Ages/Grade Level: Pre-kinder through 2nd Grade (possibly older)
Length of Unit: This learning experiece will run from 7 to 21 day. This is only a "guesstimate," as the actual unit could be longer or shorter based upon the learners, their ages, and the level of involvement that you choose to commit to.
Goals: This experience is to expose youngsters to the wonderful world of technology, to increase their understandings about the life cycle of various creatures that lay eggs, and the ability to take risks in a safe, risk-free learning environment. This will also transfer from one source of their learning into others as they age and mature.
The Goals For This Unit: My personal goals for my learners are to provide a Problem-Based Learning experience for them to use as they construct their understandings about the world around them. I would like for them to increase their familiarity with the various forms of technology that we have available, and for them to take the initiative to incorporate this technology into their learning. I want them to question their understandings and those of their peers. I want them to have the desire to find out the answers to their questions and how to go about doing that as they add to their learning experiences.
Learner Expectations: Since each of us is both a learner and an educator, we all need to share our thoughts and work through questions that we need answered. I want my learners to use and appreciate the vast knowledge of their peers, what they already know, and their ability to gather answers. I want them to appreciate the process of learning as much as the product of their work. I want them to have accumulated hours to place in their "expert" bags that we take with us through our life. I want them to have a fun, hands-on, learning experience that they will recall and reflect upon for years to come.
What Is The Problem: The kinders have been given an egg to take care of, complete with a contract signed by them, that states that they will care for their egg, transport their egg, and then after hatching, create a habitat that will support them. It must have shelter, food and water and be a natural occuring environment...no zoo's allowed! Their dilemna is to know what type of environment, food and shelter their little hatchling will require. So, How Are They Going To Raise That Egg? We shall all watch and find out!
During The Lesson: The learners will experience a learner-centered, problem-based learning situation. They will learn and document through their Egg Journals, the information that they gather about the various animals, and critters that lay eggs. They will use technology, experience technology, and create understandings around the use of the Internet, Videoconferencing, and other peers, books, materials and the website. They will self-assess their progress and their work, as well as provide documentation of their learning throught PowerPoint creation, habitat creation, a "safe space" design, and their creation of a hatchling based upon their learning and experiences.
Criterion For Meeting Objectives: The rubrics, which are self-assessed and facilitator assessed, will be used for mastery of concepts and skills that are specific to the TEKS and the outline of the unit. There will be individual conferences, checklists, and work added to their portfolios that will document growth made during this unit and will document how the learner has grown through the year.
Materials: The materials are not inclusive, as the learners will make decisions about their hatchling, and the decoration of the habitat based upon the materials they might want to contribute to the project, so this is a work in progress for materials that will meet the need of the learners in your learning environment. You will need plastic eggs, a large supply of newspaper, construction paper, paintbrushes, tape, multiple colors of Sharpies, juice containers or other small containers that will hold the plastic egg, markers, lots of liquid glue, water, paint, bowls, painting shirts/smocks, computers, videoconferencing (if available), PowerPoint or similar slide-show type programs that you can run their PowerPoint presentations on, crayons, a printer, and a huge computer lab stocked with all the equipment that you will need. Okay, I got a little over zealous there...
I also had other supplemental literacy and mathematic station activites that were thematic with eggs. They would weigh objects to see how many would equal one egg. There were mathematic activities written on eggs. Thematic words that they could use to write in their Egg Journals or for write the room. Although our activities for this class are more geared for Problem Based Learning, there has to be supplemental activities to reinforce the entire learner. If you would like to learn about some of these activites, please feel free to contact me.
Here are the individual resources for each lesson and the books and print material that we used for our unit. Here are the TEKS that are aligned with the unit.
Advance Preparation: If you have computers in your lab or mobile computers, please make sure that you have the various links that have movies downloaded to the computer. It can sometimes take an eternity to get the pages downloaded and you might be on limited time. Please make sure that the links are working...much better you than the little people! Make sure that you have resource materials, books, non-fiction books relating to the critters that lay eggs. The younger crowd learns so much visually. You might also consider downloading the sounds to a tape to play in your listening center. They can try and guess the creatures that make those particular sounds. Gather LOTS of newspaper. Some of my kinders made their tiny little eggs very big with lots and lots of layers of newspaper.
The Activities break the Procedures into baby steps. You will need to adjust the sequence to fit your learners. The Activities are here. Go To The Next Page