Brenden is Teaching
 
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Kath01

NameWater Conservation
Ownerkath01
Level2
TopicSocial Learning
UnitWater
Description
File 1956_Water Inquiry Unit.doc
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Sequential Learning Experiences

 

 

Sequential Learning Experiences

 

Inquiry Learning

Sequential LearningExperiences

Resources

Audit of

pedagogical focus

Principles of Learning & Teaching

 

Tuning In

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Picture Story Books

Students are read the following books toengage their interest in the importance of water to thecommunity:

Tiddalick: the frog who caused a floodby Robert Roennfeldt

Drought by Tricia Oktober

Students will discuss the importance of waterto the characters in each book.

 

Planting Pansies

The class will plant two pansy plants in twoseparate pots. One plant will be watered everyday and one plantwill not be watered. Using the school digital camera, students willtake initial photographs of the two plants and will each write aprediction in their journals about what they think will happen overtime to each plant (students will write in these journals atvarious times during the unit). Students will have the opportunityto share their predictions with the class.

 

Water Conservation Game

Students will play the online game Bert andPhils Water Busters! on the computer (Seattle Government,2007).

They will discover various water conservationtechniques around the home (this links with the pamphlets that weresent home by the Federal Government and local council) (SeeAppendix 1 for print out views from game)

 

Picture story books

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pansy plants, pots, water, digital camera,student journals, pencils

 

 

 

Computers

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence andself-motivation - Students aremotivated to learn by an engaging introduction to the topic ofwater conservation. Students also work independently on theirjournals.

 

Students needs,backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in thelearning program - Backgroundinterests are taken into account by the provision of a multi-modalclassroom (computers, planting of plants, picture books). Needs aretaken into account by the computer game and picture books beingaimed at their age level.

 

Learning connectsstrongly with communities and practice beyond theclassroom - Students learn ofeffects to environments outside the classroom such as drought andthis links in the pamphlets that were sent home by the FederalGovernment and local council.

Preparing tofind out

 

Viewing of plants

Students will look at the pansy plants andrecord changes in their journals as well as take more photographswith the digital camera. They same plant will also be wateredagain.

 

What do we know about how water isused?

Students will participate in a Think PairShare exercise. They will think individually about how people usewater in their households and in the wider community, pair with apartner to discuss their understandings and then share with therest of the class. The class will then create a Spider Map fromthis information on How water is used at home and in thecommunity. The teacher will facilitate the construction of theSpider Map so that students recognise that not just humans needwater. Assessment is imbedded through the teacher making notes onmisconceptions of students after viewing the Spider Map created bystudents.

 

What do we know about how we can save water?

Students will work in small groups tobrainstorm How we can save water at home and in the community.Each group will write their results on long strips of colouredpaper and after this exercise is completed, students will walkaround and view each others finished product. Assessment isimbedded through the teacher making notes after viewing eachgroups work.

 

What do we want to find out at CERES?

Students will prepare for an excursion to theCentre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies(CERES) Environmental Park in Brunswick by working in their chosengroups to design questions about water conservation that they wantto find out during their time at the venue. Assessment is imbeddedthrough the teacher giving formative assessment in the form offeedback to students as they create their questions.

Pansy plants, water, digital camera,journals

 

Paper, textas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strips of coloured paper, textas

 

 

 

 

Paper, pencils

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - Spider Map and long paper strips will be examined byteacher. Annotated work notes about each group and theirmisconceptions and how they work together will be established.Teacher will also give feedback as students are forming questionsto ask CERES workers.

 

The learning environmentis supportive and productive -Students are supported to learn in a rich environment thatis engaging through a variety of exercises and teacherfeedback.

 

Learning connectsstrongly with communities and practice beyond the classroom- Throughbrainstorming of ways to help water conservation in the widercommunity.

 

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence and self-motivation- Self-motivation is fostered as students form questions thatthey want to find out the answer to. Interdependence is fosteredthrough group work.

 

Students needs,backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in thelearning program - Students perspectives and needs arereflected as I am trying to find out their prior knowledge.Interests reflected through variation in types of activities.

Finding Out

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excursion to CERES

Students will go on an excursion to CERESwhere they will participate in three activities of the WaterKeepers Program which is catered towards their age group:

  • Water Conservation in the Home wherestudents learn about how people use water in the home andparticipate in activities where they learn about how to savewater

 

  • Merri Creek Walk where students hearstories about the creek and then walk along the bank to viewchanges that have occurred over time. Students also learn about theeffects of litter in our waterways and how to prevent thisoccurring.

 

  • The Water Cycle where students learn aboutthe water cycle through playing the Water Cycle Game and singingthe Water Cycle Song

(CERES, 2007)

Students will also ask their formulatedquestions to CERES workers and they will write down theanswers.

 

Water use

I will show students how much water is neededto do several household activities as well as some of theactivities they have highlighted that occur in the community.Students will help me to fill a one litre container and they willestimate how many times this would be needed to be refilled tocomplete activities. I will take the statistics from the childrensnon-fiction s book, Saving Water:

  • Flushing a toilet: 13 litres
  • Having a bath: 120 litres if half-full
  • Cleaning teeth with tap running: 5litres
  • Cleaning teeth without tap running: 1litres
  • Washing dishes by hand: 18 litres
  • Washing dishes with a dishwasher: 55litres
  • To make a 100g chocolate bar: 1 litre
  • To make a newspaper: 9 litres
  • Sack of cement: 180 litres
  • 1 kilogram of wheat: 730 litres

(Dalgleish, 2002, pp. 14, 18, 20)

 

Water conservation strategies for theseindustries will then be discussed. I will facilitate by differentstudents volunteering to read small paragraphs to the rest of theclass from the childrens non-fiction book, A Water Report -Water Conservation.

 

Walk around school grounds

Students will walk around the school andparticipate in a school audit. They will take notes of how theythink the school could save water as well as what they think theschool is doing well to save water. For example, a goodcharacteristic of the schools current water conservationstrategies is that buckets are put under the drinking water tapsbut an area for improvement could be that the buckets are oftenoverflowing and there needs to be appointed students to ensure aregular pick up of buckets. Assessment is imbedded as the teacherwrites anecdotal notes on the progress of students after viewingpropositions to improve the schools watersaving strategies.

Formulated questions from each groups,pencils

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A 1 Litre container, water, Childrensnon-fiction books: Saving Water and

A Water Report - Water Conservation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper, pencils

 

 

 

 

 

Learning connectsstrongly with communities and practice beyond theclassroom - Through excursion toCERES, students learn about water conservation in the home andwider community. So, there is a link between community andlearning.

 

Students needs,backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in thelearning program - Background perspectives and needs arereflected as students find out information that will challengetheir misconceptions. Interests are reflected by a variation in theway of teaching (i.e. excursion, hands on work and walk aroundschool).

 

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence and self-motivation- Students are promoted to beindependent thinkers as they learn what they can each do to helpconserve water. Students are self-motivated through the feeling ofempowerment to make a difference.

 

Students are challengedand supported to develop levels of thinking and application- Application of water conservationsideas to school scenario through school walk. Deep levels ofthinking encouraged through excursion and application of waterconservation to different scenarios.

 

The learning environmentis supportive and productive - Groupwork encourages students to be supportive of one another anddifferent teaching strategies and resources allow the finding outphase to be productive.

 

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - Teacher adds to anecdotal notes after viewingpropositions to improve the schools water saving strategies fromeach group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorting Out

 

 

 

 

Flow Chart

Students will take final photographs of thepansy flowers and write in their journals whether their predictionswere correct. They will then complete a class flow chart using thesequence of photographs and the class will discuss the reason forthe results and will write this on the flow chart. Assessment isimbedded as the teacher will write notes on each students journalafter viewing it.

 

Word splash

Each group of students will sort out theirinformation gained from the finding out phase through a wordsplash of water conservation strategies for different levels inthe community. Each group will create the word splash by firstlydividing a large piece of paper into three sections: household,school and wider community. Students will then write their ideas onpost-it notes and splash their post-it note onto the correctsection.

 

Presenting findings

Each group will then use their preferred wayof presenting to demonstrate their learning about both water useand water conservation strategies in the household and widercommunity. Students could create a video production, role-play,artistic piece, PowerPoint presentation, poster, jingle etc. Thefinal piece will be presented to the class. Assessment is imbeddedas each group will be marked using a rubric I have designed andeach student will also complete a self-assessment task (for a copyof these two assessment tasks see Appendices 2 and 3). Each groupwill also receive teacher feedback throughout the process and willbe made explicitly aware of the criteria they will be marked upon.(Students will work on this presentation in this lesson and presentin subsequent lessons to the class).

 

 

Pansy plants, digital camera, journals, A2sheet of paper, glue, textas

 

 

Paper, post-it notes, textas

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper, pencils, textas, paint, video camera,materials for making a model (cardboard, glue etc), computers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - Student journals will be viewed to view studentunderstandings and teacher annotated notes will be written.Students will be marked using a rubric by the teacher and will alsoreceive formative assessment in the form of feedback during thelesson. A self-assessment task will also be completed.

 

Students needs,backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in thelearning program - Student interestsare reflected as they have a choice in the method in which theypresent their findings.

 

Students are challengedand supported to develop levels of thinking andapplication - Students develop levelsof application as they are applying their findings to a poster,video production etc.

 

The learning environmentis supportive and productive -Environment is supportive and productive as students have a say intheir style of presenting and receive teacher feedback.

 

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence andself-motivation - Through group workand choice of presenting style.

Going Further

 

Digital storyboard

Each group will choose a water conservationstrategy of personal interest to them that they learnt throughtheir questions to the CERES workers. They will formulate ascenario where someone is wasting water and will make a digitalstoryboard to show how the problem is solved. Students will planwhat each photograph will contain and what will be written.Students can either act out the scenario in the photographs or makemodels out of play doh and take photographs of these. Each groupwill share their storyboard with the rest of the class and theteacher will view each storyboard and write annotated notes. Groupswill also be given formative assessment in the form of feedbackthroughout the construction of a digital storyboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

School set of digital cameras, paper, pencils,textas, play doh

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - Students will receive feedbackthroughout the lesson.

 

Students needs,backgrounds, perspectives and interests are reflected in thelearning program - Studentsinterests are taken into account as the learning program representstelling a story using digital media because many students areinterested and engaged by this. Different learning styles are alsoaccounted for (such as the use of play dough for tactilelearners).

 

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence andself-motivation - Self-motivation isfostered as students can choose their own topic and they arerepresenting answers to their own formulated questions.

 

Students are challengedand supported to develop levels of thinking andapplication - Deep levels ofapplication are promoted as students apply what they have learnt toa new situation.

 

The learning environmentis supportive and productive -Students are supported through teacher feedback.

Making connections

 

 

Written and Video Journals

Each student will compare the strips ofcoloured paper on which they wrote water saving strategies duringthe tuning in phase with their current ideas about waterconservation (and the word splash they created). Each student willalso compare their current ideas about different types of water usewith the ideas they wrote down on the Spider Map. They will thenall write journals about:

  • What they learnt
  • How they learnt
  • How their ideas have changed
  • How they will act differently to savewater

 

These written journals will be made into aclass book after they are all completed. Students will then recordtheir journals on the school video camera. The class book andrecorded journals will later be shared with other classes doing thesame unit of work. Assessment is imbedded as the teacher will writenotes comparing students tuning in ideas to current ideas.

Coloured strips of paper written on duringtuning in phase, Spider Map, journals, video camera

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - The teacher will read every students journal and writenotes on their progress. Teacher will compare tuning in ideas tocurrent ideas and observe students metacognitionskills.

 

Students are challengedand supported to develop levels of thinking andapplication Students are challengedto think about the way they learn (metacognition skills) and howtheir ideas have changed.

 

The learning environmentpromotes independence, interdependence andself-motivation - Self-motivation ispromoted as students can present the journal in an engaging digitalway. Independence is promoted by students thinking about the waythey learn and writing a journal on it.

Taking Action

 

 

 

 

 

Publicising findings

Students will apply their learning to reallife situations by either:

      Writing a letter to the school principal about suggestions forimprovements to water saving practices at the school

or

      Making signs to put around the school that advertise good waterconservation practices for students and teachers while atschool

or

      Planning and then making a short video about water conservationpractices that should be used at the school and home

 

Assessment is imbedded as formative assessment is given in the form offeedback to students.

Paper, video camera

Learning connectsstrongly with communities and practice beyond theclassroom - Students put what theyhave learnt into practice to make changes to thecommunity.

 

Assessment practices arean integral part of learning and teaching - Formative assessment is given in the form offeedback to students.

 

The learning environmentis supportive and productive -Students are supported through teacher feedback.

 

Students are challengedand supported to develop levels of thinking andapplication - Students develop levelsof thinking and application through applying their learning to acommunity situation.