Inquiry Lesson Plan Template (with Four Ways of Thinking

connection)
Teacher: Kodi Stamps
Content & Title:
Grade Level:
Reducing Fossil Fuel 6th Grade
Usage in Our Food
Standards:
Strand 3: Concept 3: PO 1. Propose viable methods of responding to an
identified need or problem.
6.RI.7. Integrate information presented in different media or formats (e.g.,
visually, quantitatively) as well as in words to develop a coherent understanding
of a topic or issue.
Objectives (Explicit & Measurable):
SWBAT find a more sustainable way to obtain a product of their choice using
prior knowledge and research to back up their findings.
Evidence of Mastery (Measurable Assessment: formative and summative):
(formative) I will have a conference with each student to see how their project is
coming along, what they have chosen to do, how they are planning to present it,
problems they have come across, and any other questions they may have.
(summative) This will be the project itself, along with the presentation.
Sub-objectives, SWBAT (steps that lead to completion of objective; sequence from
simple to more complex):

SWBAT find valid resources to back up how their solution is more sustainable.
SWBAT present the solution found using a method of their choosing.
SWBAT explain how their solution is more sustainable than the previous method.
Lesson Summary and Justification: (summary gives detailed information about what
students are doing. Justification why is this lesson being taught)

Students will be doing research on a product they have already dealt with in past
lessons. They will have to figure out a more sustainable way of obtaining the product
in question. This may be a simple solution such as buying locally instead of from chain
food markets or as complicated as having to make the product at their own homes.
Whichever solution they choose, they must have done some sort of research, and cite
that research, in order to prove this solution is more sustainable. They will then use
the information they have gathered on this product to present their solution and
explanation with a written method of their choosing.
This lesson is being taught in order to grow students knowledge of where their food
comes from and how they can make conscious decisions and efforts to be more
sustainable at the market. Students will learn about different conservation efforts that
are working on spreading the sustainability word through their research. They will be
learning how Systems Thinking works and how it involves food production.
Background Knowledge: (What do students need to know prior to completing this
lesson)

Students will need to know about what mass production is and how it applies to food,
the full process of factory products and everything that goes into making these
products, how and how far the food travels, and how locally grown food is different.
Misconception: (what possible misleading thoughts might students have?)
Students could be confused on what is a sustainable act and what is not, how mass
production can be sustainable, and/or all the ways fossil fuels are used in making a
product (this included packaging and labels).
Process Skills: (what skills are you introducing or reinforcing)
The skills being introduced are research and presenting. This lesson is really focusing
on students being able to find usable resources that contain correct information. The

next main skill of this lesson is presenting; students should be able to present their
ideas with great knowledge of the content and without simply reading off of a power
point.
Four Ways of Thinking connection: (Provide a complete explanation of how your
lesson plan connects to futures, system, strategic, or values thinking. Define the way of
thinking you selected and used in this lesson plan. Remember, this should be included
meaningfully in the lesson plan.)

This lesson is linked to systems thinking, which is the process of understanding how
those things which may be regarded as systems influence one another within a
complete entity, or larger system, because students have to know the complete
process each product goes through and everything that goes into said product.
Inquiry Questions: (testable in the here and now.)
1. How can you make a more sustainable product?
2. What was the main reason each of these products were unsustainable?
Key vocabulary: (list and define)
Materials: (list item and possible
quantity)
1. Sustainability - the quality of not being
1. Computers (enough for 5 groups)
harmful to the environment or depleting
2. Posterboards (at most, 5)
natural resources, and thereby supporting
3. notebook for planning (number of
long-term ecological balance
2. Mass Production - the production of large students in class)
amounts of standardized products, including
and especially on assembly lines.
3. Fossil Fuel coal, oil, and natural gas
formed from organic material over the
course of millions of years
Engage - In this section you should activate prior knowledge, hook student
attention, pose a question (IQ#1) based on your lesson objective that students
will seek to answer in Explore.
Teacher Will: (hook)
Students Will:
Have objective written on the board and
Recall the weeks activities.
have students read it chorally.
Remind students what they have been
Explain to a shoulder partner, then to
working on throughout the week.
the class, the factory process of
Who remembers the process that ketchup
ketchup.
goes through?
Put in their own words why the process
Was this a very sustainable practice? Why
is not sustainable.
not?
Todays lesson is going to be different
because you are going to be teaching
yourselves, in a sense. You will be finding
research, along with your group members,
on one factory product, excluding ketchup.
Now, what I want to know is how can you
make a sustainable product?
Explore - In this section, students should take the lead and actively use
materials to discover information that will help them answer the question
posed in Engage. Teachers may choose to give steps to follow, especially for younger
students, but the goal is for students to discover some or all of the sub-objectives of
the lesson.

Teacher Will: (pose IQ #1)

You and your group members will be
researching a factory product of your choice
and figuring out how to make it more
sustainable. This could be in the way the
product is produced, shipped, where its
made, etc. This is your chance to get
creative!
You will be presenting you findings, and
everyone in the group must participate in
this, so be prepared! Any resources you use
in any way must be cited, this includes
pictures.
Meet with groups after they have had
enough time to get some research and
planning times to see how their project is
coming along, what they have chosen to do,
how they are planning to present it,
problems they have come across, and any
other questions they may have.

Students Will: (list all steps)

Get out a couple of computers per group
and start those up to research their
product.
Find several good sources for their
product.
Write notes about how the product is
produced, including labeling and
packaging.
Find how and where the product is
produced and how and where it gets
sent.
Figure out how they can get this product
to be more sustainable.
Decide how they want to present, what
they will use to present, and who is
presenting which part.

At some point, each group will meet

with the teacher to talk about their
project.
Explain In this section students share what they discovered, teacher connects
student discoveries to correct content terms/explanations, students
articulate/demonstrate a clear and correct understanding of the lesson sub-objectives
by answering the question from Engage before moving on.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Bring class back together once everyone
Each group will be presenting their
seems to have finished. This could possibly
findings and how the product in question
take place the next day, depending on how
could become more sustainable.
diligently the students were working.
Use magic sticks to call on groups to
present.
When one group presents, they will be
After every group presents, clarify how each answering teacher questions regarding
product was pronounced unsustainable.
product unsustainability and sustainable
Then go over that groups sustainable
proposals.
proposals and determine if this is a
plausible action or what the group could do
to improve the sustainability even further.
Elaborate In this section students take the basic learning gained from Explore and
clarified in Explain and apply it to a new circumstance or explore a particular aspect of
this learning at a deeper level. Students should be using higher order thinking in this
stage. A common practice in this section is to ask a What If? question. IQ #2
Teacher Will: (pose IQ #2)
Students Will:
(This portion of the lesson will most likely
Talk to shoulder partners about the main
occur on the next day because the
reason for each groups product to be
presentations may take too long to be
unsustainable.
created and actually present.)
I have another question for yall, did
anybody notice what the main reason each
group found for their product to be
unsustainable? Ask you shoulder partners.
Ask for student answers. These will most
Several will raise their hands and give
likely have to do with the products using too an answer to the question.

many fossil fuels because that is what they

have been talking about for the past week.
What else is unsustainable is this respect? Propose answers of things that
Take several student responses.
unsustainably use fossil fuels (may
I want you to think about what would
include restaurant kitchens, planes,
happen if each of these places or things
trains, etc.).
looked at what they were doing more
sustainably.
Evaluate In this section every student demonstrates mastery of the lesson
objective (though perhaps not mastery of the elaborate content). Because this also
serves as a closing, students should also have a chance to summarize the big
concepts they learned outside of the assessment.
Teacher Will:
Students Will:
Now I would like you to write down three Write down three ways unsustainable
ways that these places or things could be things could become more sustainable.
more sustainable on a half sheet of paper. Not talk to their neighbors or use their
If you would like to draw a picture to
ideas.
represent this, that is okay, too. This will
Turn in their exit ticket.
be your exit ticket for today, so do not
look at your neighbors paper or go to
them for ideas.
Closure: (revisit objective, IQs and make real world connections)
So what did we learn today? Have students re-read the objective. Were we able to
find sustainable solutions? Class answers yes. Did we use our prior knowledge to
help us find some solutions? Class answers yes. And finally, were we able to use
research to back up our findings? Class answers yes. So now we know that making
something at least a little bit more sustainable can be as easy as reducing the amount
of fossils fuels that are used to make and transport a product. This means, that you
can determine how sustainable the products in the grocery stores that you and your
parents go to are and make wiser purchases and decisions.