STaR Hero Journey

STaR Hero Journey 

For our METRO elementary STaR activity, Raeleen and I have decided to create 3D models of a producer and consumer (flower, butterfly, fruit) as a lifecycle to use the same manipulatives for our two different TEKS. Using Nearpod and Flip, we will guide the students through the lesson and story, allowing for our TEKS components to come thru at specific points.

Some of these TEKS include:

Tech TEKS: 3.c1(A) decompose story problems into smaller, manageable subproblems and identify a solution to the problems.

Gardening TEKS (Science) Investigating the different organisms that would make up our gardening ecosystem (How will they interact with one another? Which are producers, consumers?)

Science TEKS 3.9(A) "Observe and describe the physical characteristics of environments and how they support populations and communities within an ecosystem".

Standards

5.3.c Plan collaboratively with other educators to create learning activities that cross disciplines to strengthen student understanding of CT and CS concepts and transfer application of knowledge in new contexts.

This standard will be exemplified through my work with my partner Raeleen Aguilar and the work of other group members. The ability to collaborate with other educators was integral to the work we completed. Raeleen and I worked excellent with one another, we gave one another great advice and ideas. I believe the both of us will be strong and creative teachers in the future.

& 5.1.d Develop resilience and perseverance when approaching CS and CT learning experiences, build comfort with ambiguity and open-ended problems, and see failure as an opportunity to learn and innovate.

While completing our project, I was unfortunately gone for a week. It was unexpected, but it incorporated this ISTE standard very well. Despite my absence, with my collaboration with my peers prior, they were able to continue and still accomplish the tasks at hand. While our other peer members collaborated with us at times, we did not receive as much support as anticipated, BUT this "failure" allowed us to learn more and work even harder. I really want to commend Raeleen for her diligent work in this project. It would be half of what it is now without her.

 Service for Preparation

AI Story: Lily's Gardening Mission

Once upon a time, there was a young gardener named Lily who loved to grow plants and vegetables in her backyard. She heard about a gardening competition in her town and decided to participate. With the help of her mentor, Lily learned about the importance of measuring the growth of her plants and the amount of soil and plant food needed to prepare for the competition. She faced challenges along the way, including pests and harsh weather conditions, but she persevered and continued to care for her garden with dedication and hard work. As she approached the competition, Lily met other gardeners who shared their knowledge and expertise with her. She also encountered rival gardeners who tried to sabotage her garden. However, Lily remained wise and focused on her goal, and she was able to overcome these obstacles. In the final stage of the competition, Lily faced her greatest challenge yet: a severe storm that destroyed many of her plants. However, Lily remained faithful and did not give up. She used her wisdom to come up with a plan to save her garden and nursed her plants back to health. In the end, Lily emerged victorious and returned home with the elixir of knowledge and experience. She shared her wisdom with the other gardeners in her village and inspired them to pursue their own gardening journeys. Lily had become a hero in her own right, and her garden had become a thriving ecosystem of organisms working together to support plant growth.

- Alexander Villela Science TEKS 3.9(A) Observe and describe the physical characteristics of environments and how they support populations and communities within an ecosystem. Through her journey, Lily learned the importance of perseverance, wisdom, and faith in the power of nature. She had become a hero in her own right, and her garden had become a thriving ecosystem of organisms working together to support plant growth. To prepare for the competition, Lily learned about the nutrients that plants need to grow and how to measure her plants’ growth. She also learned about the different organisms that make up a garden ecosystem, such as bacteria, fungi, insects, earthworms, and birds. This knowledge helped her create a healthy and thriving garden.

- Raeleen Aguilar Math TEK 3.7(a): use measuring tools to measure the length of objects to reinforce the continuous nature of linear measurement Lily's journey can teach us that with hard work, dedication, and faith in the power of nature, we can overcome challenges and achieve our goals. We can also learn the importance of taking care of our environment and the organisms that make up our ecosystem.

Digital MakerSpace:

How will you exemplify a learner response or two?

We will exemplify learner responses by guiding them through any difficult questions, provide positive feedback, and encourage each child to participate. With the use of Nearpod, student responses can be both oral, and written. Students will only answer questions based upon their learning level, therefore, the student will receive harder questions as the story goes along.

How will you make your activity DIGITALLY creative and collaborative among the participants?

The digital aspect of our project will be exemplified through our Nearpod and flip activity. Collaboration will be among all participants because each student can facilitate their own responses. To my knowledge, we will also have a voiceover to our story as well.

How will you promote and support learners toward a CCISD Multimedia fair submission?

From our work with AI, we can support students to use the different technological resources we used in creating the activities. We can encourage students to think about their interest in the respective categories.

What question and sentence prompts will you use to demonstrate Growth Mindset and Appreciative Inquiry facilitation within your activity?

When working on growth mindset with students, it is important to ensure the use of open ended, the goals are clear, measurable, and observable, and to use any redirection needed with the growth mindset in consideration. Meaning, if a student states that they "can't do it" or "it's too hard" we are their to rephrase the question if needed, or ask for them to try their best, with no wrong answers. When we use the phrases "Please ask for help if you need it" or "mistakes help us learn" we hope that they are able to continue with the work with more confidence.

We hope to utilize Dreaming and Designing as well as Appreciative Inquiry with the students. These will each be used to predict or discover new events in the Hero Journey, and the other will be utilized during our activities to inspire work with the Multimedia Fair.