Environmental Lesson Plan--Week Three

Day 1

Science

This lesson assumes students have learned about ecosystems (as per 3rd and 4th grade standards), but it may need to be reviewed beforehand.

Students will be learning about deforestation, specifically focusing on the rainforests.

Begin by reviewing what an ecosystem is and what happens when an animal is taken out of an ecosystem. For example, a food chain consists of rabbits, mice, snakes, and hawks. What happens when you remove the rabbits? Now ask the students what would happen if you took away all the trees and grass in this ecosystem. The hawks would have nowhere to perch, rabbits and mice would have nowhere to hide, and snakes couldn't sneak up on rodents to get their next meal. They would all either find a new place to live or die.

Explain that this is happening all around the world--its called deforestation. Ask the students what they know about deforestation and help confirm facts and dispell myths about it. To introduce them to deforestation, show them this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic-J6hcSKa8

Explain that the biggest reasons for deforestation are because of poor choices relating to the demand of beef, soy, palm oil, and wood products. Print out a few copies of this article: https://www.livescience.com/27692-deforestation.html

Students will be separated into 4 groups and look in the article to find answers to these questions (one question per group):

- What is the background information on deforestation? What is it? Why are forests important?

- What are the causes of deforestation?

- What are the effects of deforestation?

- What are some solutions to deforestation?

The answers should be paraphrased when possible to help students work on this skill. The answer should be written as a paragraph with a minimum of three sentences, maximum of seven. Each group will have:

- Researchers: All the students in the group. Students without a second job should be "Primary Researchers," deciding what will go into the final paragraph.

- Writer: The student that writes the final paragraph to be shared with the class and turned in to the teacher.

- Speaker: This student should share the paragraph to the class.

- Spell-Checker: This student will check over the final paragraph to ensure there are no spelling or grammatical mistakes.

- Highlighter: This student will highlight the important information pertaining to the group's question/topic in the article.

The students will have ten minutes to work on this and then each group will come up and share their paragraph with the class, then turn the paper into the teacher.

Math

Students will focus on comparing fractions using inequalities. Students should be a little familiar with this from last week but many will have likely forgotten what to do. Use the Deforestation_Inequalities.pptx (see wordpress blog) to instruct the students on some brief bell work, then move onto a fun pie chart activity with fractions. Students will answer questions relating to this activity. If necessary, write the color key bigger on the whiteboard, or allow students having trouble seeing to come up and take a glance.

The powerpoint also goes over how to solve fraction inequalities with cubes and number lines. You can choose to give the students cubes to follow along, or just use the powerpoint.

Go over inequalities in detail, using worksheets with basic practice after the activity. The students should have a basic idea on how to compare fractions using inequalities before they do the activity.

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Day 2

Science

Show this video to recap on deforestation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS_lRabpgqw

Ask the students why planting trees (reforestation) won't solve deforestation completely (it says it briefly at the end of the video). The answers can vary from many plant species have and will already go extinct at the current rate we are cutting down rainforests, to the impact it has on the plant and animal ecosystems when we cut down those trees. The good thing about reforestation is that the new trees will take in some of the carbon dioxide that was let out when the dead trees were cut down or burned.

Explain to the students that while we have deforestation on land, the ocean has its own kind of deforestation--the destruction of coral reefs. First describe what coral is. Perhaps draw a picture or a diagram. For example, if you'd like to be specific with the kids:

"Coral are 'marine invertebrates' called polyps that live in big groups. They can be teeny tiny, no bigger than the width of a coin (the teacher can use a coin as a visual here), but can get to be as big as a foot across! They don't have faces and limbs like other animals, and they attach themselves to the ocean floor like plants would bury in the ground with roots. But they are not plants, they're animals and they cannot make their own food. They have little tentacle arms that they use to catch food and eat it."

"Coral reefs form when polyps secrete a limestone skeleton, and it piles up on dead polyps or rocks. As corals live, die, and reproduce, they build up overtime to create beautiful coral reefs."

"They have a special relationship with algae (if you reviewed types of wild animal relationships you can mention this is a "symbiotic" relationship) called zooplankton. The zooplankton stay safe inside the coral, protected from being eaten, and also feed on the coral's waste products. In turn, the algae produces oxygen for the coral, cleans up all its waste, and helps it thrive better!"

This information can be found here: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/coral.html

Alternatively, the teacher can just say coral reefs are made up of tons of tiny animals and algae lives inside them to help them thrive.

Tell the students that a phenomenon called "coral bleaching" caused by climate change is hurting coral reefs. It makes the coral "throw up" the algae that lives inside them and hurts the coral tissues really bad. This is what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFdPmiwZzVE

Follow up by showing this video that goes into depth about coral bleaching and destruction of coral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eFTkeUYpfQ

Use the Chasing_Coral.docx (on wordpress) to have the students answer some questions about the video.

Possible extra credit opportunity!!

The documentary Chasing Coral can be found on Netflix, and Chasing Ice and A Plastic Ocean can be found on Amazon Prime Video for rent. Netflix has a 30 day free trial parents can use for this as well. Students can watch one of these documentaries and write a paragraph (minimum of 6 sentences) on what they learned. Alternatively, if they lack the resources, students can visit the following website and write 6 sentences on what they learned from here: http://globalreefrecord.org/home_scientific

Math

Today the kids will continue working on fraction inequalities, doing worksheets in a table group. The worksheets should have word problems relating to deforestation, coral reef destruction, and/or climate change and how it ties into this. For example: "If 1/4 of the Great Barrier Reef and 1/3 of the Mesoamerican Reef have been bleached, which reef has sustained more damage? Write this as a fractional inequality." Answer would be the Mesoamerican reef, and 1/3>1/4.

After the worksheet is completed, the students should turn in their papers (each student will have their own paper) to be graded. The teacher will then ask the students to write their "confidence level" on the topic (for anonymity purposes).

A confidence level three means the students completely understands how to do fractional inequalities and can teach another student. Level two means they get it, but could use a little more practice. Level one means they are lost and need help from a teacher or peer.

The students will talk quietly for a few minutes while the teacher shifts through the papers, sorting them into each confidence levels. Students at confidence level three can read silently or the teacher can prepare a worksheet that walks them through what decimals are and how to work with them (for some, this will be a review, for others, it will be entirely new). Confidence level two students will be given a worksheet with 10 regular practice problems and 5 word or complex problems, and will not be working together for this particular topic, but can ask a table mate if they need assistance.

Confidence level one students will sit at a table or on the carpet with the teacher and the teacher will give specialized attention to each student's questions and confusions, helping everyone understand the topic. They will then do 2 or more normal problems with the teacher and 5 on their own to solidify how to solve fractional inequalities. More questions can be added if there is time, and the teacher can use the whiteboard and make them up as he/she goes to help the students understand.

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Day 3: Begin lessons on climate change

Science: What is climate change? Defining key terms and ideas.

For bell work, students should have something similar to the following questions:

- What are some things that require power or electricity to run?

- How do we power things? What materials are typically used?

- What is alternative energy? Name some examples.

Make the kids aware that this is a new topic, so they might not know. Encourage them to talk to their tablemates about the questions and then go over it with the class once everyone seems to have finished.

Go through a powerpoint with the kids defining a few key terms, such as renewable/nonrenewable energy, fossil fuels, greenhouse gasses, greenhouse effect, climate vs weather, etc. and have them write them down to keep in their folders/notebooks.

Ask the kids what life would look like without electricity and fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas. If the kids are stumped, give some more examples of what uses these fuels, such as a grill or stovetop might use natural gas. Have a class discussion, write some examples the kids give on the whiteboard or a large piece of paper to keep for tomorrow.

Introduce the kids to climate change using this video. It was made in 2015, so end the video right before it starts talking about the "upcoming" Paris meeting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv7OHfpIRfU

Briefly describe climate change does not mean that every place will warm up. Describe that some areas will become cold for periods of time as a result of other areas getting warmer. I.e. Europe will become colder for a period of time due to ice deposits from Greenland melting and flowing towards Europe. Use a globe or pull up a map on Google to illustrate this point. The big things overall are that overall the Earth is warming, the ice is then melting in the poles, and the sea levels are rising as a result. The kids should understand the big idea that climate change is more complicated than it seems.

Have the students write their name on a sticky note, something they learned, and what they think about climate change (this is also how you can determine how many kids will need to be taught that climate change actually exists, versus if their parents are saying it's "not real").

Math

Now that students should feel a lot more comfortable about fractions and comparing them, we will move onto decimals! For some students, this may be a review, but for others it will be their first time dealing with decimals. In order to make this easy, money is a great place to start and will be the focus of the class. Teachers can still relate this to the unit plan's topic by creating hypothetical word problems.

Begin by reviewing what different coins are worth. This is even better if you (the teacher) have play money for the students. If not, bring some coins to class, and show how you count money using the overhead projector. Invite students one at a time to come up and count with you. Pull out random amounts, and show them how to write amounts such as "one dollar and fifty-two cents" into "$1.52." Explain that this is how we write money, so they will need to know it for the rest of their lives and it's extremely important. This will hopefully get children on board who are more hesitant to learning "boring" things that "won't help them in life."

Once the students have begun to show some interest and understanding, move onto word problems with the whole class. For example, you can begin with simple problems such as, "Joe wants to donate some money to an organization that plants new trees. He has twenty-two dollars and five cents. Write this number as a decimal."

Once the students are understanding how to convert money to decimals (the section above shouldn't take more than 45 minutes), begin using more difficult problems. For example, "Matilda got fifty dollars for her birthday and would like to visit her local aquarium that funds coral reef restoration. She paid ten dollars and fifty cents for her ticket to enter the aquarium. How much money does she have now?" This starts incorporating standard MAFS.4.MD.1.2. Today, only use addition and subtraction problems with the whole class's input

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Day 4

Science: Focus on how fossil fuels impact our every-day life, and why renewable energy is important.

Review for bell work: what is climate change and why does it matter? Have students discuss it at their tables.

Ask the kids what would be better--to ban all fossil fuels right now, or to figure out something to replace fossil fuels. Explain that if we were to ban all fossil fuels right now, we wouldn't be able to heat and cool our homes, cook our food the same way, drive our cars, and much more. Review the list from the previous day of what life would be like without fossil fuels and electricity.

Today is going to be a lesson with lots of videos!

Now, show this video of what it is like to work at a coal-fired power plant. It states the importance of still having electricity, but the need to find better energy sources. It might also be fun for the students to see what it's like to work here. It is a Florida power plant. https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/assets/ID1PcWihfReEzr5qkh1l9sj5XvboACTN

Alternatively, this one can be shown along with or instead of the previous video. It might be more engaging for the students because of the way it's made (the guy makes it more easy for kids to understand, kind of like Bill Nye). https://mediaplayer.pearsoncmg.com/assets/bltxAZdCcNnhp9IzimTAiwBaBUpeTfW3

Each video has things that are not covered in the other video, so it's up to teacher discretion on which one they want to show, or if they want to show both.

This video briefly explains how fossil fuels are formed over millions of years: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaXBVYr9Ij0

This one should be played afterwards, showing different ways of creating energy (using renewable energy sources): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkow2fDy5KY

Create a small worksheet for those last two videos for the students to fill out with about 4-5 questions per video (8-10 questions total). This way they can write down the information they need to know and use it later for study.

Once the videos end, give the students a few minutes to finish up, then go over the worksheet in class. Have the students put it in their binder/folder and then lead a classroom discussion on what they learned. Ask what type of energy is better for the environment and for our health, why we shouldn't rely on fossil fuels for all our energy, and other similar questions. Then, ask what the students can do to make the environment more healthy (take shorter showers, turn off the lights when they aren't being used, plant a baby tree in their backyard, etc.). Brainstorm some ideas of what the government could do to positively impact the environment and human health (CO2 regulations on businesses, raising standards for how much mpg cars need to have, increased federal funding for more clean air projects, etc.). Make a T-chart on these two topics on a big piece of paper to hang up somewhere in the classroom. Students can look at it for the rest of the unit (or the year!) and remember some of these ideas when they are at home and/or as they grow older.

For me as a teacher, I can share a personal story of how I was impacted health-speaking by fossil fuels. I grew up in an area of New York where the weather fronts would push carbon emissions and smog towards my town, and many children (and adults) got sick as a result. Both my brother and I developed terrible athsma as young children (my brother almost died once from an athsma attack when he was a toddler), and we moved to Florida right after my baby sister was born. She never had the athsma we did, and both my brother and I stopped having athsma-related issues shortly after we moved away from New York. In fact, the local government of the town I lived in posted this in relation to the large number of athsma and other respiratory problems in the area.

This personal anecdote shows how important it is to have clean air, because many people can die or become seriously sick and/or injured from having bad athsma or other problems caused by "dirty" air. Of course it shouldn't be said to scare the kids, but to inform them that this really does effect our health and the health of our planet, so we should take care of it and ourselves by creating and using cleaner energy methods such as windmills and solar panels.

Math

Continue working on decimals from yesterday, handing out a worksheet to all the students for bell work with five practice problems adding and subtracting decimals. If any of the students appear to be having trouble, ask them to first pretend that it's money.

Teach the students how to multiply and divide decimals (if the students do not know division or are very poor at it, wait to teach decimal division at a later date). Show them where to put the decimal in the solution, and then explain that it is just like doing regular multiplication and division except with dots. This should take about 30 minutes. Use whatever methods you feel comfortable with, but begin with talking to the whole class and doing whole class examples. I would probably stick with whole class examples for the entire time, then have each student try a few on their own, then share how to do it.

Today the students will work in centers for five minutes at a time:

- Center 1: Coin counting. Students will be split into two teams in this center (say each center has 4 students). There will be a worksheet with 10 practice problems on them, ranging from "Count out $2.57" to "Hannah has five dollars and bought a seashell for $2.36. Count how much money she has left." Team One will start a timer while Team Two will begin the problem. The teams will have 30 seconds to solve easy problems and 50 to solve harder ones (the difficulty level should be noted on the paper so there's no cheating). There will likely be enough problems to last the entire five minutes. Each question receives one point, and there are no penalties for wrong answers. The winning team gets a sticker at the end. If there are uneven groups (i.e. five kids), one kid can be the timer all around, or take turns being on the solving team each time.

- Center 2: Decimal Dash. The concept of this is kind of like rocket math. Students are not allowed to talk or look at each other's paper, but they have 3 minutes to go through a worksheet answering as many decimal problems as they can. There should be at least 30 problems on the page, all basic four function problems. The teacher can make equal amounts of problems for each function or can do less division and/or multiplication as it hasn't been covered as well yet. At the end of the three minutes, the students will put their pencils down, switch papers counter clockwise, and pull out their pens. The teacher will put the answer key on the table and they will all check each other's work. Whoever answers the most questions correctly gets a sticker.

- Center 3: Make Ten. This is a game where the kids work in teams again (if the numbers are uneven, have the teacher should choose the teams to make it as even as possible ability speaking (be sure each team has one kid who is either "smarter" or at a high confidence level). The object of the game is to match a decimal too its partner to make the number ten when they're added together (for example, 7.3 and 2.7 would be pairs). This can be done using a "word bank" (but its technically a "decimal bank"), by having a chart where the students use the same color on or draw a line between decimal pairs, or some other method. There should be 8-10 decimal pairs to match up. At the end of four minutes, the students check their work with an answer key provided by the teacher in pen. The team with the most correct pairs wins and each student on the team gets a sticker.

- Center 4: Dicey Decimals. The teacher should buy a pack of blank dice (they can be found in a large pack at Walmart for less than $10) and write random decimals on each side of two of the dice and a mathematical operation on each side of the third dice (+, -, x, /). The students will take turns rolling the dice and solving the problems on a piece of scratch paper. They will each have 30 seconds to solve the problem after they write it down on their paper. If the student doesn't finish in 30 seconds, time is up and it moves on to the next person. The student with the most correctly answered questions at the end of the five minutes wins and gets a sticker.

The reason I say sticker instead of small prize is because once the centers are over, the student in each group with the most stickers can get a small prize. If any students tied in a center, both can get a sticker for that center, and if two students from one group are tied for first place, both can get a small prize (small prize can be like a small amount of classroom currency, something from a treasure box, candy, etc.).

After the centers are over, the students will move into a little more practice on the four functions using decimals. This will be done using word problems relating to the unit plan.

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Day 5

Science

Depending on how many students have been taught that global warming is a hoax, the teacher may have to show a few videos to convice them it's real. These are two good videos to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IxYhEKbsZo&feature=emb_title and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffjIyms1BX4

The second could be a bit more offensive, but it's funny and relatable for kids, and the guy in the video gives off a funny male teacher vibe.

Begin class with this video regardless. It gives a great understanding of the difference between climate and weather and from here you (the teacher) can go on to explain why we may see cold winters, but be sure to mention that we have seen way more record highs in recent years than record lows. The first video in the top paragraph of today shows why there may be more "deviations from the norm." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0vj-0imOLw&feature=emb_title

Today the class will observe the teacher perform an experiment showing the impact of greenhouse gasses (specifically CO2) on the Earth. The teacher will perform this experiment while students watch. Once the lamps are turned on and bottles secured, students can get up from their seats and watch the baking soda and vinegar reaction take place and the temperatures rise in the bottles. See this video for how to do the experiment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zst7B-B3P2E

During the experiment and while the bottles are heating up, the teacher will explain that climate scientists not only monitor the earth's own temperatures all around the world, collecting data from all over the land, sea, and sky, but also perform experiments like this one to see what could happen in the future. They use their experiments along with the data they collect over the years to make predictions for the future.

Students will write a paragraph (minimum of three sentences) on what they learned from the experiment and turn it into the teacher once the experiment is finished.

Math

Today students will begin class with some bell work word problems relating to climate change and comparing decimals. As a reinforcement on what it is and why it's important, the teacher can show this video before beginning the lesson as it reviews things learned about previously in science throughout the unit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9SG6GAXNFQ

Today, class will focus on comparing decimals to each other. Pull out the dice with decimals used in centers the previous day, and if possible make a few more so that each table group has a pair of dice. Each table group will get a pair of dice (or the teacher can improvise on how to use them if there is only one pair or pairs are limited, i.e. having students volunteer to come up and roll them) and they will play a game at their table. Students will take turns rolling the dice going clockwise. They will have to create an inequality for whatever numbers the dice landed on. For example, if a student rolls 6.08 and 5.93, they would write their answer as 6.08>5.93 or 5.93<6.08. The student would have 20 seconds to solve it on their own (increase this to 30 if it seems to be going too fast) and then other students at the table can assist if they need help. If the students are all cooperating and working well together, reward them with a small treat at the end of the class, this could be reading a story, watching a Bill Nye video, or playing a game like "heads up seven up" for ten minutes. You can use this as motivation beforehand to get them to behave during class.

The students should play the game for 15 minutes or so and then move on. Students will begin coloring something that will be used in Week 4. They will color a 10x10 grid sheet using 4-6 colors, making any sort of color combinations they'd like. Encourage them to take their time and make it neat. The important thing is that every box is colored and only contains one of the 4-6 colors. They will be performing this activity next class: https://www.learn-with-math-games.com/decimal-math-games.html

If there is extra time, make up some word problems and have the class answer them as a whole. Relate them to climate change and other topics discussed previously, as next week it will all come together. For example, "Uriah is a climate scientists, and measures the ocean temperature off an island in the Bahamas where he lives every day. Over the past few years, these were his average temperature findings for January: 71.42 degrees, 74.6 degrees, 72.56 degrees, 77.1 degrees. What is the difference between the highest and lowest temperatures in recent years?" Perhaps this could be a good time to really nail down multiplication and division in decimals as well.

Social Studies

This is a long social studies lesson, so it can take place over the course of a few days if necessary.

Students will learn today about the 1920's land boom and bust of Florida (SS.4.A.7.1). Begin class talking about inflation. Use a simple analogy, such as this: "Pretend you live in a small town and own a shoe shop. To make shoes, you need need to buy materials from a fabric store. The fabric store begins to raise its prices, because the store owner just had a new baby and needs more money. As a result, you must raise your prices on shoes so you continue to make the same amount of money. You had to buy the fabric ahead of time, so customers will pay for the materials used to make the shoes such as the fabric as well as for your time and effort making the shoes. A tailor, who often buys from your shop, must raise his prices to compensate for the extra money he had to spend while putting outfits together for his clients. Soon, the whole town has had to raise their prices, from your shoe shop to the grocery stores. This is called inflation."

Today the kids will learn a little about inflation relating to the land boom and bust. Have students take turns reading this article aloud on the projector. Call on students randomly to read a paragraph at a time. https://fcit.usf.edu/florida/lessons/ld_boom/ld_boom1.htm

In correlation to their study of the land boom and bust, mark places in the paragraphs to briefly stop and discuss potential environmental impacts. For example, lots of trees had to be cleared out to build new homes (deforestation), and the railroads built that brought more settlers here also caused pollution as trains chugged to and from Florida. Recognize the positive impact these events may have had in the long run too, such as allowing us to live in a such a beautiful place! While the environmental impacts are unfortunate, we have gotten this far industrially. Now, we can try to move onto renewable energy. And what energy is perfect to use in Florida? Solar energy!

If time, discuss solar energy, how it has positively impacted Florida, and how it has grown in recent years. Show this video on why we still haven't implemented solar energy much, and how solar panels work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKxrkht7CpY

Now that students have a little more background knowledge on solar panels, use this website to help students develop and understanding of the history of solar energy: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2018/01/long-history-solar-pv/

Print out a few copies of the article and have students create a colorful timeline as a group! Separate them into groups of 4-5 (depending on how many students, it can be fewer or more), and provide each group with a long strip of paper and colored pencils. Students will write out all the important dates from the start of the timeline (1839) until present day. Find a small resource detailing more recent developments as well (I am writing this in 2020, but especially if this lesson plan is used in later years, the teacher will need to find another small resource so students can add more recent events to their timelines). Students should work together, paraphrasing the "landmarks" in their own words. They should use colors, and draw at least seven pictures to go along with their words, and have all the important events from the article on their timeline. Depending on the source used for more modern developments, they can choose a certain number to put down, certain ones decided by the teacher, etc.