Details: This lesson can be added to the Amplify first grade science unit: Animal and Plant Defenses: Spikes, Shells, and Camouflage. It can also be used with any unit on animal defenses and structures.Amplify Chapter 3 Driving Question: How can Spruce the Sea Turtle’s offspring survive where there are sharks?  Pursuit addressed:Toward the pursuit of Skills: Students participate in a class reading of an informational text. Students use the information outlined in the text to develop their knowledge of plastic pollution and its negative impact on sea turtles and the environment. They then use this knowledge to inform others or take other steps to help with reducing plastic pollution.Toward the pursuit of Intellect: In this lesson students learn about a topic that affects the environment and specifically how plastic waste affects sea turtles which they have been studying.  They can better understand an environmental problem and turn their understanding into action.

In this lesson plan, early learners will be engaging with a lesson that centers their identity, skills, intellectualism, criticality, and joy!

Food is an essential part of our daily life. It is not only important to sustaining life, but it is also important to traditions, celebrations, and personal identity. However, there are many global issues surrounding food today. Food production, consumption, and waste are impacted and impact both local and global economics and well-being. From sustainability practices, to food access, to choices in what we eat, there are many complex issues that we need to answer as a global society in the next few decades.Additionally, in our interconnected world, the food choices made in every community has a global impact. In this unit, we will explore why we eat what we eat and how we can make a difference in ways food is produced, accessed, consumed and wasted in our local and global communities. First, we will investigate food habits around the world and compare them with our own habits through reading various texts, class discussions, and surveying others. Then, we will take action by creating our own texts to share with others and inform them of issues surrounding food at a local and/or global level.Additionally, this unit connects with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including #2 Zero Hunger, #3 Good Health and Well-being, and #12 Responsible Consumption and Production, as well as touching on many others.

This lesson will ask students to think themselves as 'joy' dispersers, likening themselves to the different ways that seeds are dispersed. They will model both and reflect on how they 'spread' joy. One of the pursuits the people in these black literary societies worked towards was intellectualism. This means that they learn something but what they learned doesn't just sit there. It is used to change things, to see things differently or to get to know others and themselves. Another pursuit was joy. In this lesson, they will discuss how to spread joy from one person to the next so it will grow.

This is the beginning of a high school level unit plan applying Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's five pillars of culturally and linguistically responsive teaching to an inquiry into solar energy.  

This 10-lesson sequence designed for a sixth grade science course explores the following questions: How can humans lessen the harsh effects of extreme heat?How does surface cover affect surface temperature? / Why do different materials experience differences in surface temperature?How might human activities impact the temperatures in the different communities?How can humans mitigate the effects of heat islands?Using the framework from Dr. Gholdy Muhammad outlined in her book Cultivating Genius, each lesson pays special attention to looking at pursuits in identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy to support equity in the classroom. Please Remix this template for your purposes.

This lesson is for kindergarteners as they study the needs for survival of plants and animals. The students gather information about an invasive species that changes the soil so that plants have a more difficult time getting nutrients. They learn what they can do to help in preventing the spread of these species.  Pursuits addressed: Identity: This lesson addressed the 'who you desire to be' part of Identity. The scientist that is spotllighted in this video is a non-traditional scientist who is African and studies worms. Students who are of African descent or African American and any student who may feel that the doors to science careers may be closed to them due to the color of their skin, may feel encouraged by this video to nurture the possibility of being a scientist. The fact that this scientist studies something that many students may be interested in may foster new ideas that scientists can be people who spend a lot of time outdoors looking at interesting things. Intelligence: This lesson gives students real-world knowledge and some tools to make a difference in their community with this knowledge. It has immediate implications in the students' lives. 

This lesson incorporates the pursuits from Cultivating Genius (framework by Gholdy Muhammad) to a science lesson that can be taught during the science lesson for kindergarteners on 'wants and needs'. Or what living things need to survive. K-LS1-1. Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to surviveThe Pursuits addressedIdentity is addressed in this lesson as students are thinking about what they need to learn and how it is similar and different from that of their peers. They are thinking about their individual role in helping the community reach the goal of everyone learning and why everyone learning is important to them. Intelligence is addressed as students are assessing their own skills and knowledge and putting it to an action of making their classroom community a better place. Joy is a pursuit addressed in this lesson as students will feel a strength in their own ability to change the community in a positive way for everyone, respecting the different needs of each student in the classroom and working towards a shared goal.

DQ: How do plants get lightThis is a lesson that can be used with second grade science around the time or before the students conduct the investigation on whether plants need light to survive. The students will learn to work collaboratively and trust their own experiences about plants and engage in a modeling activity. This lesson has been edited to add the Cultivating Genius Framework by Gholdy Muhammad to the lesson. Pursuits addressed : Intellectuality, skills  

World languages educators teaching participated in a year-long cohort to explore how how equity and excellence emerge through the engaged learning practices outlined the research-based text, Cultivating Genius: A Framework for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy by Dr. Gholdy Muhammad.This unit planning template provides an opportunity for teachers to integrate the five learning pursuits: identity, skills, intellectualism, criticality, and joy into the learning process. Log into your Google account and click "Use Template": https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YXgnTkC65gEZEM3RL3grkbGBM_m3XJka8vudOczNNmE/template/preview

This lesson can be added to the study of the life cycle of the monarch butterfly, specifically when it’s time to release your classroom monarchs in the fall. If your class isn’t studying monarchs, but the monarch migration is observed in your area, this is a lesson that could be used to find out more.The pursuits addressed are skills and intellectualism. The skills in this case are reading a map and gathering details from a text. Intellect is the practice of using skills to increase the understanding of the world around you, the practice of reflecting on how one uses a skill. According to Gholdy Muhammad in Cultivating Genius, Intellectualism is knowledge of people, places, things and concepts and the ability to put this knowledge into action. As learning takes place, one asks, “What am I becoming smarter about?” The students are using the pursuit of intellectualism to discover how science research works to discover new things about the world around them. 

We live in a global community and it’s important that all members feel welcome no matter where they come from. Elements of welcoming communities include such things like access to recreation, grocery, markets, health care; and other places and services.In this unit, students will explore life and accessibility in various communities and how it compares with their own, conducting interviews around community engagement, with the goal of communicating, assisting and making connections with members of local and global communities.Additionally, this unit connects with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including #10 Reduced Inequalities, and #11 Sustainable Cities and Communities, as well as touching on many others.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dasOwep-RGldu3SzFBsVNayNL_xgUn7Dme5VpjU8pls/template/preview

Details: This lesson can be added to 5th Grade Amplify Patterns of Earth and Sky: Analyzing Stars on Ancient Artifacts, with Lesson 2.1 after looking for patterns, making observations, and reflecting on the Model.Pursuits addressed: Identity-Students will learn about constellations from their own cultural perspectives and recognize that people from all over the world have stories related to the stars in the sky.Skills-The students will research constellations from a cultural perspective and create a class book to share with the rest of the school about constellations and their stories from around the world.Intellect-Students will interview their families to find out if their families have any constellation stories or information related to their cultures.Criticality- Students will understand that there are more than Greek and Roman names and stories for the constellations. The stories  are told and retold  by those in power.  

Students learn about an astrophysicist that is working in science to open possible ideas for themselves in science careers. Pursuits addressed: Identity-Students will learn about people who they can relate to who are currently working in STEM related careers and study possible STEM related careers that could be meaningful to their own lives/cultures.Skills-The students will research scientists who they can relate to culturally who are working on STEM related careers and then write letters to these scientists in a way that is interesting, genuine, authentic, and allows them to use their own voice.Intellect-Students will choose which scientists they would each like to study by finding scientists who they can relate to culturally who are currently working in STEM related careers and showing examples of Black Excellence.Details: This lesson can be added to 5th Grade Amplify Patterns of Earth and Sky: Analyzing Stars on Ancient Artifacts, with Lesson 2.1 after looking for patterns, making observations, and reflecting on the Model. Explain to the students that this is exactly what astrophysicists do.

This is lesson two for a fourth grade energy unit. The set  of  three lessons explores the effects of coal fire power plants in Chicago and the community action generated to close the plants. Identity can be defined as a  question of who you are, who others say you are and who you desire to be. Criticality is the capacity and ability to read, write, think, and speak in ways to understand power and equity in order to understand and promote anti-oppression.