Throughout the 6th grade Earth Science Studying Soil Scientifically unit, I was able to implement my ImagineIt project: The Art of Process. Both the students and myself greatly benefited from the enhanced activities and projects added to this unit through the ImagineIt project. At the end of the unit, we completed a multimodal composition assessment and are anxiously anticipating the next process project for our Rocks & Minerals unit.
I started the soil unit with a pre-assessment. Given a nutrient cycle diagram, students were asked to explain what they already knew about the nutrient cycle. I scored the pre-assessment using a simple rubric.
During the unit, we took trips to the school garden to examine the garden plants and soil. Students made observations and scientific sketches about plants that were growing or in the process of dying. Each class was also given a lesson on how we compost our lunchroom scraps and was shown the humus that resulted from last year’s composting efforts. Students were amazed to see that this rich soil used to be their banana and orange peels from last year! Students examined the humus carefully taking note of partially decomposed materials and visible decomposers.
Through readings, students learned specific scientific vocabulary to attach to their new learning including the terms organic matter, decomposition and nutrients. Students used iPads and headphones to further explore vocabulary using a Storyboard that I created on PBS Learning Media which included video clips about decomposers and decomposition. (http://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/tools/storyboard/view/5d16e75b-07ae-4006-9d04-9e0899338a3b/). Students illustrated their vocabulary terms using the information from the text, pictures/captions and videos.
I formed groups of four in each period according to the pre-assessment scores to ensure there was a heterogeneous group of students with varying nutrient cycle knowledge. Groups were given specific tasks to choose from before heading out to the compost and garden areas: looking for and photographing visible decomposers, looking for plant parts that have fallen to the ground or photographing plants and plant parts in various stages of decomposition.
Students headed outside to find and take amazing photographs using the iPads (after signing a guidelines for use agreement). Students took photos of a wide variety of examples of the processes in the nutrient cycle: worms in the compost bin, decomposing tomatoes, dead corn plants and lettuce still growing in the garden.
Students used their own photographs and field knowledge to collaboratively create Google slides presentations to show their new understandings of the nutrient cycle and the processes within the cycle. Students were given formative feedback on their projects via comments on Google slides and were given time to make changes to their presentations before the final summative score was given. See the slides below for photographs of the students at work and a final project from one of the teams!
I started the soil unit with a pre-assessment. Given a nutrient cycle diagram, students were asked to explain what they already knew about the nutrient cycle. I scored the pre-assessment using a simple rubric.
During the unit, we took trips to the school garden to examine the garden plants and soil. Students made observations and scientific sketches about plants that were growing or in the process of dying. Each class was also given a lesson on how we compost our lunchroom scraps and was shown the humus that resulted from last year’s composting efforts. Students were amazed to see that this rich soil used to be their banana and orange peels from last year! Students examined the humus carefully taking note of partially decomposed materials and visible decomposers.
Through readings, students learned specific scientific vocabulary to attach to their new learning including the terms organic matter, decomposition and nutrients. Students used iPads and headphones to further explore vocabulary using a Storyboard that I created on PBS Learning Media which included video clips about decomposers and decomposition. (http://illinois.pbslearningmedia.org/tools/storyboard/view/5d16e75b-07ae-4006-9d04-9e0899338a3b/). Students illustrated their vocabulary terms using the information from the text, pictures/captions and videos.
I formed groups of four in each period according to the pre-assessment scores to ensure there was a heterogeneous group of students with varying nutrient cycle knowledge. Groups were given specific tasks to choose from before heading out to the compost and garden areas: looking for and photographing visible decomposers, looking for plant parts that have fallen to the ground or photographing plants and plant parts in various stages of decomposition.
Students headed outside to find and take amazing photographs using the iPads (after signing a guidelines for use agreement). Students took photos of a wide variety of examples of the processes in the nutrient cycle: worms in the compost bin, decomposing tomatoes, dead corn plants and lettuce still growing in the garden.
Students used their own photographs and field knowledge to collaboratively create Google slides presentations to show their new understandings of the nutrient cycle and the processes within the cycle. Students were given formative feedback on their projects via comments on Google slides and were given time to make changes to their presentations before the final summative score was given. See the slides below for photographs of the students at work and a final project from one of the teams!