Engaged Learning Project Draft Template

Title of Project: It’s Warming Up!

Subject(s): Science
Grade Level(s): 1st grade
Abstract:
Three- or four-sentence description of your project and audience. Include a statement of what students will be doing. What
“adult/professional” role will they assume? How will the learning be situated in an authentic task?

In this Engaged Learning Project, students will be collecting weather data over a 1month period. Each day, students will act
as meteorologists and observe the current weather conditions as well as the temperature using a thermometer. This
information will be recorded in a weather journal, then transferred to a graph. Additionally, students will conduct online
research to find data for the temperature in Lilburn during March 10 years ago and 20 years ago in order to prove the
presence of global warming. Students will then research ways to prevent global warming and create posters to display
around the school to create awareness and inform others of ways they can help prevent global warming. At the end of the
project, students will video record themselves presenting the weather data they collected during the month of March as well
as the data they found during their research and ways in which we can prevent global warming. This video will be played on
the morning news show for the school to view. Finally, families and other members of the community will also be able to
see the posters and view this informative video during the school’s annual STEM night in an effort to encourage them to help
prevent global warming.

Learner Description/Context:
Characteristics of the learner and description of the learning environment(s) where the learning experience will take place.
Help others “see” your local context in order to determine if they can replicate it. Include culturally-influenced interests,
ways of learning, funds of knowledge that exist among students, parents and the community. Explain how these assets will be
used to strengthen the learning experience for students.

Arcado Elementary School is a public school located in Lilburn, a small town east of Atlanta, Georgia. Arcado Elementary
serves students from age 5-11 years old and supports several special education departments. Arcado is a diverse school made
up of approximately 31.6% Asian, 29.4 % Hispanic, 21.2% African American, 13.7% White, 3.7% of two or more races, and
0.3% American Indian students. Students come from various socioeconomic backgrounds and approximately 50.2% of
students receive free/reduced lunch. Student to teacher ratio is roughly 21:1 at the first grade level. My personal classroom
is made up of 8 girls and 12 boys. Eight of my students are ESOL and 3 have qualified for gifted services. Students are
provided either laptops or chromebooks at an almost 1:1 ratio, though this is not an official ratio.

Time Frame: How long will this learning experience take to complete and how much class time will be dedicated to the
learning experience during this time.

This Engaged Learning Project will take approximately 5 weeks. Over the first 4 weeks, students will take 10-15 minutes per
day to observe and record their data. On the final day of the 4 weeks, students will take an additional 15 minutes to transfer
their data from their journal to a graph. On day one of the 5th week, students will take 20 minutes to research and record the
same data for Lilburn in March 10 years and 20 years ago in order to note changes in the temperature over time. On day two,
students will spend 30 minutes researching and recording ways to prevent global warming. On day three, students will video
conference with a local meteorologist to share their findings and receive feedback. On day four, students will be allotted an
hour to create their poster and post them around school campus. On the last day, students would spend 30 minutes preparing
their data and global warming prevention tips that they will present in their video. Students will then have another 30 minutes
to practice and record their video to present and record this information.

Standards Assessed:
What local, state, and national standards have you addressed? (Include GA technology integration standards, local
technology standards, and/or ISTE NETS-S)

Primarily, the standards addressed will be in relation to science. Specifically, this project will address weather, including
types of weather and weather instruments.

4. obtain, evaluate, and communicate weather data to identify weather patterns

4a. collect, analyze and interpret data in tables and/or graphs to identify and describe different types of weather and the
characteristics of each type.
4c. plan and carry out investigations on current weather conditions by
observing and measuring with simple weather instruments (thermometer, wind vane, rain gauge)

Jo Williamson, Ph.D., Kennesaw State University

 Engaged Learning Project Draft Template
4d. plan and carry out investigations on current weather conditions by recording weather data (temperature, precipitation, sky
conditions, and weather events) in a periodic journal, on a calendar seasonally, and graphically

Learner Objectives: Write a statement of what students are going to know and be able to do as a result of this learning
experience and how it will be measured.

Students will be able to obtain, evaluate, analyze and communicate current and past weather data and patterns to peers and
members of the community.

Students will obtain and communicate ways to prevent global warming to peers and members of the community.

This will be measured using a rubric to assess their final products including graphs, posters, and video presentations.

The “hook” or Introduction:

A brief description of how the learning experience will be introduced to students and why the project “should” be
interesting/motivating to students.

Students will be introduced to this project as follows:

Have you noticed how the temperature starts to change during the month of March? Have you ever wondered if it has always
been the same? Over the next month, we are going to use our knowledge of different types of weather and weather
instruments to collect data about weather conditions and temperature and put this data into a graph to look for patterns. Then,
we are going to research to find the same data in Lilburn from 10 years ago and 20 years ago to see how our data is the same
or different from data back then. After that, we will learn about global warming and how we can prevent it. Last, we will
share what we have learned with the students of Arcado and families during our STEM night to help teach them what we can
do to prevent global warming.

Process:
The process is the way you structure the learning to engage students in the project/learning experience goals and objectives.
How are they going to accomplish the task? What are the students doing? What is the teacher doing? How are you assessing
the process of learning? How is the student directing the learning? A sequence of unfolding events is usually provided and a
timeline is often used.

Students will use an outdoor space at school to go to observe the weather as well as their thermometer. Prior to starting this
project, students will have had instruction on types of weather and weather instruments.

Week 1-4:

The students will observe current weather conditions and the thermometer to determine the weather and temperature each
day. Students will record their observations using a weather journal. At the end of week 4, students will use the data they
recorded and transfer this data to a graph.

The teacher will begin by modeling how to record daily weather conditions and temperature in a weather journal during the
first week. After the first week, the teacher can continue to guide and facilitate students in their data collection. At the end
of week 4, the teacher will provide students with a blank bar graph to be completed using data from their weather journal.
The teacher may model how to begin adding data to the graph.

Week 5:

During the online research portion of the project, the teacher will act as a co-learner/co-investigator as they guide the students
in research to find the temperature in Lilburn during the month of March 10 years ago and 20 years ago by investigating a
website together. Students will then record this information in their weather journal. The teacher will facilitate a discussion
to compare and contrast the weather and temperature today to this data from 10 and 20 years ago. Next, students will act as
explorers to find and record tips to prevent global warming in their science journals. The teacher will guide students to age
appropriate websites to find this information.

During the video conference with a local meteorologist the teacher may act as a guide and facilitator to introduce the class to
meteorologist and allow students to take charge of the conversation by sharing their data and findings on ways to prevent

Jo Williamson, Ph.D., Kennesaw State University

 Engaged Learning Project Draft Template
global warming. Students can also take on a leadership role in the conversation by asking the meteorologist questions about
their experiences in collecting and reporting weather data and their thoughts on global warming.

Students will take on the role of producer and teacher as they use their own data, research, and creativity to make a poster to
share the information they have obtained. During this time, the teacher will act as a facilitator, providing students with
materials to create their posters and observing and assisting students as needed.

Students will continue to act as a producer as they write their presentations for their video recording. The teacher may act as
either a guide or facilitator by providing an optional script with sentence starters students can use to outline their presentation
and input their own data and information from their research. The teacher may offer suggestions and pointers to help the
students conduct their presentation in manner appropriate for ‘on camera’.

Product:
What is the end-product the students will produce? Who will use/care about the product? Why will the product be
meaningful to students? How is technology integrated within this product? How will you assess the product?

Students will produce a final graph to display their data and show weather patterns. Students will also create posters and a
video recording to present their findings.

Students at the school as well as community members would find this data of interest. These products will prove the effects
of global warming and suggest what we can do to help prevent its continuation.

Technology is integrated with this product as students conduct online research and present their data by recording themselves
presenting this information. Technology is also integrated through video conferencing as students discuss their findings and
collaborate with a local meteorologist.

I would assess the product by first evaluating students’ data within their graphs. Then, I would use a rubric to assess the
students’ posters and video recordings of their data and research.

Technology Use: What technologies are critical to the project and how will they be used (examples: To communicate with
peers/mentors, to construct/publish original products, to analyze data, etc.) How does the proposed technology use in this
learning experience support the indicators of engaged learning?

In order to complete this project, students must have access to a device such as a computer, laptop, chromebook, tablet or
another similar device with internet access. Students will use their device to conduct online research of past weather patterns
and ways to prevent global warming. Students will also need a video conferencing program such as Zoom in order to
communicate with a local meteorologist. Last, students will need to be able to access video recording software in order to
create their video presentations.

This technology supports the indicators of engaged learning because they are used to create an authentic/meaningful
experience as students learn information through their online research and share this information with others outside of their
classroom using a video recording of their presentation. Furthermore, students will be able to share and receive insight from
a mentor through their video conference with a local meteorologist.

References and Supporting Material:

List materials that you used to develop this learning experience. List supporting materials that the instructor would need to
implement this learning experience. What would need to be made? (Rubrics? Videos? Samples? Books) Include links to
existing Web resources that a teacher would use to understand and implement this learning experience. (For example, if
students will be using the Little Kids Rock Website, include the URL somewhere in your template.) Use APA 6 Style.

Materials needed:

Science/Weather Journal
Thermometers
Blank bar graph
Computers
Poster boards
Markers
Video recording software
Jo Williamson, Ph.D., Kennesaw State University
 Engaged Learning Project Draft Template
Zoom application

Materials to be made:

Sample script for presentation of data and research information

Rubric to assess final product

Jo Williamson, Ph.D., Kennesaw State University