The rationale behind this unit:

This unit entitled Going Green is designed for 4th grade. The unit will integrate many academic disciplines while teaching students about environmental issues with specifics such as renewable and nonrenewable resources, fossil fuels, pollution, and the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle). Students will do a variety of activities to enhance their learning. First the students learn about and discuss the three main environmental issues, resource use, population growth, pollution. Then student will identify renewable and nonrenewable resource. Students will investigate how renewable some resources really are and how much of a mess some of the nonrenewable resources can be. Next students will examine what fossil fuels are and what possible alternatives are. Students will then explore and discuss what pollution is and how it affects the environment. Finally students will learn what the three big Rs are and what they can do to help go green. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards, students will: 4.3.4.A. Identify ways humans depend on natural resources for survival, 4.5.4.A. Identify how people use natural resources in sustainable and non-sustainable ways, 4.5.4.C. Describe how human activities affect the environment, and ask questions about objects, organisms and events.

The students will be producing works of art, speaking and listening during discussions, applying process knowledge that enables them to become independent leaders through inquiry and design, and study the dynamics of environmental science, which includes the studies of our environment and what we can do differently. When the unit is complete, the students will be able to describe different environmental issues, different types of resources we use, what pollution is and how it affects our world, and what we change to help make the environment a better, more sustainable home for us all. This content is key in a students ability to understanding, explore, and explain the natural world around them.