Science Background:

A food chain is a simplified way to show the relationship of organisms that feed on each other. It’s helpful to classify animals in a simple food chain by what they eat, or where they get their energy.

Green plants, called producers, form the basis of the aquatic food chain. They get their energy from the sun and make their own food through photosynthesis. In the Great Lakes, producers can be microscopic phytoplankton (plant plankton), algae, aquatic plants like Elodea, or plants like cattails that emerge from the water’s surface.

Herbivores, such as ducks, small fish and many species of zooplankton (animal plankton) eat plants. Carnivores (meat eaters) eat other animals and can be small (e.g., frog) or large (e.g., lake trout). Omnivores are animals (including humans) that eat both plants and animals. Each is an important part of the food chain.

In reality, food chains overlap at many points — because animals often feed on multiple species — forming complex food webs. Food web diagrams depict all feeding interactions among species in real communities. These complex diagrams often appear as intricate spider webs connecting the species.

This lesson demonstrates that changes in one part of a food chain or web may affect other parts, resulting in impacts on carnivores, herbivores, and eventually on producers. An example of this might be the harmful effects of pollution. The point that should be made is that when something disrupts a food web, humans should try to understand and minimize the disturbance. Students should also come to recognize that humans, too, are part of this complex web of life.

Youth who participate in the art and essay stream can submit an art piece, essay, or other representation to express their vision of a reconciled Canada and what they hope others will learn from their submission.

Youth who participate in the project stream are asked to go one step further and submit a plan on how their project will address Reconciliation in their community or school.

Youth from select projects in both streams will be invited to participate in virtual leadership training exercises.

At the end of the school year, a national celebration will be held to honour up to twelve projects from the art and essay stream and up to fifteen projects from the project stream.

In this unit, students explore a variety of resources—texts, images, sounds, photos, and other artifacts—to learn more about the Holocaust. Beginning with journal writings and a picture book to introduce the central issues, the unit focuses on student-centered inquiry. Students explore a range of print and non-print resources through extensive online inquiry activities. Progressing from individual work to a group learning project, the unit culminates in publishing the group's findings in topic-based newspapers.

The lesson includes complete lists of picture books, read-aloud books, reference texts, and online sites and collections that allow teachers to customize the activities to fit the available resources and students' specific research interests.

"I’ve listed 100+ PBL ideas below to help get you started on the project-based learning journey. The ideas below that are hyperlinked will send you to the project that is already developed. Those that are not yet hyperlinked are some of our ideas for future projects. I can’t wait to share them out when they are finished. In the meantime, use them to get inspired and give you some ideas to start PBL with your students."

Project ideas are organized by Education Level, and the High School ideas are further organized by subject.

The following PPT talks about scheduling, co-teaching, choice boards, transfer of responsibility, PBL, project planning, and self-directed time at Kenaston school. (2018-2019 mentor reflection)

Access various journals, magazines, newspapers, cyclopedia, research resources, primary sources (History), age appropriate resources for inquiry and PBL, videos, games, and health and wellness resources!

Science Background:

The basis of how the balloon works is that warmer air rises in cooler air. This is because hot air is lighter than cool air as it has less mass per unit of volume. Mass can be defined by the measure of how much matter something contains. The actual balloon (called an envelope) has to be so large as it takes such a large amount of heated air to lift it off the ground. For example, to lift 1000 pounds worth of weight you would need almost 65,000 cubic feet of heated air! To help keep the balloon in the air and rising, hot air needs to be propelled upwards into the envelope using the burner.

Materials: lightweight kitchen garbage bags, timer, hair dryer with various speeds and temperatures, scissors, thread, extension cord, tape, other types and sizes of bags

Students create a theme park for the novel “Where the Red Fern Grows" using Makerspace. OR Students create a comic book that describes all of the sequential plot elements of the story. OR Students create a test using Quizlet or Kahoot that explores all the story elements.

Science Background: All organisms interact, and a key science concept for students to understand is that all organisms affect each other and are affected by each other. Getting rid of a certain species like mosquitoes disrupts the entire food chain, and this simulation allows them to start thinking about the ecosystem in a big picture way.

Materials: Pinnies or some other way of distinguishing teams, Large playing field, Timer

Fight Teacher Burn Out!!!!

Magic School AI has a chat bot similar to other popular AI sites, but what makes this site different is there are actually education-specific tools involved. MANY EDUCATIONAL TOOLS.

*You can even add specific Saskatchewan Outcomes (or other provinces/states) to many tools!

These include:
rubric maker
AI-resistant assignment suggestions
YouTube question generator
proofreader
conceptual understanding generator
science lab generator
student feedback tool
math spiral review generator *excellent for mastery learning and differentiation
unit planner
multi-step assignment generator
choice board creator
math story problems
exemplars and non-exemplars
vocab list generator
icebreakers
PBL generator
YouTube question generator
decodable text generator
teacher joke generator
text rewriter tool
diagnostic assessment generator
multiple choice quiz generator
coach's sports practice generator
informational text generator
data table analysis generator
e-mail family tool
3D science assessment generator
class newsletter tool
IEP suggestion generator
text translator tool
text dependent questions
reading quiz generator
common misconception generator
clear directions
text analysis assignment generator
text scaffolder tool
& more

& much more!

My goal for this year was to add math games to my repertoire of teaching strategies as part of my regular classroom routine. I looked at this as the first step to moving towards a guided math program. Also our PLT group was working on ways to increase the level of math fact knowledge in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The Saskatchewan Curriculum recognizes that “mental mathematics is a combination of cognitive strategies that enhance flexible thinking and number sense. It is calculating mentally and reasoning about the relative size of quantities without the use of external memory aids. Mental mathematics enables students to determine answers and propose strategies without paper and pencil. It improves computational fluency and problem solving by developing efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility.” I also wanted to increase opportunities for communication and collaboration. Some of my math games involved building, creating and problem solving. Others involved competition and cooperation. I created a brochure that highlighted the favorite games of the students and it also provides links where teachers can find these games.

Science Background:
Methane gas is lighter than oxygen gas, causing the methane bubbles to rise. This can be used to demonstrate that even though both gases are colourless and odourless, they are made of different substances and therefore have different masses and properties. The reaction is caused by the combustion reaction. Anytime a hydrocarbon such as methane is burned, the products are water and carbon dioxide.
Materials: Water, Splint, meter stick, tape, dish soap, Gas line with hose

Science Background: Substances like Silly Putty are part of a class of materials called polymers. Like other molecules, polymers are compounds, but they are large and may contain tens of thousands of atoms. Compare this, for example, to water, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen that contains three atoms. A good way to visual the difference between small molecules (like water) and polymers (also called macromolecules) is to think of the size difference between a crystal of salt (small) and a strand of spaghetti (larger and longer). Like the strand of spaghetti, polymers are long chains of molecules strung together. These strands can also be tangled up to create a giant mess of polymer chains.

"OK Go Sandbox is an online resource for educators that uses OK Go’s music videos as starting points for integrated guided inquiry challenges allowing students to explore various STEAM concepts."

Science Background:
When substances are mixed they may change state or they may change into a new substance completely. Students will observe changes in colour, temperature, volume, and state in this activity.
Materials: 50mL graduated cylinder, bromothymol blue indicator, 3 resealable bags, 2 spoons or scoopulas, baking soda, calcium chloride powder

This multigrade PBL unit, developed by Dani Vavra, outlines:

Protocol for unit
Details of the proposal
Outcomes from Life Transitions 20 and Health 9

This is a template students can use to create a plan of action for a project.

Resources include:
*What is PBL?
*Planning a Unit (forms for elementary, middle school and high school)
*6 As of PBL Design
*Structure of PBL
*Culture and PBL
*21st Century Skills
& More

PBL Peer Assessment
PBL Planning Forms
PBL Project Essentials Checklist
PBL Project Management Kit
PBL Project Planning and Management Tools
PBL Project Planning Forms
PBL Rubric for Project Design Evaluation
PBL Sample Rubrics
PBL Science 10 CR1 Chemical Reactions

This document offers an example of a peer assessment that could be used for a PBL project.