Project Title: Hot Shot Heroes 

*Original project by: Stephanie Roccon, Debbie Spellman, Lauren Swissman, Shelley Glenn Lee of High Tech Elementary North County

Grades: 5th-8th 

Standards:

  • Science (earth and human activity, ecosystems, engineering design)
  • Math (area, scale, measurement)
  • ELA (opinion write), reading (fluency, main ideas)

Enduring Understanding: Humans impact the environment and can make a difference in fire prevention. 

Driving Question: How can we keep our community safe from wildfires?

Duration: 2 weeks

Rich Context:
Fire season in Southern California is typically October, but in 2020 there have been a series of wildfires since August; 95% of which are directly related to human behavior. October is also fire prevention month.

Plan for the end:

Students will use math and project experiences to consult and develop plans for local residents and small business owners in creating and maintaining fire safe residences or places of business. Click here for details. Students will use Thinkglink as in interactive final product. *upper grades may choose to do an  additional  written opinion essay.

Launch:

  • Firefighter guest speaker, local news videos or phenomenon video, infographics and maps from CalFire, show pictures of landscape that are fire preventative and those that aren’t-ask students to compare using visible thinking routines. 
  • Review project handout and hub.
  • Collect K/NTKs

 

Learning/Feedback:
Secondary math lessons, 5th grade problems here ; Science Lesson plans here and here

Feedback:

  • Expert or end-user feedback on design
  • Peer feedback on design draft
  • Teacher feedback on writing draft

 

Golden Opportunities:

  • Field work: Landscaper or firefighter as expert talk, feedback on design; possible walking field trip to observe ecosystem for field notes
  • Exhibition: Social media takeover for school of final products, Padlet gallery to share with local fire station for community collaboration

 

Additional project resources:

 

Additional PBL-lite Resources: