By Yvonne Hasenei

Students collaborate while participating in Student Council’s Beautify our School contest. They choose the location for a garden and create an original design for it. Along the way they use communication with members of the community to do research on plants, use math concepts to design and describe their garden, and create a persuasive presentation to share with the Student Council.

 Essential Question ◦ How can we beautify our world?  Unit Questions ◦ Why would we want to beautify our school? ◦ How can you contribute to making your school beautiful?  Content Questions ◦ What is the area of the garden your group designed? ◦ What is the perimeter of the garden your group designed? ◦ How did you find the area of the garden your group design? ◦ What does a symmetrical garden look like? ◦ What will need to happen in order to keep the garden beautiful?

 Students will create a garden designed from polygons.  Students will measure the side lengths of their garden design and use it to determine the perimeter.  Students will determine the area of their garden design using a scale drawing and counting the units.  Students will explain how their garden design is symmetric.  Students will write reflections in their journals.

 I hope to determine how I will formulate a grade for this and future projects.  I hope to learn to incorporate new technology into my classroom for my students to use.

 This unit will target the following 21 st Century Skills: ◦ Collaboration with peers to make decisions. ◦ Self-direction while doing research. ◦ Creativity in the design of the garden. ◦ Media literacy when communicating through . ◦ Solving problems that arise when creating the scale drawing of the design.

 Students will complete a Venn diagram to show me their knowledge of perimeter and area.  Journal about essential question, trade journals with a partner, and think, pair, share about your partners entry.  How will these help me? ◦ I will be able to see what kinds of mini lessons I will need to do for the math concepts and how much research students will need to do about the plants.