Project-Based Learning Plan

Teacher Name: Grade Level: Project Title:

Molly Close Three Save the Bees!

Content Standards Addressed:​ (National Math Standards or Common Core/NGSS)

NGSS Standards:

3-LS4-3. ​Construct​ ​an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some
organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
● [Clarification Statement: Examples of evidence could include needs and
characteristics of the organisms and habitats involved. The organisms and their
habitat make up a system in which the parts depend on each other.]

3-LS4-4. ​Make a claim​ ​about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the
environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change​.
● [Clarification Statement: Examples of environmental changes could include
changes in land characteristics, water distribution, temperature, food, and other
organisms.] [Assessment Boundary: Assessment is limited to a single
environmental change. Assessment does not include the greenhouse effect or
climate change.]

Classroom Composite: Brief summary of whole group and 3 learners (ELL, IEP,
Student with emotional needs) describe their assets and needs.

Your class is comprised of 23 students 13 boys and 10 girls. Three of your students
are extremely bright and school is easy for them. The majority of your students speak
good English (6) have passed the CELDT test and 3 are still ELL learners. Two students
are on an IEP, one is at grade level but has a diagnosis of Autism (mild). the other
student has ADHD and learning disabilities.
 Potential Barriers to Learning:

Students are performing at varying ability levels in the classroom across curricular
domains. Students who are more academically proficient may monopolize this activity,
leaving more struggling learners on the sidelines. Students may not have sufficient
attention spans to see the various activities through to their end. Some students,
especially ELL students, may struggle with vocabulary. Some students may lack the
necessary social skills to work productively in a collaborative/cooperative setting.

Possible Misconceptions:

Students may have a difficult time conceptualizing the dynamics of an ecosystem, or

understanding how something as small as an insect can have an enormous impact on
the global ecosystem. Students may believe that single changes in an ecosystem (daily
temperature, use of pesticides, removal of habitat or food sources) have only
single-level impacts and not affect the entire ecosystem. Students who have had
negative experiences with bees (being stung, being exposed to fearful adults) may have
to overcome prejudices against them to move to a place where they can invest in
wanting to save their populations. Students may also have negative predispositions
toward insects in general, and these will need to be overcome through education and
exposure to the importance and harmlessness of these important creatures. Finally,
students may have a difficult time comprehending that they can have a voice in the
world, and that their actions can have a lasting impact on the world in either negative or
positive ways.

Accommodations/ Modifications

I will use several whole-class supports to provide access to all students during this
project. These include:

GROUPING
Grouping students in ways that benefit all students. I will make sure that ELL students
who are not yet proficient in English are supported by bilingual students and English
speakers. I will make sure that students who need social-emotional support and
practice working on peer relationships are in groups with students who will support that
growth. I will make sure that groups include a diversity of students who will support
each other’s needs and scaffold each other’s learning, and then provide additional
support myself as students work through the project. This can be done through
observing​ and ​conferring​ with each group to make sure all members’ needs are
being met, and by providing ​mini-lessons​ on communicating and working as a group
as the need arises. I will also provide ​sentence frames​ for students to use as they
interact and discuss their ideas as a group. I will also use ​individual conferencing​ to
ensure that students are having their needs met and benefitting from the project work;
this will involve individually looking at each student’s project journal with them and
addressing any questions or concerns that they have.

ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORTS
I will work to ensure that the classroom environment supports independent study for all
students. This will be done by creating an interactive “​project wall​” where all artifacts
of and supports for learning can be shared: ​vocabulary​, questions, ​anchor charts​,
photographs​, ​drawings​, etc. Students will be able to refer to this wall when they have
questions, feel the need to reflect on their project experiences, or have questions that
arise during project work.
I will post an intended ​timeline​ of our project so that students can remember where we
have been and where we are going with our work. This will benefit all students in the
class, but also those students who need extra help organizing their thoughts and time.
I will institute ​flexible seating,​ and maintain areas in the classroom that are free of
distractions and noise, to ensure that all students are able to choose a location for work
that will most benefit them.

Additional Considerations for Students:

Gifted Students:

The nature of project-based work will ensure that these students have access to rich
learning experiences along with their peers. In task-based learning these students
often find themselves in the role of “mini teachers,” helping scaffold learning for
struggling students. However, in project work, these students will have opportunities to
serve as leaders and investigate questions that interest them. I will make sure I check
in with these students to make sure they do not feel that they are carrying the weight of
their group’s work and make sure that each group member is communicating their
individual needs to the group.

ELL Students:
ELL students often struggle with vocabulary acquisition, especially academic
vocabulary, which will be one of the factors in this project. I will make sure that these
students have adequate supports for understanding vocabulary as we move through
the project. This will include whole-class meetings where we talk about vocabulary
concepts and a word wall with subject-specific vocabulary defined with words and
pictures. I will also create anchor charts during whole-class discussions using words
and images and have these available at all times on the project wall. I will also make
sure to group ELL students with students who are bilingual in their language and also
students who are native English speakers. In this way, the ELL students will have their
language scaffolded on many different levels.

Special Needs (IEP, autism, ADHD, Learning Disability):

Students with autism often have a difficult time staying on track when completing
assignments or working with a group. I will provide a timeline of project work to ensure
that these students are able to recall where we have been and understand where we
are going. I will provide graphic organizers to students who need help keeping track of
their thinking and learning; these can be added to the project journals so that students
are able to store them and access them in a way that integrates them into their project
work. The anchor charts we create will also help these students access subject-specific
content any time they need to. These students may also need extra support building
and referring to background knowledge needed to move forward with project work. I will
ensure that all concepts we cover are accessible in a variety of formats, including
written (books, internet sites) and auditory (audio books, videos) so that they may refer
to these materials at any time. These students may also need extra support, and I plan
to provide additional time to work with students one-on-one or in pairs as needed to
reinforce concepts that need review or reinforcement. Students will use various forms
of recording to process their learning (science journals, web site, video) that will also
serve as a record of their learning that they may return to during future
projects/extensions

Universal Design for Learning

Multiple Means of Multiple Means of Multiple Means of Expression

Engagement Representation
Provide many different options for
Create relevancy and Use anchor charts to completing the work: partners,
meaning with this support student groups, whole class, individually.
activity by allowing thinking
students to formulate Work with students one-on-one and
their own inquiry Use vocabulary word in pairs to scaffold and assess
questions. walls to support student learning.
writing and reading
Activate background Offer opportunities to creatively
knowledge by reading Provide many different express solutions (pictorially,
books that involve tools that students can verbally, written, typed,
relevant concepts and use to research and photographed, etc.).
encouraging students to discover information:
share their own stories. videos, books, web
sites, experts in the
Provide multiple field
options for completing
the work: partners,
groups, whole class,
individually.

Create spaces in the

classroom that provide
for each option (quieter
spaces for individual
work, larger tables for
group work).

Cross-Curriculum Connections:​ What other standards and subjects will you address
in this project. (Visual and Performing Arts, Computer Science or Health Education)

Visual Arts:

5.0 (Connections, Relationships, Applications): Connecting and Applying What Is

Learned in the Visual Arts to Other Art Forms and Subject Areas and to Careers
Students apply what they learn in the visual arts across subject areas.
● 5.4 Describe how artists (e.g., architects, book illustrators, muralists, industrial
designers) have affected people’s lives.
 (Students will also have an opportunity to meet Visual and Performing Arts Standard
2.0 (Creative Expression) from the category of dance, music, theatre and/or visual arts
as they complete their culminating project.)

Computer Science:

3-5.DA.8​: Organize and present collected data visually to highlight relationships and
support a claim.

STAGE 1: PLANNING:

Driving Question​: ​the Why is it important to save the honeybees and how can you
question that drives the help?
work

Project Summary: Students will build on their understanding of insects, habitats

(what students will do, and ecosystems to explore the importance of bees in the
learn and accomplish by ecosystem. They will research in groups and by consulting
the end of the project) with local experts how bees are being threatened by human
impacts, the reasons for declining bee populations, and what
we can do to help bees. In exploring this last question,
students will research what they can do in their community to
create safe spaces for bees, but also how they can use their
voices to raise awareness and advocate for bees through
political action and artistic expression.

During the course of this project, students will also participate

in a citizen science project, the Great Sunflower Project, that
allows them to experience the real work of science as they
collect, organize, compare and share data they take of daily
local pollinator counts.

Students will have multiple opportunities to interact with the

community through field trips, and will become aware of their
impact on the community on multiple levels as well -- as part
of their local ecosystem, as part of the human community of
 scientists and artists, and as part of the concerned citizenry of
the world.

21​st​ Century Skills​:​ (to Creativity​: Critical Thinking:

be taught and assessed)
Based on 4C’s Students will have Students will be asked to apply
Framework several opportunities their knowledge of ecosystems to
throughout the project to explore how changes in that system
express their knowledge can affect bee populations. They will
in a creative fashion, use their critical thinking skills as
such as creating a web they analyze texts and web sites to
site, poster or video determine which factors are
recording. The threatening bees and the measures
culminating artistic that can be taken to help bees. They
project will encourage will be asked to think critically about
student creativity in the how art can be used to create a
realm of the visual and voice for the voiceless, and how
performing arts. Final they can participate in the arena of
project will encourage politics and art to create change.
students to think outside
the box and use their
creativity to solve a
social/environmental
problem. In addition to
these built-in options for
creative expression, this
project is easily
adaptable to move in
any direction the
students wish to take it
by focusing in on one of
the other threads of
inquiry that is woven
throughout.

Collaboration: Communication:
 Students will Students will be expected to
collaborate as they work communicate effectively and
together in groups respectfully within their groups and
throughout the project to with the class as a whole. They will
perform research and utilize effective communication to
present their findings. make decisions as teams regarding
They will also various choices that they will be
experience collaboration making as a group. They will also
as they work with local communicate with local experts in
experts to determine the the field via field trips, and be
threats to bees and how expected to communicate effectively
we can work together to and ask questions that build their
help bees survive and knowledge about the threats to bees
thrive. They will also and how we can help. Students will
collaborate with also explore various ways that we
individuals and groups can communicate information to a
from around the country broader audience, such as the
as they participate in a creation of web sites, writing letters,
citizen science project, and using artistic processes.
and collaborate to
create an artistic project
that speaks for the bees.

The Hook:​ How will I am going to use one of the total participation techniques
you engage the students (sorting) to spark the interest of the students. I am going to
and spark their interest create two categories: “Will Exist Without Bees” and “Won’t
Exist Without Bees.” I will invite students to sort a number of
objects into the two different categories, justifying their
thinking. The items are: honey, a bouquet of flowers, an apple,
an onion, a container of yogurt, a cotton tee shirt, a chocolate
bar, a bag of sugar, a canister of tea, and a bottle of nutmeg.

After students have sorted and discussed the reasons for

their placement of items, I will reveal to them that
EVERYTHING would go in the “Won’t Exist Without Bees”
category. I will tell them that we would miss all these things if
 there were no bees (especially the chocolate!), but that the
problem is even more serious than that!

We will watch the short Youtube video: ​A World Without Bees

to find out what the other ramifications would be if there were
no bees.

Resources & Material/Equipment:

Materials
Jar of honey
Bouquet of flowers
Apple
Onion
Container of yogurt
Cotton tee shirt
Chocolate bar
Bag of sugar
Canister of tea
Bottle of nutmeg.

Anchor Chart Paper/Pad

Post-it notes

Project Notebook for each student

Pens, markers & other writing & drawing utensils

Sunflower seeds
Potting soil
Small pots
Labels

Graphing manipulatives (unit blocks, etc.)

Images of activist art to display in classroom (see ​Padlet​)

Various art supplies and materials TBD

Technology:

Chromebooks for student research

Graphing games & software

(​https://www.education.com/games/graphing/​)

Student web-site builder (like Weebly)

Teacher-curated resources on ​Padlet

Community/Onsite people:

UC Davis Honey & Pollination Center

Books:

Explore My World: Honey Bees​ by Jill Esbaum

Katie and the Sunflowers​ by James Mayhew

Bea’s Bees ​by Katherine Pryor

Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing​ by Kay Haring

Videos:

A World Without Bees​ by the History Channel

Why Are Bees Disappearing?​ ​By Teen Kids News

The Great Backyard Bee Count

The Art of Beeing

 ​Learning Outcomes & Targets/Instructional Strategies/Checkpoints:

● What targets will students meet to be able to complete the project?

● What will you provide to support student learning and scaffold information with
materials and lessons aligned to learning outcomes and assessment?
● How will you ensure all students are on track and moving towards the learning
goal(s)?

Target 1: Students will be able to describe the role of bees in our ecosystem

Standard:
3-LS4-3. Construct an argument with evidence that in a particular habitat some
organisms can survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.

Guiding Questions:
● What is an ecosystem?
● What role do bees play in the ecosystem?
● Why are bees important?
● What would the world be like if there were no bees?

Suggested Vocabulary:
Community, Population, Habitat, Environment, Adaptation, Organism, Predator, Prey,
Food Chain, Food Web, Consumer, Producer, Ecosystem, Pollinator/Pollination, Pollen,
Hive, Colony, Apiary, Balance, Climate, Cycle, Dependency, Diverse, Elements,
Equilibrium, Interdependence, Interact, Season

Instructional Strategies:
● Review: What is an ecosystem? (Create anchor charts as a whole class to begin
study, place charts on project wall).
● Create KWL Chart: Bees as a whole class, inviting students to share what they
think they know and want to learn about bees.
● Group read-aloud: ​Explore My World: Honey Bees​ by Jill Esbaum. Invite
students to take notes on post-its as you read. After the reading, ask them to pair
up and share their notes. Invite students to share what they learned during the
reading, and place notes on KWL chart.
● Field trip to the UC Davis Honey & Pollination Center & Bee Haven to learn
about bees and speak with experts about bees’ roles in the ecosystem.
 ● Students will work individually, in pairs or in groups to research online or in
books the role of bees in the ecosystem.
● TPT “True/Not True” -- facts about bees in the ecosystem drawn from read-aloud
book
● Students will write or draw in their project journals (paper or online) three roles of
bees in ecosystem (this will serve as an assessment)
● Students will begin to generate information to populate a project wall in the
classroom and/or a student-created web site to showcase their learning.
● Word Wall with subject-specific vocabulary
● Student project journals will serve as an ongoing way for students to record their
learning and interact with teacher (formative assessment). Project journals will
be used for individual conferencing and student self-reflection.

Checkpoints​:
● Group feedback during project time by conferring with individual groups to target
misconceptions, questions, and problems
● Individual comprehension will be informally assessed during individual
conference by reviewing each student’s project journal with them
● Students will write or draw in their project journals (paper or online) three roles of
bees in ecosystem; this will not be graded but used to assess understanding;
misconceptions and misinformation will be addressed with follow-up readings,
videos, or activities.

Target 2: Students will be able to share various ways bees are being threatened

Standard:
3-LS4-4. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the
environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

Guiding Questions:
● Why are bee populations declining?
● What threats do bees face?
● What threats are in our control, and what threats are not?

Suggested Vocabulary:
Toxic, Chemicals, Pesticides, Affect, Factor(s), Collapse, Disorder, Navigate, Sustain,
Neonicotinoids, Global, Local, Resources, Bacteria, Virus, Conditions, Development,
Disappearance, Endangered, Extinction, Threatened, Impact, Lethal, Microbes,
Mysterious, Survival

Instructional Strategies:
● Whole class watches Youtube video ​Why Are Bees Disappearing?​ B ​ y Teen Kids
News
● Quick-write: Based on what we just watched, what do you think is the most
significant threat to bees? (Five minutes)
● Pair-Share answers with a partner; invite students to share their answers with
the whole class in whole-class discussion
● Students will work in groups to research online, in books, and/or by virtually
consulting with experts in the field, one of the reasons that bee populations are
declining. They will consolidate their research in a poster, web page,
drawing/painting, or written report detailing their chosen threat, and how that
threat is a result of ecosystem changes.
● Group discussion to revisit KWL Chart: What new information do we have about
bees? What new questions do we have?
● Students will continue to generate information to populate a project wall in the
classroom and/or a student-created web site to showcase their learning.
● Word Wall with subject-specific vocabulary
● Student project journals will serve as an ongoing way for students to record their
learning and interact with teacher (formative assessment). Project journals will
be used for individual conferencing and reflection.

Checkpoints:
● Group feedback during project time by conferring with individual groups to target
misconceptions, questions, and problems
● Individual comprehension will be informally assessed during individual
conference by reviewing each student’s project journal with them
● Group projects will be graded with ​rubric​.

Target 3: Students will be able to explain how scientists use data to understand
phenomena in nature

(Note: To achieve this target, students will participate in the Great Sunflower Project, a
citizen science opportunity. They will grow sunflowers from seed, exploring what it
takes to grow plants, what is inside of a seed, etc. (another project altogether!). They
 will plant the sunflowers on campus (additional seeds and information will be made
available for students who also want to plant seeds at home or in their community).
Students will take part in observing the sunflowers daily after they bloom, taking count
of bees according to the specifications of the survey. They will plot their numbers,
analyze data, and compare that data with neighboring counts and counts from far away
using the online data collection system embedded in the project web site. The
sunflower of choice, as specified by the project web site, is the Lemon Queen
Sunflower. This particular type of sunflower take 8-10 days to germinate, and 90 days
from planting to bloom, so teachers will have to ensure that the students begin planting
the seeds about three months prior to the bee project. The planting of the seeds can be
a part of a unit or project on plants and flowers, or a stand-alone activity to get students
excited about the upcoming bee project. Having sunflowers blooming at the school will
provide bees for students to observe up close).

Standards:

Computer Science:

3-5.DA.8​: Organize and present collected data visually to highlight relationships and
support a claim.

Guiding Questions:
● How does data help scientists understand what they see in nature?
● What kinds of data can scientists collect?
● How can scientists organize their data to provide them with a picture of what is
happening in the environment?

Suggested Vocabulary:
Analysis, Application, Assessment, Data, Discovery, Evaluate, Evidence, Inquiry,,
Investigation, Measurements, Theory, Phenomena, Properties, Research, Similarity,
Difference, Technology, Digital, Interpret, Justify, Connect, Correlation, Factor,
Represent, Quantity

Instructional Strategies:
● Whole class read-aloud: ​Katie and the Sunflowers​ by James Mayhew
● Whole class will watch Youtube video: ​The Great Backyard Bee Count
● Explain to students that they are going to participate in a citizen science project
that is happening across the country where students like themselves and
 average people get to act like real scientists. Explain the project and the
directions for performing observations.
● TPT “Anticipatory Guides” Create true/false statements about what the students
might encounter during their observations as a way to prime them to consider
other factors when looking at data. For example: “I will see more bees when the
sun is shining. I will see less bees on cold mornings. I will see more bees than
wasps.” Create a chart (teacher) with these anticipatory questions. As students
hold up their True/Not True cards, take a count and record this on the chart. As
students perform multiple observations, revisit this chart to see whether their
predictions were accurate or inaccurate.
● Students will spend time each day in their groups observing the sunflowers they
have planted (the project web site specifies that they observe a single flower for
five minutes)
● Each group will input their data into the project web site to provide local area
counts of pollinators
● Students will record their group’s data in their project notebooks, including
associated data that could affect count: weather, temperature, time of day, etc.
● Whole class discussion: What are students noticing (revisit anticipatory chart).
Are there any factors that affect our count? What are they? TPT:
Think-Pair-Share; ask students/groups to share their ideas with the class (Create
list, add to project wall)
● Students will practice their graphing skills using online games, manipulatives, or
other tools that help them conceptualize graphing.
● Students will work together in groups and on the computer to use this data to
create a graph that demonstrates a relationship between environmental factors
and insect count
● As a whole class we will compare maps of pollinator counts available on the
Sunflower Project site for previous years, locate our local area, and compare the
counts over the past three years to answer the question: are bee populations in
our area going down? Is there any area in the country where they are going
down? Up?
● Group discussion to revisit KWL Chart: What new information do we have about
bees? What new questions do we have?
● Students will continue to generate information to populate a project wall in the
classroom and/or a student-created web site to showcase their learning.
● Word Wall with subject-specific vocabulary
 ● Student project journals will serve as an ongoing way for students to record their
learning and interact with teacher (formative assessment). Project journals will
be used for individual conferencing and reflection.

Checkpoints:
● Group feedback during project time by conferring with individual groups to target
misconceptions, questions, and problems
● Individual comprehension will be informally assessed during individual
conference by reviewing each student’s project journal with them
● Group projects will be graded with a ​rubric​.

Target 4 -- Students will be able to describe ways humans can help declining bee
populations

Standard​:
3-LS4-4. Make a claim about the merit of a solution to a problem caused when the
environment changes and the types of plants and animals that live there may change.

Guiding Questions​:
● In what ways can humans help declining bee populations?
● What are some ways that we can help bees in our neighborhood/city?
● Can small changes really make a global impact?

Suggested Vocabulary:
Protect, Advocate, Conservation, Preservation, Outreach, Solution

Instructional Strategies:
● Whole class read-aloud: ​Bea’s Bees​ by Katherine Pryor
● TPT “Think-Pair-Share” Students turn to their partner and discuss the ways
suggested in the story that humans can help bees. Whole class share-out of
ideas. Teacher writes down ideas students have on anchor chart: “How Humans
Can Help Bees”
● TPT “Ranking” -- Students work with their partner again to rank the ideas
presented in a way that makes sense to them (they choose criteria). Suggestions
for criteria could be: ease of implementation, cost effectiveness, biggest benefit
to bees, etc. Whole class share-out of ideas.
 ● Students work individually to research three different ways that humans can help
bees. These ideas will be written down or drawn on post-its and added to the
anchor chart (which will be added to the project wall)
● Group discussion to revisit KWL Chart: What new information do we have about
bees? What new questions do we have?
● Students will continue to generate information to populate a project wall in the
classroom and/or a student-created web site to showcase their learning.
● Word Wall with subject-specific vocabulary
● Student project journals will serve as an ongoing way for students to record their
learning and interact with teacher (formative assessment). Project journals will
be used for individual conferencing and reflection.

Checkpoints​:
● Group feedback during project time by conferring with individual groups to target
misconceptions, questions, and problems
● Students will write or draw on post-its to be added to anchor chart and project
wall three ways that humans can help bees; this will not be graded but used to
assess understanding; misconceptions and misinformation will be addressed
with follow-up readings, videos, or activities.

Target 5 -- Students will be able to describe how art can be used to create
awareness and serve as a voice for those who cannot speak.

Standard:

Visual Arts:

5.0 (Connections, Relationships, Applications): Connecting and Applying What Is

Learned in the Visual Arts to Other Art Forms and Subject Areas and to Careers
Students apply what they learn in the visual arts across subject areas.
● 5.4 Describe how artists (e.g., architects, book illustrators, muralists, industrial
designers) have affected people’s lives.

Students will also have an opportunity to meet Visual and Performing Arts Standard 2.0
(Creative Expression) from the category of dance, music, theatre and/or visual arts as
they complete their culminating project. As students determine how they would like to
artistically represent their learning and activism, other standards within the visual arts
will be determined on an individual basis.
Guiding Questions:
● How can art be used as a means to raise awareness for social and
environmental issues?
● What is the impact of public art?
● How can we use our voices to effect change in the world?
● How can we represent our learning in a way that will impact others?

Suggested Vocabulary:
Cause, Voice, Community, Inspire, Justice, Value, Imagination, Unite, Universal,
Visible, Aesthetic, Audience, Collaboration, Communication, Design, Effect, Exhibition,
Expression, Genre, Innovative, Inspirational, Illustrate, Medium, Form, Resonate, Vision

Instructional Strategies:
● Whole-class read-aloud: ​Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing​ by Kay
Haring
● Watch video of Louis Masai’s project ​The Art of Beeing
● Field trip to view Louis Masai’s Sacramento mural (as well as other downtown
Sacramento public art pieces)
● TPT “Quick-Write” (or quick-draw)(in project journals): What was your favorite
piece of art that we saw on our field trip? How did it make you feel?
● Gallery walk in classroom, where images of activist art to help the bees has been
set up (images on ​Padlet​)
● TPT “Line-ups” Have students line up in two parallel lines and discuss this
question: Which art piece did you like best, and why?
● Group discussion share-out: What were some of the ideas that you discussed
with your partner? Write answers down on anchor chart.
● Students work in teams to research a piece of activist art (see ​Padlet​ for ideas).
Team will present their research in a report, which can be written, oral, or
recorded as a video. Questions to answer:
○ Who made this piece? (Who is the artist?)
○ What materials is this piece made from?
○ Where is this piece located?
○ When was this piece made?
○ What was the artist’s purpose for creating this piece?
○ What was the public reaction to this piece?
 ● Brainstorm: How could we create an art project that raises public awareness for
the bees? Remind students that art includes drawing, painting, sculpture, dance,
music, theatre, etc.
● Students choose what type of art project they would like to work on, and teacher
will create a plan with them for how they will be able to execute that project. How
project proceeds and instructional strategies will depend on what students
decide they would like to achieve.
● Project time will be allotted in class each day for students to work on their art
projects. Teacher will provide whatever scaffolding is required: books, web sites,
materials and supplies.

Checkpoints​:
● Group feedback during project time by conferring with individual groups to target
misconceptions, questions, and problems
● Team research project on activist art will be graded with a ​rubric​.
● Other checkpoints will be determined as students determine which art project
they would like to create or work on.

Culminating Event: Bee Celebration!

Students will showcase their learning through a curated display of their products of
learning: posters, web sites, artistic representations. They may invite other classes,
parents & family members, or the general public to come view their artifacts of learning.
They will create invitations and provide refreshments. They will need to plan the
sequence of events, order of presentation, what they want the presentation to look like,
etc. Instructional strategies and checkpoints will depend on what students choose to
include in their celebration.

Possible Extensions:

● Students can write a letter to their congressional representatives advocating for

bees. They may ask their representatives to pass legislation to protect bees,
change policies on pesticides, or address any issue that they have discovered
during their research that poses a threat to bee populations.
● Students can write a letter to business whose practices impact the survival of
bees, informing them of the plight of bees and asking them to change their
policies. This could be to a large business like Monsanto, whose pesticides are
 implicated in the destruction of bee colonies, or to a local business, such as a
garden center, asking them to only sell plants that have not been treated with
neonicotinoids.
● Students can share the information they have gathered about how to help bees
by creating a platform to raise public awareness. This can be a poster, a
recorded public service announcement, a letter to the editor of the local paper, a
website, etc.
● Students can plan and install a pollinator garden at the school or in the
community, focusing on the various types of bees present in the local ecosystem
and which plants and features of the garden will support all phases of those
species’ life cycles.
● Students can build beehives for a local community garden or bee-friendly open
space. They can also create nesting sites for mason bees and other non-stinging
bees for the school to raise awareness and provide shelter for local bees.

STAGE 2: ASSESSMENT
Assessment Individual​:
Products:
1) Student Project Journals
(Student project journals will
serve as an ongoing way for
students to record their
learning and interact with
teacher (formative
assessment). Project journals
will be used for individual
conferencing and student
self-reflection).
Specific Evidence and
Completion:
1) Students will write or draw in
their project journals (paper or
online) three roles of bees in
ecosystem; this will not be graded
but used to assess
understanding; misconceptions
and misinformation will be
addressed with follow-up
readings, videos, or activities.

2) Students will also 2) Students will write or draw on

individually or in groups create
a piece of art representing their
learning and advocating for the
bees.
post-its to be added to anchor
chart and project wall three ways
that humans can help bees; this
will not be graded but used to
assess understanding;
misconceptions and

Group​:
1) Artifact of learning (poster,
web page, drawing/painting,
etc.) explaining one reason for
declining bee populations.
2) Computerized graph
demonstrating relationship
between pollinator counts and
environmental factors.
3) Report (written, oral or
videotaped) on a piece of
activist art.
4) Students will also
individually or in groups create
a piece of art representing their
learning and advocating for the
bees.
misinformation will be addressed
with follow-up readings, videos, or
activities.
3) Student-created art piece
(individually or group created).
This item will not be graded.
Specific Evidence and
Completion:
1) Students will work in groups to
research online, in books, and/or
by virtually consulting with experts
in the field, one of the reasons
that bee populations are
declining. They will consolidate
their research in a poster, web
page, drawing/painting, or written
report detailing their chosen
threat, and how that threat is a
result of ecosystem changes.
(Graded with ​rubric​)
2) Students will work together in
groups and on the computer to
use this data to create a graph
that demonstrates a relationship
between environmental factors
and insect count (graded with a
rubric​)
3) Students work in teams to
research a piece of activist art
(see ​Padlet​ for ideas). Team will
present their research in a report,
which can be written, oral, or

Reflection Individual​: (graphic
Methods: organizer/journal)
(how will
students capture 1) Student Project Journals
their thinking (Student project journals will
across the scope serve as an ongoing way for
of the project) students to record their
learning and interact with
teacher (formative
assessment). Project journals
will be used for individual
conferencing and student
self-reflection).
2) Project wall will reflect the
work and thinking of each
student in the class by
collecting and displaying
thoughts, questions,
reflections, and artifacts of
learning.
3) If student chooses to
complete an individual art piece class by collecting and displaying
at the end of the project, that
piece will reflect their learning, and artifacts of learning.
thinking and knowledge from
the duration of the project.
Students will be asked to
reflect upon the process for
recorded as a video (will be
graded with a ​rubric​)
4) Student-created art piece
(individually or group created).
This item will not be graded.
Group/Team:
1) Group projects will capture the
thinking of group members
working as a collaborative team.
2) Groups will be asked
throughout the duration of the
project to reflect on the act of
working together as a group. They
will respond to this question in their
individual Student Project Journals.
3) At the end of each group
project, members will be asked to
reflect in their Student Project
Journals what went well, what
could have been improved, and
how they feel their participation
helped the group’s endeavors.
4) Project wall will reflect the work
and thinking of each student in the
thoughts, questions, reflections,
5) If students choose to complete
a group art piece at the end of the
project, that piece will reflect their
creating, from conception to learning, thinking and knowledge
completion, their chosen art from the duration of the project.
piece, including
conceptualizing how it reflects
their learning over the course
of the project and how art can
be used to affect change in the
world.

Whole Class: Other​:

1) Ongoing KWL chart will Notes about methods of reflection

reflect the knowledge and
growth of the entire class; this
chart will be displayed on the
project wall for reference and to
spark thinking about possible
alternate directions for the
project (what else would
students like to know?)
2) Project wall will reflect the
work and thinking of each
student in the class by
collecting and displaying
thoughts, questions,
reflections, and artifacts of
learning.
3) If students choose to
complete a whole class art
piece at the end of the project
(large mural on campus,
musical piece, play that
includes all students), that
piece will reflect their learning,
thinking and knowledge from
the duration of the project.
embedded in the project:
The project wall and student
project journals provide
opportunities for reflection on
multiple levels. They allow
students to engage with the
concepts embedded in this project
on an individual, group and
whole-class level.
Students will be asked to respond
to specific prompts in their project
journals, but will also have those
journals available at all times to
serve as a way to “think on paper”
or process concepts beyond what
are being addressed in
assignments.