Design Challenge, Standards & Resources

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Goal: To empower Sanchez teachers to incorporate the Green Lab into their teaching by understanding how the system works, experiencing design and inquiry, and collaborating with curricular resources to engage students.

Contents 1 Introductions 2 Green Lab Inquiry 3 Green Lab Curricular Resources 4 Reflections and Next Steps

Introductions

• Introductions and Inclusion Activity
• INKA DVD presentation and discussion on Green Lab design, global principals, and social justice

Green Lab Inquiry

• Green Lab Intro I notice/I wonder Inquiry: share what you notice about the Green Lab (What do you see?) and What you wonder (What questions do you have?)

Teacher Comments:

• I notice the water is a different color, and I wonder what causes that.
• I wonder what maintenance it takes to keep it running.
• How does this space compare to a horizontal garden?
• I wonder what it’s made of.
• Do the plants ever grow over each other?
• What are the roots like?
• [when they were shown the weather website] We might want to put up a sign so the neighbors can look up the weather.

• Q&A with INKA Biospheric Systems staff

• Design Process Activity

Green Lab Curricular Resources

• Share and explore examples of curricular resources:
  • 3rd grade Activity aligned with science standards
    • Physical Science 1.a and b
      • Using Heat from the Sun
      • Our Amazing Powerful Sun
      • Photovoltaics
  • 4th grade Activity aligned with science standards
    • Life Sciences 2.a, b, and c
      • Go With the Energy Flow
      • Got Energy? Spinning a Food Web
      • Ecosystems
  • 5th grade Activity aligned with science standards
    • Life Sciences 2.f and g
      • Illuminating Photosynthesis
      • Photosynthesis
      • Photosynthesis: Lifes Primary Energy Source

• Curricular resources available online
  • Tagged Sun Curve Challenge Resources on OER Commons [1]
  • Sun Curve Design Challenge Curriculum Matrix
  • Understanding Science Flowchart: [2]
  • Citizen Science: The Great Sunflower Project and Cone-Welder
    • Participants, working in pairs, search for OER and answer these questions in the review space on OER-C: How would they adapt it to the needs of their class? What modifications would they need to make?
  • Collaborative tool: Sun Curve Ning a place to share photos, discussion questions, blog postings, videos, and events.
  • The Plastiki Voyage boat made of plastic bottles with INKA garden on it
  • Slow Tube video taken at Sanchez Elementary
  • Weather Underground access weather information from the Sanchez Elementary weather station by searching for the personal weather station KCASANFR103.
  • NBC News Coverage of Green Lab Videos taken during the Sanchez School Green Lab Dedication March 17,2010.

Reflections and Next Steps

Themes, resources, tools, supports needed, collaborators, citizen science

• Brainstorming and Idea Sharing
  • I would like to find statistics about hunger and water needs and what gardens can do.
  • I'm interested in using the Green Lab to link plant's vascular system to the 5th grade lessons on the human circulatory system.
  • I would like to do an investigation that compares how plants grow in the ground to how they grow in the Green Lab.
• Reflections and next steps Teachers as Makers Summer Academy