To provide students with common background knowledge, they will read for information about the importance of plants contained in articles from Golden Book First Connections CD-ROM encyclopedia. Brainstorm a class list of what students know about plants, possibly using Inspiration software. Brainstorm a class list of key words that will help students search in the suggested resources, possibly using Inspiration software. Teacher and students decide what specific information they would like to find more about. Students read information about plants contained in the Golden Book First Connections encyclopedia article.
Class discusses what they have learned.
Some people are getting sick because of allergies and the doctors say it because they are allergic to the plants in town. One group of Sneezers has recommended that the town rid itself of all of the plants. As concerned scientists who live in Sneezeville, you need to convince the town that the plants have to stay. Class brainstorms questions relating to the Big Question, classifying them into subtopics with assistance of the teacher. Teacher, at her discretion, breaks the class into presentation teams to research each subtopic.