Amber Cullers Education 380 March 6, 2012

Students will work together as a class to raise a vegetable garden, flower garden, or small tree garden. They will research the types of plants in groups. Students will use both internet-based articles and book-print articles to research their plants and the needs of the plants. They will measure the plants, look at their characteristics, and talk about what each plant needs. Each group will have a foreign pen pal group from Venice, Italy that they will communicate with via and Skype to relate their findings to as they work through the project. As students research their plants and communicate with other students in the class and Italy, they will also research and connect how helping to save, plant, and grow plants is important for the environment. At the end of the project (which is about one month) each group will create a Glogster (virtual poster board) that describes the plant researched, it’s grown, and their observations. Glogster

SC.O : recognize that developing solutions to problems takes time, patience and persistence through individual and cooperative venture SC.S.3.2: apply knowledge, understanding and skills of science subject matter/concepts to daily life experiences SC.O : observe, measure and record changes in living things (e.g., growth and development, or variations within species SC.O : compare physical characteristics and behaviors of living organisms and explain how

Essential Question How can we make a difference? Unit Question What can our school and class do to make a difference in saving the environment? What is needed to live? Content Questions What makes a plant endangered? What does it mean if a plant is extinct? What is needed for many plants in our environment to survive?

This project will help my students develop 21 st Century skills by: Work together in groups and as a class on a real-world project. Communicate with both students in their class and students in the cooperating school. Learn responsibility about taking care of living organisms. Analyzing data about bean plants and drawing conclusions to answer Unit Questions Solving problems and making decisions about their experiment. Share their discoveries with a real audience.

I will use my Essential and Unit questions to help me understand what my students already know about plants (their characteristics and growth). By asking students how we can make a difference, they are using their metacognitive thinking skills to analyze and evaluate their own knowledge. Students will use different perspectives as they think about what is needed to live. They will also have to use their higher order thinking skills as they think about how our school and class can save endangered plants.

What I will learn from the assessment: I will learn what students already know about plants, making a difference in the community and endangered plants. I will also learn which higher level thinking skills students need help with learning to use. What my students will gain from the assessment: My students will by able to see visually what they learned by using the KWHL chart. They will also gain responsibility and a deeper understanding about plants and their growth through keeping a science notebook. Students will gain an appreciation of all plants. They will gain the ability to compare and contrast information given to them by their pen pal group in another county.

Learn about different kinds of technology that will motivate my students. Find ways to get my students to do more higher-order thinking. Find ways to get my students more interested in learning about science. Share and learn new ideas with other teachers and colleagues.

To learn how to collect, analyze, and interpret data. To learn how to think like a scientist; how to use their higher-order thinking skills.