Student View:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Qfk4NyABnXng3xkArh1DEYqs_ZxnWLO
eEL-A63PuByg/edit?usp=sharing

Introduction/Overview:
Students will be answering the overall question, “how can we make a more
positive impact on the environment?” by learning about how human consumption of
limited resources affects the biosphere. Day one they will be learning about how to
identify an author’s claim as well as learning about the biosphere. Day two they will be
practicing their annotations in order to start to understand effects humans have on the
biosphere. Day three they will start to be able to understand the effects human
consumption is having and research ways we can limit that and make a more positive
impact on the environment. Day four they will create a presentation showcasing their
findings, and then day five they will be presenting this information in a gallery walk.

Here is a link to the student presentation where they will be following along day
by day. Your job will be to monitor the google forms at the end of the day if needed,
monitor emails, and then make sure everyone is able to submit their presentation on
day 5. Students will mainly be graded on completion, following the grading guidelines
set by the school and their department. Their summative assignment will be the
presentation at the end combined with peer feedback. This is a self-directed activity,
and students are expected to complete each component day by day. We have
implemented check-ins periodically in case students have any questions; they are also
welcome to email us any time.

Day 1

Compelling Question: How can we make a more positive impact on the environment?
Student View:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1NoiWCIni0NeCRwC-95K0mrc_hu7qAXQRKS6
00aQE8ok/edit?usp=sharing
Directions:
● Hook: Students will answer “what is your favorite thing about the
earth”? In a padlet, to get them thinking about the biosphere
● Activities:
○ Students will watch a video that teaches them the skills they
will need to make proper annotations
 ○ Students will then be directed to an article that explains how
the authors claim is built in an article
○ With the skills of annotations and finding the authors claim, we
will have the students read the article introducing them to the
Biosphere
○ Using a specific format, students will use annotation
strategies to highlight the author’s main idea, and supporting
details of the article
○ Students will highlight the key vocabulary words that is
meaningful to the article, or words that confuse them
○ Students will use their annotations to write a short summary of
the authors claims and post it on a jamboard.
○ Finally, with the Jamboard, students will make one
complement and one constructive criticism on their peers
post.
● Closing: Students will post all of their annotations and cornell notes
to the google forum for proof of their work. Students will use the
online flash game OrbFarm, which allows them to see in real time
how the biosphere interacts with each other. They will also complete
a Google Form showcasing all of their information.

Standards:
ELA: 8.RI.1 Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what
the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
ELA: 8.RI.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the
course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective
summary of the text.
Biology: 8.E1U3.8 Construct and support an argument about how human consumption
of limited resources impacts the biosphere.

Objectives: The students will be able to

- Identify the author’s claim in the introduction to the biosphere article
- Classify three supporting details that support the author’s claim

Plan: We want students to be introduced to the biosphere, biosphere article and

practice annotations.

Day 2
Compelling Question: How can we make a more positive impact on the environment?
Student View:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Io9oAMdTrQJ_ZbPMvACYc3Izb4ZFvl4g1EWf
9mv1Osk/edit?usp=sharing
Directions:
● Activities:
○ Students will start with a small quick write that recaps their
lesson from yesterday. Using the R.A.C.E.S format on the
padlet
○ Students will follow my think aloud video about finding
credible resources, with the checksheet modeled
○ Students will use the source after the think aloud video for
more resources for finding credible resources, such as the
C.R.A.P
○ The Frayer model will break down the definition of “credibility”
and its synonyms. The Frayer model also demonstrates
credibility with showing credible, and non-credible sources

Standards:
TESOL: 8.L.2 Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English
capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.a. Use punctuation (comma,
ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break.b. Use an ellipsis to indicate an omission.c.
Use correct spelling
ELA: 8.RI.2 Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the
course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective
summary of the text.
ELA: 8.W.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using
search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote
or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and
following a standard format for citation.
Biology: 8.E1U3.8 Construct and support an argument about how human consumption
of limited resources impacts the biosphere.

Question: How can we find reliable sources for research projects?

Objectives: The students will be able to
- Illustrate the authors’ main points of the article and their own thoughts using
annotative strategies
- Construct a summary of the impact of human influence on the biosphere using
the R.E.C.C. or R.A.C.Es format
 - Use a frayer model to understand how selecting relevant sources will be
important to their research.

Plan: Students will practice their annotations using at least three strategies in the
video, and construct a summary of the article with less than eight grammatical
errors. This will be a graded formative assessment. The Think allowed - related
to selecting credible sources.

Day 3
Compelling Question: How can we make a more positive impact on the environment?
Student View:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1GT9qdlcoZwRr1riQ7x4wJlER2OtxwRLuVqmL
qiINIIc/edit?usp=sharing
Directions:
● Activities:
○ For the first activity, students will be using a vocabulary
graphic organizer in order to expand their knowledge of
prefixes and suffixes and share the copy with their teacher
○ Students will then follow along with a think-aloud and be
asked to do annotations on a biosphere article that they are
assigned based on their last name
○ After finishing their think-aloud sheet, then students will then
take a carbon footprint quiz in order to figure out their impact
on the environment
○ Students will then pick an environment topic based on their
answer to the footprint quiz and be able to come up with a
research topic
○ Students will then start to fill out their research graphic
organizer using their knowledge of selecting credible sources
○ Students will complete their graphic organizer and then fill out
a google form as proof of completing the day’s assignments
Standards:
TESOL: 8: I-1: Gather information from print and digital resources to answer questions.
ELA: 8.W.7: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a
self‐generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related,
focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
ELA: 9-10.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade‐ specific
expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)
ELA: 9-10.W.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development,
organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
Biology: 8.E1U3.8 Construct and support an argument about how human consumption
of limited resources impacts the biosphere.

Objectives: The students will be able to

- Formulate effective research questions for a specific topic
- Locate one primary and two other relevant sources related to their research
question.

Plan: The students will be expanding their knowledge of important root words
through a quick graphic organizer activity. Think allowed- They will be reading
one of these three articles (one, two, three) and practicing annotations on that.
Then we will have students find out their carbon footprint. From that, they will
come up with a research question of what they are wanting to focus on. We want
them to find at least three credible sources.

Day 4
Compelling Question: How can we make a more positive impact on the environment?
Student View:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1oExtaqYFIdAvoGlxYC9jhXvtkU0PaxQYZ_7IMT
bEu1I/edit?usp=sharing
Directions:
● Activities:
○ Students will create an infographic account for their presentation
format
○ Students will create an infographic about their research topic, and
following the required directions for the presentation. They can
follow the model examples given
■ Nine facts with three sources
■ Creative, using pictures about the topic
■ Answers the overarching question
■ Neat, information is clear to read
○ Students will create a Screencast-O-Matic or Loom account to
make a screen recording presentation of their Infographic
○ Students will create a 3-5 minute presentation summarizing their
information of their topic, highlighting their research and facts
 ○ The vocal presentation will include a proposal, call to action to
have a step forward for leaving a positive impact on the
environment
○ Students will email a link to their screen recordings to Ms. Yursi
and Mr. Christian when they are finished

Standards:
Biology: 8.E1U3.8 Construct and support an argument about how human consumption
of limited resources impacts the biosphere.
ELA: 8.W.8: Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using
search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote
or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and
following a standard format for citation.

Objectives: The students will be able to

- Cite supporting evidence accurately (and without plagiarism)
- Design a presentation that accurately displays their claim on how we can make a
more positive impact on the environment.
- Record a video or voiceover of their presentation.

Plan: Students will be filling out a graphic organizer regarding their research.
Students will be designing a poster, presentation, infographic, slideshow along
with a recorded video of their research topic that has one main idea (claim) and
three supporting details.

Day 5
Compelling Question: How can we make a more positive impact on the environment?
Student View:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1pz4A7Hi6L4_GryC5F6TzUmzCQ6cWSYWOUX
gzHGpeXvo/edit#slide=id.g8a115ce01b_0_34
Directions:
● Activities:
○ This will be the students final day of the project. Before this day,
teachers will make sure that all students have an appropriate,
working presentation link that they emailed
○ Students will be clicking on the map of the museum, where the
teacher will have sorted them based on their category in days prior,
when their research topic had been decided.
 ○ The teacher will have created rooms prior to Day 5 for students, so
that the students will be able to link their presentation to an
appropriate picture posted on the gallery walk
○ Students will be completing a peer review sheet during the “gallery”
walk and will be reviewing the presentations as people post them.
■ All presentations should be posted within the first ten minutes
of class that day
■ If not, we will post them for the students
Standards:
TESOL: 8.SL.4: Present claims and findings, emphasizing salient points in a focused,
coherent manner with relevant evidence, sound valid reasoning, and well‐chosen
details; use appropriate eye contact, adequate volume, and clear pronunciation.
Biology: 8.E1U3.8 Construct and support an argument about how human consumption
of limited resources impacts the biosphere.

Objectives: The students will be able to

- Present their findings on how they can make a more positive impact on the
environment.
- Critique Peers research, and appraise, and offer constructive input to their
findings
- Hypothesize the steps forward to leaving a positive impact on the environment

Plan: Each student will share their completed presentation and be peer-reviewed
by other students through a gallery walk. Each presentation should have a claim,
three supporting details and answer the overall question on what resource we
can cut back on in order to make a more positive impact on the biosphere.