Trishala+Chaudhary

Curriculum Reviews _Trishala Exam 1_Trishala **Curriculum Innovation 1 **  **Trishala Chaudhary **

Topic: Renewable Energies Ages: 9-11

Introduction In order to be an educated citizen of tomorrow’s society, students today must be taught the importance of renewable energy sources. No more can we blindly depend on coal mining, deep sea oil rigs, and hydrofracking. To be a well-rounded citizen, students should know about alternative sources of energy. This is what this lesson focuses on teaching through projects, experiments and discussion.

Literacy Goals:
 * Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects.
 * Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society
 * Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed
 * Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention
 * Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems
 * Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events
 * Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action

Part One: Introduction Estimated time: 10 minutes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discussion questions:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pose the question to students about what energy is. Have them independently write what they think the answer is.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask them where today’s energy comes from. Ask them to write any other forms of energy they may know beyond oil or gas.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Come back as a big group and share answers.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part Two: Solar Energy and S’mores <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 3 hours <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Preface: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Materials: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Procedure (taken from scientificamerican.com): <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discussion questions:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask students what solar energy is.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Do any of them know how a solar oven works?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does the sun’s energy run out?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pizza box (that is cleaned out and empty)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pencil or pen
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Aluminum foil
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Glue
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Plastic wrap
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Black paper
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sunny day
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ingredients for S’mores!
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Graham crackers
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Chocolate
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Marshmallows
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Utility knife
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">On the top of the pizza box's lid, draw a square that is about one inch inward from each edge.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Get an adult's help to use a utility knife (and the ruler as a straightedge) to carefully cut along each side of the square you just drew except for the side that runs along the hinge of the box. Cut all the way through the cardboard on those three sides of the square. Then fold the flap back slightly along the attached side.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Line the inside of the cardboard flap with aluminum foil. Fold the edges of the foil over the flap to help hold the foil in place and glue the foil onto the flap. Keep the foil as smooth as possible.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cover the opening made by the flap (in the lid) with a layer of plastic wrap. Attach the plastic wrap to the opening's edges using shipping tape or black electrical tape. Make sure there are no holes in the plastic wrap and that all of its edges are completely attached to the lid.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Line the inside of the box with aluminum foil so that when you shut the box the entire interior is coated with foil. It is easiest to do this by covering the bottom of the box with foil and then covering the inside part of the lid (going around the plastic-covered opening) with foil, too. Glue the foil in place.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Glue or tape a sheet of black paper to the bottom of the box, centered there. This will act as your solar oven's heat sink.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lastly, use a wooden skewer or pencil (and some tape) to prop the solar oven's lid up, at about a 90-degree angle from the rest of the box.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Leave the solar oven outside on a sunny day
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">After the oven has been sitting in the sun for a few hours, take out your ingredients and try to cook up some s’mores!
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What do you think the purpose of this foil is?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why do you think it's important to make sure the plastic wrap completely seals the lid's opening?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How do you think black paper will help cook your food?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Does the oven get very warm? How does this compare to a real oven?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How do you think the oven will work on a hot day versus a cloudy one?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part Three: Wind Energy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 1 hour <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Preface: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Materials: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Procedure: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discussion:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What is wind energy?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have you seen turbines before? What are wind turbines?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Will the wind ever run out?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Toothpicks
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Clay
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Index Cards
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Straws
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Fan
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">RPM monitor
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This is a fun competition!! Tell the students that this is a competition to see who can create the most efficient wind turbine. In order to so, they must create wind turbines with the highest rotations per minute. This is all the instruction they are getting!
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Give the students approximately 30 minutes to construct and test their turbines.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the end of this time frame, assign a winner.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pause for a discussion on what strategies were effective.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Assign students partners and give them another 15 minutes to implement some strategies that were discussed. Assign a winning group.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Break into discussion.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What worked well in the activity?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Why did some people have different blade numbers than others?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What blade shapes worked well? Why do you think this was?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How do turbines look in the real world versus the ones we made? (At this point it is recommended to show pictures of real turbines)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Show a picture of a wind farm) Does anyone know what this is? What do you think of how it looks?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What are the benefits of wind farms? Negatives? Do the positives outweigh the negatives?

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Curriculum Innovation 2 **

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Trishala Chaudhary **

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Topic: Overpopulation

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ages: Students 5-7

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Introduction

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Overpopulation is a major crisis facing Earth’s population today. Due to increasing individuals, we are facing energy crises, increasing air pollution issues, food shortages, economic disparities, and poor living situations. Students are not exposed to this massive problem early enough in their educational careers. Through games, thought provoking activities and discussions, children can be exposed to this multi-layered issue at a younger age.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Literacy Goals:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Having creative info-seeking practices, animated analytic capabilities, and a capacity to narrate complex chains of events
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to recognize the multitude of factors influencing what they are told about environmental problems
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of how their own actions have an array of proximate and far off effects.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of potential for change, and of alternative ways of doing things and organizing society
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to conceptualize complex causation, without being paralyzed
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Understanding of the challenges and value of deliberation and cooperative action
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Capacity to use empirical understanding of complex causation to identify specific points of intervention

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part 1: What do YOU think?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 15 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Give each student a half sheet of paper. Ask them to write down what they think overpopulation is.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> Expected Answers:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Lots of people
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Population is rising
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">I don’t know (this is an acceptable answer!)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask them to add on what they think issues that are created by overpopulation are. Many students may not know what to write, so after approximately 2 minutes of thinking time, ask them to break into groups and discuss their thoughts. After 3minutes of group discussion, come back together and lead the class in a discussion of the problem at hand. Define what overpopulation actually is and explain some of its consequences. Students will later participate in activities to really understand the severity of overpopulation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part 2: Does everyone have a home?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 20 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Objective:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This activity will focus on the implication of housing shortages due to overpopulation. It will help students practice simple subtraction and addition skills as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Materials:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1 di
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">A white board or poster board or chalkboard
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cut outs of little kids/babies

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Procedure:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask the students to raise their hand if they live in a house. Obviously, they all will. Ask questions such as “your house is nice, isn’t it?” or “what do you like most about your house.”
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have the students stand up. Tell half to go to one end of the room and find a partner. Have them hold hands and lift their arms up (to create a “house”).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tell each pair of children that they are a “home” and they can fit 4 people. (This number can be altered as seen fit).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask the remaining students to line up. They are the “moms” and “dads.” Have them roll the di. The number they roll are the number of kids they have.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">After one student rolls the di, tell them to find a home for their family. If the whole family does not fit, ask the student to use subtraction to determine how many children do not have a home.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Continue this until all the students in the line have families. Keep recording how many kids and families do not have a home.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">At the end, count up how many people do not have homes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Repeat multiple times as seen fit.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discussion Questions:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask the students what was sad about the activity. Guide them to realize that not everyone was able to have a home.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tell students that this is happening on the Earth because some people have larger families, and because we have too many people.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask them what we can do for people without homes.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have a discussion about anything else that seems relevant or may have been mentioned by students throughout the exercise.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part 2: Can everyone have food?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 20 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Objective:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Increase awareness in students about the food shortages that are a result of overpopulation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Materials:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cookies or candy (in less quantity than there are students in the class)
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Optional) A treat for everyone after the activity

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Procedure (assuming there are 25 students in one class):


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Start with 5 students sitting at a desk. Distribute 10 cookies between them.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Have an extra 5 children join. Tell the original 5 to split their cookies and share with them.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Allow the next five to join the group, and tell the first 10 to split their cookies with the next bunch (the best they can).
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Introduce the next five (bringing the total to 20). Continue as previously stated.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Let the last 5 students to join their peers. At this point, it will be hard to share the cookies between everyone.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (Optional) To demonstrate the effect of some groups of people having more food access than others, start two groups. Have one group of 10 and one of 15. Give the group of 10 seven cookies to begin with, and the group of 15 three cookies. Have both groups start with 5 people (like this activity was conducted) and add 5 as it continues.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Break into discussion. (Optional: distribute treats for everyone at this point).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discussion Questions:


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask students what they liked about the activity. What did they dislike?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What was annoying about the activity?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discuss with them whether they were happy with how much cookie they received as more people joined the activity.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">How does this apply to real life?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">What can be done to allow people to have more food?
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Make sure that someone answers about starting with more food.
 * § <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Discuss why making more food is hard.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">(Optional) If you feel the class is mature enough, discuss why different socio-economic classes have access to more food than others. Discuss frustrations the group of 15 had versus the group of 10.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part 3: What did we learn?

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Estimated time: 10 minutes

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask students to write down what they think overpopulation is again. Talk about what they learned and may have added to their sheets as compared to earlier. Ask them to think outside the box and come up with some other problems that are a result of too many people (i.e. deforestation due to an increased need of materials, climate change, etc.). Use your discretion to delve into the issue as deep as seen fit. Congratulate all the students on their hard work for the day.