The Nature Connection – New Unit April – Early June
Hello Everyone!
Time is flying, as we are already into our second week after Spring Break! We are finishing up our last unit, as students prepare their newspaper articles and broadcast news reports. We hope to finish and present these within the next week, as soon as students are ready. Rubrics have been sent home for the commercials students completed before break, and I am gradually going through all of the e-port entries on science experiments, so look for those soon.
We have also jumped right in to some of our next unit, exploring our connection to nature. We will be doing this unit from now until June, while simultaneously giving more time for independent projects. Here are some details!
Unit Title: The Nature Connection
Unit Focus Statement:
Human beings impact and rely upon the balance of nature’s interdependent systems.
Concepts:
Connection (main focus), as well as Systems and Patterns.
An inquiry into:
- Our relationship with nature (mental health, survival, needs, recreation)
- Biomes, biodiversity, and interdependence within ecosystems
- How human interaction with the environment can affect the balance of systems
- Earth’s water supply
- How the moon, sun, weather, and tides affect our lives
- The role of questioning, exploration, close observation, and documentation in science
- The definition of science and the role of indigenous knowledge
- How we express our connection to nature through poetry and art
- Geometry and patterns in nature
- French basic vocabulary and nature/weather expressions
Activities and learning to look forward to:
- Virtual field trips —
- Lower Seymour Watershed
- OWL Sanctuary
- Stanley Park Ecology Society River Otters Workshop
- GREEN Workshops on Water and Recycling
- Bamfield Marine Science Centre Seaweed Sensations & Oceanography
- Burnaby Art Gallery Coastal Waters Art Workshop.
- Daily participation in The 30-Day Walking Curriculum Challenge (from SFU Professor Gillian Judson and her book called The Walking Curriculum) for April/May, honing critical thinking, observation, documentation, and questioning skills.
- Daily participation in The Walk 30 Burnaby/New West Walking Challenge starting May 13th, recording our minutes daily in a community contest.
- Discussions around geometric shapes and patterns found in nature, symmetry, and Fibonacci.
- Continued practice of grade-level math curriculum through nature-inspired, real-life math problems in the books Planet Earth, Animal Kingdom, and Ocean Math, among other resources. Students will work independently and at their own pace on these using the book resource in EPIC, while also coming to me for small-group or individual instruction as needed.
- Research on a specific organism in our local environment, understanding its name and classification, whether it is endangered and why, what it is used for, what local Indigenous cultures know about it, and how it is connected to our own lives, then producing artwork to represent findings.
- Walking to Everett Crowley Park to look at native BC plants used by indigenous peoples for healing and food.
- Growing our own plants in class through hydroponics.
- Mapping our local environment of plants and creating plant samples like a botanist using pressing techniques and art.
- Discussions about the water cycle, water health, the harm plastics are doing to our waters, ocean acidification, using a variety of games, an ocean pH lab, and interactive challenges.
- Class reading and analysis of the book The Skeleton Tree, which will connect to discussions of survival techniques in nature, such as how to use a compass, how to find edible food, etc.
- Discussions of figurative language and poetry, which will lead to us creating our own mini poetry journal and an oral presentation of a poetry monologue about nature.
- Creating models of our ideal outdoor play space for ADST.
And much more! Please continue to watch the blog and Twitter for more information on what our class is doing. More information to come!
Ms. D