Title: Our School Environment Investigation
Lesson: 2
Grade Level: 4th
Blooms Taxonomy: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, and Evaluation
Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence(s):
1.
2.
3.
4.
Visual/ Spatial
Bodily-kinesthetic
Interpersonal
Linguistic
Children’s Literature: City Green, Author: DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
NYC Science Scope and Sequence:
Inquiry Skills:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Classifying
Communicating
Creating models
Comparing and Contrasting
Gathering and Organizing Data
Interpreting Data
Process Skills:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Observe, analyze, and report observations of objects and events.
Generate appropriate questions in response to observations, events and other experiences.
Observe, collect, organize and appropriately graph data, then accurately interpret results.
Plan, design, and implement a short term and long term investigation based on a student
or teacher posed problem.
5. Communicate procedures and conclusions through oral and written presentations.
ISTE NET Standards for Literate Students:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Creativity and innovation
Communication and collaboration
Research and information fluency
Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making
Behavioral Objective(s):
1. To describe and understand different ways humans have affect the environment by
completing “Green Squad Progress Report” worksheet.
2. To construct a spreadsheet and bar graph based on groups findings from school
investigation.
3. To create an ad using PowerPoint to bring awareness to our environment.
Motivation/ Constructivist Activity:
We will start off by discussing and activating students’ prior knowledge on different ways that
humans have changed the environment over time. We will then discuss the steps that we can take
to help our environment become a better place by starting off locally, our school. Students will
be taught about things we could do differently to help save our environment. This will teach
them that small steps can bring awareness to eventually make a difference by starting at the place
we spend most of our time, which is school.
Time Duration: Two classroom sessions
Procedures:
1. Students will be asked to come to the meeting area with their notebooks to be read the
book City Green, by DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan.
2. Students will discuss and take notes on the different things the characters’ in the book did
to help save the environment.
3. As a class, we will discuss different ways that human have affected the environment, and
what we could do the save it from getting worse.
4. Students will then be put into groups, then sent to the computer station where groups will
log on to http://www.nrdc.org/greensquad/intro/intro_1.asp .
5. Once students have completed the entire investigation online, they will be split up to
different rooms in the school.
6. Students will go to the room(s) their group is assigned to investigate the things it contains
done by humans that affecting the environment.
7. Each group will complete the worksheet as they investigate the rooms in the school and
read the facts sheet.
8. Students will return to class and discuss their findings to create solutions on what they
can do to stop harming the environment in our school.
9. Each group will discuss and compare what they found in the rooms.
10. Each group will create a bar graph to compare the findings as a class.
11. Students will create an ad to bring awareness to the things we’re doing that’s harming the
environment.
Questions:
I.
Closed Ended Questions:
1. What does the word environment mean?
Answer: Everything in the world that surrounds and affects our lives.
2. What type of graph would be the most appropriate for us to compare our findings
as a class?
Answer: A bar graph.
II.
Open-Ended Questions:
1. How have humans affected the environment?
2. What can we do to bring awareness to help save our environment?
Materials:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
City Green, Author: DyAnne DiSalvo-Ryan
Notebooks
Computer station
Worksheet
School rooms
Excel spreadsheet
Power point
Assessment: Students will be assessed based on behavioral objectives listed in the rubric.
The rubric will reassure students’ ability to:
1. Describe and understand different ways humans have changed the environment by
investigating and completing “Green Squad Progress Report” worksheet.
2. Construct and compare bar graphs based on group’s findings.
3. Create an ad to bring awareness to our environment.
Modifications: Students with IEP’s will receive more time to conduct the investigation
activitity.
Behavioral
Objective
Behavioral
Objective#1:
Target 3
100%
Students
completed the
To describe and “Green Squad
understand
Progress Report”
different ways
worksheet in an
humans have
excellent manner.
changed the
They received 35+
environment by points on the
investigating
worksheet.
and completing Sentences are
“Green Squad
written
Progress
grammatically
Report”
correct; contains 0
worksheet.
errors.
Satisfactory 2
80%
Unsatisfactory 1
Below 75
Student completed
the “Green Squad
Progress Report”
worksheet in a
neat manner. They
received 26-34
points on the work
sheet. A few
grammatical
errors; 1 or 2
minor errors.
Students did not
complete the
“Green Squad
Progress Report”
worksheet.
Received 5-10
points on the
worksheet.
Sentences contain
3 or more errors.
Score
Behavioral
Objective #2:
The bar graph is
appropriately
entitled, x-axis
To construct a
and y- axis are
spreadsheet and labeled, and all of
bar graph based the data is entered
on groups
correctly into the
findings.
spreadsheet. The
legend is also
included. 100%90%
complete/correct.
Students entitled
graph, some axes
are not labeled. 12 Errors in data
entered in the
spreadsheet onto
the bar graph.
Legend is
included. Bar
graph and
spreadsheet are
89%-75%
complete/ correct.
The bar graph is
incomplete and/
or is missing the
title and/or axes
are not labeled.
There are more
than 3 mistakes
in data entry on
spreadsheet. The
legend is not
included.
Student’s work is
less than 65%
complete/ correct.
Behavioral
Objective #3:
Students power
point ad focuses
on one specific
topic, but have a
few details from
the fact sheet,
shows a little or
creativity and has
a few images. 1-2
spelling or
information errors.
Students did not
complete an ad.
No information
was used from
the fact sheets.
No type of
creativity or
images is shown.
3-4 spelling or
information
errors.
Student uses
power point
correctly to create
To create an ad an ad. Focuses on
using
one specific way
PowerPoint to
humans have/are
bring awareness affecting the
to our
environment,
environment
includes the
information
learned from the
fact sheets, is very
creative and
contains
appropriate
images. 0 spelling
or information
errors.
Students Performance Based Product for Behavioral Objective #1
Green Squad Progress Report
Name:
Teacher:
Date:
Instructions:
1. As you click through the school, write down each Green Squad discovery and where you
found it.
2. Read the fact sheet for each item and then write down two or three sentences about what
you learned on a piece of paper.
3. Count how many items you found and put the total at the bottom.
4. Count the number of fact sheets you read and wrote about, and put the total at the bottom
5. Add the two numbers at the bottom and hand this sheet and your sentences in to your
teacher.
Items Found
Room
1.computer
104
2. open window
104
3. trash can
104
4. refrigerator
cafeteria
5. water fountain
cafeteria
6. garbage
cafeteria
7. running faucet
bathroom
8. low handwashing supplies
bathroom
9. running toilet
bathroom
10. kids in action
210
11. mold
210
13
FACT SHEETS
o ASTHMA
o CLEANING PRODUCTS
o DIESEL SCHOOL
BUSES
o INDOOR AIR
QUALITY
o KIDS IN ACTION
12. lights
210
13. cleaning products
closet
14. pesticides
closet
15. paint with lead
gym
16. opened paint cans
gym
17. renovations
gym
18.diesal school buses
outside
19. pesticide treated lawn
outside
20. dirt
outside
21. solar panels
outside
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
LEAD
LIGHTING AND
DAYLIGHT
PANTING SCHOOLS
PESTICIDES
RENOVATING SKILLS
SAVING ENERGY
SAVING PAPER
SOLAR ENERGY
WASTE
Sentences:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
The gases from the diesel buses contain hundred of chemicals that are harmful to us. The particles that
come out from these gases can affect our lungs and can cause cancer.
A lot of waste is being thrown out from our schools. We need to recycle our garbage correctly to avoid it
being send to landfills, where there’s barely any space.
Flicking the lights on and off have a big impact on the environment because the fuels are burning and
releasing carbon dioxide. This is causing global warming as well as smog, which causes asthma.
A lot of paper is being used and thrown out on a daily. Trees are constantly being cut down, which affects
the earth’s climate because the trees absorb carbon dioxide.
Leaving computers on all day wastes a lot of unnecessary energy. We could help by powering any
monitors or electronics that we’re not using.
Some cleaning products contain very dangerous and strong chemicals. They can affect our health and
contaminate the ocean, river and lakes. Most of these chemicals are poisonous for animals and can cause
long-term sickness for humans.
Seeing kids in actions show that you don’t have to be an adult to make a difference or protect our
environment.
Left over paint from renovations can harm our environment. Many people do not dispose of them
correctly. It is often dumped down the drain, which contains lead, which goes into our rivers and streams
and harms wildlife and plants.
The water that comes from the water fountain can be contaminated because of the water system that it
comes from, and the rusty old pipes. This can affect our health.
Mold in our school causes air pollution.
A lot of waste is produced in the cafeteria such as metal, plastic and food. Much of this trash ends up in
landfills. The more trash that we use that we don’t recycle ends up in landfills and they take up a lot of
space.
The wood that’s usually ordered for renovations goes unused. This is cutting down a lot of trees in our
environment and taking away from our oxygen.
Running toilets and faucets is wasting water. Water is scarce in many places around the world.
Solar energy should be used in our schools. Most of our electricity is extremely dirty and builds pollution.
A Total Items Found 21
+ B Total sheets read 14
= C Overall Score 35
Squad Detective 35+ points
Green Shield Detective 26-34 points
Investigator 16-25 points
Junior Investigator 5-15 points
Students Performance Based Product for Behavioral Objective #2
Rooms
Computers Waste
Bathroom
0
Cafeteria
0
Room 402
10
Mean
2
Median
2
Mode
0
Range
10
12
Paper
4
0
3
Items That Affect Our School
Enviornment
# of Items Found In Rooms
10
Chemicals Lights
4
1
8
4
3
1
8
Bathroom
6
Cafeteria
Room 402
4
2
0
Computers Waste
Chemicals
Lights
Items Found
Paper
Paint
Paint
2
8
2
0
0
0
The room that contains the most amount of items that affects our environment is the cafeteria.
It contains a lot of paper and waste materials. None of the rooms had leftover paint in them, and only
our classroom had a large amount of computers.
Students Performance Based Product for Behavioral Objective #3
References
DiSalvo, D. (2003). City Green. New York, NY: Scholastic Teaching Resources
Lundgren, Julie K. (2012).How do Humans Depend on Earth? New York, NY: Rourke
Educational Media Publication
NRDC's Green Squad: Get Started. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.nrdc.org/greensquad/intro/intro_4.asp
NYC Department of Education: Kelin. J, Lyles. M, Curtis-Bey. L. (2008). K-8 Science
Scope & Sequence. Retrieved from
http://schools.nyc.gov/Documents/STEM/Science/K8ScienceSS.pdf
The ISTE national educational technology standards (NETS•S) and performance
Indicators for students. (2007). Retrieved from
http://www.iste.org/content/navigationmenu/nets/forstudents/2007standards/nets_for_studen
ts_2007_standards.pdf