Curriculum+Reviews_Trishala

Curriculum Review #1 Trishala Chaudhary Source: []

AirNow created this curriculum. It consists of multiple games which can be played so that students can learn more about the air quality index, and air pollution in general.

 It is a governmental organization which strives to provide information about forecasts and air quality conditions in US and Canadian locations. They also offer programs for schools, organizations to use colored flags to indicate daily air quality conditions. They also offer portals to state and local researchers to submit and track air quality data.

There are two major games offered by AirNow. The learning outcome of the first game is to understand what different colors represent on the AQI range. The game opens with a screen that asks the user to select which difficulty level they prefer. Each level is structured slightly different. The easy level just asks the users to match up colors to their description. The hard level provides AQI numbers and instructs users to match them up to the corresponding color. In addition to teaching about AQI levels, the easy level can be beneficial for students who would like to practice reading.

While the game attempts to provide an engaging method which can teach students about the AQI, it misses its goal. Although the user would be able to walk away with the understanding of what different colors on the AQI scale represent, it is not a game that would be interesting to play repetitively. For younger children, the curriculum would be effecting in teaching them to identify what different colors represent if they see them out in public. However, older students have already developed an intrinsic sense to know that green is good, yellow is moderate, and red is bad.

The second game is titled “AQI Game Show.” Personally, it seems to be more entertaining than the color game. The target audience could be fifth graders or younger. Users are asked questions such as “what is the health word for a green day?” and presented options to choose from. As they get questions correct, they are able to earn points. The benefits of this game are that it has a vast pool of questions so they are not repetitive. Additionally, users can lose 5 points a question if they get them wrong- this allows for more competitive students to enjoy playing the game because they can try to beat their score, or their friend’s score.

The EcoEd learning goals that this curriculum satisfied are bolded in the list given below. 3.) Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving. 5.) Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed. 6.) Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention. 7.) Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems. 8.) Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism. 9.) Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events.
 * 1.) Understanding of their own health and wellbeing as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2.) Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">4.) Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society. **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">10.) Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Although this curriculum only satisfied four of the ten goals, it was still an excellent teaching tool. A tool functions as a device that is used to aid an individual in accomplishing their ultimate goals, and this module does just that. It is a fantastic supplement to whatever lesson plan the teacher creates. It will not function as a standalone unit, but can be a method to keep the students’ attention to deviate from the monotone of normal scheduling.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order to meet additional EcoEd goals, additional games should be added. One major aspect that was missing was the inclusion of complex thinking. This refers to factors that influence what they are told about environmental problems, and the ability to conceptualize complex causation without extreme fear.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">In order to understand both of aforementioned goals, students could select a town to study. If possible, they could try to contact local residents and research how information that they were told in the education system differs from knowledge they themselves were being instructed. At the end of the project, students would act as researchers and prepare a formal paper as well as create a presentation for the class. They would showcase the discussions they had with residents and the differences and irony they found. To prevent students from experiencing paralyzing fear, they should be provided a list of communities in which conditions are improving. This way, they will be able to conclude their research with methods that are succeeding in their efforts to improve committees. The children will be able to analyze complex methodologies of large corporations and their influence on community education, as well as potential solutions to these difficult situations individuals experience.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Curriculum Review #2

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trishala Chaudhary

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Source: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> This module is created by University of California, Berkeley. It provides numerous lesson plans that can be utilized by elementary school teachers to teach about water pollution to elementary school children.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The curriculum is developed by a program titled SEED- Students for Environmental Energy Development. It consists of a group is Berkeley students and community members who strive to educate public school students about energy use and conservation. SEED also hosts an Energy Fair on campus for elementary and high school students to share semester long projects.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> SEED is the brainchild of BERC, The Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative- a group of students, professors, and professionals who are trying to change the world by tackling energy and environmental challenges. Overall, BERC is utilizing SEED as a tool to raise awareness to students about real issues that professionals in the energy sector face. Through the water curriculum, they are striving for students to be able to accomplish small scale and long term goals. Small scale goals include identifying water cycles and learning key terms. Long term skills include relating coming up with solutions to food/water availability issues and pairing health issues with water supplies.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The curriculum is structured such that it’s extremely easy to use. It is organized in four modules: Water Cycles, Availability and Scarcity, Environmental and Health Effects, and Uses. What makes the SEED lesson plans so great are a multitude of reasons. First of all, educators are provided with estimated times for each teaching section. Secondly, is the structure of the curriculum. Each module is sectioned up into teaching sections and student engagement activities. Sample scripts are provided for educators to use if guidance is needed. Quiz grading schemes are also suggested (whether it should be graded a certain week or used as a benchmark, etc). Additionally, worksheets are also provided for in class activities or homework.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The curriculum does a fantastic job at accomplishing it’s goals. The website states that:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">“Overall Objectives, students will be able to:


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Identify how habits relate to food/water consumption/environmental impacts
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Propose solutions to food/water availability issues
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understand general/specific water cycles
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Name dangerous substances/pollutants in water
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Identify health issues with water supply
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Define key terms
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Evaluate how food relates to environmental resources”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Each one of these goals is met by the modules. As teachers progress through the lessons (there are thirteen in total), students are taught to be more aware of the problems impacting water today. They are exposed to aquifer education, what pollution is, and sand filtration and distillation labs. Not only that, but they are presented how pollution can get into water through leaching and runoff, and how to identify pollutants. They are taught the negative impacts of the water shortages that can be caused by polluted water. They are even exposed to how current wastewater treatment plants work. And all this material is a fraction of the total education they would have on water pollution.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The EcoEd learning goals that this curriculum satisfied are bolded in the list given below.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">1.) Understanding of their own health and wellbeing as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2.) Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">3.) Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">4.) Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">5.) Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">6.) Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">7.) Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">8.) Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">9.) Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">10.) Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Quite honestly, this curriculum does a fantastic job at touching upon most of the goals advocated by EcoEd. Although it would be hard to get more comprehensive in the curriculum, the one topic lacking from SEED that EcoEd stresses is the inclusion of relating how governments or corporation can falsify or severely bias information to meet their agenda. The students can be shown a short video on how big businesses (i.e. oil) in locations such as Houston can push extremely biased information about pollution. At their young age, students should not be too exposed to how powerful organizations can bias information that they are presented because we do not want to paralyze them with fear. For everything else, this curriculum covers the majority of what students should be exposed to at their age on the topic of water pollution.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Curriculum Review #3

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trishala Chaudhary

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Source: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Children’s Forest of Central Oregon (I will abbreviate it as CFCO for the sake of convenience) created this curriculum for those interested in taking students from kindergarten to first graders on a field trip to a children’s forest. CFCO is an organization that strives to create curriculum kits for field experiences in central Oregon. For this age group, CFCO is hoping to have students practice characteristics of plants and animals.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Children’s Forest of Central Oregon tries to provide the experience of playing and exploring in nature to all children. To attempt to achieve this, they offer teachers curriculum kits with resources to provide students field experiences.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">For this specific module, CFCO has a few educational goals. First, they want to be able to allow students in interact and explore the outside, natural world. They also want students to be able to apply what was learned in class to real-world examples found in nature. Students are also encouraged to improve their data collection skills, and get increased physical activity and fresh air.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The curriculum does a fantastic job at accomplishing its self-designated goals. It begins with a timeline for the teacher, even outlining when the park and bus rentals should be reserved. It reminds the teacher to compile a list of medical issues with the school nurse, send home permission slips and send out invites for parent chaperones. Educationally, students will start discussing the subject matter a few days before the trip. They can even receive a list of questions to answer during the field experience. One important things students should be made aware of is to “leave nothing but footprints, and take nothing but pictures.”

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">During the trip, the module provides numerous activities that can be conducted with students. The Observation Skills sections includes games such as Owl Eyes, Deer Ears, or Fox Walk. These exercises not only encourage students to increase their sensory skills, but also allow them to be more aware of how different animals use their senses to navigate their surroundings. Life Cycle of a Tree involves asking students questions if trees are alive then mimicking their life stages from seed to mature with their bodies. In My Plant, students are encouraged to find a plant and write/draw as many details as they can about it- size, color, texture, etc. Tables are provided to help keep students organized. Oh Deer! is a game that helps teach about deer habitats and lifestyles

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overall, this curriculum accomplishes all the goals it set out to accomplish. Students were given a chance to explore the natural world. Through the games and activities they would complete in the forest, they were provided a real-world application for their studies. They kept charts and tables, thus increasing data collection skills. Lastly, they were definitely able to run around and breathe in the nature for a few hours.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">The EcoEd learning goals that this curriculum satisfied are bolded in the list given below.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">1.) Understanding of their own health and wellbeing as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2.) Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">3.) Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">4.) Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">5.) Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">6.) Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">7.) Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">8.) Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">9.) Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">10.) Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Because of their young age, it is hard for students between five and seven years old to be able to understand a lot of the EcoEd goals. This is why only very few goals were met. As the students age, they will be exposed to more of the goals through various lesson plans in the future. The only other thing that could be incorporated is the detrimental effect of hunting animals or deforestation. If presented in a gentle way, it will serve as appropriate, educational content for young children. Due to this tender age, though, I feel as though the students should not be forced to satisfy

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Curriculum Review #4

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trishala Chaudhary

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">Source: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">[]

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Texas Connections Academy at Houston (TCAH) is an online public school for third graders to seniors. They work in conjunction with the Houston Independent School District and follow the procedures and guidelines of the Texas Electronic Course Program.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> TCAH strives to gently nudge students into blossoming into productive, successful and confident adults. They want students to be able to build on individual strengths in a safe setting that can connect them to the larger community. All services and materials are offered with no fees to parents. Each student is first evaluated to see what strengths and weaknesses they have. That way, curriculum can be tailored to suit them in a personalized method. Overall, beyond academics, TCAH hopes that students can increase socialization and friendships. To accomplish this, LiveLesson sessions (opportunities to share ideas and experiences through a webcam) are offered, as well as in person gatherings and activities.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Overall, the goals that TCAH sets out to fulfill are met. TCAH offers curriculum broken up into different age groups. For this review, the fifth grade section was evaluated. In this module, subjects are broken up with their respective curriculum. One thing that is evident is the emphasis on certain courses over others. At the fifth grade level, students should be able to get immersed in science, because they are intellectually capable to comprehend subject matter. However, there are only two subsets under the science subject, just as many as Chinese and Social Studies. This may be due to the fact that oil companies play such a big part in biasing Houston education. Other than this, the curriculum does a solid job at providing an education, even an advanced module should students want it.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> The EcoEd learning goals that this curriculum satisfied are bolded in the list given below.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">1.) Understanding of their own health and wellbeing as shaped by an array of both proximate and far-off causes. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">2.) Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">3.) Understanding of different scientific disciplines and medical specializations, aware that they rely on diverse methods, produce many types of knowledge, and are ever evolving. **


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">4.) Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">5.) Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">6.) Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">7.) Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">8.) Capacity to recognize and productively deal with diverse perspectives, avoiding the paralysis often produced by insistence on “balance” and “consensus,” leveraging heterogeneous collectivity and epistemological pluralism.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">9.) Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events.


 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;">10.) Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action. **

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Certain goals of EcoEd are met. A big issue that is imperative to Houston is the fact that most communities are located in kill zones due to the oil factories. Obviously, fifth graders should not just be told this. However, fifth graders should be taught how detrimental oil factories are. They should be exposed to this information alongside the fallacies of fracking and mining, etc. There should be a prominence on this oil production because it affects their lives and communities so much. This can be taught through simple lesson plans that start when the students are in third grade, and keep building up through high school. It is a massive issue that cannot be resolved in a day, but the more informed students, the future leaders, become, the better their community can evolve.