Interdisciplinary Project

Compelling Question: How do humans modify their environments?

Topics:
- Wolverine Worldwide water pollution (Rockford)
- Line 5 pipeline
- Nestle pumping water out of Lake Michigan
- Algae Blooms in Lake Erie
- Piping plovers populations in Michigan (near extinction)
- Students could also research another topic if they were interested, it would have
to get approved by myself
- Introduce this to the class by saying: “I’m not closed off to others…”

Project Options:
- Letter to the editor
- http://www.timesindicator.com/ (maximum of 10 will get sent to be
published)
- https://grtimes.com/letter-to-the-editor.html

- Letter to the company

- Letter to the government
- Soapbox Speech, a speech to perform to other classes during Connect
- Would include a speech outline
- 3-5 minutes long speech

Research Guidelines (another document was created for student use):

- What is happening?
- Why is it happening?
- Who is impacted?
- Where is this happening?
- Who specifically is being impacted?
- Why does this matter to you?
- Who is your audience and why does this matter to your audience?
- What is your stance on the issue?
- What should they do or not do?
- Are there alternative options?
- Source relevancy
- List 3 sources
- Need to have a list of their links
Persuasive Writing Guidelines:
- Who is your audience?
- What is the issue?
- What is your stance on the issue?
- Why do you feel this way and why should others feel similarly to you?

Writing Standards being assessed:

- W.6.1
- Write arguments to support claims with clear reasons and relevant
evidence.
- W.6.4
- Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
- W.6.8
- Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess
the credibility of each source and quote or paragraph the data and
conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic
bibliography information for sources.
- W.6.10
- Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection,
and revision) and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific
tasks, purposes and audiences.
- L.6.3
- Capitalization, spelling and punctuation.
- L.6.4
- Homophones

Assessment:
- Process: Ms. Johnson assessing
- Final Product: Mrs. Gesler assessing

Timeline
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Read, decide on topic Research Research Drafting ½ day

Need to have at least 2 sources (by drafting Independent Rough Drafts

one source found end of the day work - Speech outlines
have at least 3 collected
sources) - Will be looked at
over the weekend

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Revise Student DUE DATE Overflow

Proofread - To catch those up
Soapbox Perform who blew it off
speech perform Soapbox
2x speeches to the Address envelopes
entire class
Soapbox speeches beginning Monday

Social Studies Standards

P1.3 Express Social Studies ideas clearly in written, spoken and graphic forms.
P1.4 Present an argument supported with evidence
P2.3 Know how to find, organize and interpret information from a variety of sources
P2.4 Use resources in multiple forms from multiple perspectives to analyze issues

G1.1.1 Use a variety of geographic tools to analyze the world at global, regional and local
scales.
- We need to determine who is impacted? (scale of the issue)

G4.3.1 Explain how people have modified the environment and used technology to make
places more suitable for humans, as well as how modifications sometimes have
negative/unintended consequences.
- Who is being impacted and how are they specifically being impacted?
- Has it always happened (history of the issue).

6 – G5.1.1 Describe examples of how humans have impacted and are continuing to
impact the environment in different places as a consequence of population size, resource
use, level of consumption, and technology.
- Why is this happening? Are there other alternatives? What are their motives or
reasons for continuing these behaviors/decision?