Unit: Human Impact Sternberg Task What is in Our Trash?

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1 The following instructional plan is part of a GaDOE collection of Unit Frameworks, Performance Tasks, examples of Student Work, and Teacher Commentary. Many more GaDOE approved instructional plans are available by using the Search Standards feature located on GeorgiaStandards.Org. Standards (Content and Characteristics): Unit: Human Impact Sternberg Task What is in Our Trash? S6E6. Students will describe various sources of energy and their uses and conservations. b. Identify renewable and non-renewable resources S6CS1. Students will explore the importance of curiosity, honesty, openness, and skepticism in science and will exhibit these traits in their own efforts to understand how the world works. a. Understand the importance of and keep honest, clear, and accurate records in science. b. Understand that hypotheses are valuable if they lead to fruitful investigations, even if the hypotheses turn out not to be completely accurate descriptions. S6CS2. Students will use standard safety practices for all classroom laboratory and field investigations. a. Follow correct procedures for use of scientific apparatus. b. Demonstrate appropriate techniques in all laboratory situations. c. Follow correct protocol for identifying and reporting safety problems and violations. S6CS3. Students will use computation and estimation skills necessary for analyzing data and following scientific explanations. a. Analyze scientific data by using, interpreting, and comparing numbers in several equivalent forms, such as integers and decimals. b. Use metric input units (such as seconds, meters, or grams per milliliter) of scientific calculations to determine the proper unit for expressing the answer. c. Address the relationship between accuracy and precision and the importance of each. d. Draw conclusions based on analyzed data. S6CS4. Students will use tools and instruments for observing, measuring, and manipulating equipment and materials in scientific activities. a. Use appropriate technology to store and retrieve scientific information in topical, alphabetical, numerical, and keyword files, and create simple files. b. Estimate the effect of making a change in one part of a system on the system as a whole. July 26, 2007 Page 1 of 6

2 c. Read analog and digital meters on instruments used to make direct measurements of length, volume, weight, elapsed time, rates, and temperature, and choose appropriate units for reporting various quantities. S6CS6. Students will communicate scientific ideas and activities clearly. a. Write clear, step-by-step instructions for conducting scientific investigations, operating a piece of equipment, or following a procedure. b. Understand and describe how writing for scientific purposes is different than writing for literary purposes. c. Organize scientific information using appropriate tables, charts, and graphs, and identify relationships they reveal. S6CS8. Students will investigate the characteristics of scientific knowledge and how it is achieved. Students will apply the following to scientific concepts: a. When similar investigations give different results, the scientific challenge is to judge whether the differences are trivial or significant, which often requires further study. Even with similar results, scientists may wait until an investigation has been repeated many times before accepting the results as meaningful. b. When new experimental results are inconsistent with an existing, well-established theory, scientists may require further experimentation to decide whether the results are flawed or the theory requires modification. c. As prevailing theories are challenged by new information, scientific knowledge may change and grow. S6CS9. Students will investigate the features of the process of scientific inquiry. Students will apply the following to inquiry learning practices: a. Scientific investigations are conducted for different reasons. They usually involve collecting evidence, reasoning, devising hypotheses, and formulating explanations. b. Scientists often collaborate to design research. To prevent bias, scientists conduct independent studies of the same questions. c. Accurate record keeping, data sharing, and replication of results are essential for maintaining an investigator s credibility with other scientists and society. d. Scientists use technology and mathematics to enhance the process of scientific inquiry. S6CS10. Students will enhance reading in all curriculum areas by: a. Reading in All Curriculum Areas c. Building vocabulary knowledge d. Establishing context July 26, 2007 Page 2 of 6

3 Enduring Understanding: Human activity can have a positive or negative impact on the surface of our Earth. The atmosphere and the oceans have a limited capacity to absorb wastes and recycle materials naturally. Cleaning up polluted air, water, or soil or restoring depleted soil, forests, or fishing grounds can be very difficult and costly. Through conservation strategies, people can slow down the degradation of the environment and the depletion of non-renewable resources. Essential Question(s): How might conservation and resource strategies be used today to affect your future? Give examples. Which strategies to conserve energy would be easiest for your family to use and why? Pre-Assessment: Post 3 charts- one with SOIL, one with AIR and one with WATER. Have students come up and answer these questions on the appropriate chart. 1) Name some ways you and your family could use to recycle or conserve our soil. 2) Name some ways you and your family could use to recycle or conserve our air. 3) Name some ways you and your family could use to recycle or conserve our water. Outcome/ Performance Expectation Performance Task: (Detailed Description) Teacher role? Student role? Allowing the environment to degrade continuously can result in disasters for people that may not have an affordable solution. Human societies have long caused environmental problems whose effects persist for generations, and the scale of these problems is rapidly increasing. Many strategies for conserving resources save money as they protect the environment. Properly planned conservation strategies increase comfort levels and quality of life while using fewer resources and restoring the environment. ANALYTICAL PRACTICAL CREATIVE The teacher will assist students in categorizing their trash into renewable and non-renewable materials. The teacher will set the appropriate environment for the project by enlisting the assistance of the faculty, staff and administration. The teacher will assist students with their collections. He/she will also place the stamp of approval on the new design. Students will weigh all trash produced by a classroom for a period of one week. Students will develop a recycling program to be implemented at school. Posters will July 26, 2007 Page 3 of 6 Students will collect recycled items. Working in pairs, they will design a

4 Materials Data will also be divided into nonrenewable and renewable materials. Students will record data in tables and construct graphs to depict the amount of trash the school produces on an average day, week, month, and school year. This data will be posted in the cafeteria. Students may also make a multimedia presentation to present to the students of the school at assemblies or go from class to class to present their room s trash data. Several rooms or grades could begin to collect their trash and compare the amount of trash collected to the amount that is recycled. This information could be collected via school mail and students could keep an ongoing data for each room. Containers for sorting Scales Gloves (Safety) Logbooks Graph paper or be designed and posted around the school. The posters purpose will be to persuade people to participate by highlighting the costs of not recycling and the benefits of recycling. Students will circulate throughout the school presenting their posters and answering questions. Presentation will also include examples of non-renewable and renewable materials that are found in the classroom trash. Each class will vote on the best poster and those will be posted in the front office to encourage visitors to recycle. Students could produce a multimedia presentation on their program and present to the student body or to the community as well to develop a recycling program for the school or community. Computers Posters Art materials (Internet accesspermission forms) new product using the most recycled items or create new ways to reuse the materials.(trash to Treasures). After the design has been approved, they will build it. Products should be innovative, creative, and useful. Presentations of finished products will be shared with the class. Each class can vote on the most original product to be displayed in the school. Products will include both renewable and nonrenewable materials. These materials will be identified or labeled with in the presentation. Students could take pictures of their products and post them on the school website and encourage others to recycle and re-use. Collection of recycled materials Gloves (Safety) Art materials July 26, 2007 Page 4 of 6

5 Resources Homework/Extension Instructional Tasks Accommodations for ELL Students Electronic graphing programs Posters Art materials United Streaming Video: Earth Science: Conservation of Natural Resources Record a journal entry in your logbook which addresses a minimum of two of the following topics: 1. List some ways we affect our environment. Include at least one effect on each- soil, air, and water. 2. What activities can we engage in to change or decrease our resource use? Be specific. 3. Using Internet or other resources, compare United States use of land, air, and water with other major countries. How do we compare? 4. As the world s population continues to increase, why is conservation such an important concern to us in our school, community, state and our nation? Record a journal entry in your logbook which addresses a minimum of two of the following topics: 1. List some ways we affect our environment. Include at least one effect on each- soil, air, and water. 2. What activities can we engage in to change or decrease our resource use? Be specific. 3. Using the Internet or other resources, compare United States use of land, air and water with other major countries. How do we compare? 4. As the world s population continues to increase, why is conservation such an important concern to us in our school, community, state and our nation? July 26, 2007 Page 5 of 6 Record a journal entry in your logbook which addresses a minimum of two of the following topics: 1. List some ways we affect our environment. Include at least one effect on each- soil, air, and water. 2. What activities can we engage in to change or decrease our resource use? Be specific. 3. Using the Internet or other resources, compare United States use of land, air and water with other major countries. How do we compare? 4. As the world s population continues to increase, why is conservation such an important concern to us in our school, community, state and our nation? Seat students near the teacher or positive role models Organize the types of facts students should be finding about renewable and non-renewable Have students do think-pair-share to identify prior knowledge

6 Instructional Tasks Accommodations for Students with Disabilities Instructional Tasks Accommodations for Gifted Students Relate content to real life Adjust teacher talk to increase comprehensibility Provide a checklist with each step in the assignment enumerated to assist students with organization Minimize distractions and provide quiet place or study carrel Refrain from speaking with back turned to students to accommodate DHH students and others with language/communication disabilities Allow students to dictate their rationale for conservation efforts at the end of the assignment to a peer partner or let them use a data collecting instrument Use a K-W-L exercise to help students connect background information with what they are trying to learn/discover Encourage students to use resource materials to gather a depth of information about recycling programs and processes; cost analysis of a new program to be introduced into a community without one. Have students develop their posters to go into the public to speak to community groups to add to their support. As students extend this lesson have them keep a trash log at home; sort by renewable or non-renewable; devise a plan to decrease trash by 10% per week. Present these strategies to the class. AS a follow-up, ask them to keep on-going record of their trash and then make analysis to check for their success. Create a learning environment that encourages creativity /discovery through the use of literature and reference materials Create an environment where ideas are accepted without being evaluated; where risk-taking is encouraged Supply reading material on a wide variety of subjects and levels July 26, 2007 Page 6 of 6