Incoming Inferno: What do you do?

A Grade 10 Interdisciplinary Project

How can a Retirement Residence be Efficiently Evacuated?
Yana Distryanovych, Chester C. Liu, Samira Poudyal, Nirupan Shrestha, Amanda J. Timm
Werklund School of Education, EDUC 520 Section 03 - Dr. Eugene G.Kowch

What is evacuation and why does it matter? Our essential question presents a scenario where an inescapable fire disaster is approaching Calgary. For this
• Students get a clear understanding of what a Formative assessment will be continuously integrated throughout the unit in tasks such as weekly blog posts,
scenario students will be tasked with preparing an effective and efficient evacuation plan for a nursing home in their
fire evacuation is and why it is important mini research assignments, presentations, the family evacuation plan, and the final evacuation plan. During each
community. We chose this idea primarily because it presents a real and very possible event, especially following fire
• Bringing in guest speakers such as firefighters, week the students will also receive formative feedback on their learning from teachers and peers. The family
disasters such as the one in Fort McMurray. The project will be thought provoking and will test the imaginations of
survivors of wildfires and an Indigenous evacuation plan task will be summatively assessed to allow the teacher to gauge understanding levels, and to
the Grade Ten students who will participate. Through combining Math, Science, English, and Social Studies students
leader. prepare students for their final summative assessment.
will undergo a journey that scaffolds the creation of a long-term evacuation plan for both their family and a nursing
• Develop a sense of empathy for other human This summative assessment, along with all of the formative assessments create and strengthen the skills
home. As teachers, we will be able to show students that they are able to approach a problem from many different
beings and their well-being necessary to complete the major performance task, the creation of an entire evacuation plan for the Colonel
lenses, and that they have a relatable scenario to empathize with.
• Final project involves the elderly so empathy Belcher Retirement Residence. Not only that but the students will also have an opportunity to put their plan to
The final assignment for this project involves the creation of a comprehensive evacuation plan for a nursing home
and care for others needs to be developed action in a real life simulated scenario, that will allow them to test out and improve their plan prior to presenting
to showcase to the community. Not only that but the students will have an opportunity to put their plan to action in a
early in the unit it.
real life simulated scenario. Overall, this project not only covers many curriculum outcomes from the Grade 10
The final evacuation plan, which will determine the large portion of the student's’ grade will be showcased to
Alberta curriculum, but also accomplishes the general outcome where students are expected to develop and practice
the community during a symposium.
How do families plan to evacuate? empathy, care giving and service to others.
• Scaffolding technique for fire evacuation The project is authentic due to the proximity of natural disasters in our recent past. Globally and locally, many
planning: practicing family planning first disasters are broadcast and students are well aware of world events in this regard. In creating an actual plan that will
before the larger plan be carried out as a drill in the Colonel Belcher Retirement Residence, students have a vested interest in creating the
• Students have to think about food, water, most comprehensive and efficient plan possible, otherwise risking loss of life. These points are further driven home SOCIAL
fuel, valuables, and cargo weight and by a plethora of guest speakers that will be brought into the classroom to demonstrate their work, their story, or the STUDIES SCIENCE
volume effects of disaster on their lives. Students will be demonstrating Students will compile and display evidence
• Students learn to decide what is the most leadership qualities, problem and information, by hand or using
important to bring – food, water, solving, and taking action on the technology, in a variety of formats,
valuables, pets, or something else? important issue of evacuation. They including diagrams, flow charts, tables,
will learn how to implement various graphs and scatterplots. Students will
strategies to resolve conflict when propose alternative solutions to a given
How do we assure wellness when
faced with a fire in a peaceful and practical problem, identify the potential
evacuating a care home?
effective manner. They will also be strengths and weaknesses of each and
• Exploration of the needs of a retirement
engaging in actions that enhance select one as the basis for a plan and
residence. What is similar to their family? MATH ENGLISH
personal and community well-being. evaluate a personally designed and
What is different?
Students will develop an constructed device on the basis of self-
• Students will be researching essential Students will use unit conversion from Students will use visuals and
understanding of empathy and care developed criteria.
medicines and antibiotics needed for the imperial to SI system, which is more multimodal communication
for other human beings.
senior citizen in this care home familiar to them. They will also have to techniques to understand, critically
• Visits to the facility to build relationships figure out how much material they can reflect, and respond to oral, print,
with the residents, as well as the take in their evacuation given a limited and media texts on the knowledge,
development of empathy weight and volume capacity by skills, and learning outcomes that
calculating the volume and weight of all they experience during the unit.
What are the processes needed for the material needed. Additionally, they Students will listen, speak, read,
evacuating a nursing home? will be using graphical representation to write, view and represent to explore
• Development of an evacuation plan for show what medicine and antibiotics are thoughts, ideas, feelings and
Colonel Belcher most abundant and necessary in the experiences, to comprehend
• Students will use the previous retirement home. literature and other texts creatively.
knowledge from Week 1-3
• Students will be in groups of four and
are responsible for either a part of the
building, medications, food,
transportation, or the organization of
the entire plan GENERAL ELL
• Multiple methods of demonstrating knowledge and • Use ESL proficiency benchmarks; involve ELL resource
understanding: utilizing student's individual talents teachers
Presentation of evacuation plan to the • Students will have access to assistive technology when • Pre-teaching vocabulary
community through a symposium and a required; accessing educational assistant support • Speech to text technology to aid writing
practice of plan at the Colonel Belcher Care • Flexibility for inclusion; choosing group members to set each • Flexible groupings; pairing with strong language
Home. student up for success learner
• Previous four weeks prepares students for • Multiple forms of instruction • Varied student involvement; based on student
the final evacuation drill • Structure activities for success; regular movement breaks comfort
• Feedback from the drill can be incorporated • Ability for students to take on different leadership roles
into their symposium presentations • Multiple formative assessment opportunities TECHNOLOGY
• Students need to demonstrate an effective • Computers; used for research (internet, online
and efficient plan, as well as one that articles, apps etc.)
interfaces well with other groups, indicating FNMI • Information and data collection
excellent communication skills • Indigenous perspectives & epistemology • Online blogs; formative assessment (for teacher)
• Indigenous guest speaker • Speech to text technology