As teachers, we collaborate pretty much daily. Often, this is simply a conversation, a sharing of ideas, an informal (small) think tank.
During one of these collaborative conversations, a friend and colleague of mine (who also happens to be a phenomenal Chemistry and Physics teacher) and I were discussing lessons for the upcoming year. We discovered we were both doing apocalyptic lessons--I was set to teach Alas, Bablyon, and she was exploring the difficulties of sharing resources on both sides of the New Madred fault line after its hypothetical break down. From this discovery, an idea was born--a collaborative unit of epic proportions.
My high school embarked on a 9-week school-wide apocalyptic unit in which almost everyone participated (there's always a couple of naysayers). To get everyone involved and pumped for the unit, we made it competitive with a survival game to see who was most likely to fare well in a disaster of local or apocalyptic porportions. Each week, the 1st period classes were given a new situation from listing survival gear in order of most to least important, to finding patient zero, and more. During the fifteen minute Encore period, first period classes worked together to solve that week's puzzle. Each Monday, the top 5 teams from the previous week were listed. The competition was intense! At the end of the 9 weeks, the winning class was served a special lunch, and in a drawing, 3 individual students were given survival backpacks complete with MREs (donated by the Arkansas National Guard).
Even better than the competition, the kids were engaged and learning! It was Common Core at its best. We (the teachers) observed the students thinking critically, problem solving, working collaboratively, and even building leadership skills.
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| Students work together to chart out 'patient zero.' |
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| Students work together to rate the usefulness of survival gear. |
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| Air Force Emergency Management expert, Jeff Sharpmack, shows students how to determine their coordinates. |
We also had many guest speakers including a park ranger, an emergency management expert, and the author of Ashfall (a young adult apocalyptic novel).
The week of Thanksgiving, we 'scavenged for supplies' in a competitive food drive resulting in a donation of over 2,300 food items. It was inspiring!
Finally, to end the 9 weeks, we had a 'Survivor Fun Day' complete with shelter building, CPR and gurney building, fire starting, trust activities, and a food challenge. It was fun and educational!
In addition to this game, students were involved in apocalyptic and survival lesson plans in many of their classes. From tracing the origins of a disease to surviving a nuclear event and everything in between, the kids were experiencing true horizontal alignment in their classes. The success of this unit can be summed up in the following statement: "We're doing Socratic Circles in Chemistry and learning about nuclear power in English. This is so weird!" Weird, but good. I love this unit and can't wait to try it again next year. (We decided to create school wide units on a 3 year rotation so none of the students 10-12 will repeat a unit.)
SCHOOL WIDE COLLABORATION CAN WORK--you just have to be creative! :)
**I must add that this collaboration was realized for our school district, in large part, thanks to our media specialist (librarian) and counselor, without whom, most of these events wouldn't have happened.**
