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Integrated Unit of Work

    A large amount of work was undertaken to complete an Integrated Unit of Work involving SOSE, English and ICT.

The chosen topic for this Integrated Unit of Work was "Water Conservation".  Our topic choice was based around the importance of water conservation given today’s current climactic conditions.  We felt that it was necessary that a unit on such a topic was completed, given the conditions mentioned.

This unit will be conducted over a four week period and is suited for Grade 6 students – level 4 VELS.  It was determined that Grade 6 was appropriate for this topic as students in lower grades may not obtain the full benefit of the massages being portrayed within the unit.  By a Grade 6 level it was felt that students should be able to cope and understand the key concepts being addressed and consequently be able to change their behaviours to contribute to such water saving techniques as outlined within the unit.

Below is a copy of the Inquiry Unit Planner for the SOSE component of this unit.

Participation within this unit will require students to use a large variety of skills including:

 
  • Analysing,
  • Checking,
  • Cooperating,
  • Designing,
  • Explaining,
  • Interpreting,
  • Listening,
  • Locating information,
  • Presenting,
  • Reading,
  • Reporting,
  • Seeing patterns,
  • Sharing ideas,
  • Speaking,
  • Summarizing,
  • Visually representing,
  • Working independently,
  • Working within groups.
 
Students will also learn a lot about water conservation, such as:
 
  • Ideas on how to save water in the home
  • Ideas on how to save water with the school
  • Bigger picture, Australia wide water saving
  • Geographical problem areas within Australia
  • Water treatment solutions i.e., waste water
  • Water trading within Australia’s states
 
One of the major positives of this unit is the fact that, as you can see, there are so many skills being utilise.  Consequently, students will gain a great deal of benefit from this unit, on top of the information they will learn about the topic of water conservation.
 
This unit would be covered over a four week period.  Below you will find four lessons which have been developed in detail.  On top of these four lessons, other ideas/ lessons for this unit would include:
 
Tuning in Activities/ Lessons:
 
·        Show the video “Water in Australia” and discuss the major points from the video.
·        Shared reading of the fiction book “Pannikin & Pinta” by Colin Thiele.  Students are then to find two similies and metaphors from the text and describe what they helped you imagine.
 
Finding Out Activities/ Lessons:
 
·        Excursion to Yarra Valley Water
·        He Ho’s Water Quiz – refer www.yvw.com.au/waterschool/juniors.html
 
Sorting Out Activities/ Lessons:
 
·        Activity 17 – “How do we waste water around the home?” – refer www.yvw.com.au/waterschool/juniors.html
·        Students are to research other environmental issues facing our Country today.
 
Making Conclusions Activities/ Lessons:
 
·        Students are to produce a brochure to inform about and encourage water saving behaviour.
·        Students are to write a letter persuading their principal to adopt specific water saving measures.

Please click here to view the SOSE component of this Integrated Unit of Work.

ICT has been used within the SOSE component in many aspects.  For example, students are required to discover information regarding a number of water conservation topics.  It is suggested with the unit that the internet is one excellent source of obtaining information.

Click here to view this lesson.

It is also used in lesson #3 where students are required to access the weather radar and example weather patterns, temperatures, rainfall etc.

Click here to view this lesson.

 

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