Examples

**EXAMPLE 1**

"Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" What do we have too much of on our campus? What do we have too little of on our campus?

CONTENT (Math, Science, Literacy, Social Studies): One thing my group noticed during this activity was that there was too much emphasis on money and prestige on this campus. Money is a topic that can be integrated with all the content areas listed above. With math, students can learn about currency, making change, and paying for items. In science, students could experiment with different solvents to see which best clean pennies. Students could read the book The Penny Pot during literacy: [] Finally, students could explore the currencies used in different countries to gain an appreciation for the United States monetary system and compare and contrast different ways of life: []

PEDAGOGY: For math, students could use the costs of items to figure out greater than (>), less than <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">(<), and equal to (=). They could also do problems where they are given a budget and <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">then must determine what they can and cannot purchase at a restaurant or shopping mall. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">It would be useful here to recognize the interests of students and make the word problems <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">relevant to their interests. In science, experiments could be conducted using various <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">solvents (orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, water, etc.) to determine which solvents <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">cleaned pennies the most or the least: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">[] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Then students could create a graph to organize <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">their data. With literacy, students could explore the storyline and practice making the <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">amounts that are discussed throughout the book. Then they could create their own <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">personal money book. With different currencies from around the world, students in <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">upper grades may be able to convert another countries currency into USD with some <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">scaffolding.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">TECHNOLOGY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Teach children how to add the monetary values using pencil and paper and also <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">demonstrate how calculators can be used. Using manipulatives, like plastic <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">representations of real US currency would be a great tool for covering this topic. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Students can use computers to research different cultures. Once they have gathered <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">enough data, they could create a “newscast” or documentary reporting the information <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">they have gathered.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">SUSTAINABILITY: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">To integrate sustainability, students could determine how much paper the school wastes <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">by figuring out how much the paper costs and then how much is used and how much is <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">left over. This type of activity can be done with almost any other resource. Another <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">example would be to count the number of trees around school then determine the cost of <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">one tree and, given a budget, figure out how many more trees the school can plant. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Keeping resources as a tangible object (like paper or how many bottles are recycled) <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">helps to concretize the lesson.

<span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Identify (One each): Assessment, Mobile Apps, Other Media <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">For assessment, teachers could assign children into groups and give them a story <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">problem, a bag of monetary manipulatives, a calculator, and a pencil and paper. Each <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">student could have a job in the group, for example, one student could be the recorder. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The recorder would not only write down answers, but also the thought processes during <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">the task. The teacher could monitor the students while they did the activity as well as <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">read the journals after completion. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I went to the App Store on my iPhone 4 and searched for “currency”. The first app was a <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">free currency converter by Jeffrey Grossman. This could be utilized for the social studies <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">investigation into other country’s monetary units. <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A video I found is by Schoolhouse Rock called “$7.50 Once a Week”: <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">[] <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This video talks about how a boy has an allowance and it details how he spends his <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">money throughout the week. There could be ample discussion and reflection on this <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">video after watching it with a class. Students can probably relate to having an allowance, <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">or at least imaging how they would spend their allowance if they had one. This could <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">also relate to literacy because the teacher could verify students understood certain words <span style="font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">like allowance, sale, and budget.

EXAMPLE "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" is an important subject to teach in elementary school. It can be touched on in several subjects. In math the teacher can easily touch on this subject by having the students survey their own classroom. The students can discuss "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" in relation to objects in the room and classmates. In science, students can go on a walk outside in the classroom and discuss "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" in relation to how many animals, insects, and plants students see. While observing students can use the Numbers Application for the ipad to keep track of the numbers of animals observed. The students can later use the application to graph the numbers. ([]) The observation can be related to the science lesson containing resources that are needed for living things. From there, students can discuss reasons that there are less than or more than of certain living things in that area. In literacy, students can read articles about animal scarcity. An article about why an animal became extinct can be related to the lesson and linked to science as well. ([]) The discussion of the articles can be linked to policies enacted by the government to help save animals that are scarce which would integrate social studies into the lesson. ([|http://www.worldwildlife.org/species/)]

For a summative assessment I would have students invent their own animal that would be able to survive well in the area of the school location. Students would have to describe what aspects of the animal would make it likely for their animal to exist in abundance in the area.

Teaching a lesson like "Less than, More than, Scarcity, Abundance" is a very effective approach pedagogically. First of all, it is an authentic activity that brings the comparative concept into a real-life setting. Additionally, it provides opportunity for students to get out of their seats and walk around. It also provides opportunity for student collaboration and discussion. The assessment in which students create animals that would be able to exist in abundance in the area enables students to reach higher level thinking skills in relation to Bloom’s taxonomy.

This lesson can absolutely be related to sustainability. Sustainability related to the capacity of living things to be in abundance. Lack of resources related to poor sustainability often causes scarcity and extinction of living things. Students can create their own sustainability program that if implemented would have enabled the extinct animal to endure. 2