Change Unit

[Jeff Norris]

The gifted education teachers at our school are choosing to do a concept-based unit on change this year and thought about centering it around the decades or the 20th century. Has anybody done anything related to this as far as a comprehensive program or individual lessons?

There are several webquests out there, but we're looking for one central project/activity the kids can work on each week.

We pull our kids for 4 hours each week. Usually one hour is spent on technology extensions, one hour is spent on the central project, one hour is spent on individual/group interest studies, and one hour is spent on creativity/enrichment/social and emotional needs. The central project usually lasts from 9-18 weeks.

All that to say, any ideas?

[Carol Fertig]

Jeff--
I am not sure if your school is elementary or middle school.

Have you looked at the curriculum created by the Center for Gifted Education at the College of William and Mary (http://cfge.wm.edu/curriculum.htm) ? It is excellent, and many of the units center around the universal theme of change. Most of their units are published by Kendall Hunt and can be found at (http://www.kendallhunt.com/) , then search on "gifted."

[Peggy Haufle]

I do this unit every other year. I started in 1998 with the millenium coming up and just looked back at the last 100 years. It has evolved so that students can research a topic of their choice and look at where it was and where it is today and predict where it is in the future. I've had students choose such things as sewing machines, typewriters, time, manned space flight, fads and lots more. There are 4 generalizations about change that we discuss. We brainstorm things that change and do other activities. I present changes in music and movies through the years as well as writing implements so that I build enthusiasm as well as show how to do the research. We perform a speech of at least one minute for parents in Dec. along with a large poster and/or powerpoint. I only get the kids 3 hours a week. We started in July and will present in Dec. with a 3 week break. I have a calendar I will try to send and the 4 general statements about change. I use the calendar to help guide the students so that they can meet the deadlines. It really helps my sequential students and my random students just misplace it! I'm never happy with webquests completely either and that's probably why we do gifted so we can tweak and adjust according to the needs of our students. I've looked at William and Mary's and that is where the 4 generalizations come from but I'm doing a more research based approach.

[Jeff Norris]

Thanks to both of you. We've also thought about incorporating technology and inventions into the unit somehow.
Peggy, if we get something organized together, I'll send it on to you, too...so you might be able to reuse it with your kids. I appreciate your replies, guys!

[Lisa Constantz]

I do a twentieth century unit where teams of kids become experts on different decades. They explore world, national, and local news, sports, entertainment, pop culture, etc. As a culmination, they create the Newseum of the century where they display artifacts and info about their decade, dress in period clothing, play period music, and become Newseum docents for the whole school.

[Jeff Norris]

Any specific plans, websites, or books you use, Lisa?

[Nancy Bosch]

Jeff, you mentioned inventions---we did a massive curriculum on inventions, inventors and robotics. You can see it here http://connections.smsd.org/robots/