Week 6: Land
Weeks 4, 5, and 6 make up a three-week cycle about land. Currently, you are in Week C: Teacher As Designer. 

This week you should refer to the resources listed under Readings & References, and you need to complete the assignments listed under Assignments & Rubrics. This week’s assignments focus on…

Readings & References
Review: Earth at Hand, pp. 24-29.

Read: "Teaching geological facts about how the face of the earth changes serves little purpose in these early years. Students should start becoming familiar with all aspects of their immediate surroundings, including what things change and what seems to cause change. Perhaps 'changing things' can be a category in a class portfolio of things students observe and read about. At some point, students can start thinking up and trying out safe and helpful ways to change parts of their environment."

"Young children are naturally interested in everything they see around them--soil, rocks, streams, rain, snow, clouds, rainbows, sun, moon, and stars. During the first years of school, they should be encouraged to observe closely the objects and materials in their environment, note their properties, distinguish one from another and develop their own explanations of how things become the way they are. As children become more familiar with their world, they can be guided to observe changes, including cyclic changes, such as night and day and the seasons; predictable trends, such as growth and decay; and less consistent changes, such as weather or the appearance of meteors."

"Children come to school aware that Earth's surface is composed of rocks, soils, water, and living organisms, but a closer look will help them identify many additional properties of earth materials. By carefully observing and describing the properties of many rocks, children will begin to see that some rocks are made of a single substance, but most are made of several substances. In later grades, the substances can be identified as minerals. Understanding rocks and minerals should not be extended to the study of the source of the rocks, such as sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic, because the origin of rocks and minerals has little meaning to young children." (Source--National Science Education Standards)

Recommended Web Sites:

• The Evergreen Curriculum
• Soil for the Senses

Assignments & Rubrics
You will work individually and in teams to address land during this three-week cycle. Use the links below to access the assignments and rubrics.

Week C: Teacher As Designer - Individual
Lesson Design Assignment & Rubric
You will individually design or find a sphere lesson for your students, post it in the Teacher As Designer space for feedback from your teammates, use their feedback to revise your sphere lesson, then post it again. 

Week C: Teacher As Designer - Team
Feedback Assignment & Rubric
You and your teammates will serve as a "critical friend" to one another. When acting as a critical friend, use the Feedback Rubric and the criteria for effective concept-building activities you and your teammates developed in Week A: Teacher As Researcher to give an objective analysis of your teammates' sphere lessons. 

[ Back to Outline ]

[ Home ] [ Intro ] [ Guide ] [ Classroom ]

HTML by Chris Kreger
Maintained by ESSC Team
Last updated August 10, 2000

Privacy Statement and Copyright^© 1997-2000 by Wheeling Jesuit University/NASA Classroom of the Future™. All rights reserved.