Project Description
This is a 4-week interdisciplinary project for science and ELA for 4th and 5th grade. Students explore real-world application of NGSS life science, informational reading strategies, research and opinion writing. The project begins with students learning about the history of the zoo-the location and the animals there. The project then progresses to learning more about animals, specifically their senses. The following phase focuses on food chains and webs, apex predators and human impact. By the end of the project students are prepared to 1) write an opinion paper about animal captivity 2) create an awareness campaign to educate others about the issues they have learned about.
Driving Questions:
- What is the story of the San Diego Zoo and the animals that live there?
- Should animals be kept in captivity?
- What conservation efforts are being made to help endangered animals?
Project progression and assessment deliverables:
Benchmark 1~ The history of the San Diego Zoo. Deliverable: Timeline on Padlet.
Benchmark 2~ Animal senses. Deliverable: Thinglink on animal research.
Benchmark 3~ Food webs. Deliverable: Explain Everything on Trophic Cascade and/or Bioaccumulation.
Benchmark 4~ Opinion writing. Deliverable: Essay on captivity and conservation.
Benchmark 5~ Awareness and giving campaign to share with public audience.
A few notes:
- Project overview, daily teaching calendar/progression, student handouts and graphic organizers for project work are provided; along with pictures of anchor charts and also samples of student work.
- While the project is focused on the San Diego zoo and field work at this location, it can easily be modified for your local zoo or with the use of Google Earth and zoo cams.
- The project links to lesson plans provided by the San Diego Zoo, assessment tool recommendations, and also Newsela articles. I also reference reading and writing strategies from 2 books, recommended reading, and materials.
To learn more about this project you can see pictures of when I ran this for homeschool via our Instagram page: @homeschoolsaywhat. To purchase this project visit my store on TpT HERE.