RPB Unit Extensions

At SkyDay we recognize and hope that talented teachers will use this unit as a starting point to deliver rich science experiences to their students that are unique to their communities. Here are some ideas of how to adapt these materials to your situation: 

Phenomena

This unit focuses students’ sensemaking around the phenomenon of the plight of a local pollinator and asks the question ‘Why should we care?’  For students in Illinois we chose the Rusty Patched Bumblebee - an Illinois native that has been particularly negatively impacted by human actions and decisions but which your students can positively impact through action projects and conscientious consumer choices.

The unit can easily be adapted for a different region by substituting the Rusty Patched Bumblebee with another endangered native pollinator. This website from the Fish and Wildlife Service can be used to find a pollinator for your area. 

Once a new phenomenon is selected the same sequence of introducing the phenomena, formulating student questions, developing initial models, adding to those models with details of the ecosystem, exploring changes in the ecosystem through data, writing arguments based on the evidence from the data and models, and designing solutions can be followed.

Public Outreach

The instructional materials use a blog post as a means for students to share what they have learned with the greater community, but through our pilot studies and conversations with teachers we became aware of many ways that students can meet this goal. Some of these means of communication include:

• Creating Public Service Announcement videos and sharing using social media

• Making posters to place in public spaces to educate the community of RPB

• Writing editorial pieces to newspapers

• Writing letters to local businesses with space they could use to create RPB habitat

• Writing letters to local government officials to educate them about the RPB and what the city, town, or village can do to be part of the solution.