To answer our essential "How does where we live affect how we live?", students read books, researched, and took field trips to study how the place we live impacts the lives of humans and animals.

Mrs. Lazarus (1st Grade): Why does an animal live where it lives? We started our project by listing as many habitats as we could. Students were able to list 9 different habitats. The next step was for students to try to list one animal that lived in each habitat. Next I showed students a list of the more common animals found at the Miami Metrozoo. I broke students up into 5 groups of 4. Each group listed their top 3 animals from my list. Then we looked to see what animal the majority of the students wanted to study. Students then drew a picture of their animal and wrote down what they thought they knew about the animal. Students listed many questions related to physical characteristics, habitat, diet, etc... We then gave each group books from the library and information found on the internet using Google. Students wrote what they learned on sticky notes and then classified the information by topic. Learn more at: http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/kjlazarus/

Ms. Jurczak (2nd Grade): Why do animals live where they live? In our classroom, we looked at how an animal is adapted to the habitat it lives in. We used books, reference materials, the internet, videos, and a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo, to find the answer to this question.
Each child researched his or her own animal. They gathered information about the animal and its habitat. Learn more at: http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/kljurczak/

Mrs. Darnell (4th Grade): How does the weather where you live affect how you live?
Visit: http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/sbdarnell/

Ms. Kluchin (4th Grade): How does the weather where you live affect how you live?
Visit: http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/ljkluchin/

Miss. Rask (4th Grade) How does the weather where you live affect how you live? Miss Rask’s students were immersed in process of planning, gathering, and building digital media presentations to answer their guiding question. Once given the guiding question, students collaborated in small groups to research their own essential question. The result is a variety of student created technology presentations that answers in unique ways how the weather around us affects how we live. Learn more at:
http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/mkrask/

Ms. Cummins (5th Grade): How does the culture of where we live affect how we live?
Visit: http://blogs.browardschools.com/glides/mrcummins/

Mrs. LaBon (5th Grade): How does population density affect traffic where we live and how we live? GLIDES stands for Global Learning Initiative through Digital Education for Students. What this means is students use technology to help answer a guiding question. We used project based learning approach, which entails three phases: Plan, Gather, and Build. Each of these phases occurred within a set amount of time to ensure that projects would be completed in a timely fashion. The students used laptops, digital cameras, video cameras, external microphones, promethean boards, and the complete iLife Suite of software to complete their projects.