Inquiry Unit

English Language Arts

The Outcomes

GCO• GCO 9: Students will

be expected to create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes

SCO9.3 Understand that ideas

can be represented in more than one way and experiment with different forms

Assignment for I UNIT

In groups students are expected to create a visual essay in order to explain where and why a garden would be useful for the school

The goal of the essay will be to use this piece of work as a founding block for their letters to government that they will be writing in Social Studies

Day One: Can all forms of text create meaning?

Assignment One: Show different pictures and ask students write down what they mean ( to try to get students to think about how text without words still shows meaning)

Show video montage. Have students write down what the montage means. Either jot notes of paragraph form. Video Montage

Show a video on a community garden. Have students write a paragraph on why they feel this is successful or not successful for their own school to have and what they could use it for. Community Garden

Get students into groups for tomorrows activity: Give each a type of vegetable. They must find similar types of veggies. Ie. Root veggies, lettuces, etc Then give quick project overview

Day Two: Create their own text

APK: visual essays- beginning, middle, end Have students explain what is happening in this picture- when do t

they feel it transgresses to the beginning, middle and end. Visual Essay: Students are to spend the remainder of the class

walking around the school taking pictures that they feel would benefit their visual essay on “Why ____ should Have a School Garden”

Get students into their groups and hand each one a dispose able camera (donated) . Students are to make an outline and brainstorm ideas within their group before they go take pictures. They are to keep notes of what pictures they took and why they took it. (table will be provided, appendix A)

Day Three: Creating a Visual Essay

Students are handed back their developed pictures. They are to spend the class setting up their visual essay on a piece of chart paper. Beside each picture is a small blurb. They are supposed to keep in mind that essays have beginning middle and end and that there have to be pictures and points to support what their essay is about

Day Four: Finishing up

Students read a paragraph and then watch a video on a similar topic. They are then to write what one they felt brought the point forward more.

100 Mile Challenge Time is given for students to finish any touch ups

their groups need to do on their visual essays Students are to complete a peer and self evaluation(appendix C/D) Students are given a reflection question to be done

for homework (appendix E)

Assessment

Students are to hand in a portfolio at the end of the unit. This is a incomplete/complete portfolio. It should include the three activities they did on day one, The table of pictures and the brain storm they did on day two and the activity they did on day four. 10%

Visual Essay 25% (appendix b) Peer Evaluation 5% (appendix c) Self Evaluation 5% (appendix d) Reflection- 5% Homework (appendix e)

Inquiry Unit

Mathematics

Assignment for I UNIT

Portfolio– Consists of a good copy of the following material:

1. Their typed up answers to the survey2. The graphs comparing their answers against the school’s answers for

the survey, the top five fruits and vegetables chosen in the survey, and the price of fresh produce verses seed packages of the top fruits and vegetables

3. The solution to The Mathematics of Rhubarb Jam along with a list of other ways the kitchen and garden could be useful in the classroom

4. A picture of the Garden Design produced by their group The portfolio will be a collection of mathematical data to show the

school’s desire for a garden, usefulness of the garden for school learning, and beginning ideas for the design of garden.

Outcomes – Day One and Three

GCO’s F: Students will solve

problems involving the collection, display, and analysis of data

SCO’s F1 describe characteristics

of possible relationships shown in scatter plots

F4 select, defend, and use the most appropriate methods for displaying data

F7 evaluate arguments and interpretations that are based on data analysis

Outcomes – Day Two

GCO’s C: Students will explore,

recognize, and apply patterns and relationships, both informally and formally

SCO’s C1 represent patterns and

relationships in a variety of formats and use these representations to predict and justify unknown values

C2 interpret graphs that represent linear and non-linear data

C3 construct and analyze tables and graphs to describe how changes in one quantity affect a related quantity

Outcomes – Day Four

GCO’s E: Students will demonstrate

spatial sense and apply geometric concepts, properties, and relationships

SCO’s E3 investigate, and

demonstrate an understanding of, the properties of, and the minimum sufficient conditions to, guarantee congruent triangles

E4 demonstrate an understanding of and apply the properties of similar triangles

Day One: Surveys and Data

As a class we will “Take a Tour” of surveymonkey.com A discussion will be held on what constitutes a good survey, the

types of questions that are appropriate for analyzing data in the classroom, and various methods of displaying the results

As a class we will visit Statistics Canada and review various graph types, deciding on appropriate graphs to display our results

Students will come up with appropriate questions (i.e. Would you like to have a school garden? Yes/No, Rank your top five vegetables/fruits from the list.)

At the end of the class, the grade 9 students will complete the online survey and record their answers in their journals

Grade 7 and 8 students will participate later in the day when they attend their math class

Day Two: Making the Garden Useful

Students will work on The Mathematics of Rhubarb Jam worksheet

– Individually– Compare and discuss in groups– Graph data as a group on chart paper

As a class, brainstorm other ways the garden and kitchen could be useful in the classroom and have students record the ideas in their journals

– Recipe increases, measurement conversions, proportions, observing plant height, growing time, etc.

Day Three: Displaying and Analyzing Data

Using an excel spreadsheet containing the results of the survey, students will total the columns, make appropriate graphs to display the results, and compare the graphs in order to make connections among students’ choices and preferences of fruits and vegetables to be contained in the garden

Students should make a separate pie or bar graph to display the top five vegetables and the top five fruits chosen by the school

Students will make a graph of their top choices of fruits and vegetables and compare them against the school’s results

Students will then visit www.superstore.ca and www.homedepot.ca to record the price of a package of seeds and the price of fresh produce for each of the top five fruits and vegetables

Students will make a table of the results in excel for both seed packages and fresh produce and will then plot the data from each table on one scatter plot (using different colors for seeds and produce) of Price verses Fruit/Vegetable

Students will record in their journals their connections and inferences surrounding the school’s preferred fruits and vegetables based on the data and graphs

Day Four: Garden Designs

Watch The Many-Sided World of Geometry, Program 3: Triangles – Part Three: World of Triangles (01:20) at http://www.unitedstreaming.com/index.cfm

– This clip introduces the whole triangle family, reviews different ways to describe triangles, and gives handy rules for working with them

Have students design a garden in groups of four using similar triangles, congruent triangles, and squares

Groups should draw their design on chart paper using rulers and area formulas to construct a scaled model suitable for the court yard at the school

– Show the class an example Have students write in their journals the mathematical steps and

reasoning they used for designing their garden in space allotted

Example Garden

Assessment

Student I-Unit marks will be composed of: Portfolio 60%

– Survey Answers 3%– Three Graphs 21%– Rhubarb Problem 10%– Usefulness List 6%– Garden Design 20%

Class Participation 15% Garden Design Peer Evaluations 5% Journal Entries 20%

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