2018 Innovate at Glen Head School

Glen Head School Operation SPLASH and iInnovate Spring 2018

As part of the Spring 2018 iInnovate school-wide initiative, all K-5 students will be exploring the theme, “Our World, Our Water, Our Responsibility” at Glen Head School. Students along with faculty and staff, will be “Exploring and learning about the local environment together” by exploring possibilities related to

• Further developing the district-wide Shared Valued Outcomes (SVOs)
• Recycling
• Reusing
• Repurposing

Operation Splash

The Operation Splash program provides an opportunity for each grade level of students to spend a day at their headquarters near the Nautical Mile in Freeport, NY. In late April 2018, Glen Head students had the opportunity to do the following:

• Tour the storm drain outfall by boat in the Great South Bay
• Build a storm model
• Take a walking tour of a part of the Nautical Mile

Safety precautions were in place for all aspects of the trip. Ample chaperons supervised the students and the boat has been designed to accommodate school groups. Additionally, life vests were mandatory and worn upon entering the boat. This exciting opportunity enabled the GH students to learn more about their local environment and helped them see the positive impact they can make in the word around them.

Dive In with Us!
In Grades K-5, the iInnovate theme(s) have been imbedded into the curriculum at all grade levels. Kindergarten iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections in social studies will focus on Geographic Reasoning with strong emphasis on identifying a human activity that changed a place. For example:

• How did pollution affect the area around the drain and the bay to which the drainage system leads?
• Ask geographic questions about where places are located and why they are located there? Look at the maps of Long Island and the drainage system.
• Civic Participation:

“HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER NATIONAL AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Kindergarten, Unit 6 focuses on WHAT MATTERS TO ME AND MY WORLD? Some overarching understandings will highlight how students have the ability to make the world a better place. Questions will include: “What is the Importance of Empathy?, What is My Role in Making a Better World?, How can We Make Change? Under Persuasive Writing and “Learning Experiences,” students might create persuasive pieces urging people not to pollute or to help clean storm drains or the bay?

First Grade iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections will highlight in social studies
Geographic Reasoning with strong emphasis on:

• Describe how human activities alter places. What was the bay like before humans polluted? How did the pollution affect the bay? What was the bay like before Operation Splash started cleaning it? How did their actions affect the bay?
• Ask geographic questions about where places are located. Look at the maps of Long Island, its bays, and the drainage system. Identify natural events or physical features.

                  The bays, etc. are natural features. Humans created the drainage systems.

• Civic Participation:

“HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER NATIONAL AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Grade 1, Unit 3:  Mapping Our Way
Persuasive Writing:  The unit focuses on persuasive writing. Possibly extend it beyond reviews to create persuasive pieces related to stopping pollution or supporting “clean-up” of storm drains and the bay.

Second Grade iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections will incorporate the following relevant practices as part of the social studies framework:
Geographic Reasoning with strong emphasis on:

• Describe how human activities alter places in a community. What was the bay like before humans polluted? How did the pollution affect the bay? What was the bay like before Operation Splash started cleaning it? How did their actions affect the bay?
• Describe how his/her actions affect the environment of the community; How does your choice how to handle pollution affect the community? How does our living on an island affect our activities? How does a polluted ecosystem affect human activities differently from a healthy one?
• Ask geographic questions about where places are located and why they are located there. Look at the maps of Long Island and the drainage system. Distinguish human activities and human-made features from “environments
• Civic Participation:

 “HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER NATIONAL AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Grade 2, Unit 4 Getting to Know Our Characters and Community and Grade 2, Unit 5:
CHANGES OVER TIME. Overarching Understandings include People and Communities Changes Over Time. How do they change and what causes change? Students will create timelines, create graphic organizers to show local community history, interview older members of the community to learn about the community long ago, and create a venn diagrams to compare life then and now.

Third Grade iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections include the following relevant practices as part of the social studies framework:
Geographic Reasoning with strong emphasis on:

• Describe how human activities alter places and regions. What was the bay like before humans polluted? How did the pollution affect the bay? What was the bay like before Operation Splash started cleaning it? How did their actions affect the bay?

B. How human activities affect the environment of a world community. How is pollution handled similarly or differently where we are vs. in other nations we have studied, such as China?
How have people in that nation been affected by pollution?
C. Ask geographic questions about where places are located and why they are located there, using location terms and geographic representations, such as maps and models. Describe where places are in relation to each other and describe connections between places.
D. Civic Participation:
“HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER NATIONAL AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Grade 3, Unit 6: INFORMING OTHERS TO MAKE REAL CHANGES IN THE WORLD Students might write persuasive pieces about pollution or clean-up of storm drains and bays.

Fourth Grade iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections will highlight in social studies
Geographic Reasoning with strong emphasis on:

• Describe how human activities alter places and regions. What was the bay like before humans polluted? How did the pollution affect the bay? What was the bay like before Operation Splash started cleaning it? How did their actions affect the bay?
• Identify how environments affect human activities and how human activities affect physical environments. How does your choice how to handle pollution affect the community? How does our living on an island affect our activities?
• Look at the maps of Long Island and the drainage system. Distinguish human activities and human-made features from “environments” (natural events or physical features- land, air, and water- that are not directly made by humans). The bays, etc. are natural features.
• Civic Participation:

“HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER STATE, NATIONAL, AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Grade 4, Unit 6: Times of Change: Whose Freedom Is It?
There have been moments in history when there have been significant changes increasing the recognition of rights and freedoms of certain groups of people. Do any lead to issues of pollution and clean-up

Fifth Grade iInnovate Humanities Curriculum Connections
This project provides a natural opportunity to engage in these practices. Here are the relevant practices from the S.S. framework:
Geographic Reasoning:

• Describe how human activities alter places and regions in the Western Hemisphere. What was the bay like before humans polluted? How did the pollution affect the bay?What was the bay like before Operation Splash started cleaning it? How did their actions affect the bay?
•  Identify how environments affect human activities and how human activities affect physical environments through the study of cases in the Western Hemisphere. How does our living on an island affect our activities? How does a polluted ecosystem affect human activities differently from a healthy one?
• Look at the maps of Long Island and the drainage system. What does our trip to the bay and the fish market teach us about the relationship of places and human activities?
• Civic Participation:

“HOW CAN I BE A GOOD CITIZEN? WHAT ACTIONS CAN I TAKE TO IMPROVE MY LOCAL COMMUNITY AND THE LARGER STATE, NATIONAL, AND WORLD COMMUNITY?”

Grade 5, Unit 3: RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Overarching Understandings: People work together to create social change. (SVO Collaboration). Our freedom to argue is one of our most important rights of a citizen in a democracy. How can a person’s decisions and actions create social change?

Adopt a Storm Drain
As a next step, Glen Head families challenged to “adopt a storm drain” near your home and taking time each week to monitor and record the debris that is collected on top. K-5 GH students are committed to the environment by cleaning the drain to reduce the amount of debris polluting our waterways and beaches. Did you know that all debris that goes down storm drains north of Old Country Road feeds into the Long Island Sound and all debris in drains south of Old County Road end up in the Great South Bay? Let’s try to clean-up storm drains near our homes!