Today I am thinking about addressing the 3rd grade Ocean Unit through a Project Based Learning approach. The driving question for the project would be: “How can we help save the ocean from pollution?” This would be posted in Google Classroom on a live Google document so that students can brainstorm smaller questions that would need to be answered throughout the project in order to fully address the overarching action-based driving question. An example of the some the questions students might ask are indicated below:
DRIVING QUESTION: How can we help save the ocean from pollution?
Possible Guiding Questions
- What types of living things are in the Ocean?
- What do these organisms need to survive?
- What type of environment?
- What type of food?
- What might negatively impact these organisms?
- What could impact their food source?
- What might change the water in terms of current or temperature?
- What can we do to address these issues?
- How can we get the larger community to assist us in this effort?
Students would then work in small groups over the next several weeks to address the question and create a final product of an infomercial or informational pamphlet that will be shared with the school community, parents, and community partners to persuade them to be do their part to save the oceans. The following activities would be done to work towards addressing the question.
Project Introduction: Students share what they already know by creating a quick 1 to 2 minute video sharing three things they know about the ocean. The videos will be posted and students will watch and respond to the videos of at least 3 of their peers. Technology Tools: FlipGrid to create, post, and comment on videos.
Teacher shares the driving question and has students brainstorm smaller guiding questions and how they might find the answers to these questions. Technology Tools: Google Word Document to create guiding questions.
Project Launch: The class goes to the local Aquarium to learn about animals in the ocean and participates in a tour led by experts at the Aquarium. Students take pictures of the animals they observe using their iPads and upload the pictures along with a brief description of what they learned in their group folder. Technology Tools: Ipads to take pictures and Google Classroom to upload the pictures along with the description.
Students that are absent or unable to attend the trip for some reason would watch several videos about Ocean life. Technology Tools: Online video through National Geographic Kids.
Project Activity #1: The teacher will read the book “Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas” by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm. As the book is read, the class will create a T chart list of the organisms in the ocean and what they eat. Technology Tools: Interactive Projector or Board is used to create the T chart.
Project Activity #2: Students work in groups to select an ocean animal. The pictures from the aquarium trip and the T chart of the animals from the Ocean Sunlight book can help the groups in determining their animal.
Student groups do a WebQuest to find out more about their animal including special features it possesses, what it eats, where specifically it lives in the ocean, it’s predators, etc… Students use this information to complete a survey about their animal. Technology Tools: Various internet sites for the WebQuest including National Geographic Kids, Oceana, and the National Aquarium. Zoho will be used to create the survey. www.zoho.com
Project Activity #3: The class rereads the book “Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas” by Molly Bang & Penny Chisholm. During and after the reading, students respond in their journals to the question “What natural forces or elements helped life grow and moved food sources to other animals in the text? Technology Tools: Online journals could be through SeeSaw or Class Dojo. Dragon Dictation or another app could be used to provide speech to text support for students that need this assistance.
The class discusses this question and creates a web of elements that support food source supply (light from the sun, currents in the ocean that move food, temperature of the water, etc.) and things that could negatively impact these elements (trash such as plastic, chemicals that come from oil spills and factories, etc.) Technology Tools: Interactive projector and site like Creately to make the web diagram.
Project Activity #4: Each group of students is assigned an article about ocean pollution that they read and annotate online. Students add any negative impacts and any possible solutions to their web diagram from Activity #3. Technology Tools: Use Kami to allow students to highlight and take notes in the reading. Articles from various sites including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, BBC Earth, National Geographic Kids, and Scholastic.
Culminating Activity: Groups continue to research ocean pollution and ways to address this issue. Groups create either an informercial video or an informational pamphlet describing why and how we can save the ocean from pollution. This final product will be shared with the school community (other students, parents, community partners) on the school website. Technology Tools: Groups will use Animoto to create and upload the video. Groups will use Microsoft Word to create the pamphlet and Flickr to find pictures for pamphlet. This is the final group project and will used as the summative assessment for the unit. This assessment will be scored using a rubric created using Rubric Maker.
As you can see from the detailed lesson description above, technology was integrated throughout each lesson to engage students visually through videos, interactive charts, and diagrams; auditorily through read alouds, videos, and discussion; and kinesthetically through the creation of charts, diagrams, and videos. Technology was also used to engage students in the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking which are an important component of Project Based Learning. The authentic products of the infomercial and informational pamphlet are also implemented at another level through technology use.
I decided to use a Project Based Learning approach for this Literacy Unit because of the cross-content focus of the literacy text. There are additional science investigations that can happen during science class to support understanding of these concepts. It was important to me to go beyond just information and to help students learn how what they do can impact the ocean and the animals that live in it. At the same time students are able to identify future careers as marine biologists, environmentalists, and other related fields. By using the Project Based Learning approach, students will cultivate the following 21st century learning skills:
- Oral Communication—Discussing information with one another; creating the initial Flipgrid video; and creating the final infomercial
- Written Communication—Completing the animal survey; responding to prompts in their journals; creating the web diagram; and designing the informational pamphlet
- Collaboration—Responding to each other’s videos in the project introduction and working with their group to research the animal, research pollution causes and solutions, and create the final product
- Creativity—Creating the Flipgrid video, the web diagram, the informercial, and the informational pamphlet
- Critical Thinking—researching their animal and synthesizing this information to complete the survey; reading and comprehending information about ocean pollution and solutions; determining key information to use in the final product; using persuasive language and visuals in their final products
More information about the benefits and key components of Project Based Learning can be found via the references below.
Buck Institute for Education. (2013). Research Summary: PBL and 21st Century Competencies. Retrieved from http://pblworks.org/sites/default/files/2019-01/FreeBIE_Research_Summary.pdf?_ga=2.70075024.1004924657.1554564120-486121212.1550678490&_gac=1.40644374.1554254305.EAIaIQobChMI6-ONtOCy4QIVFI7ICh2GRwALEAAYAiAAEgJmf_D_BwE
Edutopia. (2019). An Introduction to Project-Based Learning. Retrieved from https://www.edutopia.org/video/introduction-project-based-learning
Larmer, J. & Mergendoller, J. R. (2010, September 2010). Seven Essentials for Project-Based Learning. Educational Leadership, 68 (1), 34-37. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational_leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Seven_Essentials_for_Project-Based_Learning.aspx
There are many opportunities throughout the project to informally assess students in an authentic manner. One formative tool is the animal survey that was created in Zoho. I choose the survey as it is a way to ask very specific questions that requires each student to synthesize the information from the group research. It also allows for one survey to be used even though each student group researched a different ocean animal. Researchers collect data from others using surveys so I thought this was a good tool to use with student researchers to they become familiar with how easy it can be to participate in a survey. Use this link to view a sample survey for this project. https://survey.zohopublic.com/public_preview/ZGYyYzZkNzUtMWRkNS00OGVkLWIyODUtYzE4NmZhNTAxZGJm
The summative tool for this unit was the use of a rubric to assess the infomercial and the informational pamphlet. Student groups had a choice of which product they would create. Both products are authentic in nature as they are items that an environmentalist might produce to share important information with the public to engage them in helping to save our oceans. The rubric allows the teacher to assess the product for content; clarity of purpose; effective writing or speaking; and effective use of visuals. Each of the areas of the rubric are also very important components that an actual environmentalist would consider when creating informational items to gain public support. By using a rubric, I am able to set specific expectations for students around the assignment. Students can self-assess using the rubric and the teacher can give feedback based on the rubric as the product progresses over time. The rubric for the informercial and information pamphlet was created using Rubric Maker which can be found here. https://rubric-maker.com/
More information about various tools for formative and summative assessments can be found by accessing the references below.
Center for Teaching and Innovation. (n.d.). Using Rubrics. Retrieved from https://teaching.cornell.edu/teaching-resources/assessment-evaluation/using-rubrics
Mueller, J. (2018). Authentic Assessment Toolbox. Retrieved from http://jfmueller.faculty.noctrl.edu/toolbox/tasks.htm
Sauer, W. (2014). Video Playlist: Authentic Assessments. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/blog/2014/05/16/playlist-authentic-assessments
Please share your thoughts and ideas about Project Based Learning and Authentic Assessments.
