On-Line Expeditions Curriculum Development Module

How do you engage Chicago public middle school students in learning in a way that has the students drive the learning process? How do teachers become both communicators of content and facilitators of a learning process that transforms students into learning explorers and investigators?

The On-Line Expeditions curriculum model is based on four components that make this sort of learning possible. They include:

§ Inquiry-Based Instruction

§ Arts Integration

§ Technology Integration

§ Local Action Project Development

Module Objectives:

· Know the basic components of an inquiry-based instructional process

• Understand the theory behind inquiry-based instruction
• Be aware of teaching to different learning styles and using arts integration strategies to reach students with diverse learning styles
• Understand specific ways to integrate technology into inquiry-based learning units
• Know the rationale for incorporating local action projects and a process for working with students to create local action projects
• See examples of arts integration activities, technology design products, and local action projects
• Be familiar with an inquiry-based On-Line Expeditions curriculum development template and develop your own unit

Select each icon to learn basic theory behind the four key components of the On-Line Expeditions Curriculum Model.

Instruction to Ed: Create icon wheel

Inquiry-Based Instruction Arts Integration

Technology Integration Local Action Projects

Part One: Inquiry Based Instruction

On-Line Expeditions Inquiry-Based Approach

Inquiry-based instruction is a student-centered and teacher-guided instructional approach that engages students in investigating real world questions that they choose within a broad thematic framework. Inquiry-Based instruction complements traditional instruction by providing a vehicle for extending and applying the learning of students in a way that connects with their interests within a broader thematic framework. Students acquire and analyze information, develop and support propositions, provide solutions, and design technology and arts products that demonstrate their thinking and make their learning visible.

Research shows that the amount of student learning that occurs in a classroom is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student involvement in the educational program (Cooper and Prescott 1989). Yet research studies indicate that teachers typically dominate classroom conversation, consuming nearly 70% of classroom time. Inquiry-based instructional approaches reverse this trend, placing students at the helm of the learning process and teachers in the role of learning facilitator, coach, and modeler.

The Benefits of Inquiry-Based Instruction

Inquiry-based Instruction:

v teaches problem-solving, critical thinking skills, and disciplinary content

v promotes the transfer of concepts to new problem questions

v teaches students how to learn and builds self-directed learning skills

v develops student ownership of their inquiry and enhances student interest in the subject matter

Criteria for a successful inquiry

(borrowed from Jeffrey Wilhelm, author of "You Gotta Be The Book" and "Hyperlearning")

1. Start with a guided exploration of a topic as a whole class.

2. Proceed to student small group inquiry about an open-ended, debatable, contended issue.

3. Encourage students to ask personally relevant and socially significant questions.

4. Work in groups to achieve diversity of views.

5. Predict, set goals, define outcomes.

6. Find or create information...look for patterns.

7. Instruction serves as a guide to help students meet their goals.

8. Create a tangible artifact that addresses the issue, answers questions, and makes learning visible and accountable.

9. Learning is actualized and accountable in the design accomplishment.

10. Arrive at a conclusion...take a stand...take action.

11. Document, justify, and share conclusion with larger audience.

Key Components of the Inquiry Process

(elements adapted from Jeffrey Wilhelm's work on inquiry-based instruction)

1. Activating Prior Knowledge

• KWL
• Opinionaires
• Engaging students in a conversation about what they already know

By bringing the students' own background and experiences to the learning table, students will find ways to connect to the topic and will have activated some basis for creating meaning with the text they are reading. The personal connection to learning increases a student's motivation to explore, read, and struggle with difficulties as they arise.

2. Providing Background Information

• articles
• museum exhibits
• audio recording
• videos
• book
• primary source material
• web site
• photograph
• art

Students need to know something about the topic to be able to perceive and formulate meaningful inquiries.

3. Defining Outcomes for which students will be held accountable.

For example:

Technology: conduct research on the web; create PowerPoint presentations or web sites; communicate using e-mail; import photos and clip art for presentations; use digital camera, digital audio recorder, and video recorder.

Reading: identify main idea and authors point of view; identify key concepts; increase understanding of vocabulary; extract meaning between the lines (infer)

Inquiry: define problem question; find and gather data; analyze, compare, organize, and synthesize data; create a proposition; support proposition (facts, stats, examples, expert authority, logic and reasoning); propose solutions and action steps

Team: listen, consider others' ideas, encourage, provide coaching, affirm, question, cooperate, demonstrate individual responsibility, avoid put-downs, engage in dialogue

Project Management: set goals, agree on tasks and roles, meet deadlines, prioritize tasks

Students need to know up front exactly what's expected of them.

4. Modeling Design Product Outcomes (technology, art); Providing Frameworks

Show students a PowerPoint presentation, a web site, a proposition-support framework, a museum exhibit, a choreographed dance performance, etc.

Students need to see models of what it is they are being asked to do. They must have a supporting structure which provides a grounding for their creations, but doesn't limit their creativity.

5. Establishing a general topic or inquiry

ex- What happens when the structure around people breaks down? (unit on the great depression)

ex- How are human beings adversely impacting our planet? (exploring environmental issues which impact the Amazon Rain Forest)

A broad problem question or topic provides students with a general focus for selecting more specific inquiries.

6. Student teams conduct background research and define focused problem questions within broader inquiry or topic.

Without a knowledge base or some degree of familiarity with the topic, it will be difficult for students to develop relevant inquiries within the broad topic area. Students need to be provided with background material and/or guided to research their own background material. This base will enable them to begin to formulate a big picture understanding of the broad topic area, and then to select a specific inquiry interest which connects to the broader topic.

7. Establish and communicate inquiry presentation framework.

Example: Proposition-Support Framework

a) state problem question

b) develop proposition which can be argued

c) provide background information

d) support proposition with:

• facts
• statistics
• examples
• expert authority
• logic and reasoning

e) propose solutions and action ideas

8. Refer students back to expected outcomes and inquiry framework to create alignment between their presentations and intended outcomes.

9. Ask students a lot of questions to help them refine their thinking and guide their research.

10. Support technology (PowerPoint, Web Site, Hyperstudio) and art design product creation.

11. Empower students to coach and train one another within their teams.

12. Provide a forum for student presentations which includes students, teachers, parents, and community members.

13. Provide vehicles for student participation in action projects which connect their learning to specific action.

14. Incorporate ongoing, meaningful peer and teacher assessment.

15. Reflect on what worked and what didn't, and try it again.

Criteria for Problem Question Selection

1. Is it personally relevant and socially significant? Is the student truly interested in the question?

2. Is it researchable?

3. Is it big enough and small enough?

Inquiry-Based Instruction: Theory

Activity #1: Read theory and rational behind inquiry-based instruction. Reflect on your own learning experiences. Write a journal reflection on your learning experiences and how they are different from or similar to an inquiry-based approach to learning.

Inquiry-Based Instruction: Exploring the components of the inquiry-based learning process.

Step #1 – Accessing Prior Student Knowledge

Activity #2: Complete the following opinionaire on the Amazon. This opinionaire is an example of a technique for accessing prior student knowledge.

Activity Name: Survivor: The Amazon Challenge

Task: Pretend you are lost in the deep recesses of the Amazon rainforest. The only way out is to convince locals that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to the Amazon. Fortunately for you, they are a forgiving group, and are willing to help you along the way. But first, you and your team are on your own to answer these questions.

Good luck!

Survivor: The Amazon Challenge

Within your team, answer the following questions to the best of your ability. For those questions you answer that are not correct, you will have a second opportunity to answer correctly by using the Amazon Student Research link at www.ctcexpeditions.com . Good luck!

§ For indigenous cultures that are on the endangered cultures list, what is the maximum number of living members they must have to be placed on the list?

§ How many species of fish have been found in the Amazon basin?

§ Match the following medicinal plants with their characteristics:

A. Amazon Cats Claw 1. Fights AIDS and cancer

B. Valerium 2. Balances blood sugar; helps diabetics

C. Guarana Shrub 3. Helps with sleep disorders

D. Pata de Vaca 4. 5 times more caffeine than coffee

§ The Amazon basin holds ________ per cent of the world’s fresh water (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30), and the Amazon River pours 55 million gallons of water per ________ (second, minute, hour, day) into the ________ (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian) Ocean.

§ The Amazon is home to the only species of freshwater sharks. True/False

§ Of all the animals that local Amazon River dwellers talk about the most in terms of fearing physical injury, this Amazon River species tops the list. What is it?

§ The original Amazon rainforest has been cut back by ________ (4-7; 7-10; 11-14; 13-16; 18-21; 25-30) per cent. The current rate of deforestation in the Amazon is roughly 13,000 acres per day or ________ (5, 8, 11, 14, 20, 26, 33) football fields per minute.

§ What role does the tambaqui fish play in regenerating the Amazon rainforest?

§ Which Brazilian city in the heart of the Amazon was once the richest city in the world, and how did it achieve that status?

§ Name that Amazon animal: It is slow as molasses, swims in the water, and eats like a monkey.

To find answers to the questions you couldn’t answer, click on www.ctcexpeditions.org.

(Developer: Please provide live link)

Activity #3: Complete the following KWL grid. What do you know about the Amazon? What do you want to know? What have you learned?

Use this chart during your study of the Amazon.  First write what you know about the Amazon.  Then write what you would like to know about the Amazon.  At the end of your study write the most important things you learned.

Amazon KWL

What I know What I want to know What I’ve learned

Step #2 – Building Background Knowledge

Activity #4: Click on the link below to access the On-Line Expeditions Amazon 2003 web site. Go to: Amazon Student Research and do a general exploratory review of listed web site links under the different curricular themes. Begin thinking about a particular inquiry or question you would like to explore.

www.ctcexpeditions.org

Activity #5: Select one additional resource to build background knowledge. Review the material you select and consider an inquiry or question you would like to explore.

(Developer: Insert PDF file of the Amazon Curriculum Starter Kit)

Step #3 – Developing Your Inquiry

Activity #6: Develop a question that you would like to pursue within a particular discipline that relates to the broad theme of the Amazon. Consider the following criteria for developing your question:

1. Is it personally relevant to you and socially significant? Are you truly interested in the question?

2. Is it researchable?

3. Is it big enough to find information and small enough to be manageable?

4. Is it an issue that can be argued for or against?

Examples:

q Is deforestation in the Amazon something we in Chicago should be concerned about? Why or why not?

q Is organic food more nutritious than conventionally-raised food?

q Are the daily administrative, student, and teacher behaviors at my school helping to conserve or degrade our natural environment?

Part Two: Arts Integration

Arts Integration Theory

Introduction

Arts Integrated Instruction has become an area of great interest over the past decade as schools across the country are discovering the power of the arts when used as a catalyst for teaching across the curriculum. Arts integration is not a substitute for teaching the arts for their own sake. We are champions of art specialists in the schools, and recognize the need to add to their forces in cities across the country.

What is Arts Integration?

It is important that all educators become aware of the successes that have been demonstrated when students become engaged in their own learning via arts integrated instruction. Arts integration is not about artist residencies, or occasional arts projects that connect to other curricular subjects. It is about a methodology and a philosophical approach to education that creates a level of personal connection and added depth in the classroom through a creative inquiry-based process of teaching and learning.

How do I learn more about how to do arts integration?

This module in combination with the On-line Expeditions website encourages a layering of arts integration within the classroom as students engage in this work. You can access resources in your community, or within your own building perhaps, that you didn't know existed before. Possibly the arts specialist(s) in your building would like to explore enhancing the core curriculum with rigorous arts integration. Or maybe you can arrange for professional development training that will introduce arts integration to your faculty in a substantive way. Another option might be to explore how you can bring in professional artists trained in this area to team teach with you in the classroom.

Consider checking your state arts council for additional ideas and resources. It's always a good bet that some local theatre or dance troupe has an outreach program that works in schools. Sometimes it is simply a matter of doing some research and inquiring about town. Some organizations also travel. As part of this module you will explore various aspects of the Arts for Learning website, www.arts4learning.org. You may wish to return to this site for ideas and possible resources in your community.

Benefits of an integrative approach

An integrative approach to teaching, for example, connects visualization with reading comprehension, contextualizes math, or brings an experiential context to the science or social studies classroom. Using the arts can assist students in understanding and applying skills to standardized exams. Focus and concentration can be developed through an appreciation and application of different learning styles, such as linguistic, visual or kinesthetic thinking. Through the connection of personal experience with the subject matter, and an emphasis on the process of discovery which allows for unexpected outcomes, teachers help students to develop more complex thinking skills.

Through the integration of perception into cognition, and expression into reflection, students perform at a significantly higher level. While this module will focus on arts integrated activities you can do yourself, know that having artists team teach in classrooms alongside teachers is an ideal model for truly integrated instruction.

Research, Results, and Resources -- Critical Links and Champions of Change

There has been much research on the work of arts integrated instruction and the value of arts in teaching and learning. Following are examples of two important studies published in this area.

Critical Links

· Critical Links is published by the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), a coalition of more than 100 national education, arts, philanthropic, and government organizations. AEP is administered by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education and the National Endowment for the Arts. In addition to their ongoing support, the two federal agencies also provided the funding to produce Critical Links.

· The reviews of 62 outstanding arts education studies—and the interpretive essays—in Critical Links reveal important relationships between learning in the arts and cognitive capacities (thinking skills) and motivations that underlie academic achievement and effective social behavior.

· The studies suggest that for certain populations – students from economically disadvantaged circumstances, students needing remedial instruction, and young children – learning in the arts may be especially helpful in boosting learning and achievement.

THE CRITICAL LINKS

Studies reviewed in the volume and the interpretive essays point to critical links between learning in the arts and academic and social skills and motivations in the following six major areas:

1) Reading and Language Development

Basic Reading Skills

Certain forms of arts instruction enhance and complement basic reading instruction aimed at helping children “break the phonetic code” that unlocks written language by associating letters, words and phrases with sounds, sentences and meanings. Since we do not “read reading” but rather texts of various kinds in search of meaning, it is important that forms of arts instruction promote both basic reading skills and the achievement motivation that engages young learners in the reading experience.

Literacy

Young children who engage in dramatic enactments of stories and text improve their reading comprehension, story understanding and ability to read new materials they have not seen before. The effects are even more significant for children from economically disadvantaged circumstances and those with reading difficulties in the early and middle grades.

Writing

Spatial reasoning skills inherent in learning music are needed for planning and producing writing. Dramatic enactments by young children also are shown to produce more effective writing. Other arts learning experiences - in dance and drama, for instance – develop expressive and reflective skills that enhance writing proficiency.

2) Mathematics

Certain music instruction, including comprehensive instruction that includes training in keyboard skills, develops spatial reasoning and spatial-temporal reasoning skills, which are fundamental to understanding and using mathematical ideas and concepts.

3) Fundamental Cognitive Skills and Capacities

Learning in individual art forms as well as in multi-arts experiences engages and strengthens such fundamental cognitive capacities as spatial reasoning (the capacity for organizing and sequencing ideas); conditional reasoning (theorizing about outcomes and consequences); problem solving; and the components of creative thinking (originality, elaboration, flexibility).

4) Motivations to Learn

Motivation and the attitudes and dispositions to pursue and sustain learning are essential to achievement. Learning in the arts nurtures these capacities, including active engagement, disciplined and sustained attention, persistence, and risk-taking, and increases attendance and educational aspirations.

5) Effective Social Behavior

Studies of student learning experiences in drama, music, dance and multi-arts activities show student growth in self-confidence, self-control, self-identity, conflict resolution, collaboration, empathy and social tolerance.

6) School Environment

It is critical that a school provide a positive context for learning. Studies in the Compendium show that the arts help to create the kind of learning environment that is conducive to teacher and student success by fostering teacher innovation, a positive professional culture, community engagement, increased student attendance and retention, effective instructional practice, and school identity.

This study can be downloaded along with other important information about arts learning both nationally and for your state at the Arts Education Partnership website, www.aep-arts.org

Champions of Change

This remarkable document, published at the end of 1999, demonstrates through rigorous research that the arts can play a powerful role in student learning. Several notable researchers were drawn together to study this data carefully through in-depth case studies and site visits.

Brief excerpts from the Champions of Change document:

Preface

When young people are involved with the arts, something changes in their lives. We've often witnessed the rapt expression on the faces of such young people. Advocates for the arts often use photographs of smiling faces to document the experience.

But in a society that values measurements and uses data-driven analysis to inform decisions about allocation of scarce resources, photographs of smiling faces are not enough to gain or even retain support. Such images alone will not convince skeptics or even neutral decision-makers that something exceptional is happening when and where the arts become part of the lives of young people.

Until now, we've known little about the nature of this change, or how to enable the change to occur. To understand these issues in more rigorous terms, we invited leading educational researchers to examine the impact of arts experiences on young people. We developed the Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning initiative in cooperation with The Arts Education Partnership and The President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities to explore why and how young people were changed through their arts experiences.

Executive Summary

As a result of their varied inquiries, the Champions of Change researchers found that learners can attain higher levels of achievement through their engagement with the arts. Moreover, one of the critical research findings is that the learning in and through the arts can help "level the playing field" for youngsters from disadvantaged circumstances.

Why the Arts Change the Learning Experience

When well taught, the arts provide young people with authentic learning experiences that engage their minds, hearts, and bodies. The learning experiences are real and meaningful for them.

While learning in other disciplines may often focus on development of a singled skill or talent, the arts regularly engage multiple skills and abilities. Engagement in the arts--whether the visual arts, dance, music, theatre or other disciplines--nurtures the development of cognitive, social, and personal competencies. Although the Champions of Change researchers conducted their investigations and presented their findings independently, a remarkable consensus exists among their findings:

The arts reach students who are not otherwise being reached.
The arts reach students in ways that they are not otherwise being reached.
The arts connect students to themselves and each other.
The arts transform the environment for learning.
The arts provide learning opportunities for the adults in the lives of young people.
The arts provide new challenges for those students already considered successful.
The arts connect learning experiences to the world of real work.

Further information on this important study can be downloaded along with other important information about arts learning both nationally and for your state at the Arts Education Partnership website, www.aep-arts.org

Activity #1 Read the theory discussed above and answer the following questions:

1. In your opinion what are the 5 strongest reasons for using arts integration in the classroom?

2. What questions do you have about arts integration?

Arts Integrated Instruction: Exploring various art forms as learning strategies for integrated teaching

Activity #2 Vocabulary and Drama - Creating Tableaus

Read the following text on Pink River Dolphins (imported from the website, ctcexpeditions.org). For each highlighted word in the text below, write a definition for the word (feel free to use a dictionary if necessary.)

Next, choose one of the words to use for creating a tableau. You will need to find 3-4 people to help you with this part of the activity. Using the directions for Tableau below, create a “frozen picture” that represents the word and its meaning.

Once you have created the tableau, have someone take a photograph of your image and answer the questions listed at the end of this activity.

Pink River Dolphins 4/4/01

Pink River Dolphins, known as the Boto in the Brazilian Amazon, are well adapted to life in the flooded forest. Their most striking characteristic besides the striking pink color are their tiny eyes. They are almost blind since good eyesight is virtually useless in turbid waters. To compensate for the poor eyesight they have developed a highly evolved echolocation system which enables them to build-up a "sound picture" of their surroundings. The Boto have a long beak with small teet and flippers shaped like large broad paddles. They are slow swimmers and make small leaps as compared to oceanic dolphins. The Boto have a melon shaped head with a bulging forehead and flexible neck which enables them to weave among the branches in the flooded forest.

Tableau

A tableau is a frozen picture using the bodies of their group members.

Highlight the following ideas:

Use various levels (some people standing, others sitting/crouching/kneeling, others lying on floor)

Use all parts of body (hands, legs, facial expression)

Make sure that all elements of the tableau are facing the audience (no backs, unless intentional)

All group members must be a part of every tableau

No sound or movement is allowed

Attach a copy of your photo to the questions listed below (this can be done with a digital camera or a scanner).

Look at the picture of your tableau – describe in detail each person’s body position and what it means to the entire picture

Describe the process you went through to create your tableau. Did all people share in the decision-making process? Were there definite speakers and listeners? How did you feel about the process?

How could you use this in the classroom? How would you structure the experience for the best student response?

Activity #3 Taking Vocabulary Tableau into the Classroom

Now that you have an understanding of Tableau, you will need to find a classroom to work in for this next activity. Before you begin your activity, students will need to have a list of 10 – 20 vocabulary words related to the Amazon content. They will need to have a list with each word’s definition written out for reference. This can be given to students or assigned as individual work. This should take approximately 1 – 11/2 hours to complete. Depending on the group you may need to break it into two class periods – one for creation, one for performance. If possible (consent has been obtained), take a photograph of one of the student created tableaus.

Once you have completed the activity, complete the questions at the end of the explanation.

Divide the class into groups. Secretly, assign each group a set of words, so that all words are covered by one of the groups. Do not let groups see each others’ words.

Explain that a tableau is a frozen picture using the bodies of their group members. Highlight the following ideas:

Use various levels (some people standing, others sitting/crouching/kneeling, others lying on floor)

Use all parts of body (hands, legs, facial expression)

Make sure that all elements of the tableau are facing the audience (no backs, unless intentional)

All group members must be a part of every tableau

No sound or movement is allowed

Assign each group to a separate space in the classroom. Have each group create a tableau (frozen picture) for each of their assigned words.

Have group members sit together, facing the “stage area”. Have each group create an answer sheet with the name of each group and spaces for all vocabulary words assigned.

Taking turns, each group performs their tableaus, keeping each tableau frozen for 30 seconds while the other groups review their vocabulary lists and choose which word is being performed. When complete, each group turns in their answer sheet.

If it was possible to obtain a student photo, attach a copy of your photo to the questions listed below (this can be done with a digital camera or a scanner).

1. List the words you selected for use in this activity.

Describe the class you worked with (age, type of school, ethnic composition, etc.)

Describe the most successful tableau that students created. Why was it successful?

Describe the least successful tableau that students created. Why was it less successful?

How did this activity help students comprehend and remember the vocabulary words they were assigned?

How did this activity help students comprehend and remember the vocabulary words they were not assigned?

How could you assess/grade students on this activity?

What would you do differently if you repeated this activity?

Activity #4 Compare and Contrast – Drawing and Painting

Complete the following reading and activity. When you have completed the activity, answer the questions at the end. Please scan or photograph your final artwork and send a copy of it with the answers to the questions.

Read the following text on the two types of dolphins found in the Amazon river. Next, print out the text and use two different colored highlighters. Highlight everything you read about the Tucuxi in one color while highlighting everything you read about the Boto in another color. When you have completed the highlighting, fill in a T diagram (see following page) with elements specific to each dolphin.

Tucuxis Botos

Using your diagram for detailed information, create a picture of each dolphin using the following techniques, you will need colored pencils, a good eraser and a simple set of water color paints. Do not use regular lead pencil for this drawing as the lead will create a grey, “dirty” look to your artwork.

1. For each dolphin identify a primary color for your initial sketch, then choose the lightest colored pencil that shares that color. For example, if one dolphin is green, choose the lightest color green you have within your palette of colored pencils. Then, look to your list of details to decide on shape.

2. Animal parts can usually be drawn as circles, triangles, ovals, trapezoids, etc. Try using shapes to represent body parts such as head, body, fin, tail or flippers. Then erase lines that do not seem necessary. If you draw with light pressure, it will be easier to erase mistakes or blend colors. Remember to consult your list for specific details.

3. Now, use various shades of the same color to fill in the form of your dolphins with color. Here you can alternate light with dark pressure to create various shades as well. Remember that nature is rarely a singular shade of one color. Even a single leaf has multiple shades of green. Try to use variations in color, pressure or texture to create a more interesting effect.

4. Finally, add a watercolor wash over your design. Again, choose a light shade of the primary color for each dolphin. You can add water to your paintbrush to make a given shade lighter. Using a piece of scratch paper to test color can be helpful.

5. You may want to experiment with several drawings/paintings before you are happy with your final draft. The type of paper you use will also affect your product. Just as a first draft of writing is rarely acceptable for others to read, similarly you may need to several drafts of your dolphins to create a final set with which you are pleased.

Excerpt from Tucuxis and Botos, selections from Journey of the Pink Dolphins, by Sy Montgomery, pp. 45 nd 46.

Just then, two triangular fins split the waters. They sliced precisely between the halves of the river, at the intersection of the two colors, as if being born.

“Tucuxis,” Nildon announced over the roar of the fifteen-hourse-power motor. In Brazil, these small gray dolphins are still called by the name the Mayan Indians gave them in the Tipi language. We recognized them as the species scientists call Sotalia fluviatilis—the other Amazon dolphin that shares these waters with the boto. But unlike botos, tucuxis look and act the way we expect of dolphins: with their neat, compact bodies, short, well-defined snouts, and triangular dorsal fins, they launch out of the water, leaping and spinning, leaving arcs of spray as they spurt along the water’s surface. Perhaps fifty yards from our boat, first one leapt, then the other, revealing soft, pinkish bellies; then the two leapt together, almost touching. Dianne and I grabbed each other’s hands. “First the symphony,” she yelled at me over the motor, “then the opera—and now the ballet.”

Everyone likes the tucuxis, Vera had told us back at INPA. River people tend to be suspicious of the big botos, who approach boats so close and suddenly. But the tucuxis are not as bold. They perform their joyous leaps at a distance, and they are small and pretty. Only four to five feet long, tucuxis look like miniature marine dolphins, elegant and streamlined, their bottle-snouts split with cheerful smiles.

Within the whale order, which includes the dolphins, Sotalia is classed in Delphinidae, the same family as the marine dolphins who swim in the seas and perform in oceanaria. In fact, until relatively recently, tucuxis almost certainly were exclusively marine dolphins, for even today they can be found in both fresh salt water, ranging from southern Brazil to Honduras. Although they share the Amazon with botos, like the black water of the Rio Negro and the white water of the Solimões, the pink dolphins and the gray tucuxis around from separate origins.

The Delphinidae, comprising some twenty-six species, are a modern group. The most abundant and varied of the whales, they are compact and athletic, designed fro speed-swimming in open waters. Although there are no fossil records of Sotalia, most scientists agree that these dolphins entered the Amazon from the Atlantic, probably no earlier than five million years ago.

But the botos are representatives of a very different whale lineage. Until recently, botos were classed with the other five species of river dolphins in the Platanistidae, the family to which the dolphins we had seen in Bangladesh and India belong; but now many scientists believe that boto and one relates species, the La Plata dolphin of southeastern South America, should make up their own family, the Iniidae. Dianne and I had only seen botos in photographs and television documentaries, but even these images conveyed something eerie and ancient, a feeling you don’t get from marine dolphins.

The boto’s big body, which may stretch to eight feet long and weigh four hundred pounds, is quite different from most dolphins’. It lacks a prominent dorsal fin, possessing only a low ridge along the back. The flippers are huge, almost like wings. But it is the face that is most arresting: compared with the tucuxi’s neat, smooth head, the boto’s bulbous forehead seems misshapen, like a troll’s or a dwarf’s. The eyes are tiny. The face ends in a tube-shaped beak, which often curves to one side as if it has gotten bent. American scientists David and Melba Caldwell, who studied captive botos in Florida for many years, described them as “beady-eyed, humpbacked, long-snouted, loose-skinned holdovers from the past.” But there is a strange beauty to the boto, a beauty that takes longer to see: it is of the very old and the beauty of the fetus. Theirs is the beauty of becoming, of a creature poised on the brink of becoming something else.

Please scan/photograph your artwork and attach a copy of your art to the questions listed below.

How did the highlighting/diagramming help you to organize your thoughts before drawing?

How did the drawing/painting help to reinforce the information you learned from the text?

What did you learn from the artistic process?

How many drafts of your drawing/painting did you do before you were ready to consider it a final draft?

How might you assess this activity?

How else could you use these techniques in the classroom?

Activity #5 Using the Arts for Learning website as a tool

Complete the following web based activity. When you have completed the activity, answer the questions at the end.

You will need to visit the website, www.arts4learning.org in order to complete this activity and answer the following questions. You may want to print out the directions and questions below before your visit to the site so that you are prepared to use the site and answer the questions.

Directions for Search:

Go to www.arts4learning.org and browse the site to see the options and information presented.

Next complete a search using the following guidelines. Find search at the top of the home page. Choose the following among the search options:

Artform – choose Dance

Subject – choose Science

Grade Level – choose 6-8

Leave all other windows showing Any – then click on get results

Now click on program results and browse the selected programs. Once you find a program that you like, read the program description and connections from the curricular connections.

Use the above search to answer the questions below:

1. Find two lesson plans that would be helpful in teaching the Amazon to middle grade students. Copy and paste these sample lessons, with notation regarding their location on the website, name of program and any other relevant information.

2. Explain why you chose the connections listed above. What extensions or modifications of what is explained would you use in a classroom unit?

3. Brainstorm three ways of approaching funding for the arts organization visiting your classroom.

4. Briefly describe what you have found at the Arts for Learning website.

5. List 3 ways a practicing teacher might use the site.

6. Write a paragraph summarizing the site and why it is a useful place for teachers to visit.

Part Three: Technology Integration

This learning module offers you three distinct ways to integrate technology into your learning and into your curriculum development for students. You will practice web navigation, e-mailing the experts, and PowerPoint presentation development.

Step #1 – Web Navigation

Activity #1:

Go to the On-Line Expeditions web site at www.ctcexpeditions.org and click on Amazon 2003. Then, click on Amazon Student Research and select a curricular area (animals, deforestation, Find a web site you would like to explore, and evaluate the web site information based on the criteria listed below. Create a evaluation of the site using the attached rubric based on the criteria below.

(designer – assist with creating a rubric based on the criteria below)

Evaluating Internet Resources:

University of Albany

Purpose

Audience

* Consider the intended audience of the page, based on its content, tone and style

* Does this mesh with your needs?

Consider the Source

* Web search engines often amass vast results, from memos to scholarly documents

* Many of the resulting items will be peripheral or useless for your research

Source

* Author/producer is identifiable

* Author/producer has expertise on the subject as indicated on a credentials page. You may need to trace back in the URL (Internet address) to view a page in a higher directory with background information

* Sponsor/location of the site is appropriate to the material as shown in the URL

Examples:

* .edu for educational or research material

* .gov for government resources

* .com for commercial products or commercially-sponsored sites

* ~NAME in URL may mean a personal home page with no official sanction

* Mail-to link is offered for submission of questions or comments

Content

Accuracy

* Don't take the information presented at face value

* Web sites are rarely refereed or reviewed, as are scholarly journals and books

* Look for point of view, evidence of bias

* Source of the information should be clearly stated, whether original or borrowed from elsewhere

Comprehensiveness

* Depth of information: determine if content covers a specific time period or aspect of the topic, or strives to be comprehensive

* Use additional print and electronic sources to complement the information provided

Currency

* Look to see if the site has been updated recently, as reflected in the date on the page and that the material contained on the page is current

Links

* Links are relevant and appropriate

* Don't assume that the linked sites are the best available. Be sure to investigate additional sites on the topic

Style and Functionality

* Site is laid out clearly and logically with well organized

subsections

* Writing style is appropriate for the intended audience

* Site is easy to navigate, including

Clearly labeled Back, Home, Go To Top icons/links

Internal indexing links on lengthy pages

Links to remote sites all work

Search capability is offered if the site is extensive

Activity #2: Go to your favorite search engine (www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, etc.) and conduct a web site for one of the curricular themes (animals, deforestation, etc.). Enter different search names to see if the sites that come up are different, more extensive, more useful, etc. For example:

Amazon animals

Amazon rainforest animals

Amazon river animals

Tropical forest animals

Explore a few of the web sites you find and apply the above web site evaluation criteria (in your mind) to the web site. Provide a one sentence description of the site and give the site a one-to-five star rating based on the criteria and whether the site would be useful to your grade level students.

Example:

Animals of the Rainforest*****

http://www.animalsoftherainforest.org/

Great site that provides a roster of animals that you click on and access photos, chartacteristics, habitat, and other great information

Step #2 – E-Mail the Experts

Name: Jennifer James

Your Email:: jjames@otis.edu

School: Otis Elementary

Teacher: Ms. Raizurehand

Grade: 6th

Expert: Rhan Flatin

Question: Why is protecting the Amazon Rain Forest so important?

Submit

Activity #3: Go to www.ctcexpeditions.org, and click on Amazon 2003. Then click on E-mail the Experts. Formulate a question (using the template on the site) that is related to the Amazon content, and that is a specific, more in-depth question to which you don’t know the answer. Forward copy of your question and e-mail response to the course instructor.

Step #3 – PowerPoint Presentations

Activity #4: Create a PowerPoint presentation based on the Proposition/Support framework provided below. Submit to your instructor as an e-mail attachment. The presentation should include the following components:

Title

Inquiry Question

Proposition

Supporting Material:

Ø Facts

Ø Statistics

Ø Examples

Ø Expert Authority

Ø Logic and Reasoning

Closing Statements

Web Site Bibliography

For tutorial help with creating PowerPoint presentations, follow these instructions:

1. Open the PowerPoint program on your computer.

2. Go to the Help bar to the far right at the very top of your screen.

3. Open PowerPoint Help Contents.

4. Depending on your technical assistance needs, click on one of the following help menu items (start, add, change, slides, text, pictures, special effects, etc.)

5. For further assistance, contact your instructor or a classmate.

Review the examples below of middle school student PowerPoint presentations. They do not follow the exact guideline provided above, but will give you a sense of what some middle school students have created through an inquiry-based learning process that integrates technology.

(designer: please add ppt. files here.)

Part Four: Local Action Projects

Why include local community service/action within your curriculum? Researchers of authentic learning assert that learning opportunities that are “real world relevant” are critical for making learning engaging, authentic, and meaningful to students. When students experience learning that is connected to action related to something they care about, it takes on a whole new level of importance and interest to them in comparison to learning they perceive to be “book learning” that is disconnected and not relevant to their lives. Local action projects provide opportunities to make connections between learning and action, and provide a way for students to develop a host of real world applicable skills (marketing, publicity, persuasion, enrollment, research, communication, collaboration, etc.) and their own sense of power to shape their worlds.

To access text on-line, navigate as follows:

www.ctcexpeditions.org>Amazon 2003>Local Action Projects>The Recycled Content Paper Initiative

Activity #1:

1. Read through material below.

2. Explore resources and develop a personal paper conservation strategy.

3. Explore with classmates the creation of an action team to work to procure recycled-content paper within your school.

Amazon 2003 Recycled Content Paper Project

One of the things you learn immediately when investigating the Amazon is that a lot of people are concerned about the accelerating rate of deforestation, and what that will do to the Amazon's diverse plant and animal life, its people, and the global environment. It's hard to learn about the Amazon without wondering what can be done to slow deforestation and protect the precious resources within the rain forest.

Are there ways that we in the United States and elsewhere across the world actually contribute to increased deforestation? Unfortunately, the answer is a resounding "yes". While there are many complex root causes of deforestation, one basic cause is our collective demand as consumers for products such as paper and wood products that require cutting down trees. Logging companies are cutting down some of the most endangered forests on the planet to make wood and paper products such as office paper, phone books, toilet paper, window trim, lawn furniture, and 2 x 4's. Over seventy-eight percent of the Earth's original old growth forests have already been logged or degraded. Here are a few eye-opening statistics related to our consumption of paper.

The average office worker is estimated to use a sheet of paper every 12 minutes and a ream of paper every 2 1/2 working weeks

U.S. office paper use went from .85 to 1.4 trillion sheets between 1981 and 1984

The world consumes 5 times more paper now than in 1950

Global rainforests are disappearing at a rate of 8 football fields per minute

While there is no one answer to solve the problem of deforestation, one sure way to reduce deforestation is to consume less paper. A few things you might want to try include:

@printed on recycled paper

A. Reuse the backs of once-used paper to take notes on or to write drafts of school reports

B. Print Internet research, e-mails (if you have to), and other computer work that isn't a "final copy" on the back of once-used paper

C. Buy recycled paper (and toilet paper, paper towels, notebooks, etc.) with the extra money you earn from using less paper

Getting Your School to Buy Recycled Paper

Schools are one of the biggest users of paper around. Think about all of the paper students use to do work on. And all of the office copies and computer printouts and copies of materials for class that teachers and administrators make. When you add it up, it amounts to a lot of trees! So how can your class encourage your school to use less paper and buy recycled paper? Let's start with a little education.

I'm convinced that most people would buy recycled paper (even though it costs a little more) if they just understood more about why it's important to do so, and if they knew how much it cost, where to get it, and other details.

Step #1 - Do a little research. How much paper does your school use on an average school day? Over the course of a year? You will need to speak with the people at your school who actually purchase the paper. They can tell you how much they buy, what it costs, who they buy it from, what kind of paper they buy, and whether or not the school purchases recycled paper. Now you have something to work with.

Step #2 - Do a little more research. Now you'll need to calculate how many trees need to be cut down to supply your school with virgin paper (paper made directly from fresh trees). How many trees could your school save every year if it purchased recycled paper? Be careful, there are all kinds of recycled paper. You'll need to learn about the different types of recycled paper (30%, 60%, 100% post-consumer waste for example) and how many trees are needed to produce them (and how many trees are saved by using recycled paper).

Step #3 - Do even more research. You'll need to find out what the different types of paper are, where you can buy them, how much they cost, and what the price differences are between recycled paper options and the paper your school currently uses. How much will buying recycled paper cost your school in dollars over the course of one year? What are the "hidden costs" of buying virgin paper (deforestation, loss of natural resources and habitat for animals, connection to global warming, etc.)

Step #4 - Problem solving. Your school administrators might argue that buying recycled paper will cost them too much over the course of a year. How will you respond to this? What strategies could your school use to make up for the higher costs?

Step #5 - Making your case. Do you have a strong enough case to convince your principal and school administrators to purchase recycled paper? You will need to present your data in an easy-to-understand format that makes your case and provides school administrators with the information they need to make the decision you want. Perhaps a PowerPoint presentation or a written report or letter or a web site could be created to make your case. Maybe you'd like to also create a skit or a song or a dance that expresses your concern for the issue of deforestation. Perhaps you could start a publicity campaign at your school and ask for permission to have the whole school vote on whether to purchase recycled paper. This is where your creativity will need to emerge.

Step #6 - Need help? Contact On-Line Expeditions at 312 733-7330 ext. 321 and we'll answer your questions and support your efforts. Here are some web sites to help get you started with your research. Good luck!

1. Recycled Paper Calculator (will help you to see how many trees are being cut for different types of paper)

http://www.ofee.gov/recycled/calculat.htm

2. Recycled Paper Coalition

http://www.papercoalition.org/publications.html

recycled paper fact sheets and publications

3. Conservatree

http://www.conservatree.com/

recycled paper fact sheets

4. ReThink Paper

http://www.rethinkpaper.org/

5. Save the Rainforest

http://www.rainforestfoundation.org/1fact.html

Facts on deforestation and the impact on indigenous tribes.

6. Rainforest Action Network

http://www.ran.org/kids_action

On-line video, protect-an-acre program, actions that kids can take to save the rainforest.

Part Five: Sample Inquiry-Based Unit and Curriculum Development Outline Template

Read through the following unit done by students in 7th and 8th grade at two different Chicago Public Schools over two years. Then used the following curriculum temaplate to create your own Amazon Inquiry unit.

Click on the pdf file below to access the Amazon Curriculum Starter Kit (or click on www.ctcexpeditions.org>Amazon Curriculum Starter Kit), which will assist you with Amazon web sites, inquiry-based learning components, Amazon books, videos, activities, and more.

(designer: please convert word file “Amazon Curriculum Starter Kit” into pdf file and place here)

Why Should We Care about the Rainforest?

An Inquiry unit in 7^th and 8^th grades

"If we destroy rainforests, we are destroying potential medicines that could cure fatal diseases like cancer and AIDS."

Osvaldo Alvarado, 8th grade student, Chase Elementary School, 2001-2002 school year

PART I Frontloading – Activating Prior Knowledge and Building Background Knowledge

KWL

To begin the unit, students were given a homework assignment to find one book and one article about the rainforest. They were asked to bring these to class. In class, students were shown the on-line expeditions website and told we would be studying the Amazon rainforest. Students were asked to read and summarize their article for homework.

For the next week or two, the class focused on strategies for reading non-fiction,; using highlighters, note taking, cause and effect, identifying important details, skimming for specific information, etc. Students then were asked to choose an inquiry question that they would like to research. They were told that they would be creating reports and making prints about their chosen issue, then writing a letter to ask for help in addressing their issue.

Through work with an artist, students explored drawing techniques such as using shape to draw figures, utilizing perspective and looking at the direction of the light source.

Students were then asked to create a suite of four drawings depicting four rainforest issues. For each drawing they were asked to identify the question that defined the issue they were representing. From these drawings, students then chose the drawing and issue that they would focus on for the rest of the project.

PART II Individual Inquiry

Students then began researching their specific issue and creating the single detailed drawing that would represent it. In researching their issues, students relied heavily on information from the online expeditions website, as well as links from that site. Students were also thrilled to receive answers back from e-mailing the experts through the expedition site.

Once students had begun their drawings and research, the art form of printmaking was used as a motivator for completing their research reports. Each stage of their writing process was encouraged by a task within the printmaking process.

Before students received the paper for their final drawing (sized for the cutting medium)… they had to have their issue with three main ideas approved.

Before students could transfer their image onto the cutting medium …

they had to have a herringbone outline for each main idea ( herringbone is a graphic organizer where the main idea is written on the “spine” and details are filled in on “bones” that extend diagonally on either side of the “spine”.)

Before students could begin carving their image …

they had to turn in rough drafts of the three main ideas they had researched ( the body of their report).

Before students could “proof” their print and make changes to their carving …

they had to turn in the introduction and conclusion to their report.

Before students could make their final prints …

they had to turn in their final draft of their research report.

Part III Social Action

Once students had completed their research reports and prints they were asked to take part in a letter writing campaign.

Each student used their print to make a greeting card with the print on the front. They were then asked to identify a government official or business, which could help them address their issue. Students then wrote letters to their selected audience asking that action be taken based on their research findings,

Students were thrilled to get responses back from several individuals and businesses. They also helped to set up a “gallery display in the hallway, sharing their prints and issues with the rest of the school.

Assessment

The following rubrics were used to assess the student work:

Report Rubric

Each area below is assigned a value based on the following:

5 Superior

4 Above Average

3 Average

2 Below Average

1 Incomplete or Inappropriate

Focus

Information is focused on the report topic. All sections within the body of the paper support the general issue. The Introduction and Conclusion provide explanation of the general theme and lead the reader to action.

Support

Report shows evidence of research and study. Quotes are used to substantiate claims. Individual examples prove general statements.

Writing

Writing enhances the readability of the paper. Correct grammar, spelling and punctuation are used.

Content

Report is interesting and informative. Information is presented in a persuasive manner and encourages action by the reader. The reader learns about the topic area.

Organization

All elements are present in paper (Title Page, Table of Contents, Introduction, 3 Subtopic sections, Conclusion and Bibliography). All sections are organized to promote readability; providing an opening idea, supporting statements and a conclusion.

Print Rubric

Each area below is assigned a value based on the following:

5 Superior

4 Above Average

3 Average

2 Below Average

1 Incomplete or Inappropriate

Creativity

Project shows style and originality. Abstract ideas work together with realistic images.

Theme

Project is united with a general theme. Project conveys a message to its audience. Project shows evidence of information studied. Drawings work together to support the assigned topic.

Artistic Technique

Project is neat and attractive. Images are used together in a pleasing manner. Student experimented with technique

Focus

Project is complete and on-time. Project shows effort. All pictures support the main idea. Inclusions seem logical and appropriate.

Inquiry-Based Curriculum Unit Outline

Name:

School:

Subject/Grade:

Topic:

Academic Standards:

1. Activating Prior Knowledge

activities:

2. Building Background Knowledge

activities:

3. Developing Inquiry Question Focus:

activities:

4. Accessing Information

activities:

5. Analyzing and Organizing Information

activities:

6. Displaying Student Knowledge – Creating Student Knowledge Artifacts

technology artifacts:

arts artifacts:

7. Local Action Projects

project:

activities:

8. Assessment

activities: