Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

Class/grade:

1a) To inquire into the following:

School: Casita Center

transdisciplinary theme

Title: Water We Have Here?

How the World Works

Teacher(s): , Hyun Young, Yun Anderson, Cindy Lieu, Kristina Woods, Leethel Farmer,
Christina Villegas

An Inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the
natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans
use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and
technological advances on society and on the environment.

5th Grade

Age group:

10-11 year olds

School code:

000026

Date: December 2014 (revised January 2016)

Proposed duration:

number of hours over

number of weeks

central idea
Peoples actions impact our worlds drinkable water supply.
STANDARD: 5ESES (Earths Systems)
1b) Summative assessment task(s):

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

First Draft: Argument Writing (Students choose one of the three topics and
respond to one of the questions in 5 paragraph essay) RUBRIC

Form - What is it like?

Causation - Why is it like this?
Responsibility - What is our responsibility?
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Water Conservation - Is it important to conserve water?

Water Pollution - Are people responsible for the quality of the water around the world?
Drinking Water - Does everyone have equal access to safe drinking water?

Second Draft: Narrative Argument Writing (Students will convert their Argument
writing to Narrative Argument writing. Final product will be a childrens book that
persuades readers about their topic of choice.
o

Audience (Elementary students) 6 pages of writing and 6 pages of pictures

Use Studentreasures to publish their final writing product

Mentor Text to show an example of a book

Determining the health of our water

People contribute to the conditions of water supply (positively or negatively).
People's access to clean water varies.
Clean water is essential to life and is a natural resource.
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries ?

What is a wetland? Where do we find them?

What is water cycle?

CCSS: W.5.1 - Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point

of view with reasons and information
CCSS: SL.5.4 - Report on a topic or text or present on an opinion,
sequencing ideas logically and using relevant, descriptive details to
support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

How do we test and analyze water quality? What qualifies good/bad drinking water?
How does the water impact peoples living conditions?
How can we raise awareness about the quality of water around the world?

o
o
o

*Special Education students will receive support and accommodations from

special education team per their IEP document.

Problem/Solution Proposal
Public Service Announcement/Action Plan 30 sec-1 min: Information and
Communication Technology (ICT).
presents their knowledge of how people have impacted their water supply and
what the possible solutions are for influencing change
Students can choose one area to focus and investigate drinkable water supply
and how the people have contributed to the current state of the water supply.
Students then have to come up with action plan for their area.
Local
Statewide
Global
- Informational Flyer (have students think of how to spread the word...poster,
bookmark, classroom speakers, story, PPT, estory [like storybird]) to promote
information about world water quality and raise money to purchase Life Straws
for Kenya through the organization CELF. (Students should be required to add
the origin of the problem and not just state the problem so that summative
assessment would match central idea)
Terry- students analyze 3 components of water quality in backyard habitat. Data
is shared and conclusions made in a short lab report.

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Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned?

4. How best might we learn?

This column should be used in conjunction with How best might we learn?
What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and skills? What
evidence will we look for?

What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
questions?

- Entry Video to the unit

Daily Lesson Plans

- Mind Mapping Terry- KWHLAQ on a knowledge wall (What do you know about the

https://docs.google.com/document/d/15bIUA5kfqmpdUXIK2vd4aXAWfPVFjVxLqz0G
5b-tvPs/edit

safe drinking water?)

- Knowledge Wall vs Wonder Wall

- Class Discussion (Wetland Metaphors)
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines
of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
- Analysis of Water Quality tests - Scientific Method Conclusion with evidence
graded on a rubric
- Posts on ELA inquiry blog based on digital media and non-fiction articles graded on
a rubric
- Presentation of Water Conditions around the world (different countries) **Mention
LifeStraw
- M&M Reflection Activity

- Water quantity necklace (5-ESS2-2 Describe and graph the amounts and
percentages of water)
- Life Straw PE Activities (water bucket PE race, Meet the Pathogens)
- Reviewing Water Cycle
- Background information on water quality tests
What opportunities will occur for approach to learning (transdisciplinary skills)
development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile?
- Communication Skills: Student will communicate through a water cycle
presentation, class discussions, (Persuasive Essay on water quality?) and a PSA
about the water quality around the world.
- Research Skills: Students will research about the water situations in different parts
of the community, country, or around the world. (Internet search skills)
- Caring: Students will be compassionate about different circumstances of water
quality in third-world countries
- Reflective: Students will reflect upon the limited resources to us and apply their
knowledge to other developing countries. Students will also be reflective on their
Research & Communication skills, assessments, and how they are caring. (Exit
ticket and M&M activity)
- Communicators: Students will be communicating their findings about the water
quality around the world and presenting a persuasive digital media to the community

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
water quality test kits, images of people in the world with water (powerpoint), intro video, US History Alive (colonization chapter about the settlement near water), Water Hog
video, field trip to San Diego Zoo Safari park (Save Our Aquatic Resources), frogline water runoff youtube video, water as limited resources necklace, Geoffe Keogh (guest
speaker)
Defined STEM: global drinking water concern - article about Tanzania
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
We will be going down to Schoolyard Habitat and San Diego Zoo Safari Park.
Knowledge Wall and Wonder Wall

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding

of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to
learn?
Form = Students conducted an evaluation about the water quality in our backyard
habitat by testing the water.
Causation = Students worked through Water Quality Around the World-Thinglink to
identify the problems around the world with water quality in different countries.
Responsibility = Students created a PSA to present the quality of water around the
world, state, and local areas. Some chose to collect money, some wrote letters to
the water district, etc.

Students were engaged and excited about the unit. They really enjoyed reading A
Long Walk to Water and some of the students made clear connections to this story
in their summative assessment.
Students worked on creating a narrative book about a character relating to
conservation of water, equal access to water, and water pollution. Here we were
able to see how students made connections and what they had learned about our
central idea. It was good to see students coming up with different ways to help
others in accordance to the need of water around the world, in their community or
their family.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.
-Students initial opinion essay (that we used to create their narrative) more clearly,
helped us to see if the students understood the central idea.
- Take more time revisiting the wonder and knowledge wall and continually add as
we go through our unit.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?

The summative assessment showed how students made connections between the
central idea and the transdisciplinary theme by because a couple of students were
able to create their stories that took place in a country who struggles with access to
clean drinking water. They also realized that in America our biggest concern was
with the conservation of water and made connections to the recent current event with
the water quality in Flint, Michigan.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

Communication skills= Students used sentence frames for their inquiry blogs and
discussion boards. Students were able to read and interpret the information
presented about water quality around the world.
Research skills= Students collected data from many different sources and
organized the information to present to their peers. Students were able to present
information they searched via the internet in their PSA.
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
Caring = Students researched about water quality around the world and developed
empathy and commitment to service to help others.
Reflective = Students worked with their M&M reflections to talk about what they have
learned, what they enjoyed, what concerned them, and so forth with our water unit.
Communicators = Students were able to communicate their ideas and findings
through multi-media sources, group discussions, and blogs. They collaborated with
teams to research and present information about water quality around the world.

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.

PSA (30-60 seconds) - Enter into iVie Awards

On the Wonder Wall, students came up with a number of inquiries that were later
investigated:

Social Awareness - We all need water! It is essential to life

How do you test drinking water?

What are the different parts of water?
I wonder if we can filter dirty water ourselves?
How do we know that drinking water is safe?
What kind of chemicals and minarales are in water?
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?
Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability
to reflect, to choose and to act.

A group of our students wrote a letter to the water district in concern of the water
distributed in our school. Representative from the Vista Irrigation District came out
to test the water and talk to the group about their findings and why we have certain
elements in our drinking water.
Some groups decided to collect money to purchase LifeStraws, which would help
save lives for those in other countries.
Student researched how much it will cost to get lifestraws for people in other
countries on his own.
Students did self led research on their own about water in the Sudan.

Roles: Editor, Director, Actors,

Comparison - Theres water that has bad bacteria (chemicals) in it.

How to test - Water quality analysis
Where to test - Schoolyard habitat to test for water samples
Global - Countries who do not or have limited access to clean water
STEPS:
1.

 International Baccalaureate Organization 2011