Creative Teaching & Learning

Project Based Learning – World Environments – Science

These lessons have been specifically written to support the teaching of Science through the theme of World Environments.

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      string(400) "... children of all abilities.51This page may be photocopied for use only within the purchasing institution. March/April 2005 Teaching & LearningScience Lesson 6 – Rainforest wonderTeaching & Learning SCIENCE Lesson plansThe thousands of different plants in the world’s rainforests have adaptedto suit their environment. Here is some information on how some ..."
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      string(3499) "not understand. Then ask themto research how plants haveadapted to suit the rainforestenvironment. Once the research hasbeen completed, the pupils candraw a rainforest plant and label it.Plenary: As an additional activity,ask the class if they can list someplants that originally came from theworlds’ rainforests. The list shouldinclude: avocado, banana, coffee,lemon, orange, peanut, pepper and pineapple.Differentiation: This activity should suit children of all abilities.51This page may be photocopied for use only within the purchasing institution. March/April 2005 Teaching & LearningScience Lesson 6 – Rainforest wonderTeaching & Learning SCIENCE Lesson plansThe thousands of different plants in the world’s rainforests have adaptedto suit their environment. Here is some information on how some plantshave adapted.❖Bark: Some trees have a thick bark that helps to reduce moistureevaporation from the tree’s trunk.❖Lianas: These are vines that climb rainforest trees. They have adaptedto life in the rainforest by having their roots in the ground and climbinghigh into the forest canopy to reach the sunlight.❖Drip tips: Many tropical rainforest leaves have drip tips to allow raindrops to run off quickly.❖Buttresses: Many large trees have massive ridges, called buttress roots,near the base to provide extra stability.❖Epiphytes: These are plants that live on the surface of other plants,especially the trunk and branches, to take advantage of the sunlight inthe canopy.❖Bromeliads: These plants have leaves that form a vase or tank thatholds water. The tanks can hold a lot of water and support a thrivingecosystem of bacteria, protozoa, tiny crustaceans, mosquito anddragonfly larvae, tadpoles, birds, salamanders and frogs.❖Mangroves: Some trees have adapted to living in wet, marshyconditions. These trees, called mangroves, have wide-spreading roots tosupport them in the tidal mud and trap nutritious organic matter.51This page may be photocopied for use only within the purchasing institution. March/April 2005 Teaching & LearningScience Lesson 6 – Rainforest wonderTeaching & Learning SCIENCE Lesson plansThe thousands of different plants in the world’s rainforests have adaptedto suit their environment. Here is some information on how some plantshave adapted.❖Bark: Some trees have a thick bark that helps to reduce moistureevaporation from the tree’s trunk.❖Lianas: These are vines that climb rainforest trees. They have adaptedto life in the rainforest by having their roots in the ground and climbinghigh into the forest canopy to reach the sunlight.❖Drip tips: Many tropical rainforest leaves have drip tips to allow raindrops to run off quickly.❖Buttresses: Many large trees have massive ridges, called buttress roots,near the base to provide extra stability.❖Epiphytes: These are plants that live on the surface of other plants,especially the trunk and branches, to take advantage of the sunlight inthe canopy.❖Bromeliads: These plants have leaves that form a vase or tank thatholds water. The tanks can hold a lot of water and support a thrivingecosystem of bacteria, protozoa, tiny crustaceans, mosquito anddragonfly larvae, tadpoles, birds, salamanders and frogs.❖Mangroves: Some trees have adapted to living in wet, marshyconditions. These trees, called mangroves, have wide-spreading roots tosupport them in the tidal mud and trap nutritious organic matter."
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Project Based Learning - World Environments - Full Plan

22 Aug 2017

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      string(270) "and store water for long periods of time. Animals, too,have to adapt. For example, the camel can walk for dayswithout food or water. The camel’s hump stores fat which itcan use if there is no food or water available and wide flathooves help it travel over hot sand ..."
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      string(1110) "and store water for long periods of time. Animals, too,have to adapt. For example, the camel can walk for dayswithout food or water. The camel’s hump stores fat which itcan use if there is no food or water available and wide flathooves help it travel over hot sand.Did you know?1. Rainforests once covered 14 per cent of the Earth’sland surface; now they cover only 6 per cent andexperts estimate that the last remainingrainforests could be consumed in less than 40years.2. Giant bamboo plants can grow up to nine inchesa day.3. The trees of a tropical rainforest are so denselypacked that rain falling on the canopy can take aslong as 10 minutes to reach the ground.4. In the rainforests of South America, sloths move soslowly that algae are able to grow in their fur.5. The forests of Central Africa are home to morethan 8,000 different species of plants.6. Flying animals of Asian rainforests include frogs,squirrels and snakes.7. Eighty per cent of the flowers in the Australianrainforests are not found anywhere else in theworld.8. One out of four ingredients in our medicine is fromrainforest plants."
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Creative Teaching & Learning

Project Based Learning - World Environments - Intro

22 Aug 2017

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      string(5875) "The Association for Learning Environments’ SchoolsNEXT programme has grown up in many ways. In its initial years, 2006-2013, SchoolsNEXT was known as the School of the Future Competition, engaging middle school students across the globe. With the intent to bring the student voice into the planning and design of innovative and resilient 21st century learning environments, the SchoolsNEXT programme began with a holistic approach to learning through the arts – integrating all areas of study, engaging all learners and offering an opportunity for students to demonstrate critical thinking and creativity in achieving solutions to real-world problems. To create and facilitate the structures and opportunities for these powerful connections is a significant part of working thoughtfully with student-centred educational and social systems in which they are genuinely affirmed and encouraged to build self-confidence.  Working as a collaborative team, the programme encourages them to use their “visual arts” voice to design and effect change in the world.“Rebranded in 2015 as SchoolsNEXT, nearly 3000 students from across the globe participated in the programme that now includes secondary schools with plans to include university levels in the future.  As the face of education around the world continues to evolve to better prepare students to succeed, the SchoolsNEXT competition enhances learning opportunities that extend beyond the classroom, providing real-world learning experiences and opportunities for students to ask questions, problem solve and collaborate on solutions.  SchoolsNEXT promises to be an internationally connected programme that encourages cultural collaboration between groups around the world.”Barbara Worth, Director of Strategic and Private  Development , Association for Learning Environments. We featured in our last edition the top honor of the Award of Excellence for SchoolsNEXT given to Lakeridge Junior High School Innovative Home of Potential (IHOP). The young design team was passionate about the connection between learning and the global community. They challenged traditional thinking and used the building as a teaching tool, placing science classrooms in the trees, adding maker spaces and developed the organization of teaching and learning into more flexible and adaptable groupings. They were not the only teams presenting through SchoolsNEXT at the LearningSCAPES & LEsolutions conference in Atlanta and attendees had the opportunity to meet and hear from the young designers from those teams that had been selected as finalists from the qualifying chapter and regional meetings held during the year.This year saw SchoolsNEXT moving into the secondary education age range with Middletown High School, Frederick, Maryland presenting in Atlanta and being given Special Recognition as the Inaugural High School entry.The team were experiencing a learning community that had become somewhat stagnant and sluggish in the current context of educational teaching and learning. They believed that things needed to change away from the reliance on turn of the century thinking to the recognition of the importance of the way that young people needed to learn through new concepts such as collaboration, critical thinking and problem-solving. Identifying the shift in learning from lecture-driven classrooms to project based learning they decided to transform their 45 year old high school.They created the Frederick County Career & Technology Center in Maryland and transformed the factory model, poorly lit and outdated facility into a 21st century collaborative, innovative, flexible learning environment.Impassioned teams from Gulliver Academy Middle School, Miami, Florida and McAuliffe International School, Denver, Colorado tied for second place, sharing the Award of Distinction. The Gulliver Academy team was seriously impacted by Hurricane Irma in their preparations but came through with strength and determination placing great emphasis on student success and community interaction in their presentation.Their 21st century STEM building incorporated modern technology in a sustainable, comfortable learning environment and stressed the importance of colour and mood on improving learning conditions. The McAuliffe International School students exhibited rigorous research and extensive use of the International Baccalaureate (IB) design cycle and Revit to accomplish their comprehensive planning and design process. Integral to this process was the establishment of a research and development team which established sound evidence based principles to create a truly “learning–led” design brief for their project. The Award of Merit went to Hudson Bend Middle School, Austin, Texas. They included multiple surveys, school and community tours and worked with a sustainability consultant as part of their planning process. The Hudson Bend team demonstrated great insight into how challenging it is to design a learning environment for the future when living in the present building. Minnewashta Elementary School, Excelsior, Minnesota and St. Michael’s Academy, Springfield, Massachusetts received Awards of Commendation.Minnewashta Elementary school demonstrated an exceptional planning process and included an architect mentor for their group-based charrette. They used recycled materials on their current property in the renovation of their outdoor classroom. St. Michael’s Academy displayed great presentation skills and a thorough planning process including"
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ECO Friendly Design

Student Voice and Student Choice at the center of Learning

1 Feb 2018

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      string(376) "... experiences. You won’t see students bored in classrooms, sitting in rows passively listening to lectures here. What you will find is dynamic curriculum and environments that encourage project-based learning, in collaboration with fellow students as well as business and industry partners. You will find a place where the ..."
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what the future of education can and should look like. As educational planners and architects, we collaborate with schools, organizations and the community asking tough questions and collectively rethinking the future of teaching and learning. The topic of educational change - whether it be new math, teaching cursive, or how many books to keep in the library - seems to reoccur. How can we find a way forward without losing what was so valuable and successful in the past? Brad Leeper and Kerry Weig of INVISION explain."
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      string(5771) "Across the education spectrum, we are engaging in broad discussions about what the future of education can and should look like.As educational planners and architects, we collaborate with schools, organizations and the community asking tough questions and collectively rethinking the future of teaching and learning. The topic of educational change – whether it be new math, teaching cursive, or how many books to keep in the library – seems to reoccur. How can we find a way forward without losing what was so valuable and successful in the past?Historically, large-scale education of the masses is relatively new in America. It has been only six or seven generations since the creation of a tax to support what we now identify as our public school system.  Apprenticeships, the one-room schoolhouse, even our current system — stemming from the post-war need to educate as many kids as possible in the most efficient way — seem detached in many ways from the current pace of societal change.Today, we confront an increasingly complex global society combined with technology that can put almost any human knowledge in your pocket, anywhere, at any time. If pure information has become a commodity, is there value in packing all of this knowledge into your brain? Harvard education innovation fellow Tony Wagner sums up these notions best: “Today’s world doesn’t care what you know. What the world cares about is what you can do with what you know.”As the rate of change has grown exponentially in or educational systems and conversations, many new theories, methods, styles and techniques have emerged.  Early adopters can be found all over the map. In Iowa, examples such as Waukee’s Innovation and Learning Center, Cedar Falls’ Center for Advanced Professional Studies, and the Iowa Big Network are exploring the power of pairing students with business partners and career experiences. You won’t see students bored in classrooms, sitting in rows passively listening to lectures here. What you will find is dynamic curriculum and environments that encourage project-based learning, in collaboration with fellow students as well as business and industry partners. You will find a place where the space between and outside the classrooms is even more important than the classrooms. Students are learning problem solving, creativity and communication skills to solve real challenges. Don’t tell the students, but they are also learning advanced math, science, engineering, design, writing and many other things along the way.What does architecture for a new way of learning look like?  As part of an effective change in learning models, we must also adapt the environment in which learning takes place. We are not here to promote the no-walls, no-boundaries models of the past, but we do need to consider the concrete block room with tables and chairs in neat rows that abound in many of our current educational spaces.  We see administrators, facility managers and most importantly our educators struggling to expand educational delivery models within the inflexible space around them. They are actively seeking to make change in pedagogy, but are stifled by size, volume and the materiality of spaces constructed years, or even decades past. Education models have evolved and the design of our schools should, too.We’ve had the amazing opportunity to work on a first-of-its-kind school in Iowa that demonstrates just how space can empower 21st century learning and facilitate new approaches to pedagogy. In 2017, the Waukee Innovation and Learning Center (WILC) opened its doors to the community, embracing change in educational delivery and what a school building looks like at the high-school level. Built to house the new Aspiring Professional Experience (APEX) program, the facility was designed by a team from CannonDesign and INVISION to create a collaborative space where high school students connect with local business partners to solve real-time, problem-based projects within five inter-related strands-Bioscience & Value Added Agriculture; Business, Technology & Communication; Engineering; Financial & Insurance; and Human Services.  Projects focus on value-added results for the business partners, and the opportunity for inquiry-based career experience for the students.  The design of the building was a unique challenge to the Waukee Community School District, who had not built a facility like this before.  There were no models in the state and only a few in the country to look to at the commencement of design.  The District had passion for the concept of the APEX program and the team of designers utilized on the blank slate of opportunity. The design team drew on our collective experience in multiple industries, from healthcare to industrial technologies and labs to corporate office environments, in order to better create learning spaces with a focus on flexibility, transparency, interconnectivity and ownership to foster student development. Below is a quick overview of some of the many features that make this space a catalyst for the learning that happens within.Flexibility Accommodates Inevitable ChangeThe Building shell and systems were designed so walls can move when room functions change-utilizing framed wall construction proved to be more economical than movable partitions and provide better flexibility for future programming for the District; coordination of the building systems allow for this flexibility of wall"
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ECO Friendly Design

A Hub Of Creativity And Innovation

3 Oct 2018