Pick key words:
tectonics
plates
earthquake
natural processes
Volcano
magma
eruption
mountain
gully
valley
gravity
erosion
changing
liquefaction
water
wind
friction
moving
landform
rocks
Overarching question:
How can we educate others about landforms and how they change?
(This has to be co-created with children)
Rich task:
Create an educational aid for our science expo that will teach our visitors about the natural processes that change our land.
I want children to practise the skills:
- thinking tools - which ones?
- group work / team
- testing / prototypes
- analysing - identifying patterns
- teaching
- explaining
- question building and refining
- spot key words and key phrases (in questions)
Hook and rehook activities:
- Story of Totara
- Slide show of landforms eg Mountains, volcanoes, valleys, etc
- YouTube videos - liquefaction
- Powerpoint slide show of natural processes / models
- Experiments
- Skype
- Pancake batter
- Porridge
- Sandpit
Thinking tools and inquiry activities - use Lyn's planning sheet
- Venn diagrams
- T chart
- Reading to - stories
- Journal stories
- Question matrix
- Thinking keys - what if there were no landforms, alphabet key (to find vocab, prior knowledge, at end or ongoing - could be a display on the wall), prediction key before carrying out end of experiment)
- De Bono's thinking hats
- Digital stories
Some argument between Lyn and Liz about whether or not the 'Big Question' should be demonstrated at the beginning of the unit or not. Personally, I agree with Lyn. By feeding our children a pre-determined big question we do exactly what we set out not to do - remove their choice and input so they have no voice in the unit. While all these decisions need to be decided by the teachers prior to the unit, I see no problem with withholding the 'big question'. I know, as the teacher, where my focus is and which direction I vaguely want my students heading but I DO want to leave my students with at least the illusion of ownership.
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