Students investigate open space and its importance for the well-being of living things. Students first explore what open space looks like and feels like. Then they investigate why plants, animals, and people need open space. Understanding the role of open space in animal survival helps students connect with the natural world and think critically about how humans and animals can coexist.
This sparks wondering about different ways people use open space and how students use open space in their own lives. Students explore an outdoor area to experience the benefits of open space, which sparks curiosity about the people who maintain and protect open space. The unit culminates with students creating action plans to care for open space at school. By identifying the interdependence of living things to healthy open spaces, this unit lays the foundation in later grades to understand how open spaces can combat the effects of climate change.
“The message that there are solutions to help us combat climate change and that people are working together to solve problems helped students stay in a place of curiosity; they didn’t show anxiety over the content.”
“From my students: ‘Thank you for teaching us this lesson because if you didn’t it would be bad for our environment.’ ‘This was awesome! Can you do more? Thank you!’ ‘Thank you for helping us in taking care of the environment.'”
“My kids have said, ‘Oh good, I like doing this,’ when we were starting the lesson each day. It’s a great topic. I also think it has made them more curious and do their own research.”
“WOW! What incredible and engaging lessons to do with my students. They loved this opportunity to be scientists, explore and think about the food they eat, and I loved the ways that they began to model. I am so excited about these lessons and cannot wait to share them with my coworkers.”
“I have learned ways to improve my teaching, and I have been at this for 38 years. The students are gaining a deeper understanding of what climate change is: what causes climate change, and the impact of climate change on crop yield.”
“Students really wanted to share their food traditions and look into how climate change might affect their food traditions.”
“I heard comments like, ‘I didn’t realize how much climate change affects my community,’ and, ‘This project made me think about what I can do to help.'”
“What I find interesting is that students are discussing the material outside of class time. I heard students discussing the ideas before class in the hallways and even during lunch periods.”
“When you’re out in the workforce, you’re trying to solve problems that don’t have a clear, immediate answer. So doing stuff like this helps give students practice.”
“The kids become more engaged because now they are actually actively doing things. They’re really having to look for themselves. It’s not given to them on a platter, but all the resources are right there.”
“They’ve never thought about stuff like this before, and now they’re sharing it. One girl said this was the only class that she went home and talked to her parents about.”
“Every lesson was so thoroughly designed, the case study design book was beautifully organized, and it helped to give my class a real-life understanding of how college/graduate-level academic research works. Being able to connect their research back to environmental issues they actually experience was simply icing on the cake. Well done!”
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