Sharing the Planet

     Today we launched our first UOI, Sharing the Planet.  This is one of my favorite UOIs of the year.  Why? Well, the science link of course.  Our children are examining the central ideas of how natural disasters affect people and the environment. 
    Yesterday I started by giving the children post it flags with the magnitude of earthquakes written on them.  I did not tell them what the numbers meant- only the number and where it happened. They were to place their flag on our classroom map of the location they were given. There was a great deal of speculation yesterday as to what they were plotting.  Nobody guessed!  I love that they were thinking and completely engaged in the mystery of the numbers.
     Today we continued plotting data, which can be found here.  After we plotted more you could really see a pattern!  I then showed them this prezi that I made and afterwards returned to our map.  Voila!! The light bulbs came on and they now saw what the relationship was between the numbers- it was awesome!! They were suddenly so enthralled- even my child who told me he "hated science" was excited. 
    This was a great provocation to start the conversation about natural disasters.  They began to formulate questions which will later guide some of our inquiries and their genius hour projects.  It was also an excellent way for me to see the gaps in their knowledge and get an idea of where I needed to start in the teaching of earth system and processes. 
    I cannot wait for tomorrow as we start to look closer at the natural disasters and their impact on humans and the environment!!