A Curriculum Designed On The Solar System 6th Grade Designer: Kara McKeton Antioch University New England April 2012 !"#$%&'()*'+,&-./'011*2&&3''
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Antioch University New England has my permission to put this document I authored on reserve. Table of Contents: COVER LETTER à page 3 – 6 Ø Dear Conveners à page 3 Ø My Quandaries & Focus Questions à page 4 Ø Bottom Lines à page 5 Ø Curriculum Review à page 5 Ø Quick Preview (Intro to My Curriculum) àpage 6 Ø Convening Plan à page 7 MACRO UNIT à page 8 -­‐ 11 Ø Intro to Macro à page 8 Ø Macro Week 1 à page 9 Ø Macro Week 2 à page 10 Ø Macro Week 3 à page 11 Ø Macro Week 4 à page 12 CHALLENGE BOARD à page 13 VERMONT’S GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS à page 14 ASSESSMENT à page 15 RUBRIC à page 16 LESSON PLANS à page 17 -­‐ 58 Dear Creative Conveners, So I became a pottery nut over Spring break, as well as a dedicated yogi and meditator. I guess that’s what graduate school does to some people (haha) or maybe developing curriculum does! I didn’t necessarily learn the process of how to craft pottery, which is something I want to learn in the future, but I raided all the consignment shops collecting pottery like a mad woman when I needed a break from my curriculum design. Taking short breaks from the computer and focusing on being mindful of other things, such as breathing, stretching, walking and pottery, helped me survive my curriculum and think creatively with a fresh slate when going back to it. I’ve learned through this process to be patient, because in fact, “it’ll come”…it may feel like forever, but being persistent and believing in myself was key to production. As like all of you, I’ve been focused on crafting a one month long curriculum out of one thing, a topic with certain expectations soaring above. This reminded me of our first day in Human Development class when our Professor handed us a plain ball of clay, and we were all left to create something out of this ball. With everyone’s touch, each person contributed to the final formation of a beautiful unique platter. Starting out in our curriculum design, I initially thought we were all working individually to create an independent project, but then I realized, we are all developing our own homemade process to designing a curriculum, the pinching part! During these past couple months, I have been shaping my clay, by crafting my own lessons and creating an innate process of doing so, to create a curriculum that will be part of our larger class curriculum product, a platter of fun, motivating and engaging learning opportunities for young students. Whether you decide to add a pinch here or bead to your pottery mug, or a swirl to your bowl, we have been learning how to make something unique out of a topic or plain ball of clay. Overall, I have created my first bowl of curriculum out of clay and I am open and curious to see and listen to how you each will shape it from here… Thank you all so much in advance for adding a pinch! Every tweak counts! My Quandaries & Focus Questions: •
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Just like my pottery collection, I am having a difficult time being happy with the order and organization of my lessons, as I change it daily. Playing with the organization of my macro is an ongoing struggle for me, since the perfectionist in me believes it can be better, but the evidence is not clear to me anymore. I’ve redone my macro 10 times! Perhaps this is where I could really use your help. I want the organization and order that is most logically appealing to the students and their learning. How would you order my Macro differently to maximize student interest and learning as a middle school student? (Perhaps view it in the eyes of a middle school student) Following my struggle with organization is identifying specifically which lessons or parts just don’t fit into the overall picture. Connecting every activity to the whole picture seems unattainable, but I want to reach it! My goal is to convey the connectedness of each lesson to the overarching question, to give each lesson a purpose for student participation and interest…so they can get closer to answering the overarching question. You can help me simply by looking at my lessons with your own eyes, from your own perspective, and think is there any piece that seems disconnected from the whole picture? Please identify any parts of or whole lesson plans that “stick out” as being disconnected from the guiding question, and offer a recommendation as to how it could be “saved” or connected to the whole picture. If you need more of a focus, the lesson on day 3 seems disconnected and I’m not sure how to fix it. I wanted to somehow tie in the introduction to using NASA’s web resources along with getting the students to think about their size compared to Earth. Finally, I have a tendency to try and do everything all at once, which is not always effective, especially in terms of designing curriculum. My pedagogical fear is my thirst for trying to fit it (content) all in and check it off like the list-­‐driven person I was before I burned this fear during class one day. I worry I will be consumed by trying to make a list of outcomes the students need to achieve and become •
blinded by the essence of the curriculum. Overall, I have battled between cutting things out of my lessons but still attaining important concepts needed to learn for the overarching project. My mentor teacher said he had a flexible science schedule, so I didn’t really have the timing set in my head, but I aimed for lessons that could take 1-­‐2 class periods for most if needed. The curriculum I reviewed suggested students take two class periods when creating scale models; one day for computation of scale and another day for creating the model. However, is there just too much packed in my curriculum? Are there any lessons or pieces that could be shortened or cut out to make it more concise and follow the notion that sometimes, “less is more”? ANSWER DURING FIRST 5 minutes of CONVENING: Designing a lesson plan for an abstract concept, the solar system, is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done and still ponder about. What is helpful to keep in mind while designing for an abstract concept? My Bottom Lines: My “bottom lines” reflect what I would want from lessons as a student, what I would like to see conveyed as an emerging educator, and also include essential elements recommended by my interviewees, a 6th grade teacher and two students. Ø Constructivism – I strongly believe in individuals constructing their own knowledge and teacher’s providing the avenues and opportunities for students to achieve this. I feel like most of my education growing up was memorization of facts and words and not truly understanding the concepts, unless I was involved with them somehow (mentally, emotionally or physically). I want students to build their own homes of knowledge and enjoy the satisfactory of learning for one’s own understanding. Ø Fun Factor – playful, motivating, and game-­‐like. The students I interviewed emphasized that it is important to them that I make science classes fun! I held these words of wisdom dear to my heart, because I think science is already fun and it is crucial for me to think outside my science box and discover new ways to create a “fun-­‐factor” and stimulate various interests within each lesson. Basically, I need to re-­‐discover what “fun” is at a middle/high school age and incorporate this fun factor into my lessons to stimulate student interest. Ø Relevance – integrates use of technology, real-­‐life science (e.g. NASA scientists and discoveries), and makes it real for students to encourage them to think beyond the classroom and discover/wonder more deeply about concepts relevant to their own lives. My mentor teacher made it a point to integrate technology as much as possible because he said, “Kids learn now through technology. And you will be doing your students a favor by giving them the opportunity to practice being resourceful.” Incorporating the use of laptops/computers and real NASA data was a big aim for my curriculum, so students could become familiar with NASA web resources and using different resources to find information needed to solve the challenges posed to them. Curriculum Review: The three curriculums I used in guiding my design on a unit of the solar system were helpful in different ways. All curriculums used the standard 3-­‐D scale models as final projects, which made me want to design for a more exciting and playful way of creating a 3-­‐D scale model. One electronic source, the 2004 Atlantic Canada Science Curriculum for 6th grade, Prince Edward Island, Canada was particularly helpful in providing some inquiry-­‐based approaches to different activities revolving around Earth Science and Space. I was impressed with this resource in that it briefly modeled a similar approach to classroom activities that we are learning more in depth at Antioch University. Another curriculum I reviewed was The Universe At Your Fingertips: An Astronomy Activity and Resource Notebook, Andrew Fraknoi (ed), Project Astro at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. This resource was useful in designing lessons on scale, by finding relative size and distance between planets. Designing for scale was especially difficult for me but it gave me a chance to relearn to be able to design for it. An additional curriculum that helped me design for scale was the 1994 edition of Out of This World, Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science Educational Foundation, Fresno, CA. These resources provided guidance and supplemental information used in the design of this curriculum. Quick Preview: My hope is this curriculum design will give students an opportunity to embark on a journey to discover our cosmic neighborhood, and ultimately create a sense of their place in the solar system. It is tough for young students to grasp such an abstract concept, like outer space, so I provide opportunity to explore our solar system in concrete ways such as using 3D models, scavenging for objects to understand scaling of relative size, acting out planet orbits themselves and dancing around the sun, to using real-­‐life technological resources that astronauts use. The students will be prompted in the beginning of the unit with a mission challenge (unit project) in which they will create a tour of our cosmic neighborhood in their schoolyard and pack suitcases needed to visit each planet at the end of the unit. To prepare students for their mission in acquiring the skills needed to complete the mission challenge, there will be relevant daily activities, class discussions, journal questions and “Cosmic Tour Meetings” each week to keep the essence of the final mission challenge under their radar. During Cosmic Tour Meeting times, students will need to make decisions about how and what they want to use to represent in their tour model, such as agreeing on a scale reference for relative distance from the sun and size of planets, and mapping planetary orbits, in addition, they will translate their new knowledge gained each week into what they will be constructing for the ultimate cosmic tour outside. From exploring real images and data collected from NASA spacecraft, to playing with concrete models to grasp the immense size and shape of Earth’s neighbors, to squeezing the solar system into their schoolyard, students will be able to educate others on our cosmic neighbors and neighborhood!