Unit Plan Template

Name: Connor Mann

Grade level: 4th Grade
Content Area: Geography/Social Studies
Title of Unit: Changes in the Earth: Floods

Essential Questions or Driving Questions:

Essential Question(s) that allow learners to explore significant questions about themselves
and/or their world:
- How do we contribute and influence the Earth’s surface and systems around us?
- How can we measure our impact on the Earth?
- How does this apply to my daily life?
- Where do I see this in the real world?
- How does technology aid us in understanding more about the Earth and ways that we can
help maintain environmental integrity?

Standards:
Your statement about what learners should know and be able to do. (Be sure it related to your
essential questions or driving questions.):

1. Learners should grasp an understanding of particular Earth systems (volcanoes,

earthquakes, plate tectonics, floods, tsunamis, etc.) and how both natural and human
activity has led to changes in the Earth’s surface.
2. Learners can use and leverage technology to research and test ideas about the different
Earth’s systems and the impact these systems have on our lives.

Content Standards—optional depending on your instructional setting (Pick 1-2 main ones.):

4-ESS2-2. Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.

4-ESS3-2. Generate and compare multiple solutions to reduce the impacts of natural Earth
processes on humans.

ISTE*S Standards (Pick 1-2 rather than including the whole list.):

- Empowered Learner
- Knowledge Constructor

Overview and Timeline

Day 1:

 Students will log-in to their Chromebooks and with a group they will read articles, watch
videos and look through slideshows of floods:
o Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rnbd6u6gPw

Adapted from the 2007 ISTE TEMPLATE I Lesson Plan. 1

 o Article: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/natural-
disasters/floods/
o Slideshow:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oD0n95gnpWmphOtnoDRm2D75l29v0R
tkhonB4Z7XcQU/edit?usp=sharing
 After viewing each, students will answer these questions on their Earth Sciences Blog,
making a blog post and answering their questions on the blog:
o What do you notice about floods?
o Where do you see floods happening?
o Can we prevent floods from happening?
Day 2:

 In today’s lesson, students will begin to look at flood prevention; as a class, we will watch
this video on how dams can be used as flood prevention:
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCl6lM79v7A
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXGOYbEbDQ8
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzlOo2mHTWM
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTv6RkFnelM
 We will then discuss with the class how dams and flood gates can help to prevent floods
from happening
 Students will then make a blog post in their Earth Sciences Blog about what they learned
about how dams and flood gates can be used to prevent floods
Day 3:

 Today, students will be grouped up in pairs. In their respective pairs, students will make an
Adobe Spark presentation
 Students will use the information they have received from their research to make the
presentation
 Students will then compile this information into a presentation (Adobe Spark; there will be
a video of how to sign-up and create a presentation) to share with the class; in their
presentation, students will be answering these questions:
o What is a flood?
o How do floods form?
o How can we prevent floods?
 They will post the Adobe Spark presentation to their Earth Sciences Blog
 The students will then spend some time looking at other projects and leaving a comment on
at least one other group’s presentation
Day 4:

 We will spend the entire duration of this day making our own flood gate using Lego WeD0
2.0 kits
 We will use the Prevent Flooding assignment (https://education.lego.com/en-
us/lessons/wedo-2-science/prevent-flooding) to direct our activity for today
 Students will finish the day with posting a blog in their Earth Sciences Blog about their
experience with the Lego WeDo 2.0 activity, “Preventing Floods”; students will use the
iPad(s) to take pictures of their projects to post on their blog
Day 5:

Adapted from the 2007 ISTE TEMPLATE I Lesson Plan. 2

  Students will spend today looking at all the blog posts in the class blog and then answer the
same three questions they first answered in their Adobe Spark presentation in a final blog
post:
o What is a flood?
o How do floods form?
o How can we prevent floods?
Assessment
- The assessment will take place over the course of the 5 days. Particularly the final blog post
will be looked at as a summative assessment, as it encompasses all that they had learned
- While the Adobe Spark presentation and blog posts will act as formative assessments

Resources
Educator Preparation:
- Understand what floods are and ways to prevent floods
o https://www.chiefscientist.qld.gov.au/publications/understanding-floods/what-is-
a-flood/
- Become familiar with the Lego WeDo 2.0 software
- Make a class blog
- Make videos on how to sign-up for the class blog and Adobe Spark

Tools and Resources Provided to Learners:

- Chromebooks
- Lego WeDo 2.0 Kits
- iPad(s)
- Blog
- Adobe Spark
- Screencast
Tutorials and Templates Provided to Learners:
- Video tutorials for signing-up and setting up an account for the class blog and Adobe Spark
- Online PDF instructions for the Lego WeDo 2.0 activity

Briefly explain how the resources, tools, and tutorials may be used to differentiate content
or process for learners:
- Students will be given a number of different ways to express their learning; this is helpful
especially for those students who may learn and express that learning in different and non-
traditional ways

Reason(s) for chosen technology(s):

- Chromebooks are the core of what students will be using, followed by the Lego WeDo 2.0
kits (that work directly with the Chromebooks) and iPad(s)
- I chose these technologies because they all work together and show students how to engage
in learning with a number of technologies that complement each other; for instances, the
Lego WeDo 2.0 activity shows students how you can use software on a computer to manage
a physical flood gate opening and closing

Adapted from the 2007 ISTE TEMPLATE I Lesson Plan. 3

Instructional Plan

Management:
- Students will be working in whole group, partner, and individual settings
- Partners will have been made already, prior to the first day of the unit
- In the whole-group setting, students will sit with their partners
- Partners will be made based off of how you best think each student will work together and
push each other to learn
Differentiation:
- Students may not be able to type as fast as others students; because of this, they may
answer the questions in writing that will later be added to the class blog as pictures
- Students who may not understand the vocabulary will have access to a vocabulary list on
the website
o Students will also have the ability to access the content and look back at what they
had learned through articles, videos and blog posts

Closure and Reflection

- The fifth and final day of the unit students will look back at their projects and their peers’
projects and blogs to reflect on what they had learned
- Students will then make a final blog post to show what they had learned from this unit

Adapted from the 2007 ISTE TEMPLATE I Lesson Plan. 4