Students have just embarked on a five day unit about food production and food security. By the end of this lesson students should be able to identify the environmental risks of commercial farming and begin thinking about solutions. Students will leave this five day unit with an understanding of food security and how people living in food insecure areas are able to find ways to live sustainably.
Students have just embarked on a five day unit about food production and food security. By the end of this lesson students should be able to identify the environmental risks of commercial farming and begin thinking about solutions. Students will leave this five day unit with an understanding of food security and how people living in food insecure areas are able to find ways to live sustainably.
Students have just embarked on a five day unit about food production and food security. By the end of this lesson students should be able to identify the environmental risks of commercial farming and begin thinking about solutions. Students will leave this five day unit with an understanding of food security and how people living in food insecure areas are able to find ways to live sustainably.
Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking connection)
Teacher: Sarah Leming
Content & Title: Grade Level: 7 Sustainability: Environmental risks of food production Standards: Concept 1: Changes in Environments - Describe the interactions between human populations, natural hazards, and the environment. PO 1. Analyze environmental risks (e.g., pollution, destruction of habitat) caused by human interaction with biological or geological systems. Objectives (Explicit & Measurable): TSW analyze the environmental risks of our food production system by choosing one environmental impact and creating a posterboard including the cause, effect, and one solution of that impact. Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative): Formative: With a group, students will brainstorm three environmental impacts caused by our food production system and will identify a probable solution to those impacts. Summative: Each group will choose one of the three brainstormed impacts and solutions and will create a posterboard highlighting the cause, effect, and solution. The poster will be shared with the class. Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from simple to more complex): TSWBAT identify environmental impacts caused by food production TSWBAT propose a solution to negate the human impact due to food production TSWBAT present their solutions to the class Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught) Students have just embarked on a five day unit about food production and food security. The first lesson highlights the differences between commercial farming and sustainability farming. By the end of this lesson students should be able to identify the environmental risks of commercial farming and begin thinking about solutions to create a more sustainable food production cycle. This is important to students because they can start using values thinking, systems thinking, and futures thinking when they make decisions regarding food choices. They will leave this five day unit with an understanding of food security and how people living in food insecure areas are able to find ways to live sustainably and start creating food economies in their local area. Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this lesson) - Sustainability farming is an effort to create food harvests without negatively impacting the planet. It requires a lot of skill and labor. - Commercial farming is a way to create a large amount of food at a low cost and low labor intensity Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?) - Most farms have a variety of crops - Farming grounds never lose their fertile soil - Sustainability farming cannot feed more than one family Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing) - Communication students will be collaborating in groups to create solutions - Comparing/contrast students will be comparing and contrasting the two types of farming - Applying students will apply their knowledge of farming techniques to
create possible solutions to environmental impacts of food production
Four Ways of Thinking connection: This part of the five day unit relates mostly to values thinking and futures thinking. As students learn about the two types of farming, they will gain an understanding of the differing values of commercial and sustainability farms. As students are finding solutions to environmental impacts of farming, they should begin to take into account the values thinking of the commercial farms who need to make a profit and produce a high amount of yield. They will also use futures thinking as they find potential problems to the solutions they have come up with. Safety: (what safety rules and items need to be addressed?) None Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.) 1. What do you think some environmental challenges would be to commercial and sustainability farming? 2. What are possible solutions to the environmental impacts of commercial farming? Key vocabulary: (list and define) Materials: (list item and possible 1. sustainability farming - farming in an quantity) effort to reduce environmental impacts 1. student notebooks or paper 2. commercial farming farming in an 2. pens or pencils for each student effort to make a profit and produce a high 3. posterboard (1 per group) amount of yield. 4. Markers (multiple packs) 5. Optional: computer lab for student research. Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students will seek to answer in Explore. Teacher Will: (hook) Students Will: Before beginning, put students in groups of 4. Each student needs to be assigned an individual job - Materials director in charge of getting and cleaning up materials - Reporter shares ideas with the class when called to - Activity Director Keeps track of time to complete tasks - Principal investigator Keeps group on task. Over the next five days, we are going to talk about how and where food is made and who gets to consume all of this food. Today we are going to start by talking about farming and the environmental risks of farming. First, we will watch a video that will help you understand the two types of farming. Then, you will work with a group to brainstorm environmental risks of farming and solutions to create a posterboard to share with the class.
So to begin our lesson on farming, there
are two main types of farming, I will play a video that will introduce commercial and sustainability farming Show students this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7TRI7yeeYQQ The video just discussed the two types of farming commercial farming and sustainability farming. You probably noticed some key words or key concepts about each type of farming while you were watching. I am going to give you one minute to write down your own definitions of sustianability and commercial farming. After the minute has passed: Now, share your definitions with your group and merge your definitions to make one definition for each term that is clear and hits all the points you think are necessary. You have 3 minutes to do this
While the video is playing, students
will watch the video. Students will quickly write their definition of sustainability and commercial farming.
Students will work with their group to
re-create their definitions of each term, using the best parts from each students definition.
Reporters will share their definitions
with the class.
Allow students to collaborate for three
minutes. Have each group share the definitions they came up with to the class. Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes This classroom practices flexible grouping to ensure students are working with different groups on a weekly basis. To differentiate instruction, ELLs or struggling students can be provided with sentence frames to help complete a definition. If needed, the teacher can hand out note packets about the video. Student jobs will be used in the classroom to ensure each student has a part in the activities. Explore - In this section students should take the lead and actively use materials to discover information that will help them answer the question posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of the lesson. Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1) Students Will: (list all steps) Teacher note: If a computer lab or a set of tablets is available, those would be helpful tools to allow students to research commercial and sustainability farming and their environmental impacts. If the lab is
not available, the students can think
critically or the teacher can print articles for the students to write on and highlight key points as they brainstorm ideas. Now that we know more about farming, what do you think some environmental challenges would be to commercial and sustainability farming? In your groups, brainstorm at least five environmental impacts that farming imposes on our environment, write the impacts down on a sheet of paper and make a note as to if this impact is from commercial farming, sustainability farming, or both
As students are working, ask prompting
questions to groups who may be stuck: - What methods do farmers use to keep the crops free of insects? - What do crops need to survive? (water, sun, living space, soil, air) - Do all crops need the same nutrients from the soil? (no), If we keep planting the same crop year after year, what do you think would happen to the nutrients?
Students will work in groups to think
about environmental impacts of farming. They will make note as to what type of farming this impact is from. Exemplar response examples: - Pesticides can enter our water stream as rain and irrigation runoff, depleting our fish population Commercial farming - Irrigating our crops uses thousands and thousands of gallons of fresh water which can create sink holes if the water is used too fast both farming types dependent on irrigations system Other examples: - Animals cant survive - Water is being used too fast
Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes
The teacher is using wait time as a strategy to allow students to construct their own ideas. The teacher will use questioning as a way to prompt higher level thinking in students Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives by answering the question from Engage before moving on. Teacher Will: Students Will: Group by group, allow students to share what environmental risks they came up with in their group. As students share their ideas with the class, make a list on the board of the ideas students have brainstormed. Make connections between the ideas students had. For example if the water is being depleted from irrigation, sink holes
Students will share out their ideas
from Explore
Students will partake in a discussion
about connections between the environmental challenges and farming or links to other environmental
can develop. If pesticides are polluting
streams, fish may not be able to survive and we may lose drinking water. Pick one of the ideas students brainstormed and develop a solution as a class: If mono-crop farms are planting the same crop every year, the soil will eventually be depleted of a particular nutrient. A solution would be to pass legislation that farmers must change the crop the plant in each acre of their farm every three years to ensure soil stays fertile.
challenges.
Students will pick one environmental
challenge to focus on as a group.
Allow students to choose one of the
challenges to farming that were brainstormed and shared as a class. Each group should have a different topic. Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. IQ #2 Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
What are possible solutions to the
environmental impacts of commercial farming?
Students will brainstorm solutions for
multiple impacts before deciding on one environmental impact they would like to create a solution for and present formally to the class.
Now that we have identified risks of
farming and linked those risks to types of farms. Work with your group to find a solution to the problem you have chosen to work on. You will create a posterboard. That has your problem and the solution listed on the board as well as an effect of that solution. Decorate the board in a way that is fitting to your evironmental risk and solution. First, talk to your group and come up with at least three solutions. The recorder should write those solutions down on a piece of paper so you have a written record. When you have three solutions, talk about the risks and benefits of those solutions. Put yourself in the shoes of the farmer or in the shoes of a citizen. Think about how those people would feel if your solution was in place. I also want you to think about a potential issue that your solution would have. This can be personal (from the eyes of the farmer) or it might be another environmental risk. When you
Students will identify at least three
possible solutions to their problem then participate in an active discussion in their group to decide on the best solution. Students will create a posterboard linking the problem and solution.
decide on the best solution, that is when
you can make your poster. When the posters are complete, we will share the problems and solutions with the class. Best Teaching Practice Strategy/Differentiation/ELL and Teacher Notes Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big concepts they learned outside of the assessment. Teacher Will: Students Will: Before sharing, pass out post it notes or index cards for groups. Each group should get one card or note for each other group.
Share the problem and solution they
came up with as a group and created a poster for.
Explain to students that after each
group presents, they need to write one positive piece of feedback for the presenting group on the post it note or card.
Listen to other student presentations.
Provide peer evaluations and feedback.
Allow each group to present and assess
the problem, solution and effect of each group. After each group presents, allow students to share their feedback. Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections) Using student presentations as examples, help students understand the values thinking and/or futures thinking process as associated with the solutions they came up with. Ask students to put themselves in the position of a corporation, is the solution still attainable? Who does your future risk of your solution hurt? Students should be able to connect the difficulty of coming up wth a one fits all solution with the process of values thinking. **Best Practices List the Best Teaching Practices you will use to enhance the learning outcomes. In each section where prompted, list the best practice, how the practices will be used and the purpose.