Lesson 0.5 – It’s Only a Drop of Water (Project Based Learning Plan)

Objectives

See the NGSS listed as buttons in the left-hand menu and in the chart below. The buttons on the left are grouped to show the integrated three-dimensional nature of our lessons and modules. When applicable, if NGSS are addressed outside of bundles, they are listed separately. Connections to 21st Century Learning Skills and other published standards are also included in the chart below. In addition, for this lesson, here is a breakdown of:

What Students Learn

• Students consider what is in a drop of seawater and how that drop is part of the Earth system. Through the PBL, students learn to design questions to gain new information. They evaluate and revise their questions based on new information that is presented. In the end, they learn what microbes are in a drop of seawater and how these cells contribute to the oxygen in the atmosphere. They specifically focus on phytoplankton as the source of that oxygen.

What Students Do

• Design questions to guide their curiosity as they move through each lesson of the module.
• Watch a clip from the movie, Water World.
• Discuss what the world might be like if there were no land plants. They focus on the question: Where does our oxygen come from?
• Complete a pre-assessment on what is in a drop of seawater.
• Re-examine initial understanding of what is in a drop of seawater at the end of each lesson, incorporating new information gathered in that lesson.
• At the end of the PBL/module, students reflect on what they learned in the module by building an artistic piece that focuses on the guiding question, “How do we make the invisible forest visible to others? And, why might that be important?”.

Instructions

Introduction (5 min)

Tell students, “We are about to explore a scenario.”  Show the Invisible Forest PBL Intro V (2.5 minutes)* or use this YouTube link or handout Water world Phenomenon Storyboard to introduce the phenomenon.  This sets the stage for the module and provides the hook using the movie “Waterworld”. After introducing the water world phenomenon, ask the students — What happens if the trees are all gone? What happens if the sea level rises so much that we don’t have land? What does the ocean give us?  Do not give them any answers at this point. (FYI – Answer: The ocean gives us 40-50% of Global Oxygen, 10% coming from heroic “Pro” microbe.) (*An alternate video to use as the opening hook is the NOVA program called Earth from Space – from 1h 12 min to 1h 23 min.)

This sets the stage and hooks students while getting them to think about big ideas. What does the ocean give us? The module leads students to ask: How can we measure global oxygen production? Which organisms in the sea produce oxygen? Through the lessons and activities, the module introduces tools and models to measure and interpret the data collected from the sea, so that we can begin to understand the rate of oxygen production, which organisms are producing the oxygen and changes in the system that could affect global oxygen.

Project-Based Learning: Introduction to asking questions (20-30 min)

Step 1: Ask students to demonstrate what is in a drop of seawater, using the ‘Drop of Seawater’ pre-assessment document.

Options:

• Instead of using the pre-assessment document, drops of seawater can be drawn on whiteboards or on large sheets of butcher paper. However, please note the instructions at the top of the document that are pertinent to understanding the scale/size of the drop of seawater.
• To assess individual student growth, have students do the pre-assessment individually OR to assess group dynamics and thinking have students in groups of 3-4 fill out the pre-assessment form (Students may include the following based on their level of current understanding: water (H₂0), Oxygen, carbon dioxide, salt, nutrients, microorganisms (plankton)

Step 2: Next, in groups of 3-4, ( without adding more to their own ) have students look at each other’s water drops noticing what is common and what is different between each model. If students did only one pre-assessment per group, have these groups compare their drop of seawater to other groups’ drops of seawater.  This could also be done as a gallery walk and comparison through class discussion.

Step 3: Purpose: Let the students know that the purpose of the unit is to learn more about what is in that drop of seawater and how it contributes to oxygen production on Earth.  At the end of the PBL they will need to be able to answer the following question: How do we make the invisible forest visible to others? And why might that be important?

• To answer that question, students need to learn more about what is in the drop of seawater. As they go through the module with each lesson they will discover and add more about what is in the drop, leading up to the final class art project.

Step 4: Hand out the Know/Need to Know document, give them time as individuals to fill in the table based on their current knowledge.

• In the ‘Know’ column, write down everything they think they know about the ocean, focusing on the ocean as an interconnected system of living and nonliving things and how energy is transferred within that system.  They can also focus on what they know either from what they saw in the movie clip or their Drop of Seawater pre-assessment.
• In the second column, come up with questions that focus on what they would Need to know at the end to complete the PBL guiding question: “How do we make the invisible forest visible to others? And, why might that be important?”
• Give each group/table (of 3-4 students) time to discuss what they Know/Need to Know to answer the overarching question. Tell the groups they will share their question(s) with the whole group as a class discussion.

Step 5: Collect student responses on the whiteboard or electronically using the ‘Know/Need to know’ format.(Suggestion: electronic versions are easily displayed and referred back during the rest of the module.)

• Go around the room, write down everything the students share out making a list of what they know so far. This is a brainstorm, so write it all down.

Step 6: Repeat, this time collecting questions about what they Need to Know to understand the problem more. Make the same running list. (Hint to teacher and student: it might be helpful to refer back to the questions you related to during the pre-assessment. Keep in mind that as you create the class list of questions, it is an evolving document that will change throughout the course of the module*. Question examples students might come up with, but not limited to can be found below or as a separate document here:

Step 7:Explain to students that we will be exploring many of their questions as we go through a series of lessons in the module that address how phytoplankton produce oxygen for Earth as a system.

Step 8: Let students know that at the end of the module, they will redraw their drop of seawater to demonstrate what they learned. As an option, the process of redrawing or revising their drop of seawater can also occur at the end of each of the lessons. As a class, we will be going back and completing the guiding question: “How do we make the invisible forest visible? And, why might that be important?”

*At the end of Each Lesson in the Module (5-10 min) Reflect by looking back at their Know/Need to know handout.  As a class, focus on the following:

1. What questions are they able to answer now as a group based on the previous lesson?
2. Once they have identified the questions that they have been able to answer, have them fill out the ‘Drop of Seawater’ summary table document.  This provides them a chance to reflect on the previous lesson and how it connects to our driving questions and the unit on the whole.
3. Once they have filled out their summary table.  Have them go back to their “Know/Need to Know” document. Are there any new questions that they would like to add to their list, based on what they now know?

During each lesson in the Module (5-10 min) (do this process at least once as part of the PBL):

1. Have students look back at their drop of seawater pre-assessment
2. Using two different colors of post-it notes have students revise their poster using their drop of water summary table.
3. One color can represent ideas that they want to add to their drop of seawater.
4. One color can represent ideas that they want to change/remove from their drop of seawater.
5. Post-it notes make it possible for them to move those ideas around

Career Connection

Based on how much time you have available, choose a career-connected activity below. In each case, recap what your students just learned in the lesson to the activity.

Example questions for Monish:

• What are some similarities you found between the skills needed for a pharmacy career path and a computer science career path?
• What advice do you have for someone to learn computer science if they do not have a computer science background?

Assessment

At the end of the module, students create a final drawing based on their initial drop of seawater and the revisions they have made over the course of the module. See ‘Drop of Seawater’ Teacher Key_example.The components may change based on the level of the course.Reflection: After students have completed this post module ‘What is in a drop of seawater?’ have students reflect on what they learned.  This could be a class discussion, small group discussion or a written response.

Questions—Looking at your pre and post drop of seawater:

1.  List two or three things that surprised you the most about what you learned in the module.
2. How has your understanding about the importance of oxygen changed as you moved through the module?
3. If you could continue to explore in this module, which topic from the module sparks your interest the most?  What about that topic would you want to discover? Why?
4. Looking back at our know/don’t know document as a class, identify one or two questions that did not get addressed and you have been curious to discover.
5. Look at that same document, what new questions would you add to the document?

Make the Invisible Forest visible to others Final Art Project (1 day to multi-day):

For the final art project, have the students brainstorm an artistic way to represent their learning as a class. Get students on board and thinking about “How do we make the invisible forest visible? And, why might that be important?” See a full description and student guide(s) below. This can be a single day in-class art project or expand to multi-day, depending on the design of the project.

Resources

How will I know they know…

ASSESSMENT OPTIONS for the Invisible Forest Module

• The Invisible Forest PBL Intro Video or using this Youtube link or
• [optional] Water world Phenomenon Storyboard
• ‘Drop of Seawater’ pre-assessment document
• Module PBL Question examples
• Know/need to know document
• ‘Drop of Seawater’ summary table (student)
• ‘Drop of Seawater’ Teacher Key_example.
• Make the Invisible Forest Visible to others Final Art Project ideas information
• Public Service Announcement Project and rubric
• Final Art Project Peer Review form.
• Form for submitting student projects

Additional Teacher Resources: 

• http://www.bie.org/blog/reimagining_art_in_pbl
• http://www.bie.org/object/webinars_archived/project_assessment

Extension

This optional SYSTEMS extension or replacement activity is very useful in guiding students through modeling, sense-making, seeing the entire system-at-play, and asking questions. The activity is based on Ambitious Science Teaching guidelines. For more background information on AST as it relates to this lesson, see Chapters 6 & 7 (pages 111-150) of their book (by Mark Windschitl, Jessica Thompson, and Melissa Braaten). Or if you do not have their book, you can read an older version via PDF.