HOMESTEADING PROJECT
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This is more of an informal outline of what I did on a daily basis during my Quadmester 4 course. If you want more details send me a message and let me know!
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Day 1
Icebreakers
Students go outside during class time, take a picture of how they are addressing or accomplishing a Protect Nature Challenge and then put that picture into a google slide show along with a few sentences of what they did.
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Day 2
Introduction to the Homestead project and the course package
Idea generating session\
Protect Nature Challenge #2
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Day 3
Question: Is cereal soup?
This is a class discussion to try to get mics and minds on
Movie: Life Off Grid
Only got the first 27 minutes done
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Day 4
Movie: Life Off Grid --> finished the movie we started yesterday
Breakout rooms: In small groups students started working on their homesteads and bouncing ideas off of each other.
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Day 5
SOLE: How will you adapt to be "Zero Waste?"
Finished with an opportunity to work some more on their projects.
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Day 6
Question: Is a hot dog a sandwich? --> Another mics and minds on activity
SOLE: With our discussion about zero waste yesterday, how will you maintain an healthy, sustainable and self-sufficient diet?
Introduce Bottle Biomes
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Day 7
Bottle Biomes
Students were tasked to go outside during class to make a bottle biome as an assignment and make daily observaions in a log that is to be completed by the end of the quadmester.
I went outside to make my own using my cell phone to speak to my class and so that they could watch me do it.
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Day 8
Video: Wolves of yellowstone --> there were some questions to accompany this video to promote a conversation about trophic cascades and ecosystem engineers
Protect Nature Challenge #3
Gizmo: Rabbits gizmo, to start talking about capacity and limiting factors.
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Day 9
Full work period
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Day 10
Guest Speaker: Cameron Jones (Bears, Honey, Helicopters and going to the moon)
Work on Homesteads
My student teacher and I had interviews with our students to check in with them and urge them to keep on track
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Day 11
Work Period
Protect Nature Challenge #4
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Day 12
Introduce unit assignment: Make or design a windmill that will produce energy for your homestead.
Movie: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
If you haven't seen this movie...you have to! It's a true story about a boy (now a man) who built a windmill to harness the wind to power a water generator and safe his family and his village from drought.
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Day 13
Movie: The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
It's a long movie, but SO worth the time!
Work on homesteads and windmills after the movie
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Day 14
Virtual Field Trip: Took my class on a field trip through my back yard (I've got 37 acres of forest in my back yard)
Work Period
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Day 15
We reviewed all the different clips from "Life Off Grid" that relates to electrical energy generation
Work Period for homesteads and winmills
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Day 16
SOLE: How does a windmill trun wind energy into electrical energy?
Protect Nature Challenge #5
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Day 17
SOLE: How would you protect your home from a lightning strike?
Protect Nature Challenge #6
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Day 18
Work Period/Check-in conversations
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Day 19
Guest Speakers: Bryce and Misty about their life off grid and permaculture
Work Period/Check-in conversations (with a focus on what we learned from Bryce and Misty)
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Day 20
Work period/Check-in conversations
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Day 21
Guest Speaker: Felix Pigeon about his life off grid in Northern Quebec
PhET simulation: Circuit Drawing
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Day 22
Schematic Electrical Drawing of the homestead with a focus on how much energy the student would need to use and how and where to allocate their electrical resources
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Day 23
Guest Speaker: Rachel Lachance from Black River Foraging Co to talk about her life off grid and to offer support to our students about how to improve their own homesteads.
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Day 24
SOLE: Starting with your wind turbine, how will you make toast and coffee for your breakfast on your homestead?
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Day 25
Guest Speaker: Elaine Kicksnoway to talk to us about the teachings of the Three Sisters.
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Day 26
Activity: How to ask a question
Introduced our students to a question matrix in an effort to help our students as more, and more meaningful questions of our guest speakers in class, but also to anyone they may encounter as they move forward in life.
Activity: You're stranded in a forest with an aluminum canteen, and other stuff, how do you get clean water?
Introduce water filter as a class project
(Now they have 3 big projects to be working on, their homestead, the windmill and the water filter.)
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Day 27
KWL Chart about what do we Know about water, what do we want to learn about water and then what did we learn about water. The "Learn" piece will be upcoming.
Work Period/Check-in Conversations
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Day 28
Work Period/Check-in Conversations
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Day 29
Guest Speaker: Adam Shoalts about his adventures through Canada's North and human impacts on the environment
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Day 30
Work Period/Check-in Conversations
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Day 31
Question: What is salt? What is an element? What is a compound? What is a pure substance?
SOLE: Why and How is salt used for food preservation?
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Day 32
Video: Gummy Bear in Potassium Chlorate
Video: Brainiac Cesium vs. Lithium
SOLE: Why is cesium more reactive than lithium?
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Day 33
Work Period/ Check-in Conversations
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Day 34
Virtual Field Trip to Enright Harvest Acres Farm to learn about regenerative agriculture.
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Day 35
Kahoot! --> I don't love Kahoots, but the students do! by rights, I should do more.
Work Period/Check-in Conversations
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Day 36
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