Pair Project between 
Governor Bent Elementary School
and Kurihara-Kita Elementary School
FMF MTP 2003
The following is a sketch of what this project might look like. Like any creative pursuit, it will change and evolve as it is worked through.
Students will exchange pictures and basic information about each other.
Students will exchange photos of each other's city and state/prefecture.
Time frame: August/September 2003
BUGS and Soil completed September 8 - 12, 2003. We will video conference about our results in October and post them by September 30. We will make compost to be used later for growing fast plants.
Rivers in General:
What is a river?
What are characteristics of a river?
How are rivers formed?
How do rivers change?
How do we use rivers?
How are rivers similar and different from lakes, streams, and
other bodies of water?
How do rivers affect people?
Use books, internet web sites, movies, encyclopedias, and other types of information.
Time frame: September through October 2003
Researching our RiversRio Grande (Albuquerque)
Fujiigawa (Fujii River in
Onomichi)
How can we collect and send this information to them? [possible use of a question board to direct investigation]
What basic facts describe our river? (length, width, depth, etc.) [ research, field trips, and personal observations]
How does the temperature of the water change throughout the year? [take temperature throughout the year]
How does water temperature affect the life in and around the river throughout the year?
What is the water quality of this river? [experiments using a water testing kit that will test the ph, COD, hydrogen and phosphoric acid in our water, speakers, research]
How does the water quality affect the life around the river? [biodiversity theme, animals, plants, fish, bugs and soil, water creatures, insects, etc.] [field trip work]
How is our river used in our community, for recreation, agriculture, water, etc.? [waste water issues, etc.]
What issues are important about our river? [current events, conservation]
How can we become involved environmentally with our river? [service learning possibility]
Information gathering: field trips, speakers, preparing for sharing using photos, video tapes, etc. for exchange.
Time frame: water temperature ongoing
creature collection and identification mid-September through October
water quality tests and compilation of all data by the end of October
How do these differences affect the biodiversity of the river (animals, plants, insects, etc.)?
What other factors affect the biodiversity of this river?
What would happen if we transplanted these animals, insects, etc. into our river? Why?
What makes each river unique?
How does the river affect life in our partner school's area?
What might happen if we exchanged actual rivers? How might that affect our way of life, our biome, etc.?
In what areas do we still need more information in order to understand this river? How will we obtain it? [good tie in for video conferencing session]
Time frame: Information compiled by October to be exchanged. November's video conference will be to talk about our own rivers and discuss the data exchanged.
December's video conference will be to compare and contrast the two rivers.
Have the students discuss this focusing question for possible ways to share what they've done with others.
[design a web page, newsletter, video, posters, community project, etc.]
Time Frame: Each school will decide how and when to do this based on student input. We will share projects using e-mail, photos, etc.
Fast plants will be grown in starting in January. We will analyze data and share results by the end of February.
March will be an on-line conference talking about fast plants.
Closure/Reflection:
What did we learn?
How does this affect of us?
What are any long term environmental implications for our river?
How do we say good-bye and thank you to our partner school?
Time frame: Through the end of the school year (Onomichi - April, Albuquerque - May)
| About FMF |
Governor Bent Elementary School
|
FMF Projects (Bugs, Soil,
Etc.) |
Pair Projects |
Onomichi Kurihara-Kita Elementary School |
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