The Great Bean Race

Unit Portfolio Presentation
Joseph Jacobs
Unit Summary
The Great Bean Race is on! Compete with classrooms from other regions to see which collaborative team can grow the tallest bean plant. Controlling for certain variables (including growth time and bean seeds), seven or eight teams in each classroom design and conduct a controlled bean-plant experiment to investigate ideal conditions for growth. Students synthesize bean-plant information into a newsletter that describes the project, their group bean plan, and facts about beans.
Curriculum-Framing Questions
Essential Question
Is conquering the impossible possible?
Unit Questions
What are the perfect conditions for growing a bean plant?
Why are plants important to us?
Content Questions
What are the parts of a plant?
What does a plant need to live?
What are the functions of different plant structures?
What is photosynthesis?
Bean Race Project
This project will help my students develop 21st century skills by:
Collaborating with peers.
Analyzing data about bean plants and drawing conclusions to answer Unit Questions
Solving problems and making decisions about their experiment.
Communicating with others in a newsletter.
Gauging Student Needs Assessment
Purpose of the Assessment
To gather information about what students already know and what they wonder about growing plants.
What I want to learn from my students?
I want to find out what they already know about the Unit Questions and what they know about setting up experiments.
How I have tried to promote higher-order thinking?
I ask students to find relationships and draw conclusions about growing plants.
How the assessment information helps me and my students plan for upcoming activities in the unit?
If students have misconceptions about how to set up experiments, I can provide scaffolds. If students have different levels of understanding about the importance of plants, I can provide various resources. We will revisit this assessment throughout the unit for students to add their knowledge.
What feedback or additional ideas I’d like?
I would like help on my assessment. I think I need to elicit more higher-order thinking, but I’m not sure how.
Find ways to get my students more interested in learning science
Learn about different kinds of technology my students and I can use
Share ideas with other teachers
My Goals for the Course
Goals for My Students
To learn how scientists collect and think about data
To become more independent learners
Request for Feedback
Places I could find a classroom in a different climate for my students to work with
Ideas for helping students take more responsibility for their own learning