Our Natural World
OVERVIEW
This Grade 4 interdisciplinary unit plan engages students in the research, design and construction of a re-naturalized garden area on school grounds that reflects the different climate zones of Alberta and educates the school community about how Indigenous peoples of Alberta interacted and utilized the flora they found around them. This project embeds many concepts from the Alberta Program of Studies including Science, Math, Social Studies, English Language Arts and Fine Arts.
Taking the time to include an Indigenous perspective and make a clear connection between the Science unit “Plant Growth and Changes” and the Social Studies unit “Alberta: The Land, Histories and Stories” has made this inquiry-based unit plan more meaningful and relevant to the student’s lives outside the classroom. It allows students to realize that in the real world, professionals are constantly utilizing knowledge and skills from multiple disciplines and subject areas.
ESSENTIAL QUESTION
Why are plants important to the natural environment and humans?
AUTHENTICITY
The task is authentic in that it involves effecting a real-world change to the students’ environment that will create relationships among and benefit the whole community (Alberta Education, 2018, p. 4). At the same time, it will give the students the opportunity to learn about the environment in accordance with the POS (Learn Alberta, 1996). The task is based around research, design and construction or implementation, which connects abstract, school-based work to real-world application. This abstract-to-application aspect was where our group members’ varied backgrounds and the collaborative process really came into play. Deep knowledge from each of our disciplines came together in a synergistic process to provide connections and ideas to diverse disciplinary activities in order to create something more.