GK-12 GLACIER Stephanie Selznick

Rose Abramoff

Outline

• Review of grade 5 lessons

• Review of grade 4 lessons

• Science fair

• Technology integration

• Future plans

5th grade - Curriculum Goals • Learn that Earth rotates on its axis, causing day and night.

• Understand that the exact path the Sun takes in the sky varies by season.

• Learn that Earth is one of several planets that orbit the Sun in the solar system.

• Learn that stars are suns positioned at great distances from Earth and form groups called constellations that appear to move together across the sky at night.

• Use tools to collect and analyze data to develop logical conclusions about the movements of objects in the sky.

• Model ecosystems may be used to learn more about the relationships that exist on earth.

• Organisms in ecosystems have dependent and interdependent relationships.

• Nature and human activity may affect an ecosystem in beneficial or harmful ways.

• People can develop solutions to mitigate the effects of pollutants.

• Gain experience with the concepts of erosion and deposition.

• Relate processes that they observe in the stream-table models to processes that created famous landforms.

• Become familiar with topographic maps and some of the techniques used to create them.

• Use measurement and mathematics in the context of scientific investigations.

• Acquire vocabulary associated with landforms and the processes that create landforms.

Curriculum Schedule

Fall Winter Spring

Measuring

time, sun

and moon

Ecosystems

Landforms

Outdoor

Classroom

ePals Curley

landforms

5th grade - Project Goals • Students will be able to:

• Make and test predictions

• Document and analyze plants

• Understand what climate change is and ways to help

• Use digital cameras and online learning tools

• Communicate information through writing, digital images and discussion

Fall: Curriculum-based lessons

• Track the movement of the sun’s shadow over time

• Observe and record how the Moon changes its appearance or phase in a regular pattern over 4 weeks

• Know the basic organization of the solar system, how eclipses work

• Guest lecture, Bekki Dawson – graduate student in Department of Astronomy at Harvard U

National Geographic Space Lesson

• Transition from solar system unit to ecosystems by describing weather on other planets

• Lesson modeled after National Geographic Extreme Weather on Other Planets

• Additions:

• Overview of temperature, wind, moisture requirements for different weather phenomena

• Overview of water phase changes

• Evaporation

• Water vapor

• Condensation

• Solar system weather report

Outdoor Classroom • Students will be assigned one plant and

draw and describe their plant

• Students will research their plant online

• Field guide online/print version

• Richard Primack

• Guest lecture: Identifying local plants

Northeastern Field Trip

• Oil spills

• Pollution

• Rocketry

Ecocolumns

• Water cycle overview

• Is it biotic or abiotic?

• Food chain lesson

• Students creat MA forest food chain tab chart

• Smartboard flow of energy food chain activity

• Starting research on MA woodland plants for brochure

• Keeping notebook observations of ecocolumns

• Gas exchange worksheet

Terrarium

Aquarium

Plants breathe in_____________and breathe out________

Animals breathe in_____________and breathe out________

Oxygen

Duckweed

Elodea

Algae

Carbon dioxide

Pond Snails

Producers

Decomposers

Consumers

Mosquito Fish

Mustard

Alfalfa

Grass

Crickets

Isopods

Oxygen

Carbon dioxide

Alternate MCAS

• Design and administer an alternate version of the MCAS for learning disabled students.

4th and 5th – Phototropism

• Lesson Plan

• Track directional plant growth each day with classroom plants

4th grade – Curricular lessons

• Students designed the habitat for and cared for:

• African dwarf frog

• Fiddler crab

• Millipede

• They studied their body parts, life cycle, basic needs and survival skills

4th grade – Curricular lessons

• What materials attract magnets?

• Force of magnetism through different materials

• Temporary and permanent magnets

• Measuring magnetic force

Grade 4 – Additional lessons

• Students chose their own frog species, researched it online, and created a field guide in print and online

• Students wrote a one page millipede adventure story, containing at least 3 scientific facts and an attached illustration

• 3 part chart summarizing the three animals and Venn diagram comparing them

• Microorganisms and macroorganisms

Science Fair

• Scientific method lesson

• Design process lesson

• Mrs. Davis’s class project

Techology Integration

• Digital cameras

• Research on the computers in library

• Post projects on Curley website

• Smartboard activities: magnets, food chain, carbon cycle

• Projector used for lessons, net activities, MCAS: Question of the day

Future Plans

• Stream table investigation

• EPALS Project Elements

• Global warming terms activity

• Global warming 101, greenhouse effect tutorial, and quiz

• 4 informational emails between ePals

• Create advocacy presentation

• Share

Curley Landforms

• Students will collect or capture digital images representing landforms and water features in their community or throughout the world

• Students will identify and label geographic features depicted in digital images from the Curley school neighborhood

• Labeled landforms will be uploaded to Curley K-8 School and GK-12 websites

From seed to plate

• We ate a lot of organic, super local food supported by child labor!