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Final Project Goal & Rubric-Individual
Week 16
Goal: To design an Earth System Science unit plan, and to provide
a rationale for why you designed your unit plan the way you did.
Assignment: During this course, you created sphere lessons for
land, living things, air, and water from an Earth System Science perspective.
Now you need to weave these lessons into a unit plan so students will
have a good understanding of how earth's systems interact.
To weave your four sphere lessons into a unit plan, you need to create
a unifying essential question, problem/puzzle, situation, experiment,
or simulation for students to address. This unifying element will appear
in the introduction of your Earth System Science unit plan. This unit
plan will give students a reason to study the spheres from an Earth System
Science approach - how each of the spheres affect one another. The questions
below may help you to identify a question or problem which will unify
your unit plan design.
- What are the most powerful ideas about each of
the four spheres and their relationships in Earth System Science terms?
- What are the most accessible of these powerful
ideas for my students?
- What are the gaps in my knowledge of these
spheres in an Earth System Science context?
- What is it about these ideas that my students
will find intriguing, puzzling, interesting, or applicable to their
lives?
- What prior knowledge and experience do my students have that may give
rise to their misconceptions which need to be confronted before their
knowledge can grow?
Ideas for how to unify your lessons into a unit plan:
- Essential question:
Based on what you have learned about the four spheres, what conditions
would need to be present for a garden to grow well in front of your
school?
- Problem/puzzle: A
section of the playground near the slide is eroding. The principal has
asked your class to investigate the problem and to propose a solution
based on your knowledge of the four spheres.
- Situation: The
annual school picnic is scheduled for May 23. Your class is in charge of
the environment. Based on your knowledge of the four spheres, plan for a
successful event at this time of year. Include plans for the land, the
air temperature, precipitation, etc.
- Experiment: Create
terrariums for different biomes and do experiments to compare them.
Using what you have learned about the four spheres, what factors need to
be present for the plants and animals to continue living in the
terrariums?
- Simulation: Choose a destination of some place you would like
to visit. Consider what you have learned about the four spheres, then
pack a bag of things to take with you on your trip that would be appropriate
for that location.
Provide a rationale for your unit plan design stemming from your action
research, scholarship, and sphere lesson design experiences as well as
your collaboration with teammates. Your reflections on the questions below
may help you to focus your rationale.
- How does the activity draw out what students already know and are
able to do?
- How does the activity help students rethink and reexamine what they
know?
- How is evidence of student learning generated during and after the
activity?
Rubric
You and your facilitator will use the rubric below to gauge your
success in developing a unit plan. These criteria will serve as the basis
upon which your unit plan will be evaluated. You should also use these
criteria to give your teammates feedback on their unit plans.
| Unity:
Unifying question, problem or theme. |
4 Rating:
Unifying approach compels students to develop their
understanding of ESS. |
3 Rating:
Unifying approach builds ideas that are powerful and
provocative to students in ESS. |
2 Rating:
Unifying approach engages students in investigating
Earth systems. |
1 Rating:
Unit purpose is clear in the unifying approach used.
|
| Engagement:
Activities that engage students. |
4 Rating:
Activities cause students to state and question their
thinking. |
3 Rating:
Activities push student thinking beyond misconceptions. |
2 Rating:
Activities make student thinking about misconceptions
visible. |
1 Rating:
Activities make student thinking visible. |
| Assessment:
Methods for marking progress and results. |
4 Rating:
Assessment is ongoing and standards-based, and involves
students in setting their own goals and seeing their own growth. |
3 Rating:
Assessment begins with students' ideas about the initial
situation, question, or problem and tracks what they learn over time. |
2 Rating:
Assessment shows changes in students' conceptions
of Earth System Science. |
1 Rating:
Assessment is ongoing and standards-based. |
| Design:
Reasons for instructional design (goals, unifying approach, resources,
assessment...). |
4 Rating:
Design decisions are supported with evidence from
multiple sources, including personal action research as well as scholarship
and peer feedback. |
3 Rating:
Design decisions are supported with evidence from
at least one source, including personal action research, scholarship,
or peer feedback. |
2 Rating:
Design decisions are sound but not well-supported. |
1 Rating:
Design is complete, but elements are not unified. |
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