Design for Deeper Learning

Famous inventors research project

I have an idea about each student choosing a community issue or idea they have to make improvements, partnering with the city. Using a project-based learning framework, explore and design solutions

Roots of Change: Week-by-Week Plan Nov 2, 2026 · @Dana Clarkson Three 40-minute project sessions a week in each homeroom, plus the literacy-block pieces listed for each week. Thanksgiving week (Nov 23–27) is off. Full unit: Roots of Change: Living Words Grade 3 Unit. Timeline slide: Roots of Change Timeline. Voice pathways (literacy block, every week): each designer also picks theater, broadcast or poetry in Week 2. Week 3: script basics, interview skills, place poems. Week 4: scene drafts, recording the bioblitz and expert visit, a poetry workshop. Week 5: critique. Week 6: rehearse and record (one project session). Week 7: the Voices of Our Place stage block on Dec 17. Details are in the unit doc's pathways section. Week 1, Oct 26–30: Notice our place (done) Big question: If our city could talk, what would it ask us? Design stage: Launch. What this week set up: the connections video, the yarn connection web, the first sit spot, the bridge reflection on Making Waves for Change, and the Connection to Place Journal. Literacy block: Rules, Laws and the Mayor (subjects and predicates; en- + force). Carry forward into Week 2: photograph each room's web, keep the sit spots on the same day every week, and post each room's bridge reflections on the project wall. Pose the big question on Monday, Nov 2 if it wasn't used in Week 1, and post every answer; it returns on Dec 18. Week 2, Nov 2–6: Discover our voice Big question: Who gets a say about the places we share? Design stage: Practice sprint, then Empathize begins. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov 3. Session What happens Designers leave with 1 Entry event and teams. Read the principal's request (or a letter from the grade team) asking designers to help shape a shared space. Start the Need-to-Know chart. Form five teams and write team contracts: roles, norms, what we do when we disagree. Need-to-Know chart; signed team contract 2 Voices and votes. Build the voting rights timeline: 15th and 19th Amendments, 1924 Native American citizenship, the Voting Rights Act. Hold the mock election on a real school question two ways, simple majority and dot voting; tally, graph and decide which is fairer. Timeline; results graph; fairest method chosen 3 Practice sprint and critique. Show Austin's Butterfly to teach "kind, specific, helpful." Then a 30-minute mini cycle: interview a partner, redesign their sit-spot journal page, get feedback, improve it. Close by mapping Poway's shared lands and the nature living in the city between them. Improved journal page; map of shared lands, first layer Literacy block: The City Council and Making Laws (coordinating conjunctions; legis + -lator = legislator). Read-aloud: Grace for President (Kelly DiPucchio). Also this week: this week's sit spot becomes a 40-minute campus bioblitz: teams log every living thing on campus with Seek or iNaturalist, pin finds on a campus map and graph them by group; Friday reflection; co-write the "Meeting" column of the rubric with designers. Prep: team contract template, sample ballot, timeline strips, Austin's Butterfly video or slides, Poway map, sticky notes, tablets with Seek installed (no account needed for kids under 13), a large campus map. Keep the election nonpartisan: how voting works, never candidates or measures. Week 3, Nov 9–13: First words of this land Big question: What can we learn from people connected to this land for thousands of years? Design stage: Empathize. Four-day week (Veterans Day, Nov 11). Session What happens Designers leave with 1 This land is part of us. Watch This Land Is Part of Us and name what the Cahuilla speakers say about land. Ask, "Whose land is Poway?" Turn to Kumeyaay-authored or partner-approved sources on land, water and plants. Source card: what the source says, in its own words, and what I think 2 Living nations, living governments. Kumeyaay nations and tribal governments today, and how they relate to California and the U.S. Learn about the Kumeyaay-Ipai Interpretive Center at Pauwai. Run the "Whose word is Poway?" mystery: three meanings, sources disagree. Place-name card; tribal government added to the connection web 3 Listen to the space's users. Visit and measure the shared space. Teams interview its users (classmates, younger students, the custodian, the principal) with sentence frames, and make an empathy map for one native animal or plant: what it needs and what harms it. Interview notes; empathy map; measured sketch of the space Literacy block: Taxes and Public Services (common and proper nouns; commune + -ity = community), with the question "Who pays for parks?" Start the Hidden Figures book clubs, one book per team. Also this week: sit spot; Friday reflection and Need-to-Know check. Prep: confirm Kumeyaay sources with SDCOE before teaching; interview sentence frames; measuring tapes; empathy map template. Kumeyaay words and plant uses come only from approved sources. Week 4, Nov 16–20: Speak up for shared places Big question: How have people's choices and voices changed shared land? Design stage: Define. Session What happens Designers leave with 1 The River, Day 1. Five groups, five eras, five council meetings, three choices each. No one is told it is the same river. Read stories aloud in groups with role cards. Planning sheet and river poster 2 The River, Day 2 and the reveal. Posters join into one mural. Ask of each era: who decided, who got a say, what happened to the plants and animals? River mural; strands added to the web 3 Fish and Wildlife expert, then Define. Grade-level visit: wildlife in the city: which animals live in Poway's neighborhoods, parks and canyons, how corridors connect them, what habitat they need, and what the federal government protects. Then each team writes "How might we…?" with criteria and constraints. Team problem statement and criteria list Literacy block: Citizenship and Voice (adjectives; citizen + -ship = citizenship). Barrio Rising read-aloud to the whole grade; book clubs finish and each team writes a short monologue in its figure's voice. Also this week: sit spot; first success-skills self-assessment; Friday reflection. Prep: River handouts with the relabeled Village story; five chart-paper river segments; collect expert questions from all five Need-to-Know charts by Nov 13; book a shared space for the visit. Thanksgiving week, Nov 23–27: no instruction. Optional: designers ask a family member about a shared place they love, or take one photo of nature near home. Week 5, Nov 30–Dec 4: Who decides? Big question: Who makes decisions about the places we share, and who gets a voice? Design stage: Ideate. Session What happens Designers leave with 1 Decision map. TCI government lessons applied to the shared space: city, county, state, federal (Fish and Wildlife) and tribal roles. Teams connect each group and government to the evidence for its role. Homeroom decision map 2 Ideate. Crazy 8s: eight quick sketches in eight minutes, then build on a teammate's best idea. Each team picks two or three ideas to post. Idea sketches 3 Grade-level idea gallery. All 25 teams post ideas in a shared space; designers leave sticky-note feedback, then each team chooses its idea using the fair voting method from election week. Chosen idea with three reasons tied to the criteria Literacy block: Draft the "place I'm connected to" personal story (W.3.3), using the Thanksgiving family stories if designers have them. Morphology: voc, dict and scrib; habitat and inhabit. Also this week: sit spot; write exhibition invitations (families, principal, the expert, a City of Poway guest); Friday reflection. Prep: large paper and string for decision maps; Crazy 8s folding sheets; gallery space; invitation template. Week 6, Dec 7–11: Build and test Big question: How might we care for this shared place more thoughtfully? Design stage: Prototype and test. Session What happens Designers leave with 1 Prototype. Build a cardboard or shoebox scale model and a planting or layout plan on grid paper, using area and perimeter. Draft signs. Model, grid-paper plan, sign drafts 2 Test with real users. A buddy class, the custodian and the Fish and Wildlife expert (in person or by video) try each design and leave "I like, I wish, What if" feedback. Teams score their design against the criteria, including support for urban wildlife (3-LS4-4). Repeat the bioblitz on the design space to compare with Week 2. Feedback grids; criteria scores 3 Revise and assign roles. Teams revise from feedback, write exhibit cards, and each homeroom picks its strongest design for the Dec 17 pitch. Assign exhibition roles. Revised design; exhibit cards; pitch team chosen Literacy block: Revise and publish the place story for the grade's Book of Our Places. Write the proposal letter to the decision-maker (W.3.1). Also this week: sit spot; second success-skills self-assessment; build each homeroom's installation; Friday reflection. Prep: cardboard, shoeboxes, grid paper, rulers; feedback grids; schedule the buddy class and expert time; send the Book of Our Places to print by Dec 11. Week 7, Dec 14–18: Exhibition and pitch Big question: How can we help others discover these connections? Design stage: Revise and pitch. Day What happens Mon Dec 14 Install the five homeroom installations and the design gallery; label everything Tue Dec 15 Rehearse docent talks in pairs and the five pitches; practice answering "How do you know?" Wed Dec 16 Other grades and staff visit in rotations, leaving "I like, I wish, What if" cards (the third feedback round) Thu Dec 17 Morning: revise pitches from the cards. Family showcase (about 90 minutes): land acknowledgment, installations, author's chair, then the five pitches to the principal and a city guest Fri Dec 18 Read the decision-maker's response together; answer the Wonder Archive; "I used to think… Now I think…" reflection, returning to "If our city could talk, what would it ask us?"; take down Roles: docent, pitcher, reader, greeter, ballot clerk, photographer. No one has to perform. Prep: reserve the space for Dec 14–18; printed Book of Our Places for every family; ballots and feedback cards; a buddy-class or staff listener for any designer whose family can't come. Next: in January, the approved design becomes the Living Words garden or space project.

Students have studied how the 4 earth systems interact to transfer matter that relies on solar energy and creates the web of life. Students have created models of the matter cycle of a forest ecosystem and a common rural ecosystem. The students need to use the science ideas from this learning to identify a type of waste we create at school that negatively impacts the local ecosystem. They need to design a way to get the students and staff to sort waste correctly. They also need to educate students and staff as to why their solution positively impacts the local ecosystem.

Create an activity for regular psychology high school students around the idea of why we dream and what we dream with part of it being about dream interpretations

How can we create a tradition that reflects our personal goals and cultural influences?What role do traditions play in shaping our personal and cultural identities? Students will create their own New Year's Eve tradition to deepen their understanding of Spanish language and culture. They will practice using ir + a + infinitive to express future intentions while exploring traditions from Spanish-speaking countries. The project will conclude with a multimedia presentation or exhibition, allowing students to showcase their creativity and cultural insights.

create a unit about chemical reactions and matter and energy that has a lot of hands-on investigations for students.

explore oceania, connect to 5 themes of geography, connect to environmental and economic connections, incorporate a written paper and an artifact,