No Series: Project Earth Game

ELA.SL.5.1c

Common core State Standards

  • ELA:  English Language Arts
  • SL:  Speaking and Listening
  • 5:  5th Grade
  • 1c:  Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
    discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled)
    with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and
    texts, building on othersâ\x80\x99 ideas and expressing
    their own clearly.

    a. Come to discussions prepared, having read
    or studied required material; explicitly draw
    on that preparation and other information
    known about the topic to explore ideas under
    discussion.

    b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and
    carry out assigned roles.

    c. Pose and respond to specific questions by
    making comments that contribute to the
    discussion and elaborate on the remarks of
    others.


    d. Review the key ideas expressed and draw
    conclusions in light of information and
    knowledge gained from the discussions.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

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ELA.SL.5.1d

Common core State Standards

  • ELA:  English Language Arts
  • SL:  Speaking and Listening
  • 5:  5th Grade
  • 1d:  Engage effectively in a range of collaborative
    discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacherled)
    with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and
    texts, building on othersâ\x80\x99 ideas and expressing
    their own clearly.

    a. Come to discussions prepared, having read
    or studied required material; explicitly draw
    on that preparation and other information
    known about the topic to explore ideas under
    discussion.

    b. Follow agreed-upon rules for discussions and
    carry out assigned roles.

    c. Pose and respond to specific questions by
    making comments that contribute to the
    discussion and elaborate on the remarks of
    others.

    d. Review the key ideas expressed and draw
    conclusions in light of information and
    knowledge gained from the discussions.

Download Common Core State Standards (PDF 1.2 MB)

Project Earth Game

Lesson Objective: Students work as a mock community to see how choices impact the environment
Grade 5 / Science / The Environment
6 MIN
ELA.SL.5.1c | ELA.SL.5.1d

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Discussion and Supporting Materials

Thought starters

  1. How do real world scenarios impact students' understanding of how choices impact the environment?
  2. What factors do students need to consider when determining the community's power options?
  3. How does the use of various manipulatives make the project more meaningful?

18 Comments

  • Private message to Carolyn Partee

Fantastic lesson! THANKS so much for sharing. I can't wait to try the Project Earth Game in class.

Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Monique Holmes
very creative...I love it
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Molly Sims
What difference it would make in the environment if this spread to all schools in America
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Jaki Lee
I love this idea, so many things to consider for students.
Recommended (0)
  • Private message to Paula Webb
This is an awesome lesson idea! Thanks so much for sharing!
Recommended (0)

Transcripts

  • Transcript for Project Earth Game - Connie Prewitt

    “My name is Connie Prewitt, I teach 5th grade at Blix Elementary school,

    Transcript for Project Earth Game - Connie Prewitt

    “My name is Connie Prewitt, I teach 5th grade at Blix Elementary school, today I am going to teach a lesson on environmental sustainability, and the project is called, project earth.”

    “Please come in and find your homestead”

    “What my students are going to learn today is the impact that the choices that they make have on the environment, have on each other, how the things they decide to do today are going to impact future generations.”

    “Ok are we ready folks?”
    “The primary goal that you state at the beginning is that you want to leave this place better or the same as you found it. This lesson is set up to be as real life to them as possible. They have a savings account when they start out that has a certain number of beans or corn everybody wants the jobs that are going to pay the most. It becomes a “it’s all about money”

    “It’s pay day again”

    Student-“I love pay day, got to get that mula”

    “As the game progresses it’s not so much the amount of money that they have, but how chose to spend it. What I have put together for them to experience today is a role play. Earlier we set up our homesteads, purchased our homes, our land, our cars we got our occupations, now were going to go into getting our community set up with the different options of power, garbage, water sewer and transportation. We elected our mayor earlier, so our mayor is Ingrid, can you come up on the carpet and who are our two politicians? There’s different scenarios that take different amounts of money. What type of management system are they going to have for their solid waste for water and for sewer, are they going to have a large scale community system? Or are they going to have individual wells. For transportation, are they going to have a public transportation system? Or are they going to rely only on private cars? Power options nuclear power, large scale hydroelectricity…
    “Choosing between green energy, hydroelectric energy, nuclear energy or fossil fuels is going to be a hard choice for them. So go ahead and talk amongst the community, you have two minutes to decide.”
    Student – “The large energy is just using water and we have a lot of water and we can’t run out of water.”
    Student- “Nuclear power sometimes if there is accidents, it might pollute the water and stuff”

    “I have created scenarios that mirror things that are happening in the community, things that the students could relate to. Lightning strikes a tree in the forest and burns down four houses. If the decision was made to let the previous wild fire burn, no homes are lost. Because you chose to put the last fire out this fire burned, and 4 people lost their homes. Now those 4 people have a dilemma, they need to see, do they have enough corn to replace their home? We have a situation over here, somebody has no savings left.

    Student “wow this is hard.”

School Details

Blix Elementary School
1302 East 38th Street
Tacoma WA 98404
Population: 557

Data Provided By:

greatschools

Teachers

teachers
Coni Prewitt
English Language Arts Math Science Social Studies / 5 / Teacher