The name of my unit for this project will be "Oceans Far and Wide". This unit will incorporate the curriculum areas of Social Studies, Language Arts, and Science. I will be collaborating with Julie Eck to create the Science portion of this project.
The curriculum anchor subject for the study of the oceans is science. In the first activity, students will become familiar with water's properties. They will learn about how water reacts on various surfaces. The students will also investigate water tension and learn about ways to alter it. They will conclude the first activity by allowing water to flow down an incline allowing students to look at factors that change the speed of the water flow. In the second activity, students will observe properties of hot and cold water. They will explore what properties of water change as water is heated, cooled, and frozen. They will also compare the properties of water as a liquid and as a solid. As they experience each activity the students will be required to keep a journal of their findings. The students will computers to record their data. This data sheet will be create by myself in the form of a template response sheet for each activity.
With activity three, students will investigate water vapor. They will experiment with evaporation and condensation learning about the factors that influence the rate at which water changes to a vapor. Finally, in the fourth activity, students will observe mystery waters and samples they collect from the community. They will use their senses and water experiments to learn about properties of hardness and water quality. They will also be utilizing various forms of technology to enhance their learning. For example, I have discovered several web sites that will allow the students to discover more about the different properties of water.
For Social Studies the students will use the fifth grade Social Studies series to study the early exploration of the United states. The students look at explorers and the problems that they encountered as they began to explore the United States from different countries. Through this they will discover the location of different oceans and the problems they created in the early exploration of the United States.
One activity will be to select a specific explorer and research that explorer's area of exploration. The students will be responsible for actually becoming that explorer. They will create an oral presentation to convey their knowledge to the other students. In order to accomplish this activity, the students will rotate through 5 different stations. These stations will give them the opportunity to use different forms of research to discover more about their explorer. The stations will include the use of internet sites that I have book marked, CD's such as Oceans, Encarta 95, and Science Explorer, and written materials. During these stations the students will be using a data collection sheet that I have designed.
For Language Arts the students will use the Invitations to Literature reading series. They will be using the section theme of Ocean Quest. In this unit, the students will be reading several reading selections. These selections include Oceans, The Search for the Right Whale, Extremely Weird Sea Creatures, After the Spill, and Careers in Oceanography. The students will also experience the ocean through the use of two different trade books which will be read during literature groups. The titles we will reading are Sharks: Challenges of the Deep and Deep Sea Explorer: The Story of Robert Ballard, Discover of the Titanic.
As a culmination of this unit the students will use KidPix slide show to design a slide show. The slide show will need to contain at least 7 slides illustrating what they learn about the ocean, they will be allowed to choose topics such as; pollution or sea creatures. They will be given the option to work as a group or to work independently to create this final assignment.