Waste and Our World Unit

Created by: Leighton Busch September-October

Garbage Reduction Planning

AB Curriculum Connections I CAN Statements
Science I can investigate the nature of things I can ask questions that help me explore and investigate I can work alone or with others to carry out procedures I can communicate with group members and contribute and receive ideas I can record and observe using pictures and graphs I can draw a conclusion based on observations Topic: Waste and Our World I can show that human activity can lead to production of wastes I can identify other ways for the use and disposal of materials I can compare different kinds of packaging I can talk about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of packaging

Overarching Unit Goal

By the end of this unit, students will be able to

It has come to the attention of Alberta Environment that evil forces are at work filling up our countries landfills! They have hired your detective agency, Solutions Inc., to resolve the ever increasing mountain of waste being sent to landfills every day. They are expecting you to provide them with an action plan to reduce the criminal amount of waste that is being dumped into landfill sites. Currently more than 2.4 million tonnes of solid waste goes into Albertas municipal landfills every year!

Essential Concepts
Concepts and ideas that students will need to understand in order to reach the unit goal

Waste is all around us. Everyone is wasteful There are different types of waste (recyclable, organic, etc)

PACS Learning Cycle: Understanding

Essential

Who is responsible for waste? Who is responsible for packaging that we use? What is waste and how can we limit the amount of waste that our class makes? How can we find answers to these questions? Garbage Reduction Planning Leighton Busch 4th Grade, Science

Ecole Edwards Elementary School

Questions
Guiding open-ended questions to be re-visited throughout the unit

PACS Learning Cycle: Questioning

Secondary Questions
Important secondary questions that the students must generate and address as they move through the learning process

What happens to waste once it leaves our homes? What is a landfill? What is a compost?

PACS Learning Cycle: Questioning

KNOW:

BE ABLE TO:
(list all important skills the students need to demonstrate proficiency with in order to succeed with this unit goal)

Student Content and Performance Objectives

In order to reach the unit goal, students will need to

(list all terms, concepts, formulas, and steps students need to demonstrate comprehension of in order to succeed with this unit goal

PACS Learning Cycle: Understanding & Responding

Human activity can lead to the production of wastes There are multiple ways to use and dispose of waste

Critical thinking Personal reflection Creativity Identify ways in which a product can be reused or recycled including things that the student has done in the past.

Student Assessments
List all projects, challenges, assessments, and performances designed to determine if unit objectives have been met

Level 1: Knowledge & Comprehension

Student assessments will be comprised in various forms, but all using a triangulation of evidence (as noted by Anne Davies) Observation of Process, Conversations, and Collection of Products
Understand the value of the environment in Alberta Understand human impact on the environment through investigating local water sources (Bow River) Understand that human activity can lead to the production of waste Understand that there are multiple ways to dispose of waste. Understand how the Bow River is filtered for drinking water

PACS Learning Cycle: Understanding & Responding

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Ecole Edwards Elementary School

Garbage Reduction Planning

Leighton Busch

4th Grade, Science

Level 2: Application & Analysis

Demonstrate care and concern for the environment through their choices and actions Develop a plan to minimize the amount of waste that goes into Alberta landfills. Develop and create a water filtration system Evaluate what the student and broader culture can do to value the environment in Alberta.

Level 3: Synthesis & Evaluation

Resources & Inquiry Tools

List all materials, resources, and search tools (media, surveys, data, experiments, pictures, maps, reference books, people, etc) students will use to seek information and answers

PACS Learning Cycle: Seeking

We will be developing a worm compost as a class and feeding our lunch scraps to our worm box as opposed to throwing them in the garbage Reading exerpts from Joel Salatins This Aint Normal Folks iEARN collaborative inquiry (Our Rivers, Our World) Edmonton Public Curriculum Unit - Waste and Our World http://wsow.brbc.ab.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=101&Itemid= 85 Bow River Basin Waterscape Poster Elementary Teachers Guide https://www.calgary.ca/UEP/Water/Documents/WaterDocuments/river_basin_elementary_teachers_guide.pdf?noredirect=1 Inglewood Wildlands Visit http://www.inglewoodwildlands.ca/

Interdisciplinary Possibilities
Possible cross-disciplinary connections and opportunities for enrichment
PACS Learning Cycle: Questioning, Seeking, Understanding & Responding

Social Studies I value Albertas physical geography and natural environments I can examine the challenges and opportunities Alberta has faced in its growth and development Language Arts I can explain the causes and tell how they affect events in what I read, see and hear I can develop my own opinions based on ideas I read, hear and see I can find information to answer research questions using a variety of ways I can organize ideas and information using many strategies I can revise my writing so that it makes sense I can use strong (juicy) words to expand my ideas in writing I can present information in an organized way I can use my background knowledge to understand what I see and hear I can take responsibility for working with others to achieve a group goal I can use many ways to organize and work on group projects Mathematics I can write, draw or tell about patterns and relations to help me solve problems I can represent and solve one-step equation using pictures, symbols and words I can create and label a pictograph and a bar graph to display a set of data using many-to-one correspondence and justify what I have done

Technological

http://www.earthcarecanada.com/Library/Get_In_The_Loop_Teacher_Gui.pdf http://content.blackgold.ca/ICT/Divison2/Wasteand%20OurWorld/index.htm www.greenlearning.ca

Ecole Edwards Elementary School

Garbage Reduction Planning

Leighton Busch

4th Grade, Science

Possibilities
Possible uses of technology as a tool for learning
PACS Learning Cycle: Questioning, Seeking, Understanding & Responding

www.greencalgary.org http://collaborate.iearn.org/space-2/group-131

Sample Activities and Lesson Ideas

Strategies, techniques, mnemonics, exercises, lesson hooks, etc. that are effective best practices for this unit.
PACS Learning Cycle: Questioning, Seeking, Understanding & Responding

As a start to the year, we will be developing a worm compost as a class. This will be a place where we can recycle our lunch scraps daily. The soil that is generated through this composting production will be used in our Plant Growth and Changes as the soil we use to grow seeds. We will be collaborating with iEARN in a project looking at human impact on river health in several countries. This will be a cross-curricular activity between Science and Social

studies as we study alongside other schools around the world and look at the Bow River and humans impact on it.
A Second idea is an extension off of our Bow River investigation. We will look at pollutants in the Bow River, demonstrate how river water is treated (How is River Water Treated - Bow River Teachers Guide) by building a biosand filter (potential extension to international conversation and fundraising for international biosand filter) There is also a potential for a cross-curricular Mathematical graphing activity as we do an informal taste test of different types of water (ie. tap water, bottled water, water through our biosand filter etc)

Ecole Edwards Elementary School

Garbage Reduction Planning

Leighton Busch

4th Grade, Science