Social scientists collaborated in small groups to research how developments and events in California affected population, diversity, industry/economic, and city development growth since the Gold Rush. Utilizing their research notes, students collaboratively created Google Slides and used Screencastify to record their oral presentations. The screencast videos were then aired for the whole class's enjoyment in order to learn about 150+ years of California and US government history. Students could reference the videos on Google Classroom to aid them in notetaking.

This project enabled students to practice a variety of skills including: problem solving, communication, time management, technology integration, speaking & listening skills, research, reading, writing, language, and social studies content knowledge. All addressed standards in this PBL unit can be found in the unit pacing document (below left).

I collaborated with my team to design a GLAD unit incorporating Scholastic News resources for the 2016 Presidential Election. Students read and listened to a variety of news sources via a Hyperdoc to learn about political parties, policies, and candidates.

I coordinated a visit from our city's mayor, soliciting questions from students via Google Forms to drive discussion.

Students utilized their California native american content knowledge to write informational articles, create iMovies, and creatively show their knowledge through posters, lego/clay dioramas, Minecraft worlds, childrens' books, and menus.

To increase accessibility to the text, I adapted our social studies textbook to Powtoons videos. Students could repeatedly watch these videos on Google Classroom to take notes and learn about early California explorers. Powtoons inspired our later graphic novel and sketchnoting units.

I adapted a unit my colleague created to design a project-based learning summative project. Students learned about the rise of modern day California economies utilizing their textbook and other literary/digital resources. They then used their research to write informational articles and create timeline cards. We constructed a classroom timeline as students shared their knowledge in oral presentations. Audience members practiced note-taking skills they could use during the summative assessment.

Students created posters for oral presentations by researching the structure of government at federal, state, and local levels. I created these graphic organizers to allow for independent researching.