When and Why:  We sometimes take for granted the ability to hop on a plane and fly off to some distant land. Modern air travel can feel a little disconnected from the actual physics behind flight. The long quest humans have undertaken to become one of the 'flying species' is filled with heroic tales, stupendous blunders, and amazingly courageous accomplishments.  Any in-depth study of flight is bound to captivate your students and set their imaginations soaring.  But it is the stories behind the splashy achievements that will truly grab everyone's attention. 

Initiate:  Start with a discussion exploring how the students think a plane manages to fly.  Record their responses on a KWLH chart (Know, Want to Know, Learned, How to find out more).  Now the fun can begin.  There are so many excellent sites on the internet about the physical forces which act on a plane such as lift, drag, thrust and gravity.  Flash animation files are particularly effective.  Do an advanced search on Google and select Flash from the drop down list and you'll be surprised at how many generous souls have posted clear and effective content to help teach flight characteristics.  Pay particular attention to how an airfoil works, as this will immediately increase the students' knowledge and take a little of the mystery out of how aircraft become airborne.

Teach/Model:  An effective and experiential way to explore flight is to book a trip to a local airport.  Many small airports are happy to open their doors to student groups and to provide informal tours.  In this way, the students see first hand how air traffic is safely maintained, how a plane's component parts are constructed and how they function, and the various roles of airport personnel. If a tour is not possible or practical, books and Internet searches can certainly be effectively utilized.  A great resource for searching is www.faganfinder.com/filetype  and select either the pre-made powerpoint slideshows available or select the Flash tab.  YouTube has some wonderful videos, as well. 
Many libraries keep a rich resource of books on flight because it is such a universally interesting topic.  There are great books on flight experiments that you can do simply with cheap or freely available materials.  This may be the ideal time to show how a properly constructed paper airplane can travel great distances with little thrust.  Have a contest to see who can create the most efficient plane!

Guided Practice:  The emphasis on exploring the key elements of flight could begin with building and test flying various types of small planes.  Encourage the students to bring in any remote control aircraft they own (with parent permission, of course) and have a fly-in.  The gym is an ideal place to test planes safely.  Remote control helicopters have become very affordable and easy to fly.  As the students practice, be sure to relate any movements of the aircraft to the characteristics of lift, thrust, etc.  A company called Airhogs makes a variety of fun craft that can be adapted for classroom use.  I took the wings and tail section off one of their planes and had groups of students attempt to make replacements that would still effectively create lift.  In this way, the students get a really good look at how an airfoil works.

Collaborative Practice:  Create small groups or 'flight teams' within your class.  Have them create appropriate names for themselves and begin a four or five day rotation using activity groups.  Here are the activities we used:

1.  Heroes of Aviation.  The students picked a famous aviator, used Google Earth to save the various places on earth that the pilots explored, worked, were born or perished.  The students then take this information to create a dramatic monologue or skit to explore the aviator's biography.  Using Google Earth allows them to explore this wonderful resource and to trace the pilot's exploits in both time a place. 
2.  Interview with a Pilot.  Students create a podcast (for example using Garageband or Audacity) in which the pilot is interviewed for a radio show.  It's an excellent way for the students to explore an aviator's life and develop short scripts.  The final product can include music and sound effects.
3.  Debate.  Provide a number of debate topics concerning modern aviation.  Have the students chose a topic break up into two subgroups withing their  flight group and stage a live debate.  This allows the students to learn more about debating, researching, and providing support for their opinions. 
4.  What's Happening in this Picture?  Provide a number of pictures from aviation history.  Have the students explore the picture, guess the time period, and develop a short skit concerning the photo.  This dramatic activity can be quite open-ended, or made more specific depending on the images chosen.
5.  Build a Plane.  Students can spend their time creating two planes.  Again, divide the group in two for this activity. One plane should be a model which incorporates any interesting design ideas that they come up with to advance the science of flight.  The second group can create a working model using lightweight material.  We found all we needed at a local discount shop (Dollar stores are your friend here).  The students should try to create a plane that can experience lift.
Groups rotate daily for five days and present their work each day.  This is a rich and rewarding experience!

When and Why:  As students become more engaged in the political process, they need to have good strategies for looking at important issues from many angles.  They need to create notes and do research to enhance their understanding of a political party's platform

Initiate:  Begin with a round table discussion of why it is important to vote in a democratic country.  Many resources are available to provide background knowledge as to how your country or local political system functions.  One or two lessons on the basic functions of government should kick off this inquiry.  A great resource is studentvote.ca.  All kids should have access to a computer (ideally), or be able to share one with their small group. 

Teach/Model:  Explain that a political party has key issues that it wants to focus on during an election.  These issues form the party's platform, sort of like the personality it wants to present to the voters.  Pick a key issue from the campaign, or select one from a previous election that had a strong impact.  We brainstormed the hot issues and the students selected wind farms because they were in the news as a possible health threat.  Model a mind map with the students, illustrating how you would break up the main topic into research areas for further inquiry.  This would also be a good time to teach how to convert a mindmap to an outline (SmartIdeas is a great software tool for this).

Tell the students that they need to find factual information before they should begin to form an opinion on the topic.  Mention that this is called an informed opinion, and is the cornerstone of good politics.  Suggest that reading newspapers or following issues online is a good place to start, but research is the key to really know what's going on.  We broke up into groups, each with a subtopic to answer questions created during our brainstorming session.  Some sample questions we came up with:
Are the health concerns real or imagined?
Do wind farms cost more than the energy savings they promise?
How is wind converted into electricity?
How does a generator work?
How long do they last and can they run without any maintenance?

Guided Practice: The next step after our research was putting the learning to work for us.  We decided to email the candidates directly and invite them to our class to discuss and debate the issue.  On a Smartboard (or chalkboard), have the students review the parts of a business letter and how to send and receive email.  It is usually an easy thing to find the contact information because most politicians want input from their constituents.  I modeled writing an email with the class and we sent one off together.  The students were then given the task of repeating the process to a politician of their choice.  The response was excellent.  The kids were so excited to get emails back from the politicians - very empowering!

Collaborative Practice:  The students jot down their notes, exchange ideas for future emails, share the emails they've received and bring them into their group meetings.  Together they prepare for the visit from the politician by choosing which side of the issue they fall on and developing short speeches in support of their views.  We decided to split the visit up into two parts:  A question and answer period about the election and politics in general, followed by a more format debate of wind farms.  It was a highly engaging experience for everyone and could be easily adapted to any issue in your area.

When and Why: Studies are beginning to show an alarming trend among young people in that today's computer savvy youth are losing the manual dexterity of previous generations.  One interesting and fun way of teaching basic tool handling procedures and techniques is to research and explore small engines.  The need to handle simple tools safely is a basic lifelong skill. This lesson can fall under many curriculum areas but the general idea may be as an exploration of science topics such as fossil fuels, conservation of energy, simple machines or green technologies. With a little creativity, you can apply the lessons to language arts as well.

Initiate: Begin with an explanation that effective research begins with as wide a range of resources as possible.  It is not enough to rely on a single web page or book.  Students need to read and use their hands to really understand how machinery works.  In this sense, a discussion of how small engines are found almost everywhere we look in North America is appropriate.  Brainstorm a list of where small engines are found in today's world.  You'll be amazed at how integral they are to modern life.  List advantages and disadvantages to using small engines versus manual labour.  A T-chart is perfect for this activity.

Teach/Model:  One of the greatest explanations for how a small engine works is to use a flash file.  I like going to www.faganfinder.com/filetype and selecting flash as the filetype I'm looking for.  If you do this with your students, you can model how to find animated visual material efficiently.  Type in two or four stroke engine and a number of great files will be shown.  Show the students how to select the most likely hits by skimming through the few words of text.  Try a few of the flash files and enjoy the variety of approaches to describing how engines work.  This alone is a great lesson.  Next, model how you might take some simple point form notes on each process.  For example, jot down the name of each stroke:  Intake, compression, combustion and exhaust.  Leave room for a short description of each.  At this point, the students should have a good understanding of the basics.  Now the fun begins.

Guided Practice:  It is very easy to find old or broken down small engines.  Ask you local wrecker, land transfer site, small engine mechanic, or lawn mower repair facility.  I found many places willing to donate old equipment to a good educational cause.  A particularly willing mechanic might even offer to loosen all of the parts for easy breakdown by the students.  Take all necessary safety precautions of course, such as draining all fuel, ensuring no sharp edges, goggles available and on, and tools appropriate to the grade level you're teaching.  Also, ensure that they are wearing clothes that can get a little greasy, just in case.  I have a few clean rags and paper towels handy.  I assemble a small classroom tool kit from the local dollar store - cheap and comes in handy all year long. Perform a basic tear down of the engine in front of the students, highlighting each stroke as you turn the engine.  It's amazing how intrigued the kids are by the recognition of each stroke in the process. Show how you use a socket wrench, open-ended wrench, and screw driver safely.  Teach the 'left to loosen, right to tighten' rule and practice good routines of putting parts aside in an organized way for easy re-assembly.  Next, with a small group only, allow the students to loosen a bolt, remove a part or safely reassemble a piece of the engine, all under your careful guidance.  Ensure that the kids don't over tighten bolts and make sure you have a good grip on the engine and that it's in a safe place away from the edge of the table. Be sure to let your principal know about your lesson to collaboratively decide on any safety regimes. 

Independent Practice:  Give kids time to practice searching for flash files and web sites devoted to how small engines work.  Have them create a research project using presentation software such as Powerpoint or Keynote.  They can then present their projects to the rest of the class.  I like to give the students choice in each research topic to broaden the appeal of the activity.  With parent permission, I have them bring in a broken piece of equipment from home and we practice safely disassembling the items.  All power cords are cut, of course, and all safety precautions are in place.  A great extension activity is to have the children do procedural writing to re-assemble the parts or to create an owner's manual.  Excellent art tie-ins!

When and Why: We are bombarded on a daily basis by images and text that scream for our attention.  It can be overwhelming for kids and consumers alike.  Learning how to critically asses the advertisements around us is an essential tool in the modern world (especially if we hope to keep some money in the bank!).  One of the most interesting and provocative ways to explore ads is to take a 'mini' course in advertisement critique.  The only way to become an educated consumer is to have the tools to distill the truth from the massive volume of ads we experience every day and I think we are smart to start at the beginning by exploring advertisers' motivations and techniques. If the students can see 'behind' the ad, they will not be so easily manipulated.

Initiate: Begin with a wide ranging exploration of a variety of advertisements from magazines, newspapers, websites, commercials, and radio ads.  Try to find particularly novel ads.  This is the perfect time to introduce or review the idea of inferencing.  Most good ads require the reader to draw conclusions from the image or visuals to ensure that the viewer must pay greater attention and for a longer time.  As the discussion of each ad type unfolds, point out that advertisers spend a great deal of time and effort making sure every detail of the ad is carefully crafted and polished. Ads are a pervasive element of kids' lives, so encourage the students to talk about what they like, don't like, find interesting and effective.  Next, encourage the students to create a list of important questions surrounding advertisement.  Remember, the inquiry process encourages the students to follow their interests and curiosity, so generating a list of questions at the beginning of the process is important.  Also, don't assume your students can reliably differentiate an ad from an article.  It may be worth pointing out advertisements that are disguised as articles.  Students should begin by writing down a list of questions that they have about advertising in their inquiry journals or notebooks.

Teach/Model:  Core concepts about ad techniques should be explicitly taught because many students are unaware of the manipulation inherent in many types of advertising.  In order to promote actively questioning the content of ads, display a number of print or video ads and walk the students through a thorough critique.  Here is a list of possible starting points:

Target Audience - who will most likely be interested in buying the product
Tag Line - phrase or idea that helps people remember the product and should give some sense of the qualities being promoted
Claim - the part of any ad that suggests why this product is better than other products in the marketplace
Copy - written or spoken words in an ad
Gender - male or female
Gender role - set of behaviours society expects from males or females
Gender Stereotyping - overuse of gender roles can result in stereotypes in which males or females are limited to certain behaviours.
Emotion or Feeling - the general emotional response being created by the ad company
Promotional Campaign - a prolonged series of ads
Peer Group - the demographic considerations of advertisers appeal to certain groups sharing characteristics
Bias - when someone or some event is seen only from one viewpoint, often leading to favouritism
Overt Message - the simple observable message in an ad
Implied Message - the idea or feeling suggested by the ad but not specifically stated
Point of View - from whose eyes we see a scene or ad.  This can broken down into foreground, mid ground, background, all of which affects the viewer's    perception of the scene
Camera Angle - the angle of the shot (eye level, Bird's Eye, and low angle) all affect the emotion or sense of power the viewer holds.

This component of the unit may take a few lessons to highlight all of the elements above.  All of these concepts can be found in five interactive learning resources I created in flash file format on eLearning Ontario's website in the Online Educational Resource Bank (OERB) in the grade five section, English Language, media literacy section.  If you're an Ontario teacher, I strongly recommend you check this out. They're lots of fun!

Guided Practice:  Using any presentation software you have available (I really like Pages because we have Macs at our school) walk through the steps of creating an ad together as a class.  Pick a fun product to promote, create a company name and incorporate many of the concepts you've covered in the Teach/Model lessons.  It's hilarious to put the student's comical ideas into your ad.  Print and post in a prominent area in the classroom or around the school.  An extension activity I use with my class is to create a television ad using iMovie.  These short, 30 second pieces can usually be completed together using a digital video camera and any editing software you have at the school.  I would suggest creating an ad that ties in with one of the other units you may be teaching in a different subject area. 

Independent Practice:  Hand drawn or computer generated ads are a fun group or independent activity.  My students enjoy using the computers because edits and changes are so easy and they can really play with different effects.  Hand drawn ads lend themselves to practicing artistic skills. They require careful planning, however, because choices made cannot be easily altered.  iPads or iPod touches have fantastic apps available to use graphic tools to create truly impressive mini works of art. 

Making commercials using video editing software may seem daunting, but it needn't be.  Most programs now include a do-it-all option in which you simply add content to a pre-existing template.  IMovie has its Make a Magic Movie option that takes all of the hard work out of editing and combining elements.  Windows Movie Maker does the same.  Trust me, the kids will figure it all out pretty quickly.  Invite other classes to come enjoy your 'movie festival' once all of the ads are completed.  There is as much to learn from awkward or less successful ads as there is from the highly polished ones.  The varying quality will give you an opportunity to play movie critic with the students.  Enjoy this rich and rewarding media experience!

When and Why:  Humans respond to art in wildly different ways.  But we also respond in very communal ways as well - a shared experience of art is what brings us together to enjoy movies, art galleries, theatres and performances of all types.  Allowing students to refine and define their understanding of the artistic impulse is certainly one of the most important gifts we can give them.  Enjoyment of art is enhanced by knowledge of forms and techniques but the really enriching experience is in performance.  Creating a great work of art, and by this I mean a piece that is deeply satisfying to the creator of the piece and not necessarily its intended audience, is rewarding in way that few human endeavors can match. To this end, creating an extended art exploration project based on performance, supported by useful techniques, should allow students to truly enjoy art in a way that makes it new, fresh and exciting.

Initiate:  What better way to build a sense of excitement than with an auction?  People love auctions because of the tingle of anticipation and energy coursing through the body during the bidding process.  Begin with a classroom filled with twenty to thirty pieces of art, displayed around the periphery of the class so everyone is forced to move and jostle around a bit.  Using monopoly money, cards or poker chips distributed evenly among the students can act as a highly motivating force as they attempt to 'buy' the pieces on display.  Have fun acting as auctioneer and slip in the vocabulary you want the students to begin learning as you use a fast-paced banter to promote the pieces.  It's hilarious to see how caught up the kids get, watching them ride the emotional waves of anticipation, conquest, disappointment and satisfaction at achieving a 'good deal'.  More importantly, you're setting the stage for the next major concept, a discussion of why we like certain forms of art and how personal choice is often globally recognized as 'taste'. 
    I suggest the next part of the discussion focus on the more popular pieces in the auction and what elements were so attractive about them.  Students should be encouraged to think about what lured them into the works, trying their best to use descriptive words to relate what they perceive to why they like it.  There will undoubtedly be strongly opposing opinions, especially if there is a mix of abstract and realistic works of art and sculpture in the 'sale'. 

This is a great time to introduce three main concepts:

Realism:  Art that is meant to convey or explore readily identifiable objects is said to be in the 'realism' camp.  Pieces are usually meant to explore the characteristics of objects seen from the visual world around us.  This is art that can be very reflective in nature and evoke strong emotions of identification in the viewer.  Landscapes and portraiture are perhaps the most readily apparent forms of realism.

Abstraction:  Art that is meant to convey meaning by triggering the reactions of the subconscious mind is said to be 'abstract'.  The mind 'fills in the blanks' when obvious visual cues are not assembled in an immediately recognizable form.  This demands a great deal of mental attention on the part of the viewer as he or she tries to assemble meaning from the piece.  It can be a very satisfying set of emotions that well up in the viewer as unconscious memories and feelings merge together while interacting with a well crafted abstract work.

Performance: Art that is created for a performance such as a dance recital, play, poetry reading, movie or concert is said to be in the performance realm. This art can be more dynamic than any other because humans in their infinitely adaptable and creative expression can innovate in ways limited only by the imagination.  There is a strong sense of immediacy and drama while viewing performance art.  Emotions can be raw and unchecked, or subtle and restrained.  The rich interplay between audience and performer is what makes a great performance so compelling. 

Teach/Model:  Put on some music in whatever player you have available.  Encourage the students to move in any way that motivates them.  After a few minutes of hilarity, suggest that this is often called 'interpretive dance' and is a good example of performance art.  It is also abstract in that the emotions displayed in the dance are welling up from the unconscious mind.  Now, change the activity into a realism or representative dance by telling the students to pick an animal that might move to the music in an appropriate way.  Again, after the hilarity, go over the elements that make this realism (identifiable forms, shared recognition) and ask your students to ask what was 'easier'.  A variety of views will likely be given as some prefer a modeled approach, while others like to 'free form'.  Now is a great time to reinforce the idea that the natural preferences people have to art forms often help form what people globally refer to as 'taste'.  Neither is better, and the observer or performer should be encouraged to follow his or her inkling be truly creative and innovative. 

Invite local artists to your classroom to talk about their creative practice, share their work, and lead discussions.  Afterwards, allow the students to participate in an art activity that uses the artist's ideas and techniques.  This enforces the idea that anyone can be an artist and that artists are real human beings, responding to the world around them in innovative and exciting ways.  Repeat with artist from different fields.  Inviting a local photographer to your classroom is a great choice because it is so convenient to tie a performance task like creating digital photographs to the techniques used by professionals.  Fun, inexpensive and highly creative!

Visit local art galleries and take art work shops if available.  Nothing reinforces the love for art like being awed by beautiful pieces in their full glory, up close and personal.

Guided Practice:  The possibilities for guided practice are limitless in visual and performance arts.  One simple technique is to visit your local dollar store and stock up on small canvasses (I found them 2 for 1$), acrylic paints and brushes.  Use a Smartboard, digital projector, or slide projector to highlight a number of pieces, going over the concepts of line, colour, shading, composition, etc used by artists.  Next, put the kids to work on a piece of their own for eventual display in the school's display case or at a 'gallery' showing for other classes or parents.  One good way to bring out richer colour in lower quality paints is to spray them with a clear gloss finish (found at any hardware store or art supply).  Just be sure to do it away from the students or outside in a well ventilated area.  Do a piece yourself! Pick a theme if appropriate (fall, athletes in action, landscapes, still life, portraiture etc) and let the paint fly.

If you are looking for wonderful material on various artists, check out the Learn360 site (just google learn360) for a wide variety of videos on techniques, artists, and theory.

Independent Practice:  It's important to emphasize that what the students have learned in their exploration has been both intellectual and performance based.  Lead a debate in class:  "Be it resolved that if something is declared to be art, it is art".  This will allow you to assess what the students have come to understand, review vocabulary and reinforce the idea that 'taste' is personal and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

On the performance side, keep a portfolio of the students' work as they progress through the many lessons during the school year.  They can then monitor their own artistic development and give you many opportunities to provide feedback as their skills progress.

When and Why:  The range of communication opportunities for the modern student can seem overwhelming.  If we don't face up to the fact that our teaching practice must keep up with the latest developments in communication technology, we risk losing our students' interest, appearing like dinosaurs in the modern era, and most crucially, poorly preparing our kids for future success. The teaching of modern communication tools can be simplified by allowing the students many opportunities to explore using trial and error techniques to achieve desired results.  Push buttons, click on all the menus at the top, read manuals, do whatever it takes to gather as much information as possible in exploratory sessions.  It's fun and it teaches the kids to try things, problem solve, and be independent learners.

Initiate:  I always like to start my new projects with a guiding question. Sometimes the best start is to throw out a controversial statement and see where the kids take it.  For this project you might start with "Today's kids will eventually do everything on a cell phone.  Texting is way better than talking anyway, so why not just text all the time?  Why bother with voice?"  This should lead to some spirited discussion and allow you to steer the conversation to a broader range of modern communication tools: email, podcasting, video (YouTube, etc), blogging, Facebook and Twitter, voice dictation, texting, instant messaging and chatting.  You could make a comparison chart on the board of the characteristics of each of these tools and try to get the students to suggest when it is appropriate to use each type.  Some students may not have heard of some of the tools, so a short summary may be necessary. Suggest to the students that they will be experiencing many opportunities to express themselves using some of the methods explored during this project.

Teach/Model:  Use a tool that you feel comfortable with to begin your exploration.  I love podcasts, so I would naturally choose it to start.  If you use Mac computers, you can't get any better than GarageBand for making elegant, professional podcasts. No Mac?  Try Audacity for PCs.  Encourage the kids to use their iPod touches if they have them.  The Garageband app is only $4.99 and worth every penny.  If you haven't used it before, have an exploratory session with your students where together you push all of the buttons, read the tutorials (many video tutorials available), and try a few simple and fun interviews with each other.  Adding the background music and some fake commercials adds to the enjoyment.  

Guided Practice: Once everyone is up to speed, it's time to break into groups (2 to 4 works very well) and begin creating more extensive pieces.  Here are a few hints:
1. Tie the podcasts to some other learning going on in your room.  The students will have a lot of background knowledge that they can access to create their podcast.
2.  Keep it simple at first.  A radio show benefits from some intro music, a few lines to introduce the host, and then a launch into the 'meat' of the topic with guest speakers or experts (your students).  Finish with a music piece to 'bookend' the podcast.
3.  Allow lots of time to explore and make mistakes.  With practice, anyone can make a good, professional sounding podcast.
4.  Allow for lots of choice:  a talk show, news report, comedy sketch, science report, or even an interview of staff or local guests.

A great deal of cross curriculum learning is taking place in this activity.  Writing scripts will take some of the nervousness away from students who don't excel at thinking off the top of their heads.  If you listen to any of the following podcast sites, you can get a real feel for the genre:  any CBC program that features podcasts are usually of very high quality.  My personal favourite is WireTap.  If you like stories, try The Moth.  This American Life is brilliant.

Collaborative Practice:  Your students will undoubtedly want to make another podcast once they get the hang of it.  Allow them to select a new group and plan and produce a podcast together in which they teach or review a concept taught in class.  This allows for excellent review opportunities to solidfy knowledge and underscores the idea that modern communication tools aren't just for entertainment but to pursue interests as well.

On the performance side, keep a file of the students' podcasts and play them every now and again to retain interest and as a reminder to use this great 21st century tool often.  Follow this general outline for any of the other tools suggested in lesson 1.  Blogs, video, voice dictation and texting can all be handled in a similar format.