G4+Science+Unit+3+Interactions+Lessons+&+Procedures

February 13th – April 20th
 * Alain L. Locke Magnet School for Environmental Stewardship 2012-2013 **
 * UNIT 3: Interactions of Air, Water, and Land **


 * Enduring Understanding: **Interactions within communities and environments can create conflict.


 * Essential Questions: **How do interactions lead to conflict?


 * Common Core Learning Standards**

W.4.2.  Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly. W.4.4.  Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. RI.4.3.  Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text. RI.4.4.  Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a //grade 4 topic or subject area//. RI.4.5.  Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in a text or part of a text. RI.4.10.  By the end of year, read and comprehend informational texts, including history/social studies, science, and technical texts, in the grades 4–5 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range


 * Education for Sustainability (EfS) Standards **

Dynamics of Systems and Change

Inventing and Affecting the Future

Multiple Perspectives

Sense of Place


 * Performance Task [|(Teacher Model)] **

Students will show the impact that humans have had/will have on the Earth, beginning with the Native Americans, then moving to colonialism, industrialization, the present and the future (designing an ecologically sound city)
 * I.** As a “green” architect you will represent your firm at the annual conference of the United States Green Builders Council. You will be responsible for creating a display table that demonstrates the firm’s awareness of sustainable building practices.

(See bottom for more details)

Provide vocabulary sheet and summary of video
 * Lesson ||  Procedures, Materials and Discussion Questions  ||  Differentiation options/ check for understanding  ||
 * 1. Students will describe the importance of the water cycle || Begin lesson by showing five minute video on the water cycle (link found on unit overview matrix). Pause in various spots to discuss processes and vocabulary. Pause at end to discuss summary and have students copy into notebook. Create chart of the water cycle. As a natural event how does the water cycle impact Earth? Chart responses. End lesson by playing 1 minute water cycle song (link found on unit overview matrix). || Play video twice for select students

Check for understanding: Students match water cycle vocabulary to correct stage on a picture || Exit Slip: On April 20, 2010 a large explosion on an offshore oil rig caused the worst oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It took nearly three months to stop the leak from a broken pipe at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. An estimation of nearly 5 million barrels of oil leaked into the water. Create a web of animals and people (jobs) that were affected by this catastrophe. || Check for Understanding: Text page 273 Question 1 (Venn Diagram demonstrating sequence of events for groundwater || Procedures and materials found on page 275 || Pair students strategically for investigation Possibly have group of lower performing students in a guided investigation Check for Understanding: Drawing conclusions # 1,2 page 275 || Identify a climate from around the world that you would prefer to live in. Describe the types of precipitation you will receive over the course of one year. Explain the positive and negative impact this precipitation has on your life. || Show video on Greenhouse Gasses (this video was shown in Unit 2, Lesson 11) [|Greenhouse Gasses] at http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/basics/index.html || Cause and Effect Graphic Organizer || Or [|5 Gyres] at http://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/theres-more-than-one-ocean-trash-gyre-5-gyres-project-switches-focus-from-great-pacific-garbage-patch-to-other-4-gyres-video.html Show [|“Plastic Bag”] by Ramin Bahrani at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/04/film-traces-the-lonely-life-of-a-plastic-bag/1 (This is a great video from the perspective of a plastic bag traveling from the grocery store to the ocean) Discussion Questions: How did all the plastic get into the ocean? Do you think it is essential that we reverse this trend? Why or why not? Begin activity on cleaning water page 159. Share results when completed. Discuss Designing Your Own Experiment and assign for homework. || Provide world maps for students to locate the 5 gyres on Earth.
 * 2. Students will explore how living things depend on the water cycle and discuss the effects of water pollution || Begin with review of water cycle chart and previous learning. Open discussion by asking: How do living things (plants, animals, and humans) depend on the water cycle? Have you ever seen water that you did not want to drink? Why didn’t you want to drink it? Let these prompts lead the discussion to identifying pollutants and their effects. || Check for understanding:
 * 3 & 4. Students will be able to describe groundwater and runoff || Begin with transparency RS 25 and match the water cycle process being described. Pose question: not all of the water that falls as rain, snow, or sleet evaporates. What happens to the rest of the water? || Replay video for select students, refer back to vocabulary words and diagram.
 * 5. Students will be able to describe groundwater and runoff || Groundwater investigation from text page 275.
 * 6. Students will be able to explain how climate affects the water cycle || Review different types of precipitation showing pictures and naming them. Introduce the word climate. Identify definition and ask: Can climate affect the water cycle? Show pictures of different climates from around the globe (from desert, rain forest, polar, etc). Ask students to identify what type of precipitation they would expect at each locale. Where are the places that have every little variation in the type of precipitation they receive? Where do we see the greatest variety of precipitation over the course of year? || Check for Understanding:
 * 7. Students will explain how air pollution caused by humans impact the water cycle || Begin by showing either of two videos (EPA water cycle video 2 or hippoworks) linked to unit matrix pausing in locations to discuss learning. Ask ** Critical Thinking Questions: ** How do humans create these greenhouse gasses and what are their effects? Have students discuss these questions among there groups . Share their discussions and follow up with a written response.
 * 8. Students will explore ways of decreasing water and air pollution || Begin with review of previous lesson and ask, can we reverse this trend? Show GYRE video cleaning ocean garbage on cloud commons.

Write from the perspective of a plastic bag as it travels from the factory to the ocean/landfill/recycling center. || Discussion Question: How can one grain of sand move mountains? Begin by displaying pictures from text pages 190-192. Ask students what they notice. Ask them how these landforms got their unusual features. Play the weathering and erosion song. Read aloud the “The Sun, the Wind, and the Rain”. Students can Google landforms (good searches might include National Parks like Grand Canyon, Arches, Canyonlands, Zion Capitol Reef National Parks), copy one to a document and record an inference on how the landform took its shape. || Below website has several power points on the topic [|erosion ppt]
 * 9. Students will make inferences about landforms || This is a great lesson for students to observe naturally unusual landforms.

View pictures of rocks created by erosion and weathering [|weathering pics] || Show pictures and videos of habitat destruction and discuss the effects it has. With each picture ask the students who and what the cause of the destruction is. Students will chart the consequences of habitat destruction on living and nonliving things. || Provide a vocabulary sheet || Complete final project || Determine project and list necessary materials ||  || Review for Assessment || Review and Test Preparation pages 160-161 questions 1-18 ||  || Assessment ||  ||
 * 10. Students will explain how water, wind, and heat breaks down rocks || Review previous lesson by quickly looking at student work created from that lesson. Show Study Jams video on weathering and erosion. Chart the processes of breaking rocks into soil. Provide handout to students from teacher resource book. Read pages 222-223 together. In pairs the students can answer questions 1& 2. Review when complete. ||  ||
 * 11. Students will examine negative human effects on ecosystems || There are three types of Habitat Loss as a result of five human behaviors. This info can be found at [|National Wildlife Federation (NWF)] at http://www.nwf.org/Wildlife/Wildlife-Conservation/Threats-to-Wildlife/Habitat-Loss.aspx. Discuss these types of loss and causes creating a chart to highlight each and the effects resulting.
 * 12. Students will examine positive humans effects have on ecosystems || Begin with recap of previous lesson and inform the students that while many negative things are currently impacting Earth, there are many positive things that are trying to reverse the negative. Ask students, what are some “Green” solutions that have positive impacts on our Earth? Chart responses. Discuss how anyone and everyone can make a difference, especially children. Show video of Jessie Ruth Corkins from [|video] at http://www.forgreenheat.org/media/video_4.html. After video, discuss the positive effects of her accomplishments and ask what they can do to lessen their impact. What can we do to lessen the school’s impact? The neighborhood impact? ||  ||
 * 13-15
 * 16
 * 17 || Written


 * Performance Task**

Students will show the impact that humans have had/will have on the Earth, beginning with the Native Americans, then moving to colonialism, industrialization, the present and the future (designing an ecologically sound city)
 * I.** As a “green” architect you will represent your firm at the annual conference of the United States Green Builders Council. You will be responsible for creating a display table that demonstrates the firm’s awareness of sustainable building practices.


 * Can be represented by the creation of comic books, power points, movies, dioramas, essays, persuasive letters, posters, news reports/ reporting, plays or 3 dimensional models (clay, legos, natural materials, recycled materials)

We have identified and decided to focus on creating one of the following -News team (video) or newspaper -Comic books -3 dimensional model: city construction - Power point

**Interactions Final Project** Since you have learned about the affects humans have on the natural environment your group will be responsible for creating a futuristic representation of the New York area. In your representation of the state be sure to include technology that can lessen the human impact on Earth. Be sure to include: ● A clear representation of how the human population is living and using its resources ● Technology that lessens the human impact (i.e. solar panels, sis terns, green roofs) ● Ensure that your group has properly labeled geographic regions and landforms
 * **3 Dimensional Model: Eco- Friendly Future State**

Detail the positive and negative impact humans have had on Earth using examples Explain how your future state lessens that impact Explain what will happen if these changes are not made || ** The Comic Book ** Time periods may include: - Early New York (Native Americans) - The Colonial and Revolutionary Period -The Industrialization Period -Modern times (Present day) - The future *If you choose to represent the future it should be ecologically sound || Nation Building Network Party – Students study different historical figures from the Colonial/Revolutionary Period. They must use their research to take on the roles of the famous figures they studied. As an attendee you must prepare a speech portraying your opinion of the impending war. You must decide if you are a loyalist or a patriot and support your decision in your speech with accurate time period details.
 * Writing Piece for the 3 Dimensional Model: Eco- Friendly Future State**
 * Task ** : Students are responsible for creating a comic book that represents how New York has been affected by both human interactions and natural processes. The pictures an d dialogue should also focus on the interactions between the land, air and water. Be sure to identify a time period or periods that you would like to focus on.
 * OR **
 * II. **

Write a poem about the American Revolution Write a news article about one of the major news stories during the American Revolution