I have created several units for students in grades 3-5 which provide opportunties for students to investigate, engage in productive struggle, and create original artifacts to demonstrate their understanding.
Young Advocates Unit: Students learn about young people who advocate for issues they find important, learn to identify ethos, pathos, and logos as appeals in persuasive speeches and writing, and create their own unique messaging about a topic they feel passionate about.Â
Famous Failures Unit: Students learn about things that have been invented by mistake and about high achieving people (scientists, inventors, athletes, politiicians, etc.) who experienced failure before becoming famous, students try a variety of STEM challenges in order to work through challenges and reframe failure as useful information. Students end this unit by choosing an invention or inventor to do indepedent research about and present their findings in a creative way (comic book, game, timeline, etc.)