Wild edible, medicinal and poisonous plants are an ideal way to connect students to the natural world just outside their door. In this unit, students will be able to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants using guide books and plotting them on the Siftr app. Using the collected edibles, students will then follow a procedural text to create food from their wild edibles. Students will then create recipes on their own based on a wild edible of their choice to create community cookbooks.

A specific skill that was shared by the respiratory therapist during the teacher externship experience at HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital was the ability to read a Broselow Pediatric Reference Tape accurately in an emergency situation. In this lesson, students will gain experience in problem solving and teamwork as they practice using a Broselow Pediatric Reference Tape to measure a variety of “patients” and then apply that measurement correctly when answering associated questions.

Students learn about homeostasis and create models by constructing simple feedback systems using Arduino boards, temperature sensors, LEDs and Arduino code. Starting with pre-written code, students instruct LEDs to activate in response to the sensor detecting a certain temperature range. They determine appropriate temperature ranges and alter the code accordingly. When the temperature range is exceeded, a fan is engaged in order to achieve a cooling effect. In this way, the principle of homeostasis is demonstrated. To conclude, students write summary paragraphs relating their models to biological homeostasis.