Tools, Media & Our Earth Home

Objectives

• D10.S1.04.01 Explain what it means to design a tool (making something to meet a need) and describe one step in designing.
• D10.S1.04.02 Compare two tools for the same job and say which works better and why for a given person or situation.
• D10.S2.04.01 Identify the author, purpose, and audience of a message and explain how they shape it.
• D10.S2.04.02 Check whether a simple claim is true by finding a second source and comparing them.
• D10.S3.04.01 Describe an ecosystem as living and nonliving parts that depend on each other, and name two of its parts.
• D10.S3.04.02 Explain the jobs of producers, consumers, and decomposers in an ecosystem, with an example of each.
• D10.S4.04.01 Explain what happens to trash after it is thrown away and name "reduce, reuse, recycle" in order of what is best to do first.
• D10.S4.04.02 Investigate how one human action, such as littering or planting, can help or harm a local place.

Essential questions

• How are tools designed, and how do I read a message's purpose and audience?
• How do living systems work, and how can I care for my place on Earth?

Big ideas

• Designing tools and checking claims against a second source help me think critically about the made world.
• Ecosystems, producers, consumers, and decomposers, and the reduce–reuse–recycle order, guide my care for the Earth.

Lessons

1. 1 Designing a Tool to Meet a Need 45 minutes
2. 2 Two Tools for One Job 45 minutes
3. 3 Author, Purpose, and Audience 45 minutes
4. 4 Check It With a Second Source 45 minutes
5. 5 An Ecosystem's Living and Nonliving Parts 45 minutes
6. 6 Producers, Consumers, and Decomposers 45 minutes
7. 7 Where Trash Goes — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle 45 minutes
8. 8 One Action — Help or Harm 45 minutes
9. 9 Our Care Message — Author, Purpose, Audience, and Checked Facts 45 minutes
10. 10 Our Earth Home — Design, Media, Living Systems, and Care 45 minutes

Assessment plan

Observation of design and media-reading; a tool comparison, a checked-claim note, an ecosystem diagram, and a "my action for a local place" record as portfolio artifacts.