ZOOLAND

    Zooland is a simulation in which students, as members of a community work together to save their local zoo, Zooland, from being destroyed.  The city government has said the zoo is a disgrace, is outdated, the animals are poorly treated, and attendance is declining.
    The zoo's director in this simulation organizes the community's schoolchildren and parents who petition for a one year delay.  An agreement is reached if two things happen.  The animals must be given excellent care andt he zoo itself must be modernized at no expense to the city.
    The students make a model of Zooland and receive lessons on zoo-related issues.  These lessons include classification of animals, the zookeepers job, animal care, how to design cages without bars, and how to display animals in natural habitats.
    Students must continually outsmart the mayor's spies that sabotage the animals' cages and pose other problems.  They must also find community sponsors to pay for Zooland renovations and add more creatures.
 
 

DINOSAUR 2

    Field scientists and archaeologists explore the past to understand how the environment, plant life, and animal life have evolved.  Students will attempt to unravel the mysteries of prehistoric life in three phases.

Phase 1 – Before their imaginary journey to a fossil site, students learn they are members of the Dinosaur Research Project.  Each member of each learning team will role play a peaceful plant-eating dinosaur who must search for food, care for its young, and avoid T-Rex.  As this phase ends teams select fossil sites based on the number of surviving dinosaurs their team has.

Phase 2 – Students learn how to extract fossils, lay out grid lines, and map and label their finds.

Phase 3 – Students assemble fossils and use their knowledge to complete a Dinosaur Discovery Report.

Other activities include creating their own dinosaur, performing a Dinosaur History Shadow Play, and making a Dinosaur Book.
 
 

           THE ABC's OF RESEARCH

Moving students from teacher-directed to self-directed learning is no easy task. The ultimate goal is for the student to select his or her content, determine the time frame of the study, and select the questions, resources, activities, product and evaluative procedure for the study.  Obviously, moving students toward independent learning is a gradual process.
This unit is designed to encourage students to become proficient at using reference tools and materials such as the dictionary, print encyclopedias, multimedia encyclopedias on CD ROM, and non-fiction books as they find the answers to questions posed to them in a research project which covers topics from A to Z.  Once students have completed the assigned research project they will write their own “ABC's of Research” for each other to solve.
 
 
 

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