This series of 5 high-quality, standards-aligned, inquiry-based lessons have been field-tested by the fifth grade students of Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and their teachers. These lessons encourage students to use natural areas around their school as they improve their science and engineering skills as part of a unit on earth's systems. Created as a part of a WISELearn OER Innovation project, Connect, Explore, and Engage: Using the Environment as the Context for Science Learning was a collaboration of the Wequiock Children's Center for Environmental Science and the Wisconsin Green Schools Network. One of the goals of the project was to create standards-aligned lessons that utilize the outdoor spaces of the school . These lessons were created to take place during late winter. A stewardship project to reduce the impact of stormwater run-off was planned for the spring.

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.