Project Overview ~ Form courtesy of Buck Institute for Education (www.bie.org)                     page 1

Dale Glass

PLEASE JOIN! Florence Duarte, Denise Oppenhagen

Name of Project:

Oil and Water (Middle School Science)

Duration:

3 weeks

Subject/Course:

Earth Science (in conjunction with FOSS "Water Planet" Unit)

Grade Level:

6/8

Other Subject Areas to Be Included:

General science, scientific reasoning, technology, LA, library

Project Idea

Summary of the challenge, investigation, scenario, problem, or issue:

Investigate ways oil and water interact through earth systems including the water cycle and energy cycle, understand the problems of the Gulf spill, develop oil clean-up solutions.

Driving Question

The oil well exploded, leaking oil into the Gulf of Mexico, now what?  What happens to the oil?  Where does it go?  What affects the movement of the oil?  What problems does it cause?  How can we get rid of it?

Content and Skills Standards to be addressed:

(From AAAS Benchmarks; some are "by the end of 8th grade students should know that...." and some are at the 5th grade level since new 6th graders may need review and reinforcement of earlier topics)

Nature of Science: Scientific Worldview

• Science is a process of trying to figure out how the world works by making careful observations and trying to make sense of those observations. 1A/E2**
• Science can sometimes be used to inform ethical decisions by identifying the likely consequences of particular actions, but science cannot be used by itself to establish that an action is moral or immoral. 1A/M4c*

Nature of Science: Scientific Inquiry

• Scientists differ greatly in what phenomena they study and how they go about their work. 1B/M1a
• Scientific investigations usually involve the collection of relevant data, the use of logical reasoning, and the application of imagination in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the collected data. 1B/M1b*
• If more than one variable changes at the same time in an experiment, the outcome of the experiment may not be clearly attributable to any one variable. It may not always be possible to prevent outside variables from influencing an investigation (or even to identify all of the variables). 1B/M2ab 

Nature of Science: Scientific Enterprise

• Clear communication is an essential part of doing science. It enables scientists to inform others about their work, expose their ideas to criticism by other scientists, and stay informed about scientific discoveries around the world. 1C/E2
• Doing science involves many different kinds of work and engages men and women of all ages and backgrounds. 1C/E3

Physical Setting: The Earth

• The earth is mostly rock. Three-fourths of the earth's surface is covered by a relatively thin layer of water (some of it frozen), and the entire planet is surrounded by a relatively thin layer of air. 4B/M2ab*
• Water evaporates from the surface of the earth, rises and cools, condenses into rain or snow, and falls again to the surface. The water falling on land collects in rivers and lakes, soil, and porous layers of rock, and much of it flows back into the oceans. The cycling of water in and out of the atmosphere is a significant aspect of the weather patterns on Earth. 4B/M7*
• Fresh water, limited in supply, is essential for some organisms and industrial processes. Water in rivers, lakes, and underground can be depleted or polluted, making it unavailable or unsuitable for life. 4B/M8*
• Thermal energy carried by ocean currents has a strong influence on climates around the world. Areas near oceans tend to have more moderate temperatures than they would if they were farther inland but at the same latitude because water in the oceans can hold a large amount of thermal energy. 4B/M9*
• Some material resources are very rare and some exist in great quantities. The ability to obtain and process resources depends on where they are located and the form they are in. As resources are depleted, they may become more difficult to obtain. 4B/M10ab*
• Recycling materials and the development of substitutes for those materials can reduce the rate of depletion of resources but may also be costly. Some materials are not easily recycled. 4B/M10c*
• The wasteful or unnecessary use of natural resources can limit their availability for other purposes. Restoring depleted soil, forests, or fishing grounds can be difficult and costly. 4B/M11a*
• The benefits of Earth's resources—such as fresh water, air, soil, and trees—can be reduced by deliberately or inadvertently polluting them. The atmosphere, the oceans, and the land have a limited capacity to absorb and recycle waste materials. In addition, some materials take a long time to degrade. Therefore, cleaning up polluted air, water, or soil can be difficult and costly. 4B/M11bc*

Physical Setting: Processes that Shape Earth

• Human activities, such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and intensive farming, have changed the earth's land, oceans, and atmosphere. Some of these changes have decreased the capacity of the environment to support some life forms. 4C/M7

Physical Setting: Structure of Matter

• Equal volumes of different materials usually have different masses. 4D/M2*

Living Environment: Flow of Matter and Energy

• Over the whole earth, organisms are growing, dying, decaying, and new organisms are being produced by the old ones. 5E/E3
• Over a long time, matter is transferred from one organism to another repeatedly and between organisms and their physical environment. As in all material systems, the total amount of matter remains constant, even though its form and location change. 5E/M2

Living Environment: Interdependence of Life

• All organisms, both land-based and aquatic, are interconnected by their need for food. This network of interconnections is referred to as a food web. The entire earth can be considered a single global food web, and food webs can also be described for a particular environment. At the base of any food web are organisms that make their own food, followed by the animals that eat them, then the animals that eat those animals, and so forth. 5D/M4** (BSL)

T+A

E

T+A

E

21st Century Skills explicitly taught and assessed (T+A) or encouraged (E) by project work, but not taught or assessed:

Collaboration:  Group project with assigned roles

x

Other:

Presentation:  Combination of science-fair style 3-fold board, oral presentation (video taped), and wiki

x

Critical Thinking:  Development of hypothesis, appropriate experiment, data collection and analysis, conclusion, summary.

x

Culminating Products & Performances

Group:

 Presentation Audience:

      Class

   School

Class

School

Community

Individual:

Experts

Web

Other:

     Project Overview ~ Form courtesy of Buck Institute for Education (www.bie.org)                     page 2

Entry Event to

launch inquiry

and engage students:

Students explore what happens when they drop some colored vegetable oil into a basin of water.   They will make a preliminary concept map showing ways that the water and oil interact (density, diffusion, surface tension), ways that the oil location and properties might be affected (temperature, evaporation, currents), problems that the oil causes (water, land, wildlife), ideas of how to fix the problem (containment, decomposition, collection, deposition).

Assessments

Formative Assessments

(During Project)

Quizzes/Tests (with SMART Responders)

x

Practice Presentations

x

Journal/Learning Log

x

Notes

x

Preliminary Plans/Outlines/Prototypes

x

Checklists

x

Rough Drafts

x

Concept Maps

x

Online Tests/Exams

Other:

Summative Assessments

(End of Project)

Written Product(s), with rubric:

____________________________________________________

x

Other Product(s) or Performance(s), with

rubric:______________________________________________

x

Oral Presentation, with rubric

x

Peer Evaluation

x

Multiple Choice/Short Answer Test

Self-Evaluation

x

Essay Test

Other:

Resources Needed

On-site people, facilities:

Equipment:

Materials:

Community resources:

Reflection Methods

(check all that will be used)

Journal/Learning Log

Focus Group

Whole-Class Discussion

Fishbowl Discussion

Survey

Other: