inq_Denton_Unit3_Main


Third-grade Inquiry Unit - Topic: How Our Community Gets Food

 

Essential Question(s):

  1. What can we learn by studying the lives of people who have influenced the well-being of a community?
  2. How do we formulate open-ended questions and conduct an inquiry project?

 

3rd-grade Inquiry Unit Resources

 

In order to base this inquiry project in the local community, educators may consider a trip to Cardo's Farm Project, an urban farm located in Denton. The farm offers fieldtrips for a nominal fee. Cardo's Farm Project owner and director Amanda Austin provided an interview for this project. (Gather Lesson - Interview Notemaking Graphic Organizer Teacher resource) Cardo's Farm Project has a booth most weeks at the Denton Community Market held on the corner of Mulberry Street and Carroll Boulevard from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. every Saturday from April to November.

 

Lessons:

 

Open

 

Immerse

 

Explore

 

Identify

 

Gather

 

Create

 

Share

 

Evaluate

 

TEKS 3rd Grade Social Studies - http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter113/ch113a.html

§113.14. Social Studies, Grade 3, Beginning with School Year 2011-2012.

(b) Knowledge and skills.

(1) History. The student understands how individuals, events, and ideas have influenced the history of various communities. The student is expected to:

(A) describe how individuals, events, and ideas have changed communities, past and present.

(2) History. The student understands common characteristics of communities, past and present. The student is expected to:

(A) identify reasons people have formed communities, including a need for security, religious freedom, law, and material well-being.

 

(3) History. The student understands the concepts of time and chronology. The student is expected to:

(A) use vocabulary related to chronology, including past, present, and future times;

(B) create and interpret timelines; and

(C) apply the terms year, decade, and century to describe historical times.

 

(12) Citizenship. The student understands the impact of individual and group decisions on communities in a constitutional republic. The student is expected to:

(A) give examples of community changes that result from individual or group decisions;

(B) identify examples of actions individuals and groups can take to improve the community.

 

(14) Culture. The student understands the role of heroes in shaping the culture of communities, the state, and the nation. The student is expected to:

(A) identify and compare the heroic deeds of state and national heroes, including Hector P. Garcia and James A. Lovell, and other individuals such as Harriet Tubman, Juliette Gordon Low, Todd Beamer, Ellen Ochoa, John "Danny" Olivas, and other contemporary heroes.

 

All of these:

(17) Social studies skills. The student applies critical-thinking skills to organize and use information acquired from a variety of valid sources, including electronic technology. The student is expected to:

(A) research information, including historical and current events, and geographic data, about the community and world, using a variety of valid print, oral, visual, and Internet resources;

(B) sequence and categorize information;

(C) interpret oral, visual, and print material by identifying the main idea, distinguishing between fact and opinion, identifying cause and effect, and comparing and contrasting;

(D) use various parts of a source, including the table of contents, glossary, and index as well as keyword Internet searches, to locate information;

(E) interpret and create visuals, including graphs, charts, tables, timelines, illustrations, and maps; and

(F) use appropriate mathematical skills to interpret social studies information such as maps and graphs.

 

(18) Social studies skills. The student communicates in written, oral, and visual forms. The student is expected to:

(A) express ideas orally based on knowledge and experiences;

(B) use technology to create written and visual material such as stories, poems, pictures, maps, and graphic organizers to express ideas; and

(C) use standard grammar, spelling, sentence structure, and punctuation.

(19) Social studies skills. The student uses problem-solving and decision-making skills, working independently and with others, in a variety of settings. The student is expected to:

(A) use a problem-solving process to identify a problem, gather information, list and consider options, consider advantages and disadvantages, choose and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness of the solution; and

(B) use a decision-making process to identify a situation that requires a decision, gather information, identify options, predict consequences, and take action to implement a decision.

 

TEKS - 3rd-Grade ELA-R - http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ch110a.html

§110.14. English Language Arts and Reading, Grade 3

(25) Research/Research Plan. Students ask open-ended research questions and develop a plan for answering them. Students are expected to:

(A) generate research topics from personal interests or by brainstorming with others, narrow to one topic, and formulate open-ended questions about the major research topic; and

(B) generate a research plan for gathering relevant information (e.g., surveys, interviews, encyclopedias) about the major research question.

 

(26) Research/Gathering Sources. Students determine, locate, and explore the full range of relevant sources addressing a research question and systematically record the information they gather. Students are expected to:

(A) follow the research plan to collect information from multiple sources of information, both oral and written, including:

(i) student-initiated surveys, on-site inspections, and interviews;

(ii) data from experts, reference texts, and online searches; and

(iii) visual sources of information (e.g., maps, timelines, graphs) where appropriate;

(B) use skimming and scanning techniques to identify data by looking at text features (e.g., bold print, captions, key words, italics);

(C) take simple notes and sort evidence into provided categories or an organizer;

(D) identify the author, title, publisher, and publication year of sources; and

(E) differentiate between paraphrasing and plagiarism and identify the importance of citing valid and reliable sources.

 

(27) Research/Synthesizing Information. Students clarify research questions and evaluate and synthesize collected information. Students are expected to improve the focus of research as a result of consulting expert sources (e.g., reference librarians and local experts on the topic).

 

(28) Research/Organizing and Presenting Ideas. Students organize and present their ideas and information according to the purpose of the research and their audience. Students are expected to draw conclusions through a brief written explanation and create a works-cited page from notes, including the author, title, publisher, and publication year for each source used.