Day 1:

I (the teacher) would begin the lesson by placing the students on individual computers
to log onto a site, I am currently investigating, Educannon. While wearing headphones,
the students will watch a short introduction video, taken from national geographic,
youtube, etc, about the impacts on the environment and answer the embedded closed
and open ended questions for a formative assessment. I will monitor their answers
while I work the room facilitating the lesson to investigate and ask further questions
during the next activity. The students would then be placed in a circle in the classroom.
In this circle we would play a roll-play game based on environmental impacts, whether
by human or nature. (The advocates for human rights, 2013) (a copy has been placed
indropbox) The students would express their concerns, opinions, etc. based on their
prior knowledge of the subject. A Socratic seminar would take place in the circle for
students to create accountable talk for investigation to specific statements or questions
made by the teacher or other students, backing up their answers with facts and
statements from the video. This seminar and roll play should spark interest in the
students. Once seminar is complete, students would go back to their seats and write
down an impact on the environment that impacted them the most to want to change.

Day 2-5:
Once I have scaffold the learning in day one of the lesson, the students will extend their
autonomy to become active, holistic, complex learners while completing the challenging
activities that lie ahead. There are four themes that support this authentic learning in
this lesson: 1. An activity that involves real-world problems and that mimics the work of
professionals; the activity involves presentation of findings to audiences beyond the
classroom. 2. Use of open-ended inquiry, thinking skills and metacognition. 3. Students

engage in discourse and social learning in a community of learners. 4. Students direct

their own learning in project work. (Rule, 2006)
Students are placed in groups based on their views and interest from the lesson the
previous day of about 3-4 students. The students will have 3 days to complete an
environmental in-class project. The students will be given a computer to investigate their
environmental interest. The interest may be on human impact such as: pollution,
deforestation, wastage of resources: water, power, petroleum, etc., or natural impact
such as: weather, wildfires, flooding, erosion, etc. The students will complete a series of
challenging activities to investigate, experiment, and apply their learning with multiple
vantage points while gaining reading, writing, math and technology skills to make
connections to the goal the students are set to achieve. They will use technology
(laptops, digital cameras, document camera, the library and the class textbook to
investigate people, resources, locations, data, experiments, and statistics to help them
complete their project for presentation.
?In order to complete the following project, the students will already have a basic
knowledge of the topic of their interest and our discussion from day one in the socratic
circle. The students will need to have computer literacy. All students will have a
computer to be able to use the internet for proof and documentation to reference
presentation. Students who do not have this can learn from others, get individual help
from the teacher, and read the directions to learn given to each group, along with a list
of cites they may use; but are not limited too. The students will need to know how to
use the library resources to find articles and books for research. This is a standard in
languages arts class. I will coordinate my lesson with the librarian so she can teach and
scaffold the library skills needed to complete work. The students will bring with them
prior knowledge and mastery of standards from the ecology unit in science to guide
them through and expland their thinking. "Constructivism proposes that new knowledge
is constructed from old. It holds the educational belief that as teachers, it's essential that
we make connections between what new is being presented with students' prior
experiences." (Alber, 2011) The students must know how to complete surveys, charts,
data, and presentation design. All of these skills would have been coorinated with the

math and language arts teacher to assure that these skills are taught before or during
my unit as we vertically plan together.
The students must include in their project: Examples will be given if needed for
scaffolding.
1. A family survey or interview about their views on their topic.
2. A graph (bar, line, circle, chart, or data) that supports their investigation.
3. Find one successful invention or design your own use as evidence and a visual to
explain the theory behind your investigation.
4. Write a letter to the Cheatham County services explaining the impact on the
environment and how they plan to change it. (I will have them visit after the project to
answer any of the students questions).
5. Create a publication (website, Prezi, or Power point) that explores the animals in our
area and how they are effected by their chosen environmental impact. (This will be
completed in the computer class with the computer teacher as part of technology
lesson for the 5 day duration)
6. Given an activity with list of programs, the students will be given $20,000 to
determine how their money should be spent to help local programs to improve
environmental needs. (math)
7. Compare/contrast their impact to the environment in urban and rural areas
surrounding us.

8. Take pictures with the digital camera to add to presentation in our local environment
(optional)

The students may use the following websites to simulate and test their hypothesis or to
find articles to cite the evidence,
www.scied.vcar.edu/gmes-sims-weather-climate-atmosphere
www.biologycorner.com/environmentalissues
www.khanacademy.com
www.achieve3000.com
www.phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations
www.Tennessean.com

In our mac computer lab, I will be able to monitor students progress and research on the
teacher computer in the front of the room. I will have websites posted on the
whiteboard in the front of the room for students to refer to if needed. I am a big
advocate for small group instruction during a lesson. I will assure that I meet with each
group for about 15-20 minutes to ask open-ended questions based on their research. I
will use a data sheet with specific skills and standards needed for mastery of this
project. I will check off the skills the students seem to understand during the 5 day
process. I will begin to pull students from groups by day 2 and 3 that are not grasping
the concept of the goal for reteaching and scaffolding. The students will be sent back to
their group to work through the skill for mastery.
The students will present their hypotheses, investigations and conclusions to the class
based on all their evidence when all projects are complete. Students and teacher who
are listening will ask open ended questions to the presenters to make an inquiry on the
holistic authentic learning that was learned during this project. Given a rubric, the
students will reflect and evaluate their presentation and other student's presentations.
"Rubrics improve teaching, provide feedback to students, contribute to sound

assessment, and are an important source of information for program improvement."

(Wolf, 2007, p. 1) The teacher will video each presentation for further evaluation from
students and teachers. The video critics (based on rubric) will be taken into
consideration when grading.?

References:
Alber, R (2011) Are you tapping into prior knowledge often enough in your classroom?
Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/prior-knowledge-tapping-intooften-classroom-rebecca-alber
Rule, A. (2006) Journal of Authentic Learning, State University of New York (SUNY)
volume 3,number 1, Retrieved from http://www.ernweb.com/educational-researcharticles/the-four-characteristics-of-authentic-learning/
The right to a clean environment role-play.? (2013) The Advocates for Human Rights.
Retreived from www.discoverhumanrights.org?
Wolf, K. (2007) The role of rubrics in advancing and assessing student learning. ?The
Journal of Effective Teaching, Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 1 Retreived from
http://www.uncw.edu/cte/et/articles/vol7_1/wolf.pdf