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High Tech Elementary Miss Della Roccas 5th Grade

January March 2014

PET PROJECT
Timeline
This project will span 8 weeks ending on March 19th, 2014 at Festival Del Sol: a campus-wide project exhibition event. A majority of class time throughout this duration will revolve around project activities; math, reading and writing instruction will be incorporated into the project.

COLLABORATORS
Humane Society of San Diego San Diego Zoo Nicole Gossler, pet expert & former caretaker at San Diego Zoo PetSmart Julia Jacobson, coding educator

Essential Questions:
How can we care for animals in humane ways? How can we prepare others to care for pets? What can we do to provide humane conditions and care for a classroom pet?

PRODUCTS
All students will contribute to a class-produced Pet Care booklet for children at HTe. Partners will program a computer game using Scratch that teaches proper pet care techniques to kids. Groups of students will design models of class pet habitats.

BACKGROUND
This project stems from the voices of many students in Miss Ds class who expressed interest in a project that includes opportunities for building, collaboration with classmates, and learning about computer programming, with content focused on animals. The teacher added a writing component to help promote basic composition skills in the 5th grade (an identified need of a majority of students in the class).

OvervieW
It is the rare child who does not beg for a pet at some time in his life and a rare teacher who does not have a students begging for a classroom pet each year. This project appeals to childrens natural affinity for animals and is about developing the understanding of how to properly care for animals - not simply feeding and cleaning up after them - but providing them with the proper environments in which to live, enough space to move around, enrichment to grow in a healthy way, and proper attention to satisfy their needs. In this project, students will learn about caring for animals in humane ways. They will transform this learning into educational materials for other children including both a booklet and computer game. Finally, they will focus on class pets and design a model of a proper habitat for the class pet of their choice.

LEARNING
Students will: ! Learn about animal habitats, animal needs, the domestication of wild animals and providing humane care for captive animals and pets. ! Explore how groups of people have fought for rights throughout history and how animals have earned rights in America. ! Discover how to create an accurate physical model of a habitat for an animal. ! Develop computer games based on an understanding of coding techniques and math concepts such as variables, coordinate mapping, and logic. In the process of this project, several skills will be developed including: ! Problem-solving ! Creativity & innovation ! Empathy ! Collaboration ! Coding ! Measuring ! Expository writing ! Following & writing detailed instructions

STUDENT GROUPING
Students will have individual responsibility for the creation of computer games that teach about pet care to other children. The whole class will collaborate by writing separate pieces to contribute toward one pet care booklet and groups of four will join together around their interest in a specific pet to design a habitat for that pet for the classroom.

ASSESSMENT
As students complete learning activities during this project they will use rubrics designed together as a class to assess their own understanding. These rubrics will focus on: Content (academic material & skills learned) Collaboration Contribution Critique Creativity Critical thinking for understanding (i.e., ability to ask questions, make connections and summarize new learning).

EXHIBITION
Students will exhibit their work at Festival Del Sol on March 19, 2014 at HTe in Room 230. They will display their booklet, give others the opportunity to try their pet care computer games, and describe their models of class pet habitats. Visitors will have the opportunity to vote on the habitat that seems most humane and feasible for a classroom. Then, the class will have the opportunity to build the winning model to house a new class pet in the final trimester of the school year.

The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. Mahatma Gandhi