Each quarter of Stream Team ends with a final project that started with an idea from the Environmental Middle School JGEMS in Salem, who does a project like this over the span of an entire school year, and was modified and condensed into a project that can be done by 6th grade students in less that ten 30-minute class periods, with the majority of the work taking place during a day-long field trip.
6th grade Stream Team students are grouped based on their interests, and are paired with experts, based on their expertise. For instance, in the past we have done: Water Quality, Aquatic Insects, Forests, Birds, Mammals, Shoreline. There are many places on the Oregon Coast that offer all of those things within a stones-throw, we usually use Siltcoos Outlet. In class before the field trip they will complete a pre-planning sheet, where they will identify a quantifiable, ethical, and feasible question that they will be able to collect data on, and answer during our day in the field. On their pre-planning sheet they will also identify how they will use their data to answer their question, what they will need help with in the field, as well as additional materials they will need to bring along. I provide the experts the question and specific information about their group just a few days before the trip. On the day of the field trip experts meet us at the Field Location at 9:00, bringing any additional materials they think will be helpful with data collection or species identification. Students have their pre-planning/post trip review worksheets, as well as paper and any resources they choose to bring along, and their lunches and water. The group includes the expert, a parent volunteer, and 5-6 students, and they spend the day together going wherever their inquiry and data collection takes them. Toward the end of the day they begin working with together to interpret the data they collected (whether it be observational data, hard numbers, or something different). They also have a post-trip review worksheet with them, where they start creating a rough draft with information they have collected. This gets them thinking about their poster that they will present, and the information they will put on it. This can be worked on as the day progresses. We wrap up and head back to school around 1:45. On the days following the field trip, they will continue to work with their groups to create a poster that looks like the rough draft on the post-trip review. They will be presenting this poster to their peers in a gallery walk format, and each person will be responsible for presenting the entire poster at different times. These posters will also be displayed in May at the middle school STEAM fair. Students are graded on the content, presentation, effort, and are graded by their peers based on their contribution to the groups success. I do this project each quarter, so please let me know if you’re interested in being involved or learning more!
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Author6th grade science and Stream Team teacher, getting kids engaged in their world outside the classroom whenever possible. ArchivesCategories |