Reflection of Final Project

It's my intention that this final project be useful to our 5th grade team. Therefore I decided to design a field trip preparation video and a work packet for an upcoming field trip to a mangrove in Bang Phu, Thailand. It is my hope that the preview and work packet will help better prepare the teachers and students for a day of learning away from campus. The field trip will take place in January and compliments our FOSS science unit pertaining to Environments. We will be starting this unit in early November, and since our grade level only piloted part of this unit last year, there are many new things that we will learn and emphasize this year. Thus this final project is still in its early stages and will develop as we teach the unit. An outline of this project (including the essential questions and enduring understandings) can be found in UBD format on the project page for Course #3. So far preparation for this project has included: going to the actual site with another Grade 5 teacher, meeting with the guides that will help facilitate the activities, discussing our Environments unit and which activities will compliment the students learning, deciding on which hands-on activities such as a ph water quality test, soil sifting, and wildlife observations. Unfortunately the location of the mangrove is over an hour away and thus we will not have enough time to participate in actual tree planting. The video will be updated with samples of students' work and reflections from their science investigations. By including student work samples in the video, all of the students will feel a deeper personal connection and see the real life applications of the science concepts being taught throughout the unit. In this project I have thus far incorporated I-movie, screen capture, and google maps and images.