Global Citizenship
Students will visit the Harvard University Arboretum where they will observe cultivated plant specimens in order to film a documentary short where they articulate ideas about the species they found and are interested in. Many of the species found at the Arboretum are global cultivars.
How do ticks utilize plant species in their life cycle?
How do different types of life and their roles support each other for the success of the ecosystem?
How can you communicate the ideas from the class in a documentary style project?
Written and Oral Discourse - Students will communicate ideas and arguments through writing and through speech
Note taking - Students write key ideas in their lab notebooks so that they may use the resource on labs and other assessments.
Identification - Students will use dichotomous keys to identify different plants used in cultivation and in the field.
Use of Scientific tools - Students will use planting tools and other cultivation tools to successfully start, grow, and observe plant growth.
Data Collection & Analysis - Students will be able to collect observational and survey data from the field and display it as a graph as a means of communicating an idea.
Video & Film Skills - Students should be able to plan and film a video where they introduce a species they found in the environment and articulate to an audience about the specimen that they found in real life, like a nature documentary.
Differentiation:
Explicit instruction of expectations for answering questions in complete sentences (TTQA) on formative and summative assessments.
Explicit instruction on lab notebook setup and maintenance throughout the course.
Explicit instruction on reading articles, lab activity instructions, and textbook passages (Bold Words, Headings, Interpreting Diagrams and Charts).
Providing a variety of tools to help students identify different specimens
Students are given many choices with respect to how they complete their nature documentary project as well as how it is presented in class.
HS-LS2-2. Use mathematical representations to support and revise explanations based on evidence about factors affecting biodiversity and populations in ecosystems of different scales.
Textbook - Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology James D. Mauseth
Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets
Farmer’s Almanac
Johnny Seeds
Various Plant and Fungal Field Guides
Plant Dichotomous Keys
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