1. How to Share The Planet ShuHan Lu, Karen Broughton, and Andrea Lockley
Polar Bears
How to Share The Planet
ShuHan Lu, Karen Broughton, and Andrea Lockley

2. Rationale
As humans, we have the responsibility to share our resources equitably with all living things. Also, Global Warming’s effect has serious consequences for all living organisms, but it is of especially great concern for the polar bear. According to the U.S. Geological Survey Office, reduction in sea ice in the Arctic can see a loss of 2/3rds of the entire word’s Polar Bear population over the next 50 years.

3. Summary
Students will study and learn about the living conditions, eating habits, and the efforts certain organizations are making to save the polar bear. This unit was designed for children in grades Students will begin their own home base and school base projects to “go green” in an effort to do their part with saving the environment, thus saving the polar bear. Students will also journal about experiences that have caused them to be forced into conditions that are unfamiliar and uncomfortable. We will be integrating the following subjects in our unit:
Science: Our unit will have students understand that it is important to protect every living thing alive; especially some animals are in danger of extinction. The lesson will use polar bear as an example.
Language Arts: Have students develop writing and research skills through conducting research on various aspects of the polar bear and drafting writing in response to that prompt.
Reading: Have students utilize several comprehension skills (e.g., graphic organizers, technology resources, reading materials, and critical thinking questions) with their quest to learn about the polar bear. Students will learn about the living conditions and eating habits of the polar bear.
Social Studies: Students will apply map skills by identifying various places on the map when asked. Students will also analyze different energy sources and their effects on the planet. The students will attempt to educate their community about the polar bears and encourage the community to take part in conservation efforts.

4. Major Concepts Polar Bears Cause-and-Effect Relationship Summarize
Language Arts
Science
Social Studies
Reading
Vocabulary
Geography
Exploring Animals
Investigation
Summarize
Problem Solving
Natural World
Living Things
Environment
See
Feel
Hear
Smell
Taste
Map
Political
Thematic
Physical
Location
Hometown
Continents
Generating Ideas
Text
Brainstorming
Drawing
Discussion
Webbing
Communication
Composition
Strategies
Sources
Core Foundation of Knowledge

5. Learning Goals Language Arts
Students will collect and classify information on endangered polar bears from a variety of sources.
Students will develop writing skills through writing for different purposes.
Students will maintain a "Wonder Journal" making notations of questions they develop while studying polar bears.
Students will maintain Inquiry Circles creating a KWL on chart paper with their group using cooperative learning strategies.
Students will create a mural of polar bears with captions and other texts on sentence strips to depict what they are learning.
Students will present their acquired information to other classes via classroom visits and the school news show.

6. Learning Goals Science
Students will summarize information of polar bears and share information with their classmates.
Students will discover threats to polar bear.
Students will analyze how these threats affect polar bear.
Students will create a plan to protect polar bears away from threats.
Students will implement the plan they create.
Students will experience a threat the polar bears have.
Students will write down their opinions on how we share a planet.

7. Learning Goals Reading Students will complete graphic organizers
Students will use laptops to research the living conditions of the polar bear
Students will do research to find out if the polar is an endangered species
Students will be able to describe the differences between a polar bear and the grizzly bear
Students will be able locate important information about the survival of the polar bear
Students will be able to effectively prepare a graphic organizer to assist with better comprehension of the text

8. Learning Goals Social Studies
Students will classify various methods of conservation.
Students will develop map skills and identify various places on the map when asked.
Students will analyze different types of energy and sort them if they are natural or synthetic.

9. Inquiries What is conservation?
Which comes first: extinct or endangered?
Where do polar bears live?
What do polar bears eat for living?
Do polar bears need to drink?
How big are polar bears?
How does global warming impact on polar bears?
What are other threats to polar bears?
What we can do to keep polar bears from threats?

10. Inquires Continued What does the diet of the polar bear consist of?
How does the polar bear survive the summer?
Are the polar bears endangered species?
Do the other arctic animals fall prey to the polar bears?
Describe the differences between the polar and the grizzly bears.
Is the polar bear really white?
Why are the polar bears endangered species?
Are the polar bears only found in the North Pole?
How are polar bears kept alive in zoo’s?

11. Student Learning Outcomes
Students will make a blubber glove to experience how a polar bear stays warm in the Arctic climate.
Students will create a display reflecting the relationships of endangered animals and their habitats.
Students will write letters to the editor of a local newspaper to encourage conservation efforts.
Students will research and produce a report on various aspects of the polar bears.
Students will watch the movie Knut and His Friends depicting the life of a polar bear raised in a Berlin Zoo as well as a polar pear mother and her cubs in the Arctic.
Create a Polar Bear puppet.
Students can help raise money to Adopt A Polar Bear from the Polar Bears International group who is a non-profit organization.
Students can observe polar bears in the wild by the Polar Bears International Web Cams.

12. Sunshine State Standards
Science
SC.2.N.1.1-Raise questions about the natural world, investigate them in teams through free exploration and systematic observations, and generate appropriate explanations based on those explorations.
SC.2.N.1.2- Compare the observations made by different groups using the same tools.
SC.2.N.1.3- Ask "how do you know?" in appropriate situations and attempt reasonable answers when asked the same question by others.
SC.2.N.1.5- Distinguish between empirical observation (what you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste) and ideas or inferences (what you think).
SC.2.N.1.6- Explain how scientists alone or in groups are always investigating new ways to solve problems.
SC.2.L Compare and contrast the basic needs that all living things, including humans, have for survival.
SC.2.L Recognize and explain that living things are found all over Earth, but each is only able to live in habitats that meet its basic needs.

13. Sunshine State Standards Continued
Language Arts
LA generating ideas from multiple sources (e.g., text, brainstorming, webbing, drawing, writer’s notebook, group discussion, other activities)
LA determines the purpose (e.g., to entertain, to inform, to communicate) and the intended audience of a writing piece.
LA maintaining focus on a single idea and developing supporting details
LA organizing details into a logical sequence that has a clear beginning, middle and end and an awareness of audience.
LA evaluating the draft for logical thinking and consistent point of view (first or third person) appropriate for the purpose and audience
LA.A.2.2.4: The student identifies specific personal preferences relative to fiction
LA evaluating the composition, with the assistance of teacher, peer, checklist, or rubric.
LA The student will produce, illustrate, and share a variety of compositions.

14. Sunshine State Standards Continued
Social Studies
SS.2.G.1.1- Use different types of maps (political, physical, and thematic) to identify map elements.
SS.2.G.1.2- Using maps and globes, locate the student's hometown, Florida, and North America.
SS.2.G.1.3- Label on a map or globe the continents, oceans, Equator, Prime Meridian, North and South Pole.

15. Sunshine State Standards Continued
Reading
LA summarize information in text, including but not limited to main idea, supporting details, and connections between texts.
LA identify cause-and-effect relationships in text
LA select a balance of age and ability appropriate nonfiction materials to read (e.g., biographies and topical areas, such as animals, science, history), based on interest and teacher recommendations, to continue building a core foundation of knowledge.
LA.A.2.1.4: The student knows strategies to use to discover whether information presented in a text is true, including asking others and checking another source
LA.A.2.1.3: The student reads for information to use in performing a task and learning a new task

16. Lesson Plan Overview: Reading
Week One:
Printed Resources
I will show my students the printed resources that I have on polar bears and I will then ask them to make predictions. After the students have read the material, we will then have a discussion about what other animals the polar bear shares the cold Arctic with.
Week Two:
Research/Discussion
I will ask students how they think that polar bears survive the cold Arctic. I will have students working in groups of fours. In their groups they will also complete KWL charts. I will rotate the room demonstrating how to lead discussions in a group. As I am discussing the polar bears with the students, I will be constantly pointing out to them the cause and effect relationships.
Week Three:
Practice/Assessment
Students will write a one page essay on how the polar bear survives in the arctic. In this essay, they will use cause and effect relationships and compare and contrasting. Students will also have to answer comprehension question to assess what they have learned.

17. Lesson Plan Overview: Science
Use PowerPoint to introduce polar bears and give students a PowerPoint handout to help them recall information and have a better understanding of today’s topic.
The PowerPoint includes: Where do polar bears live, how big male and female polar bears are, what polar bears depend on for living, how the environment looks like in North Pole, and what carbon emission is.
Have students experience the problem polar bears are facing. Use pages of newspapers to represent ice floes. Play some music and have students move around, jumping from one ice floe to another one. Stop the music periodically. Each time, remove one ice floe. Tell students the ice is disappearing because the temperature is getting warmer. Finding ice floes to stand on will become harder and harder for the students. If a student is “stuck in the water” (does not reach an ice floe) by the time the music stops, he or she is out.
Ask students what cause ice floes to melt. If temperature causes floes to melt, what can we do to help the temperature not rise? Let students discuss ways that we can save energy and so do polar bears’ lives.

18. Lesson Plan Overview: Language Arts
Week 1:
Nonfiction Text Features- Students will learn to navigate nonfiction texts with the knowledge of the features of nonfiction texts such as captions, subheadings, headings, etc. Students will learn to pick out key information that is relevant to what they are researching.
Background Knowledge- The teacher will take an informal assessment pertaining to students’ background knowledge concerning polar bears through student writings.
Week 2:
Student research – Students will learn and apply research strategies in order to draft a research paper about polar bears. Students will keep their information on index cards and organize the information by heading and sequence.
Expository Writing- Students will take their information that they have researched and draft a research paper in order to educate others about the polar bear.
Week 3:
Murals- Students will work cooperatively in groups to create murals of polar bears with information for their peers. Murals will contain student-created pictures with captions of information for others pertaining to their topic.
Persuasive Letters- Students will learn and apply letter writing skills along with persuading the public to take action to save polar bears through conservation.

19. Lesson Plan Overview: Social Studies
Week 1:
Resources- Students will analyze the difference between natural and synthetic resources and their purposes to society.
Week 2:
Conservation- Students will classify means of conservation on a local and global scale. Students will begin to generate ideas as to what the effects will be if conservational efforts are performed and not performed.
Week 3:
Summative Assessment- Students will create a skit, commercial, or poster to advocate for polar bears in the wild. The teacher will videotape the performances and submit them to the school news show. Posters will be distributed throughout the school.

20. Unit Schedule Week 1 Week 1 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Language Arts
Class KWL on Polar Bears.
The is a pretest to see what background knowledge students have of polar bears and their plight.
Nonfiction Text Features Show students different text features that appear in nonfiction texts (captions, headings, subheadings, images, etc.)
Nonfiction Text Features Polar Bears Text Demonstrate reading through a nonfiction text with sticky notes for important information.
The Research Process
Teacher will model for the students how to research various medias in order to get information.
(Books and Articles)
(Websites)
Teacher will also discuss plagiarism and how to avoid it.
Reading
Activating Prior Knowledge Activate prior knowledge about cause and effect by suggesting that a student (or pair of students) discuss what happened to their home when hurricane Ivan hit Pensacola.
Students will discuss what they think will happen to the polar bear if they are uprooted from their habitat, or forced to eat foods that they are not use to eating?
Students will complete a cause and effect graphic organizer on polar bears being uprooted from their habitat.
Students will research living conditions of the polar bears.
Assessment We will have a group discussion about the habitat of the polar bear. Students should be able to tell me the eating habits, living conditions, and geographical locations of polar bears.

21. Unit Schedule Week 1 Cont.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Science
Habitats:
Students will learn about the varieties of habitats and the adaptations animals make to survive in the habitat.
Regions of the Earth Students will use a map to identify polar regions and tropical regions. Students will explain how they are able to identify it.
Animal Adaptations
The Blubber Glove experiment
Students will explore how polar bears stay warm in freezing temperatures in the Arctic.
Camouflage-
Students will learn how animals stay hidden and why it is necessary in the wild.
Social Studies
Natural resources Students will learn about various natural resources and identify how they are natural and what is needed to keep them.
Natural resources cont.
Students will match natural resources to nature . (Solar panels matches to the sun.)
Synthetic Resources
Students will learn about various synthetic resources and what is needed to make them.
Students will debate whether natural resources or synthetic resources are better for the Earth over long periods of time.
Students will compare and contrast the effects of natural or synthetic resources.

22. Unit Schedule Week 2 Week 2 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Language Arts
Student Research
Allow students to research their polar bear articles/books/websites/etc. using their sticky notes and note-cards. Confer with students to stay updated with their progress and guide students who are having difficulties.
Allow students to research their polar bear articles/books/websites/etc .using their sticky notes and note-cards. Confer with students to stay updated with their progress and guide students who are having difficulties.
Student Research Drafting
Students will organize their note cards by topic/heading and put their cards in a sequential order. Students will begin drafting a rough draft of their research paper.
Student Drafting
Reading
Printed Resources I will show my students the printed resources that I have on polar bears and I will then ask them to make predictions
l Students will read chapters 1-3 in the novel “The World Of The Polar Bear”
Students will use a Venn Diagram, KWL chart, and two column notes to help with comprehension. .
Students will read chapters 4-6 in the novel “The World Of The Polar Bear”.
Students will use a Venn Diagram, two column note chart, and a KWL chart to help with comprehension.
Students will read chapters 7-9 in the novel “World Of The Polar Bear”.
Students will use Venn Diagrams, two column note chart, and a KWL chart to help with comprehension.
Students will write 20 facts about the polar bear.

23. Unit Schedule Week 2 Continued
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Science
Student will learn what carbon emission is. Temperature around the world are getting warmer, a process which is called global warming. Global warming is reducing the amount of pack ice in the Arctic, ice that the polar bears depend on for survival. Students will have an ice cube to hold in hands to see what happen when the ice cubes get warmer.
Students will understand that when the ice melts, polar bears need to swim longer from one ice floe to another to hunt food, which is very exhausting. The bears tired out easily before they can find food for themselves. They also can drown because they cannot find a floe to take a break. Have students watch a clip about polar bears.
Students will experience the problem polar bears are facing. They are going to play a game. Use pages of newspapers to represent ice floes. Play some music and have students move around, jumping from one ice floe to another one. Stop the music periodically. Each time, remove one ice floe. Tell students the ice is disappearing because the temperature is getting warmer. Finding ice floes to stand on will become harder and harder for the students. If a student is “stuck in the water” (does not reach an ice floe) by the time the music stops, he or she is out.
Conservation of resources. Students will discuss ways to conserve resources in order to save energy.
Watch a polar bears clip to have a better understanding . Students will discuss what the threats are to polar bears.
Social Studies
Maps
Students will learn about different types of maps and how to read them.
Recycling
Students will debate how recycling can help the Earth and how everyone can take part in it.
Reusing Resources
Students will brainstorm different ways to reuse ordinary items that typically get thrown away such as water bottles, Styrofoam cups, trays, etc.
The Plan
Students will generate a plan to help the school to reduce, reuse, and recycle the Styrofoam trays used at lunch in the cafeteria. Students will also generate ideas to be more Earth friendly around home and school.
Watch the movie Knut and His Friends. A Movie that shows three types of bears and their survival.

24. Unit Schedule Week 3 Week 3 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Language Arts
Students will create a mural of polar bears complete with pictures, captions, books, and general information about the polar bears with their teammates. Each team will have different parts about the polar bear such as: Habitat, Why the Polar Bear is endangered, the Arctic, How the community can help.
Persuasive Letter to the Editor Save Our Polar Bears! Part 1
Persuasive Letter to the Editor Save Our Polar Bears! Part 2
Reading
Cooperative Learning
Students will work in groups of four to complete their KWL charts. Today, they will complete the K.
Students will work in groups of four to complete the W in their charts
Students will work in their groups to complete the L in their chart. We will discuss the notes that they took while reading about polar bears. We will discuss how polar bears are able to survive in the freezing temperatures.
Students will compare and contrast the polar bear and the grizzly bear. Also, student will be able to identify the other arctic animals that live among the polar bear.
Students will write a descriptive essay about the habitat and living conditions of the polar bear.

25. Unit Schedule Week 3 Continued
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Science
Have a conclusion and review on polar bears’ topic. Remind students what they learned. Ask students if they have any questions about the topic. Have students divide into 7 small groups and give them the “Polar Bear Questions Worksheet.
Students will create a plan or poster to show them how they can help to save polar bears’ lives.
Students will understand polar bears’ living style s. They will write down their thoughts about if polar bears have no place to live, would they be a good pet. Have students share their thoughts to the classroom.
Over view of the polar bears’ topic
Assessment- Have students to make a “My Bear Book.” Students need to write down or draw about “What I know about bears, what I’ve learn about bears, and what I want to know about bears.”
Social Studies
Students will have the choice to create a poster, perform a skit, or write/perform a commercial in order to educate the community about ways to conserve energy and Go Green. This will be done as a cooperative group. Research days with media books or online with groups. Teacher shares rubrics for each and meets with each group to discuss progress.
Students will have the choice to create a poster, perform a skit, or write/perform a commercial in order to educate the community about ways to conserve energy and Go Green. Research days with media books or online with groups. Teacher shares rubrics for each and meets with each group to discuss progress.
Students will have the choice to create a poster, perform a skit, or write/perform a commercial in order to educate the community about ways to conserve energy and Go Green. Creation days. Teacher will meet with groups to discuss materials needed and responsibilities of the group. Groups will work on their projects.
Students will have the choice to create a poster, perform a skit, or write/perform a commercial in order to educate the community about ways to conserve energy and Go Green. Performance days! Groups will present their project to the class. Skits or commercials will be videotaped and edited to make movies with video editing programs. These videos can be aired on school news channels while the posters can be posted throughout the school.

26. Culminating Activities
The chief threat to the polar bear is the loss of its sea ice habitat due to global warming. As suggested by its specific scientific name (Ursus maritimus), the polar bear is actually a marine mammal that spends far more time at sea than it does on land. It is on the Arctic ice that the polar bear makes its living, which is why global warming is such a serious threat to its well-being. Students will begin their own home base and school base projects to “go green” in an effort to do their part with saving the environment, thus saving the polar bear. Students can raise money through a fundraiser in the school or community to adopt a polar bear from the WWF.

27. Assessment Assessment Item Classification Domain Think-Pair-Share
Diagnostic
Cognitive
KWL
Preview-Question-Read-Recite-Review-State-Test
Formative
Affective
Manipulative
Psychomotor
Final Research Paper
Summative
Group Murals of Polar Bears
Social/Cognitive
Poster/Skits/Commercials

28. Media List Computers connected to the internet.
Interwrite SmartBoard technology in the classroom.
If SmartBoard is not available: projector and laptop computer.
Media center books pertaining to polar bears.
PowerPoint to introduce polar bears.
Video clip from the internet
Movie: Knut and His Friends

29. References Defenders of Wildlife: **Polar Bear Ursus Maritimus**
YouTube: **Polar Bear: Feeling the Heat with Jeff Corwin**
A to Z Teacher Stuff: **Polar Bears**
A to Z Teacher Stuff: **Polar Bear Word Search**
A to Z teacher Stuff: **Polar Bear Word Scramble**
National Geographic Kids: **Animals- Creature Feature- Polar Bears**
Polar Bears International: Bear Tracker
Squidoo: Polar Bear Cartoon Showcase
Twiggle Magazine: **Polar Bears Kids Activities**
National Wildlife Federation:
Kidzone: The Polar Bearhttp://
Funzone: SeaWorld Education Department Resource: