I am working with our 6th grade science teacher on her current UbD lesson on the oceans. What started as a simple unit exploring the questions, "Why are the oceans important?" has blossomed into what's turning out to be a really amazing unit. I just love when this happens.
Bonnie and I met to discuss what she came up with and started bouncing ideas off of each other. She showed me the introductory video she used with the girls. It was Robert Ballard speaking at TEDx.
Here is the inspiring video that really started it all.
She was so excited and told me how excited the girls were and that made me excited! We talked about how great it would be if the girls could actually speak with a marine scientists. SOOOO..... I sent out a few emails and Dr. Ellen Prager agreed to Skype with us. We're Skyping tomorrow and the girls have been working this week to prepare questions for their conversation.
We then began discussing the transfer for the unit. Bonnie wants to make a documentary that will convince others of the importance of our oceans. To do that they will of course need to know the "textbook" knowledge about oceans and put it all together in a meaningful way. As we discussed, I was thinking that since they are doing so many great things, they should document their journey and learning. We decided to create a collective blog to do just that. Each day two girls will create a blog entry on their learning and insights of the day. You can find it at http://mrscoceanexplorers.blogspot.com/. I can't wait to see how it turns out.
I'll probably post again as we progress but I am so excited about this unit that I had to post today.
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