Launch Stage

Practice Stage

Extend Stage

Choice and Challenge Stage

Create Lab

Guiding Question:

How can I create pollinator puppets and a setting for my pollinator fable?

Summary of Lab:

In the first part of the Create Lab, students learn to create marionette puppets for flying pollinator characters from the fables they write in the Imagine Lab. fly. During the later Lab stages, students create background settings, in front of which students can act out their fables.

Connection to Module Lessons:

Students use their knowledge of plant needs, the process of pollination, and the relationship between plants and specific insect pollinators (from their work in Module 3 lessons) to design and create their puppets. The Module 3 performance task invites students to create a museum display that reveals a pollinator that aids in the pollination process of a specific plant

Learning Target:

I can create a marionette-style puppet of a pollinator for my fable.

Purpose of Launch Stage:

Students are introduced to the purpose, materials, and model of the style of puppet they will be creating during the Launch, Practice, and Choice and Challenge stages.
Students create a marionette-style puppet for the main character of their pollinator fable they are writing in the Imagine Lab.

Learning Target:

I can create a marionette-style puppet of a pollinator for my fable.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students have access to new materials such as feathers, tissue paper, and googly eyes. They may use these to add more detail to their puppets.

Learning Target:

I can create the setting for my pollinator fable.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students shift from creating puppets for their fable’s character to creating a background that represents their fable’s setting.

Learning Target:

I can make a puppet for a secondary character in my pollinator fable.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students use all they have learned about making a marionette puppet with paper, as well as their fables about flying pollinators from the Imagine Lab, to create another puppet for another character in their story.
Students use all of the tools as puppet makers, the Marionette Puppet Criteria List anchor chart, and peer feedback to complete a new puppet.

Engineer Lab

Guiding Question:

How can I design an ideal pollinator garden for my school or classroom?

Summary of Lab:

In the Engineer Lab, students first learn about the important pollinator plants in their region. Then they design an ideal pollinator garden for their classroom or school. Students then bring their garden designs to life by planting regionally appropriate pollinator-friendly plants, and creating pollinator friendly-elements.

Connection to Module Lessons:

Students deepen their understanding of the ways they can contribute to a better world through applying their learning to help their school or community. Students learned about the relationship between plants and pollinators in Module 3, so the Engineering Lab fits hand-in-glove with the Module 4 performance task: the creation of wildflower seed packets for distribution to members of the community.

Learning Targets:

I can identify the elements of an ideal pollinator garden for my classroom or school.

I can design an ideal pollinator garden for my classroom or school.

Purpose of Launch Stage:

Students are introduced to the purpose, materials, and task of the Engineer Lab.
Students are introduced to the common pollinators and pollinator plants of their geographic region.

Learning Targets:

I can identify the elements of an ideal pollinator garden for my classroom or school.

I can design an ideal pollinator garden for my classroom or school.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students have a greater degree of independence, both in their work in the Lab and in their movement during Lab time.

Learning Target:

I can create a pollinator garden for my school or classroom based on a shared design.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students progress from the design of an ideal pollinator garden to the implementation and creation of a pollinator garden for their class or school community.

The Engineer Lab does not go to the Choice and Challenge stage in this module.

Research Lab

Guiding Question:

How can I use research skills to learn and teach about our local pollinators?

Summary of Lab:

In the Research Lab, students learn about and teach their community about the idea of “pesky pollinators,” or pollinators that may be not be valued for the important role they play. During the initial stages of the Lab, students launch a survey to begin to collect their community’s attitudes toward these pollinators. While this data is being collected, they will begin to read a central text and some supporting materials and answer text-dependent questions to learn more about these pollinators. Students then reflect on the survey data they collected, and take steps to “re-educate” their community based on their perceptions.

Connection to Module Lessons:

Student learning about common insect pollinators in Module 3, and bats as pollinators in Module 4, is the basis for original research into perspectives within the school community about different pollinators.

Learning Targets:

I can create a survey to learn about my community’s attitudes toward unusual pollinators.

I can use my research skills to learn about unusual pollinators.

Purpose of Launch Stage:

Students are introduced to the purpose and materials they will use in the Lab.
Students create an interactive survey to post in a public area of the school.

Learning Targets:

I can create a survey to learn about my community’s attitudes toward unusual pollinators.

I can use my research skills to learn about unusual pollinators.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

During the Practice stage, students use provided research materials, note-catchers, text-dependent questions, and perhaps some additional research materials, to add to their own understanding of the three unusual pollinators: bats, opossums, and lizards.
Students will use their research to educate their community, and perhaps dispel some misperceptions about these unusual pollinators.

Learning Target:

I can create signs to help educate my community about unusual pollinators.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students use the creation of informational posters to try to correct their community’s misunderstandings or dispel any misperceptions they discovered about bats, lizards, and opossums.

The Research Lab does not go to the Choice and Challenge stage in this module.

Imagine Lab

Guiding Question:

How can I write an original fable about pollinators?

Summary of Lab:

In the Imagine Lab, students write a fable with a familiar pollinator as the main character. All fables will center around the central message, or lesson, of “Even the smallest among us can do their part.” Students analyze a model fable to determine criteria. They then use these criteria to plan, draft, and revise their own narratives. Students present their fables using the puppets they create in the Imagine Lab.

Connection to Module Lessons:

Students use their knowledge of common story elements in fables and folktales to develop their own story based on a common central message. This Lab links student learning about literature to habits of character and civics standards with the idea that any member of a community can make a positive impact.

Learning Targets:

I can plan a pollinator fable based on shared criteria, a pollinator character, and a common moral.

I can write a first draft of my pollinator fable.

Purpose of Launch Stage:

Students are able to access, and show, their knowledge of pollinators in a new and creative way.

Learning Targets:

I can plan a pollinator fable based on shared criteria, a pollinator character, and a common moral.

I can write a first draft of my pollinator fable.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students use the Fable Writing Pages in their their Labs notebook to craft their narrative

Learning Targets:

I can add details to my pollinator fable.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students add details to their drafts, specifically actions, feelings, and temporal words.

Learning Targets:

I can read my fable fluently.

I can perform my fable using puppets and setting from the Create Lab.

New in This Stage of the Lab:

Students continue to work with the pollinator fables they have been writing since the Launch stage.
Students incorporate their work from the Extend stage of the Create Lab by practicing and performing their fables in front of the settings they created.

Module 4: Overview