Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? To inquire into the following:

Class/grade: 3rd grade School: Oak Forest Elementary Title: Radical Recycling

Age group: 7 - 9 School code: 006610

transdisciplinary theme PYP planner Teacher(s): Michenko, Ding, C. Williams, Szczodrowski, Murdock, Moore, Thorne, Johnson, Shaw, and Rodgers Date: January 29, 2012 Proposed duration: 20 hours over 5 weeks

Sharing the Planet An inquiry into rights & responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people & with other living things; communities & the relationships within & between them; access to equal opportunities; peace & conflict resolution. central idea Natural resources support life.

Summative assessment task(s):

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? Students will conserve natural resources by using an everyday item that would typically be thrown away and inventing a new product. Assessment tool: rubric What will we look for? Evidence that shows students understanding of the importance of recycling, reusable resources, and conserving energy. Students will create a flow map that will: - identify the natural resource(s) of the original product. - state the original use of the item - explain how they turned the trash into a new, usable product. - report how this new product conserved the original, natural resource. Assessment: rubric for flow map and rubric for invention

2. What do we want to learn? What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry? Key Concepts: responsibility, change Related Concepts: conservation, natural resources, ownership

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Natural resources and how they are used Responsibilities regarding resources How human actions affect major global concerns Amount of resources consumed during lunch at school

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries? Teacher plays a clip or picture from Wall-e to peak students inquiry into life without natural resources. In a class discussion, students will share what they see/dont see, what they can conclude, and what could be done to conserve natural resources to sustain life. How can you conserve natural resources? What would happen if we ran out of natural resources? What is pollution?

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Taught= Jan 2012

Revised= August 2012

3. How might we know what we have learned? This columninquiry be used in conjunction with How best might we learn? Planning the should What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and skills? What evidence will we look for? Week 1- Teacher will assess prior knowledge by checking to see if students journals reference pollution, natural resources, and/or conservation. Week 2- Students will write what they think reduce, reuse, and recycle mean on sticky notes and compile on a class chart. What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for Assessment for first Line of Inquiry (Natural resources and how they are used)- (week 1) Students will create a Natural Resource Pyramid that will define a natural resource and include four types of natural resources (air, plants, water, oil) with illustrated examples. Assessment for Line of Inquiry (Responsibilities regarding resources)- week 2 Students will create a persuasive poster to display around the school encouraging their peers to be responsible and recycle. The poster must state at least one reason to recycle. Assessment for Line of inquiry (How human actions affect major global concern) week 3 Students will illustrate what life would look like if we did not take care of earth and reduce, reuse, and recycle. They will include a descriptive writing piece explaining their illustration.

4. How best might we learn? What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions? Week 1- Engage students with the clip from Wall-e. Students will reflect on the clip. Teacher will not give any prompts about what they should write. Students will openly write about their observations/feelings about the movie clip. Then have a class discussion where students have a chance to share their journal entries. Students will watch Brain Pop Jr. to understand the meaning of natural resources. Groups will compose a list of items they find in the classroom and write the natural resource for each item. A class chart will be made from each groups suggestions. Students will complete a sorting activity that includes a variety of finished products. These finished products will be sorted into groups based on their natural resource. Week 2- Students will review the Wall-e movie clip from week one. They will create a double bubble comparing and contrasting life on Wall-e to our life. Students will watch Brain Pop Jr video on reducing, reusing, recycling. Students will complete the recycling logo stating the meaning of each word and illustrating an example. Students will complete a Go Green poster stating why it is important to recycle, how to recycle, and how this helps the planet. This will prepare them for the persuasive poster assessment. Week 3-Teacher will show slideshow with images of a landfill, water pollution, and air pollution. Class will have a discussion about images. Students will collect pollution found on their campus. Discuss effects of this pollution on the environment. Hypothesize what the campus would look like if no one ever picked up trash. Each class will survey the amount of milk cartons used at lunch per grade level at school in a day, week, and year. All classes will combine data and create a pictograph using milk cartons. Week 4- Throughout the week, students will begin bringing in items they want to use for their project. Students will brainstorm ideas for their project, create a rough draft and list of materials needed, and make final invention. Week 5-Students will complete Flow Map that will show the transition of their invention from natural resource to finished product. Students will create a flow map that will: - identify the natural resource(s) of the original product. - state the original use of the item - explain how they turned the trash into a new, usable product. - report how this new product conserved the original, natural resource.

5. What resources need to be gathered? What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available? www.brainpopjr.com/science/conservation/reducereusereyccle, www.brainpopjr.com/science/conservation/naturalresources , poster board, markers, blank white paper, Natural Resource Pyramid (using Natural Resources) from Jill Draffkorn on www.teacherspayteachers.com , teacher created Flow Map template, Go Green posters from www.teacherspayteachers.com, images of pollution from www.ocean.nationalgeographic.com/ocean/photos/ocean-pollution/ and www.nnukphotos.com/air-pollution-photos.html, www.tropical-rainforestanimals.com/pollution-pictures.html , WALL-E movie from Disney-Pixar, Double Bubble Thinking Map template, student journal, teacher created sorting activity representing the natural resources How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry? local recycling presentation, technology ready in the classroom, local environmentRevised= will Taught= Jan 2012 be used to demonstrate cleaning up pollution

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile? Thinking Skills Acquisition of knowledge gaining facts and using vocabulary Comprehension communicating and interpreting learning Application making use of acquired knowledge to complete a recycling project Analysis see relationships between: human and global issues Evaluation predict life without natural resources Communication Skills Listen for information Speaking/presenting posters and projects to peers Raise awareness of recycling to community members Read a variety of sources related to concepts Writing persuade others to recycle Viewing-interpret videos and multimedia Research Skills Formulating questions identify what we wonder Observe the effects of recycling Planning develop ideas to persuade others to recycle Record, organize, and interpret data from classroom recycling project. Use data to create August 2012

graphs and present findings.

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included. Our students understood what natural resources are. They now understand the importance of the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) in relation to the conservation of natural resources. Students inquired after seeing a picture of a landfill. They discussed what life could be like in many years if they did not take care of the Earth and its natural resources. Students took responsibilities by reusing something that would normally be thrown away to turn it into a new item. This also reduced the amount of waste going to landfills. Teachers evaluated final products using a child-friendly rubric. Students reflected on the newly created items made from trash. Students were able to write a journal about what life would be like without a specific natural resource (ie: water).

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP? What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to learn? demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills? develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?

In each case, explain your selection. Key Concepts: Responsibility: Students were responsible for creating a recycling project Students were responsible for reflecting on their projects, which broaden their understanding. Students showed responsibility for their school community by collecting trash around campus. Change: Students understood how wasting or using all natural resources could effect their lives and the earth forever. Students were engaged during the hypothetical drawing of life without natural resources and their writing description. Transdisciplinary Themes: Thinking: Students inquired about how the world would be without natural resources. They used higher order thinking skills to analyze the effect of our lives without them. Communication: Students presented their recycling projects to the class and community members. Research: Students planned and created a poster to persuade others to be responsible and recycle. Learner Profile/Attributes: Inquirers: students constantly developed their curiosity y asking questions. They inquiry into the causes of pollution and its prevention guided students to think of ways how to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reflective: Students reflected on how their actions could effect our planet. They also came up with ways that they could conserve natural resources. Knowledgeable: Students learned how human actions could effect the world. They required an in depth knowledge of how reducing, reusing, and recycling could help our planet

How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea. The students demonstrated a clear understanding of the importance of natural resources and how they are essential to life. The assessment task worked well, but to broaden it next time, we could recognize other current major global concerns, such as global warming. This will give students a more clear idea of how the misuse of natural resources is affecting the world and our atmosphere today.

What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?

Through both inquiry and exploration, students identified the relationship between human actions and the environment. Students were able to understand the importance of the 3 Rs through the summative assessment tasks. Students verbally told community members the reason for creating these projects as well as how they helped conserve natural resources and reduce pollution. Students wrote a self-reflection stating their understanding of a major global concern and the impact they could make through conservation.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007Taught=

Jan 2012

Revised= August 2012

Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning. * How can you use natural resources? * What is global warming? * How can we help the planet? * Do we have landfills in Memphis? * What happens if we run out of space for landfills? * Students inquired about a school wide recycling club * Students asked about the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources

9. Teacher notes

The kids really enjoyed this unit. They were involved with the recycling project. They extended the unit by continuing with recycling products. Students wanted to do more than one project. Teachers realized this planner was better since the atmosphere theme was removed and students were able to focus on the new lines of inquiry.

The students imagination and creativity were sparked when they were imagining life without a natural resource.

Teachers want to incorporate a field trip to local communities to learn about conservation of natural resources.
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the inquiries. See section 2

Teachers also want to have community members from local busineeses visit the grade level and discuss ways to recycle at home and school. Teachers would like to incorporate the music teachers and art teachers.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning? Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to reflect, to choose and to act.

Art teachers state they could create an entire unit during this study to incorporate artist that recycle items and use in their artwork.

* Students initiated clean up days in their community. * Students discussed ways to recycle at home. * Students became aware of the importance of not littering. * Students brainstormed ways to reduce pollution. They have also taken action by trying to stop others from littering.

Chinese teachers integrated their lessons to reflect recycling vocabulary and a global prospective on recycling. The Chinese department posted recycling signs in Chinese around the school.

International Baccalaureate Organization taught=

Taught= Jan 2012

Revised= August 2012