directions here, but I feel the focus should be on food webs/chains and maybe touch on water management as well. For example, a lesson on the build-up mercury in fish and why there are limits on eating some fish. You could also turn the previous question into a project based assessment.
Daniel Rezac said
at 12:38 pm on Dec 31, 2008
I'm going way big on my topic idea, I hope you don't mind. Reason I chose global warming was because I polled my students. I asked them what they thought was the most important science driven issue, and they all said global warming. The sub topics can include ideas from fish to water management to chemistry. That's where the students can really take the kind of science that they enjoy and make it their own.
Jeremy said
at 12:27 am on Jan 11, 2009
I haven't used Google Earth to make a tour. Can you explain how that works? I will try it out when I get free time, but I'm curious how you would see it working.
I would like to see students do some hard science or application in their assessment. If students have learned how to test air quality, track the encroachment of shorelines, and observe changes in glaciers, then making a Google Earth presentation doesn't seem to assess those things. Also, when we look at the standards we can address at 7th grade, we may have to come back and revise this Big Idea (as it is very broad.)
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