How do we provide for the health of animals in our local communities?

Team Name: Animals and Habitats

Team members: Jane Brayshaw, Lisa Stafford, Tim Murtagh, Ben Gallagher, Paul Todd

School: Laurimar Primary, Coolaroo South Primary, Meredith Primary School, Kalinda Primary School

Abstract: Our project was based around connecting kids to their local habitats and wildlife. We hoped to build a sense of responsibility and ownership in the kids toward their local wildlife and the ‘spaces’ they need to share and protect on behalf of these creatures. We hoped that the children would see themselves as empowered to have an informed voice to offer ideas, understandings and opinions about environmental issues and human impacts on their local animals and habitats.

Problem, Issue, or Possibility: How do we provide for the health of animals in our local communities?
1. Who lives in our neighborhood?
2. How healthy is my ‘square’?
3. What is the ideal home?
4. How is your local environment changing?
5. How are these changes affecting the local animals?
6. What can I do to share my neighborhood with the local wildlife?

Objectives and Assessment: Assessment for learning enables us to identify students prior knowledge and also any misconceptions that can be address throughout the unit.

KWL/KWHL: is useful to identify students prior knowledge and also what they are interested in. It is to be used at the beginning of the unit and towards the end.

http://langwitches.org/blog/2011/07/21/upgrade-your-kwl-chart-to-the-21st-century/

Mind Map: Can also be used to organise students thoughts on a topic and be added to throughout the unit.

There are 3 main ways you can record assessment as learning, depending on the tools available to you.
These are:
1st. Photos – using any digital camera and uploading photos to a blog (although you may not be able to fully show what kids know and understand unless they are annotated)
2nd. Audio – There are many free audio recording programs out there which will allow you to record childrens reading or ideas. These days, most lap tops will have an in built microphone (generally above the screen near the web camera)
If you dont already have a recording program, Audacity is a free and simple program to use (just google, “audacity” and download it)
3rd. (and most effective) Video – Depending on if you have a video camera/flip camera/web camera or even some advanced still cameras this will be the most effective way to capture students
knowledge and understanding.
Editing of these videos can be done at a later date
and could be included in assessment of learning.

Implementation Plan: Intro Activity (How will you “grab” students’ interest?)

The students went out on a local community walk to observe and discuss the health of their ‘square’ for the animals that lived in the area.

Teacher Led Activities (What activities will you provide for them?)

We have shared our planning ideas for rich learning experiences by using a graphic organiser linked to the elaborating questions in our Google Docs planning document. We also have a Wikispace to share samples of students’ learning through populating it with various media and samples. This includes a page for teachers to share weblinks they have used or discovered during the course of the PBL Unit.

Evaluation and Results:

Artifacts and Documentation: