The Biodiversity Storyline was commissioned by Gwinnett Clean and Beautiful for use by the teachers and students of Gwinnett County Public Schools.
Welcome to GREAT Project Storyline exploring Biodiversity!
At each step, you'll have a chance to make choices while creating your own science adventure. By the end of the journey, you will design and conduct a project to solve a real-world problem.
The Power is Yours!
Working in small Investigation Teams, students will:
- Gather data by testing, measuring, monitoring or modelling the phenomenon
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- Outcome: contribute data to a community science project
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- Reason and analyze data to find evidence for a claim about the phenomenon
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- Outcome: identify a related problem in the schoolyard
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- Explore, gain expertise, cultivate empathy, engineer a working model, and examine a case study
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- Outcome: explore similar real-world problems and solutions
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- Act to solve a to real-world problem by applying knowledge and assessing effectiveness
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- Outcome: design and carry out a class project
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- Teach an authentic audience about the project
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- Outcome: document the project so that it can be replicated by others
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BIODIVERSITY STORYLINE
The Biodiversity Project Storyline will take you on an adventure to explore your school yard or garden and determine whether it is healthy and diverse.
After deciding what data to collect, you will design and carry out an investigation. This will probably include conducting tests or making observations, collecting data, and then analyzing results and making sense of your findings.
If you identify a problem with biodiversity in the schoolyard, you can explore further by reading case studies, designing and carrying out investigations, thinking of possible solutions, making a model, or engineering a solution.
Teams of students will propose projects to improve the biodiversity and health of the schoolyard. When your class selects a project to do together, you will plan and carry it out, measure the outcomes, reflect on whether it made a difference, and teach others how you did it.
Portfolio
Your Portfolio will serve as both journal and scrapbook as you navigate the GREAT Project Storyline on Biodiversity.
If you have a Google account, you can download the Portfolio to your Drive and save it with a title that includes your name (such as Zalia's Biodiversity Project Portfolio). It can also be saved in another format, such as Word.
Print your portfolio so you can take it outside and write in it, or use it as a digital file that you can edit and save. There is a section in the Portfolio corresponding to each part of the project
Deliverable: PROJECT PORTFOLIO (re-named and saved)
Ready to get started?
Teachers
There is an accompanying Teacher Guide that provides details about this project storyline such as the science standards it covers, the supplies needed, and the rationale for instructional strategies. To request a copy, you must provide a school district email address, be listed on your school's faculty page, and answer several questions.
Captain Planet Foundation offers an ecoSTEM Pollinator Kit that contains many of the supplies needed for field investigations and projects referenced in the Biodiversity Project Storyline. If you don't already have the kit, you can purchase it at cost, request it through Donors Choose, apply for an ecoSTEM Kit Grant, or substitute other materials you may already have on hand.