This unit begins by inviting students to tell the story of their community using artifacts from Washington's history. This allows them to reflect on shared values as well as how people have organized to advocate for those values. Then, students explore how rights are established in their community by analyzing the Washington State Constitution, the Puyallup Tribe Constitution, and the Treaty of Medicine Creek. Next, students investigate four different historic examples of how people have advocated for their rights and values in their community and choose one to research in further depth. In the final phase of the unit, student teams develop an advocacy campaign for a right that is currently being challenged. They conduct research on an issue of their choice, create and execute an action plan, and participate in an advocacy fair to campaign for change in their community. Finally, students draw on what they've learned to answer the unit driving question: "Why do people advocate for issues in their community?"

In this video segment from Nature, scientists work to discover why bees are disappearing.

While studying the Articles of Confederation government and the Constitutional Convention in this problem-based learning module, the students will determine the benefits of peacefully changing an inept government.  They will deduce the crucial steps needed for peaceful change to happen within a society.  An area of research will be chosen to help solve a problem critical to the students’ middle school lives.  Feedback will be gathered through a video interview or a Google Form survey of crucial stakeholders.  Students will research the alternatives to improve upon their selected problem.  Students will present their findings to a decision maker and wait to receive feedback.

In this problem-based learning module, students will research health issues that are relevant to elementary students k-3. Students will look at perceptions, influences, education, research and discussion.Information will be provided through various ways including direct instruction, small group instruction by the classroom teacher, online research, and real-life research. Students will research media influences on health and develop a student-produced Public Service Announcement that will be shared with their peers as well as k-3 students in the district. Students will also have the opportunity to learn from each other and share their ideas with community stakeholders and plan next steps to promote healthy lifestyles in our community.

  Students will spend 3-5 days learning about bias. They must figure out what bias is and how to spot bias in an online article. For the final product students will be asked to create a product that their peers can use to identify bias.

Food waste is a major contributor to greenhouse gas. Wasted food and the resources to produce that food are responsible for approximately 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In this storyline, students learn about the resources required to produce food through following the carbon cycle and discover how food waste contributes to climate change. They will also learn the farm to table transport chain as well as how to conduct a food waste audit. Finally, the students will research solutions to the problem of food waste that can be applicable to their own lives, their school, and their community. 

Investigate the academic fraud that affected thousands of UNC students and athletes with this video and educational materials from PBS NewsHour from October 23, 2014.

The Wind River Reservation contains some of the most unique features in Wyoming. Visitors to the reservation usually tour burial sights of Chief Washakie and Sacagawea. However, the significant contributions of these historical figures are sometimes overlooked.

In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), contributions of Washakie and Sacajawea will be highlighted, and stress the importance of teaching and learning about the unique history, culture, and contemporary contributions of Wyoming’s tribes on the Wind River Reservation in a culturally responsive manner.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will identify leadership traits.
Students will obtain an understanding of the purpose behind learning about the Arpahoho and Shoshone people.
Students will analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance to understand the continuing evolution of governments and to demonstatre civic responsibility.