Jennifer Dechaine: Using Soils, Systems, and Society at Central Washington University

Unit 1

• I introduced science relevance on the first day of class using the first four focus questions in Unit 1.
• We completed the Unit 1 discussion on the second day of the class by discussing locally relevant interdisciplinary societal issues and then applying these to Earth science and soils, mostly following the focus questions outlined in Unit 1. We completed a class societal issues table on the board as described. I also briefly introduced the Kit at this time. I did not hand out the assignment as described, but I talked about the major elements of the Kit and the field practicum so that I could continually relate their classroom experiences to these assignments over the quarter.
• Our team changed the homework and added the systems exercise after the pilot, so I did not include those. I plan to include them the next time I teach the course in the context of integration among subjects and the crosscutting concept, systems.

Unit 2

• I did not have time to include this in my pilot (and it was not in the first draft of the module). I plan to include this the next time I teach the course in the context of the science practice, using data in scientific argument.

• I set up stations 1, 3, 6, and 7, passed out three of the stations to groups of four students, and left station 1 out on an empty lab bench. Each group of students completed its station as a team, and each individual completed the described journal entries in her/his science notebook.
• I rotated the stations among groups, and groups completed station 1 if they were waiting. Each group finished station 1 and two other stations (three total) in one hour.
• During the work time, I walked among the groups facilitating their discussion of the journal entry questions.
• We discussed the described class discussion questions for the last 30 min of class.
• Our team added the systems exercise after the pilot so that was not included.

• I connected daily activities to the Soils, Systems, and Society Kit (Kit) and the teaching practicum throughout the course. For example, on the first day that they looked through the Next Generation Science Standards, they analyzed one of the fifth grade Earth systems performance expectations (5-ESS2-1), because I knew that they would be teaching fifth grade systems science. I also connected this standard to the soils content covered in our module.
• I officially assigned the Kit on the first day of week 6. I had to use my department's own lesson and unit plan format instead of the assignment we provide in our module so I would be consistent with other instructors for this course and our online assessment system (Livetext). Here are my lesson and unit plan assignments: Lesson Plan Template (Acrobat (PDF) 129kB Sep18 15) and Unit Plan Template (Acrobat (PDF) 77kB Sep18 15).
• Each day, for the next four class periods, I introduced a new essential aspect of lesson planning (e.g., writing learning objectives, academic language, etc.). Students would work on that in their groups on their Kits, and then they would have the rest of the time (~ 1 hr) to work on their Kits in general. I continually circulated the class, answering questions, checking common problem spots (known from my previous experience teaching this class) and guiding their work. I would stop the class for a brief discussion if multiple groups were struggling with the same issue.

• Students worked in groups of 4–5 on each Kit (three groups total). This year, my students would have time to teach one 30-min lesson at an outdoor camp and a second 30-min follow-up lesson back in the classroom to the same local fifth grade classrooms. Thus, I required them to plan three lessons as a teacher might around a field trip: pre-camp, camp, and post-camp. The cooperating teachers asked for lessons on stream systems, lake systems (water quality and lake systems), and organisms, so each Kit focused on one of these three big ideas. Students had freedom in designing lessons within each big idea. They had to include everything we discussed in the Kit assignment provided with our module, except the Kit could be broadly relevant to Earth systems and not directly include soil science content that we had covered in class.
• Each group turned in its Kit unit overview and complete camp lesson with all accompanying materials/handouts by the end of week 7.
• I gave them detailed feedback on these and met with each group at the beginning of week 8. Students revised their first lesson based on my feedback and taught it at the local elementary school's outdoor camp at the end of week 8.
• I reviewed their post-camp lesson at the beginning of week 9 and they taught it at the local elementary school at the end of that week.
• Each group turned in its final, revised unit overview and lessons at the beginning of finals week (week 11).