Research+for+the+21st+Century+-+Ignoffo

Belief Statement

When learning is designed to be flexible providing varied pathways for student understanding, engagement, and expression of learning it empowers students to develop the skills that will enable them to be lifelong learners. Students need to be trained to be flexible and take ownership of the learning process as the skills individuals need to be productive and successful in an ever-changing world constantly evolve.

When students are personally invested in a task they are naturally more engaged and more creative which leads to innovation. As we have seen in the last 20 years products and the way we accomplish tasks have dramatically changed due to rapidly changing technology. Facebook was the “giant” a few months ago and was nearly replaced by Twitter and Instagram virtually overnight; what will be the next “giant” and who will create it? How will everyday tasks such as boiling water be different or improved? The content is no longer the focus but a means to developing the 21st Century Skills essential to persisting in this ecosystem of rapid change. Flexible learners will be empowered to access credible information immediately, evaluate vast amounts of information efficiently, synthesize ideas, be innovative, and be prepared to fill jobs that do not currently exist.

Research is woven throughout the Common Core so my goal with fourth grade students will be to present an essential question and guide them toward innovation and away from regurgitation. Fourth graders study the economy, geography, political science, and history of the US regions throughout the year. In collaboration with the classroom teachers I will facilitate multiple mini research projects for each US region in which students answer the essential question of "How can we create a sustainable food source in light of the projection that the world's population will increase to 9 billion by 2050 and there will not be enough food to feed the world's population?"

 Objective
 * Students will research the current state of agriculture and synthesize ways to build sustainable food sources. They will creatively present their research (i.e. create an iMovie Public Service Announcement, a Glogster, or Wikispace for a new way to build sustainable food sources in their chosen region).

Pedagogical Framework

Students will:

>  including The Hungry Planet and What the World Eats by Peter Menzel to build schema on issues facing agriculture over the next 30 years.
 * Watch a BrainPop video - Fighting Hunger to build schema for Sustainable Food
 * Use nearpod to continue to build schema and begin to form questions that are being raised[[image:classroomecosystem/Picture1.png width="160" height="89" link="@https://docs.google.com/a/d303.org/forms/d/1ObA0rYspTgrFj9kGQ_cQIPa8D8hq_JNMTFn4T6tmoXo/viewform"]]
 * Respond to the survey entitled "How Do You Feel About Research?" and to the survey entitled "Now How Do You Feel About Research?" throughout your research.
 * Use Popplet on an iPad to brainstorm questions that are surfacing
 * research how food prices, consumption, food supply and demand, production, and distribution will impact agriculture over the next 30 years using the Building Sustainable Food Sources Website.
 * take notes, read multiple texts with increased text complexity using print and digital resources assigned by the teacher.
 * Analyze the different issues facing agriculture now and in the future.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">communicate and collaborate in their region groups while brainstorming, researching and discussing issues facing agriculture in the future. Data and hypotheses will be entered into a Google Doc to compile research and new ideas.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">use Edmodo to collaborate/blog with other students in their region group (i.e. all students researching the Midwest region) to share, gather, and synthesize information.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">present new ideas for building sustainable food sources, in an organized manner while speaking clearly at an understandable rate. Use the Oral Presentation Rubric and Research Rubric for assessment.