5th Graders Become Environmental Consultants

Here are some great examples of learning about resources in the 5th grade  IB unit Sharing the Planet. Students learned about resources by exploring the central idea, “Using and conserving resources alters our relationship with communities and environments.” At the end of the unit, students were given a problematic situation they had to solve.  They became consultants for fictional communities and were asked to evaluate the use of resources in that community.  They looked for strengths and weaknesses and then developed an action plan to help the community move forward in an environmentally responsible way. These are examples of students looking at resources that are used in everyday products, researching and organizing our information in Kidspiration and Prezi, writing letters to companies to gather information on their impact and choices, and creating and action plan for a community.