Overland High School Unit Planner 2007-2008
Maximum Points Possible: 100
What do I want students to learn? Resources and Templates

Standards and Benchmarks

  • Model Colorado State Standards
  • Technology Standards for Students
  • Information Literacy Standards

Be sure to distinguish between which specific standard and benchmark is being addressed and which is being assessed. being

- 15 Points for using 2-D Bloom's
- 5 Points for listing GVC's within Bloom's

Colorado Model Content Standards
GVC Essential Benchmarks
ISTE’s Technology Standards
Information Literacy Standards
ELD Standards
The Learning Outcomes for “The Dirty Water Project” (aka "The Filter Project")
- Check out the Alignment of these Learning Outcomes with Student Assessment
 
Students will:
Value: (Attitude, Belief and Purpose)

Check out Roberts' Eight Curriculum Emphases

- 10 Points
Know: (Content and Vocabulary)

- 5 Points
Do: (Skills, Strategies, Processes and Literacy)

- 5 Points
Why is this topic worth learning?
The world's water is vital to life. Both minor and major changes in Earth's water can have profound effects on human existence (continued in Big Ideas).

How is this connected to the real world?
First, students will learn how and where the potable water in their community comes from. Then, having recognized and appreciated water as the most precious of commodities - with barely 0.01% freshwater available - students will understand why water scarcity might lead to potential conflicts in the 21st century and figure out ways they might avoid/mitigate/resolve such conflicts. See, the UN Global Policy Forum articles addressing "Water in Conflict" and similar issues
What will students know?
Essential Vocabulary             
                                                          
How can we tell if water is contaminated?

How do we describe the levels of contamination in ppm or ppb?

Can we conclusively prove the health hazards of contaminated water? [Watch a 3-minute edited segment from the movie "Erin Brockovich" - a case settled in 1996 for $333 million, one of the largest settlements ever paid in U.S. history - to provoke student thinking and discussion].
                                 
Information presented in slide    
show for Direct Instruction in
"The Dirty Water Project"

What will students be able to do
Learn higher-level literacy skills - critical thinking, problem solving, inference making, mathematical reasoning and visulalization/modeling - as they use their knowledge to solve problems and challenges anchored in the context of "The Dirty Water Project"

Enduring Understandings
(Big Ideas & Value)

For example… principles, themes, generalizations or macro-concepts

- 10 Points

Resources for Enduring Understandings

What big ideas/principles/themes/generalizations/macro-concepts favorably illustrate the coherence and practical value of learning your subject? (something students will remember long after they've forgotten "the details," as Wiggins & McTighe would argue)

"The world's water is vital to life. Both minor and major changes in Earth's water can have profound effects on human existence. In order to preserve both the quality and quantity of water for daily living, wise management of water resources is crucial."  (Standard 4 Rationale in Newly Revised and Adopted Colorado Model Standards and Benchmarks for Science). Specifically,

  • Students will recognize and appreciate that the water coming out of their taps at home meets higher standards than bottled water available in stores (A4, B1, B4, C2 & C4).
  • Using Benchmarks for Science Literacy for "failure, lines of reasoning, and interacting parts," students will generate questions for further investigation (D4)
  • Students will design experiments to answer the questions that they generated (D6)

Essential Questions

Guiding, driving questions which lead to deep foundational knowledge and enduring understandings

- 5 Points

Resources for Essential Questions
1. What is the hardest thing to get out of water to make it clear and safe for drinking?
2. How are you affected by the quality and quantity of water available daily?
3. Is the water coming out of the tap at home and school healthier than bottled water? How can you tell?
4. Does/Should our Government play a role in regulating tap water and bottled water?
How am I going to assess student learning?

Assessments
(Recall Dr. Elliott Asp’s two-dimensions of Assessment - Standardized vs. Un-standardized on Y-axis & Do vs. Choose on X-axis. What is the evidence, you are going to accept for adequately demonstrating what students value, know and are able to do?)  

Diagnostic assessments (including data review)
Formative assessments
Summative assessments

- 30 Points

Resources for Assessment
ITEM ANALYSIS of Summative Assessment
"The Dirty Water Project"
RECALL
Remember
Understand
APPLICATION
Apply
Analyze
EVALUATION
Evaluate
Create
Factual Knowledge
17%
14%
Procedural Knowledge
12%
14%
Conceptual Knowledge
20%
10%
8%
Metacognitive Knowledge
5%
Check out the snapshot view of the diagnostic, formative and summative assessments
Diagnostic Assessment: Assessment for Learning
1. Pre-write/Think-write (CRITICAL THINKING)
Pretest prompts 
Formative Assessment: Assessment as Learning
2. Essential Vocabulary
Online Crossword
3. Inquiry Scenario - Students will arrange six containers, each containing anthracite, fine sand, garnet gravel, garnet sand, gravel, and rocks, in the correct order in which they are arranged in a real filter at the water treatment plant. Then they write down their reasons for their arrangement using both photographs and the actual samples. Through this activity, students are introduced to two concepts: weight and density (MATHEMATICAL REASONING).
4. Direct Instruction PowerPoint Slide Show
5. Hands-on Guided Inquiry Project - Students have to design a water filter using only activated carbon, sand, gravel, cotton, plastic cups, wood structural supports, and hot glue to neutralize pH, reduce turbidity, remove conducting particles, and capture the filtered water (
PROBLEM-SOLVING). After drawing their designs (VISUALIZATION/MODELING), and planning how much material they would buy, students have to purchase the material for building their teacher-approved designs.
6. Review through tests of their designs; evaluation by their peers
using the five criteria–design, creativity, explanation, cost efficiency & test-endurance–10 points per criteria (MATHEMATICAL REASONING); reason(s) for failing one or more tests, for instance turbidity test (INFERENCE-MAKING); redesign (if time permits); online crossword and PowerPoint Slide Show used during Direct Instruction.
Summative Assessment: Assessment of Learning
7. Post-write (CRITICAL THINKING) similar to Pre-write and Post-test same as Pre-test
Check out the snapshot view of the diagnostic, formative and summative assessments
How am I going to structure the learning for all students?

Process

Learning Environment, Instructional Strategies, Instructional Groupings, Calendar and Timelines
(should be reasonable, adequate and align with Overland’s Curriculum Map)

- 10 Points

Teaching Resources
Lesson Plan Templates

Cherry Creek School District's Pre-Observation Form

( Students will work in teams of two-three throughout the project
 Suggested Lesson Plan)

Teaching Resources

Print resources, technological, people, etc.

- 5 Points

Online Resources for The Dirty Water Project [(PowerPoint Slide Show for Direct Instruction, and movies of students explaining the four tests (pH, conductivity, flow rate and turbidity) ]