1. Life Cycles Integrated Curriculum Grade 2
Elena Bohn, Valeri Durham, Jeneshia Ferebee, Molly Lewis

2. Profile of a Virginia Graduate: The 5 C’s
Stakeholders have stressed the need for graduates to have skills in the five c’s in addition to academic “content” knowledge:
•Critical Thinking
•Creative Thinking
•Collaboration
•Communication
•Citizenship

3. This integrated learning project for second graders will provide exposure and practice to each of the 5 C’s as well as a more authentic learning process.

4. Standards
Science
VA SOL 2.4 The student will investigate and understand that plants and animals undergo a series of orderly changes as they mature and grow. Key concepts include a) animal life cycles
Language Art
VA SOL - Oral Communication 2.2c clarify and explain words and ideas orally.
VA SOL - Oral Communication 2.3 The student will participate as a contributor or leader in a group.
VA SOL - Demonstrate comprehension of nonfiction texts 2.9 Identify Main Idea
Math
VA SOL 2.11 The student will estimate and measure a) length to the nearest centimeter and inch; b) weight/mass of objects in pounds/ounces and kilograms/grams, using a scale; and c) liquid volume in cups, pints, quarts, gallons, and liters.
VA SOL 2.14 The student will read the temperature on a Celsius and/or Fahrenheit thermometer to the nearest 10 degrees.

5. Essential Questions What is a Life Cycle? What is a habitat?
How does the habitat help the animal survive?
How does an animal’s needs affect the size, temperature,and liquid volume of its habitat ?

6. Problem
The Virginia Living Museum is trying to include animals that go through life cycles in their exhibits. Design a habitat that will support all stages of the life cycle for an animal.
In your habitat design, include:
A plaque with the name of your animal, life cycle model, and summary of animal
Habitat can be no bigger than 20 feet by 15 feet
Habitat must include a water feature that holds no more that 200 L of water
Habitat must maintain a temperature that is appropriate for the animal
Habitat must contain plants and land features that are appropriate for the animal
3 resources must be used as research
Present Habitat Design to a Community Agency

8. Pacing Guide
Students will use the LAUNCH Design Thinking Process to complete their project
Look, Listen and Learn (1-2 days)
Ask Questions (1-2 days)
Understand the Problem (4-5 days)
Navigate Ideas (2 days)
Create a Prototype (3-5 days)
Highlight and Fix (2 days)
LAUNCH to the world (1-4 days)
Steps 1 and 2 will be completed as a whole class. Steps 3-7 will be completed individually or in small groups. While the students are working on steps 3-7, the teacher will act as a facilitator, conferencing with each student or each group to help steer student learning, as well as embedding mini-lessons on the integrated objectives.

9. Pacing Guide Look, Listen and Learn
The students are presented with the problem
The students will brainstorm ways that they could learn about animal life cycles
Possible answers: reading text, Discovery Ed Techbook, Pebble Go, observing animals, community outreach
Ask Questions
The students will develop questions that should be asked about animal life cycles
Possible questions: What animals go through life cycles? What are some of the different life cycles animals go through?
Understand the Problem
The students will use resources to answer questions
Students can go on a field trip, bring in an expert, or contact a community agency to ask and answer questions
Students will read nonfiction grade-level text to learn about life cycles while identifying the main idea
Students can watch videos and use resources on the Discovery Ed Techbook or Pebble Go to find out more information

10. Pacing Guide
Students will use the LAUNCH Design Thinking Process to complete their project
Navigate Ideas
The student will brainstorm ideas for possible animals to use for the exhibit
The student will choose an animal and gather the relevant information for that animal’s life cycle and habitat
Create a Prototype
The student will create a model for the animal life cycle exhibit
Highlight and Fix
The student will meet with the teacher and a peer to present their design model to get feedback for improvements and make improvements to the product design
LAUNCH to the world
The student will publish their work; Possible ideas include creating a screen-casted digital model, reaching out to a community agency to present their ideas, bringing in a community organization expert to present ideas, creating a video, or a class presentation

11. Mini-Lesson: Main Idea
Mini-Lessons covering the language arts, math, and science objectives will be embedded throughout the LAUNCH process to steer student learning
The teacher will provide students with one or more grade-level texts to read and collect information on animal life cycles. The teacher will model identifying the main idea in a whole group lesson, small groups will practice identifying the main ideas of individual reading level texts, and students will complete and on grade level exit ticket on identifying the main idea of an article about animal life cycles.
Possible text resources:

12. Mini-Lesson: Measurement
Mini-Lessons covering the language arts, math, and science objectives will be embedded throughout the LAUNCH process to steer student learning

13. Mini-Lesson: Animal Life Cycles
Mini-Lessons covering the language arts, math, and science objectives will be embedded throughout the LAUNCH process to steer student learning
Teachers can pick and choose from the integrated VDOE (Virginia Department of Education) lessons on animal life cycles to provide direct instruction and applied learning of animal life cycles.
curricular_instruction/science/animals_habitats/topic4_life_cycle.pdf

14. Community Based Learning Opportunities
Students can learn more about animal life cycles and zoo exhibits by reaching out to local experts or taking a field trip to local organizations.
Virginia Beach Oceanfront
Norfolk Botanical Garden
Virginia Marine Science Museum
Virginia Living Museum

15. Product Design and Presentation Rubric

16. Assessments: Formative
Formative Assessments will be embedded throughout the integrated project to measure student progress and provide feedback for learning
Exit Tickets
Measurement - length/width, mass and liquid volume and temperature
Comprehension of Nonfiction Text - Main Idea
Life Cycles
Informal Observations and Conferencing: The teacher will use informal observations and conferencing to measure student progress and provide feedback for student learning
Summative
Product Design Project (measured by rubric)
Life Cycle of Animal Assessment