The Navigators have spent the past few months studying animals, plants,
and conservation through the lens of our overarching concept “treasure”.
We do this in order to stimulate higher-level
thinking by providing a “big idea” that helps us process the world around us.
It also enables us to apply the “big idea” across the curriculum, incorporating
literature, writing, social studies, math, art and more to our studies, making
connections that increase our understanding. Here are some ways that the first
graders are beginning to become critical
and creative thinkers:
- Comparing and contrasting ideas
- Providing reasoning for their thinking
- Evaluating situations
- Evaluating others’ ideas
- Thinking independently
- Applying ideas to different contexts
- Developing stories (“Feathers” play and stop-motion film!)
- Thinking of unique ideas/outside the box
Here's a glimpse into our classroom STEAM Lab!
Content: We start with the basics—vocabulary, needs and parts of
plants, etc.—and go from there. It’s interesting, there isn’t a lot of botany
web pages geared toward younger students. But we were able to handle it,
excelling in higher-level and problem solving and having fun in the process!
A close-up look at the stem of a celery plant
We did tons of experiments plus each student had their own plant and came up with a question and an experiment. We then compiled all of our experiments,
compared them to the control plant and to each other’s and then drew
conclusions from our findings. We were all surprised that the “crowded plant”
experiment grew two times as much as the others!
"What will happen if I feed my plant Miracle Grow?"
"What will happen if I put my plant in the refrigerator?"
"What will happen if I "water" my plant with Coke?"
This project involved some engineering. "Will my plant grow up this tube to find the light?"
Differentiation: We had activities that challenge and engage both emergent
and advanced readers, writers and thinkers.
Research: The fifth grade Alchemists came and helped us do research
on the internet on the various uses of plants. What a joy as a teacher to see
my former students so adept, kind and helpful as they mentored the Navigators.
All were engaged, both mentors and mentorees, and learned a lot about their
chosen plant. We then wrote a five (at least) sentence research paragraph about
the uses of our plant and shared it with our classmates.
We incorporated art into science: Making beautiful plant models
Making Georgia O'Keeffe flowers
Project-based learning: This is a model in which students are
encouraged to engage in learning activities that are integrated with real-world
issues and practices. We became Fish and Wildlife Department Scientists
checking out the health of a local orchard’s environment by looking at the
pollination rate of its recent apple crop. I had to tell the kids that we were
just pretending, that no, we weren’t going to actually send our results to the
government. But maybe someday….
Our auction project also became a
PBL activity. We asked all the classes to collect plastic lids for us and when
we had enough, we re-used them in a beautiful remaking of Van Gogh’s Country Road in Provence by Night. Each
student had the sense that he/she is making a difference in our world.
Guest speaker: We had one of our dads, who has a huge organic garden, come in and teach us about composting. We're eager to get the composting bin in our school garden up and running!
Hands-on Learning: And we're eager to plant seeds and have some school-fresh food before the end of the year! Can't wait to eat radishes, lettuce and peas! Yum!!
We will continue to talk about treasuring our treasures as we move on
to our study of Native Americans. And hopefully we'll be lifelong conservationists, making treasuring our treasures a lifestyle that will keep our world beautiful for generations to come.
