Project Title: Weather change in the fall season for 2^nd grade

Author: Yoonjung Kim

Project Idea: Investigation, problem-solving, challenging questions, exploring, hands-on activity, group project

Entry Event: Sharing favorite fall season activities (Pumpkin picking, collecting the leaves)

Power Standard: Collaboration, critical thinking, exploring, creativity, sharing, researching, reflection

Content Standards & Objectives:

1. Students will be able to identify weather changes and characteristics of the fall season.
2. Students will investigate weather by measuring, observing with a thermometer and present the result in the class to see the pattern about the fall season.
3. Students will have a guided tour with a park ranger in the nature center and create art about the fall topic.
4. Students complete self-assessment sheet and peer feedback to check the learning goal, monitor progress, and improved skills.

Objectives Directly Taught or Learned Through Discovery	Identified Learning Targets	Evidence of Success in Achieving Identified Learning Target
The concept of weather, season, fall and fun activity	Discovery, exploring, writing and create art	1. Independent measuring and writing temperature in the journal 2. Exploring and learn seasonal change from the nature center 3. Produce artwork by collected nature items

21^st Century Skills

21st Century Skills	Learning Skills & Technology Tools	Teaching Strategies	Evidence of Success
Information and Communication	Science: read a guided map - signs, direction, different level of hiking route, pond location	Trail with observe wild lives and guided by a park ranger	Group of three students challenges the project to redesign the nature center, guided map, and present to the class. (Murphy, 2018).
Thinking and Reasoning Skills	Math: observation, measurement, designing, charting by MS document,	Organize, describe and display the result by the presentation.	Applying the data that fall season temperatures and connect to the real–world issue: climate change
Personal and Workplace Skills	Art: fall art - draw a favorite shape with leaves, acorns	Express their feeling about the fall by color, shapes, materials	Posting and sharing the artwork on their blog or online art class.

Performance Objectives: 

Know – How to read the measure from the thermometer, what does the ranger do, how to read the map, how to make a graph in the MS document

Do- Exploring a nature center, rangers guided tour, collecting nature items (leaves, acorns), measure the temperature, discuss and summarize the group project, presentation

Driving Question: 

1. How do we know if the weather is cold, warm, or hot? ( thermometer, type of weather)
2. Does temperature affect myself, my school, my town ( change warm clothes, Halloween parade, leaf collection)
3. What plants and animal do you see in the nature center?
4. What colors do you mostly see on the trees?
5. Who will guide us in the nature center?
6. How do I dress in the fall weather?

Assessment Plan

Small Group Project	1. Content learning: Fall weather characteristics (Parlamas, 2015). 2. Collaboration: Respect team member and listen to other opinions 3. Feedback: self- assessment sheet lead by teacher 4. Group project: sharing opinions and engage with group member
Major Individual Projects	1. Observation: report fall thermometer three times a day 2. Researching skill: Daily weather research by internet 3. Creative outcome: artwork by collecting nature items 4. Learning skills: Technology tool use ex) MS document making chart or graph, posting the artwork, power point for presentation

Assessment and Reflection:

Rubric(s) I will use: (Check all that apply.)	Collaboration	v	Written Communication	v
	Critical Thinking & Problem Solving	v	Content Knowledge	v
	Oral Communication	v	Other
Other classroom assessments for learning: (Check all that apply)	Quizzes/ tests		Practice presentations	v
	Self-evaluation	v	Notes	v
	Peer evaluation	v	Checklists/observations	v
	Online tests and exams		Concept maps
Reflections:     (Check all that apply)	Survey		Focus Group
	Discussion	v	Task Management Chart
	Journal Writing/ Learning Log	v	Other

Map the Project

What do students need to know and be able to do to complete the tasks successfully?

            Students need to identify the learning target by writing in the student-friendly language and student point of view (Clyton, 2017).

How and when will they learn the necessary knowledge and skills?

            Students learn their knowledge through various project-based learning methods including hands-on activity, exploring venues, individual work with researching and observing, collaborate project, presentation in class, and using technology tools.

Do the products and tasks give all students the opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned?

            A teacher gives the student a clear learning target and continually monitors their progress toward it, then the student will achieve academic outcome successfully.

Product:

Knowledge and Skills Needed	Already Have Learned	Taught Before the Project	Taught During the Project
Collect fall weather data searching from internet daily	Different characteristics of the four seasons; match weather to pictures	Check the weather channel and write the daily weather	Facilitate the weather-related content by reading thermometer observing temperature changes researching
Connection to local and statewide communities.	Research nature center about visitor center, indoor or outdoor activity, and  trail map	Rangers duties in the nature center and national park	Developing positive impressions about the natural world and increase social and academic skills (Tenafly Nature Center, n.d.).
Measure the daily temperature every two hours. Collect, organize, describe and display data	How to use the thermometer, writing temperatures in the observation log and make a chart	High and low degree related to the weather and compare other season temperatures	Summarizing the result and presentation in the class. Giving and receiving peer feedback facilitate critical thinking, problem-solving, self- regulation (Wind, 2018).
Connect to Art project:  Have students collect leaves outside to glue on their fall tree pictures (Davidson County School, 2017) Have students color and draw additional pictures on the season's worksheet that would fit in with the fall season.	Ask students about favorite fall activities such as apple picking or pumpkin picking.	Finding fall colors from leaf, fruits, vegetable, acorn, bugs, animals	Engage students in interdisciplinary, hands-on experiences that can help them develop skills in creative art and sense of the season (Faber. K, 2017).
Redesign the nature center and guided map	Research the nature center website about the guided map and geographic signs	Background information of the nature center	Real world experience and curious about nature (Tenafly Nature Center, n.d).

Manage the Process

1. A group member should be less than three students.
2. Teacher-student or student-student interaction increase the understanding and interesting of the contents
3. Before the activity, students need to learn how it is going to work and what they will learn through driving questions.
4. After the activity, the student learns through the feedback, discussion, and reflection.
5. Step forward: consider the future impact of the experience on student, school and the community

Project Evaluation

Assessment

1.      Student complete self-assessment sheet to check the learning goal, monitor progress, and improved skills. A student can mark “ Thumbs up,” “ Thumbs down” each question and an empty box for more comment under “ I want to know more” (Parlamas, 2015).

2.      Fall word tracing and matching picture worksheet. Instructing student to trace the fall words such as acorn, leaf, apple, pumpkin and make one sentence using these word. Matching pictures to the same fall words.

Feedback

At the end of the unit, teacher-led a reflection question list to a small group about each topic. Each group has quiet moments to answer the questions then sharing their opinions with others. The list includes

• Three things the best thing in the nature center.
• What clothing can I wear in the fall season?
• What was the most color of leaves in the fall season?

Reflection

Although I expected the PBL result the real world experience by diverse learning methods, I sometimes modified them in a student appropriate way, not by planning that I intended to. I will keep reminding learning goal when students lost the way to perform their work. This is the question list that I reflected on.

·       Are the learning targets made visible to students before, during, and after the lesson?

·       Is the necessary learning clear to students?

·       Have students had the opportunity to make meaning of the learning target?

Concerns

1. Lack of a real-world connection: Teachers can make real-world connections by investigating a local or global issue, connecting to students’ interests and concerns, simulating a product, or process to solve a real-world problem (Murphy, 2018).

2. Student engagement: It is not easy to balance different student knowledge level. Teachers utilize the driving questions to promote students who are engaged with their work. They will learn more effectively and take the learning to a deeper level.

3. Assessing individual learning through group work: Formative assessment is especially important so that teacher can help students identify and reduce the achievement gaps in learning throughout the unit. The teacher provides students self- and peer-assessment rubrics (Murphy, 2018).

Student Impact

1. Students actively engage with PBL projects which connect the real-world relevance for learning which impact gives them a sense of purpose. (Buck Institution for Education, n.d.).

2. PBL projects lead to a deeper understanding of content knowledge. Students are better to apply what they know in new situations.

3. Through PBL, students interact with adults, and their community professionals, and can develop career interests.

4. Beyond basic knowledge, students learn to take the initiative and responsibility, solve problems, and communicate ideas.

6. Teachers work closely with engaged students doing meaningful work and share in the rediscovered joy of learning.

7. Students enjoy using technology tools from research and collaboration through product creation and presentation