Students will create animals that have adaptations that would enable them to survive in environments that evolve after they have learned about Classification and the Animal Kingdom.

In an earlier lesson, students learned about the steel making and forging process. In this lesson, students will create a die using a 3D printer and then forge a part using play-dough. The lesson culmination will be a trip to the local business “Walker Forge” located in Clintonville, WI.

Most people don’t realize that manufacturing is all around them and that almost everything they use is manufactured. Students will be shown ores, steel billets, forged steel, and finished steel parts. Students will learn about how raw materials are mined and then transported from factory to factory in order to be turned into the products that are all around us.

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe School has an annual sugarbush within a few miles of the school.  During the Spring sugarbush season, students are bussed to the site, by class, to do the variety of daily tasks required to successfully produce maple syrup.  The LCO middle school students follow the Ojibwe traditions.  They hear the traditional stories, learn words and phrases in the Ojibwemowin language, tap trees, collect and boil sap, chop wood and build fires. The students learn about tree identification, photosynthesis, and aging trees using cross sections.  They also learn about the importance and uses of Maple trees.  The students learn that the environmental conditions needed to make maple syrup are only found in a very small part of the world that includes Wisconsin.  The combination of hands-on exploration and culturally - relevant texts personalize the learning experience for this region.   

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 guide to OpenSciEd unit 7.5: Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity includes: Lesson pacing; and Assessment guidance. School districts that use The Teacher Clarity Playbook by Fisher and Frey Playbook will benefit from using this guide. Each lesson is labeled by a number and letter (ie: 3a) and contains the original resource three-dimensional standards as Lesson Level Performance Expectations. We have broken those PEs into student-friendly Learning Intentions and Success Criteria, which can be posted on boards or digital slides and used for assessment criteria.  

This curriculum guide contains pacing, instruction, prior knowledge, and assessment guidance to accompany the OpenSciEd unit 7.5 Ecosystem Dynamics and Biodiversity. For schools who use Fisher and Frey's The Teacher Clarity Playbook, you'll find student-friendly learning intentions and success criteria for every lesson (indicated by a number and letter, ie: 4b), drawn from the OSE three dimensional performance expectations. These can be posted on slides or boards in classrooms to make learning visible for students and help design assessment criteria.   

This curriculum guide contains pacing, instruction, and assessment guidance to accompany the OpenSciEd unit 7.6 Earth Resources & Human Impact. For schools who use Fisher and Frey's The Teacher Clarity Playbook, you'll find student-friendly learning intentions and success criteria for every lesson, drawn from the OSE three dimensional performance expectations. These can be posted on slides or boards in classrooms to make learning visible for students and help design assessment criteria.  

In this lesson students will learn about food allergies and how food manufacturing companies, like McCain Foods, work hard to properly label foods and protect against cross contamination. Students will analyze data from allergen testing and make recommendations to improve cleaning procedures.

In this lesson, students will learn about the different properties of paper towels and design a method for testing paper towel absorbency and strength.

In this lesson, students develop models for understanding of the paper recycling process and the important role they play in conserving and recycling our natural resources.