Lesson Eight: Recommendation Revisit
Grade Level: 5th Grade
Time: 60 minutes
Essential Question: How can we be stewards of Wyoming’s agriculture to benefit current and future generations?
Objectives: Students will:
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- Reflect on their previous stewardship decisions through the lenses of science, economy, and culture.
- Defend their decisions and revise their stewardship choices when they deem appropriate.
Purpose: Students learn that making stewardship decisions is complex.
Required Materials/Resources:
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- Revisiting Stewardship Decisions sheets (one of Scenario 1 per student and one of either Scenario 2, 3, or 4 per student depending on student choice)
- Students’ Completed Scenario Recording sheets
Suggested Teacher Preparation:
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- Spend time anticipating what students will identify regarding cultural and economic considerations that would be pertinent to the decisions that they made throughout the unit.
Standards:
Social Studies: SS5.2.2, SS5.3.2 (Explicit)
Vocabulary: Reference vocabulary from lesson 7
Instructional Procedure/Steps:
- Begin the lesson by reviewing the definitions of economic cost, culture, and cost-benefit analysis. Focus on the three attributes named in the definitions of culture (thinking, behaving, or working) and economic cost (time, money, and resources).
- Have student teams work together to complete the Revisiting Stewardship Decisions sheets. During this task, they will look at the scientific, economic, and cultural considerations of their Scenario 1 stewardship choice. Pass out students’ Completed Scenario Recording sheets and the Scenario 1 Revisiting Stewardship Decision sheet. Complete the Scenario 1 Revisiting Stewardship Decision sheet as a class in order to model what students should look for and how to analyze the considerations of their choice.
An example for Scenario 1: If they chose the option to expand their land, students might write the following:
| Scientific Lens | Economic Cost and Cultural Lenses |
| Will provide more resources to support the ecosystem | Adding additional land will cost money.
Over time, it will take more work to maintain and care for more land. If neighbors sell their land, there will be new neighbors. |
Teacher Note:
Cultural aspects will likely be the hardest to evaluate. If necessary, be prepared to draw students’ attention to the three attributes of culture named in the definition, by asking: “How might your choice impact how work would be done? How might your choice impact how people in your community might behave? How might your choice impact how people in the community might think?”
Analysis
In this task, students will be engaged in the higher order thinking skill of analysis and synthesis by organizing their ideas, considering the outcome of their choices, and modifying choices.
Synthesis
In this task, students will be engaged in the higher order thinking skill of analysis and synthesis by organizing their ideas, considering the outcome of their choices, and modifying choices.
- Once students have completed the scientific, economic, and cultural boxes on the worksheet, ask them to determine whether there are more costs or more benefits for each of the three lenses, and give them the opportunity to revise their decision about which option they want to choose based on these three lenses.
- Have student teams repeat this process with each member individually choosing a different scenario than their partner to revisit from Scenarios 2-4. They will complete their new Revisiting Stewardship Decision sheets and decide if they would revise their original choice. Say: “You will receive game points for your team by completely finishing your chosen scenario.” Award 3 points per student: 1 point for the scientific lens, 1 point for economic cost/cultural lenses, and 1 point for answering whether or not they would change their stewardship choice. (Students work individually. However, their combined points go to moving their team piece on the game board.)
- After students have completed their individual Revisiting Stewardship Decision sheets, ask: “Making stewardship decisions is easy if you are careful about using different lenses. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? Discuss your opinion with your partner and be prepared to share your thinking with the class.” Carefully monitor student teams while they discuss. Listen for students who are recognizing the complexity of making stewardship decisions and the complexity of each of the individual lenses. Once all students have had a chance to share their thinking with their partner, open up the discussion to the whole class. Be sure to bring forward the idea that making stewardship decisions is a very complex process, and there are a lot of factors that contribute to the decisions that agricultural stewards make. If the class has not already discussed it, talk about how there is rarely ONE option that will completely solve a problem. Rather, farmers and ranchers regularly use a combination of approaches to try and deal with challenges. Combining options may add to the effectiveness of the overall solution, but it can also make it harder to manage from a scientific or economic cost standpoint.
Teacher Note:
In this task, students will be engaged in the higher order thinking skill of application. - To end the lesson, say: “Tomorrow, you are going to be finishing your race to become master stewards. In order to achieve this goal, you will need to apply the different lenses of decision making that you developed in this lesson with one final scenario.”
Assessment: See steps 4 and 5.
Credits/Sources: Not applicable