Period 4 - Ben Delfino

[CALIS]

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Session 1 materials: [The first line of your report is the session number and full title of the database item(s).]
Focus Q: [On a new line, list your focus question from your TAP form. If you changed the question then add the new version after the TAP version.]
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Session 1
On-time: 3/3
Substantive: 6/6
Student specific 6/6
Total: 15/15
Comments: Great report! Substantive about the lesson's material and has student specific examples. Keep it up! -- OL 11/20

Session 2
On-time: /3
Substantive: /6
Student specific /6
Total: /15
Comments:

Session 3
On-time: /3
Substantive: /6
Student specific /6
Total: /15
Comments:

Session 4
On-time: /3
Substantive: /6
Student specific /6
Total: /15
Comments:

[Benjamin Delfino]

Session 1 Materials: California’s drought and climate change hand out and slide show
 
Benjamin Delfino
TIRP – Gloria Hernandez Period 4 – Session 1
Climate Change Policy
October 29, 2023
 
Focus Question: What are the causes of the California drought, what challenges exist to solving the drought, and what policies have been proposed?
 
Before breaking down this question, Christina, Nour and I gaged the knowledge the students already had about California’s drought. We wanted to see where we needed to start and how in depth, we needed to go. As most, if not all, of the students were unfamiliar with the topic, we started from the beginning explaining what a drought is and some basic information about California’s in order to give context. We wanted to also start by asking questions in order to engage the students and create a conversational aspect to our teaching rather than a lecture. They were very reserved throughout the class, but Ms. Hernandez helped motivate them to speak.

Once we defined a drought, we asked what they think would cause it/this one. Student A said heat and another student, Student B, said petroleum. They were two very simple answers but moved the class in the right way and were a great opener for the rest of the class to participate. After the basics were discussed, we showed a national geographic clip demonstrating the impact and gravity of this situation. We wanted to put this in perspective especially with students who are coming into this lesson with minimal knowledge of the topic.

We then moved on to popcorn reading of a Times article that discussed what Tropical Storm Hillary means for California’s drought and its future. It covered topics such as weather whiplash, how to properly manage the incredible influx of water after three years of dryness and the issues in the future. We wanted to highlight how Tropical Storm Hillary is, itself, a biproduct of climate change. I think this surprised some of the students as a lot of water is exactly what is needed to end a drought. In order to make sure they comprehended the reading we asked follow up questions in which students were a little reluctant to respond, but some did after a little push. One of these questions was what the “good news” was from this article. Our lesson up to this point felt a little negative so we wanted to bring it up. This also led into our discussion on the different policies and what is being done to mitigate the drought.

For this discussion we used the four worlds model. We originally planned to separate the kids into different groups to discuss the different policies but we were running out of time and needed to do it as a whole class. We asked the class what policy they think would be the most effective. Student B and Student C both said that capturing groundwater and putting it into groundwater basins. Students seemed reserved and unwilling to participate so I want to focus on a more interactive lesson in the future.