WEEK MATH
SCIENCE
ENGLISH (ITU
FOCUS)
Day 1
Introduction to plants and
what their major parts and
functions are (bring in
several native and nonnative plants).
What other purposes do
plants serve? What parts
can we eat? (Bring in fruit,
root veggie, salad). Start of
a vocabulary list (word,
description, colorful
picture) that we will add on
to throughout this unit.
Quick Write: What does
hunger look like to
you?
Introduce similarity and
proportional by giving
students similar figures
and asking them to
explain all that they can
see and write down about
them in groups. End the
day by defining similarity
Read Hunger Poem
Mini lesson on
imagery, themes, and
symbolism.
Small group discussion
of imagery, themes,
and symbolism.
HW: Students must
create a list of 5
different ways that they
could help to prevent
hunger in their
community.
Day 2
Day 3
How do we prove the
figures are similar? Use
proportions and scale
factor! Ask students to
start exploring how to set
up ratios for similar
figures. End the day by
saying they set up side
lengths with ratios.
Students investigate what
role native plants play in
ecology and balance of
nature. Plant reproduction
Extend proportions with
area and volume. Do
area and volume follow a
specific proportional
value? (plug in side
length proportion into
area and volume to see
ratio for area/volume)
Intruduction to
photosynthesis (have
students understand that
this process is the
foundation for the food
chain)
Update vocabulary list.
Redacted Poetry
Activity
Jigsaw close read of
Hunger
Students draw
connections from the
poem and the video
HW: Read and
Annotate After Apple
Picking by Robert
Frost
Watch a clip of A
Place at the Table a
documentary about
hunger.
Read 1
Speak 2
Write 3
with small group
discussion of imagery,
themes, and
symbolism.
Students share out
HW: Students bring in
different visuals and a
list of 5 themes inspired
by their vision of
hunger or of the
images evoked by After
Apple-Picking.
Day 4
Teacher explains that
ratios for right triangle
have a special name, and
are a function.
(sine, cosine, and
tangent)
Students compare water
use of native and nonnative plants and learn
about adaptations for low
water use
Bring in City of Poway flyer
about water wise
gardening
Students determine what
waterwise or droughtresistant means.
News article about drought
in southern
CA
Discuss water cycle.
How does rain water differ
from tap water?
Day 5
Do reciprocals for sine,
cosine, and tangent to
create cosecant, secant,
and cotangent.
Community Garden
introduction (including
the benefits of
community garden at
helping prevent hunger
in neighboring
communities)
Class Discussion of
common themes and
images that the
students came up with.
Break students up
based off of common
themes that emerged
during class
discussion. Have the
students begin to
brainstorm different
ideas for their
community garden.
Update vocab list.
HW: Bring in different
resources to assist in
the Community Garden
workshop day (articles,
images, etc).
Investigate the natural
plants that Native Indians
(Kumeyaay) used for
consumption and other
purposes (which are
those?)
Anticipatory Set
Workshop day: Groups
design preliminary draft
of garden due Monday.
(visual)
Compare Indian and
current plant food sources.
Why are they different?
What are current
agricultural plants?
WEEK MATH
2
SCIENCE (ITU FOCUS)
ENGLISH
Day 1
Students do internet research
and/or go through a gardening
book and gardening
magazines, to find out about
plants they could grow for
food in our climate.
5 senses activity
(graphic organizer)
Students explore
with teams in order
to answer the
question to, how do
we set up ratios for
non-right triangles?
Groups of students make a
catalogue of plants for
gardening comtaining:
- name of plant (Latin and
common)
- color of flower (root? fruit?)
- what part is eaten
- best season to plant
- size (height and width when
mature)
- time to germinate if seeded
- time to mature for harvest
- light requirement
- water requirement
- space requirement
- are there good plant
combinations?
- any pollinators needed?
- information on beneficial
insects
Day 2
Use above
discoveries to
create law of sines
Catalogue activity continues.
Students draw a plant, name
it, and find out about the
characteristics as stated
above.
Students look over their
catalogue and try to come up
with a theme for their garden.
Students begin writing a
paragraph that describes
the theme of their garden
and where they pulled
their inspiration from.
In the paragraph students
will use descriptive writing
strategies to help others
visualize their garden
without seeing their
drawing.
The students will conduct
a peer review of class
members paragraphs
(these reviews cannot be
done with students in the
same group).
HW: Brainstorm ways that
a descriptive paragraph
can be used in the
community garden
project/poster
presentation.
Anticipatory Set
Workshop Day:
Community garden
logistics:
1. How will your
garden serve the
community?
2. Who will have
access to the
garden and its
produce?
3. What are the
logistics (ex: will
community
members work for
their share of the
produce, is there
an application
process, etc).
HW: Delegate roles and
conduct outside research
for what makes an
effective community
garden.
Day 3
More law of sines
Students start planning a
garden plot after thinking
about a theme.
They draw a possible outlay
on graphic paper and label
everything.
Anticipatory Set
How will you raise the
funds needed to create
the community garden?
How will you advertise the
garden to the community
and to prospective
donors?
HW: Must finish RD of
poster presentation due
Friday
Day 4
law of cosines
Students keep planning.
Workshop Day:
Discuss which plants they
chose and why.
Discuss expectations for
the poster presentation
project and go over rubric.
Students are given time to
work on any necessary
areas of their poster
project presentation.
HW: Must finish RD of
poster presentation by
Friday
Day 5
Review day
Students present a draft of
Rough Draft of Poster
their garden, with descriptions
of their plants and what their
requirements are. The
description needs to be
accurate enough for math
students to use for their
calculations.
WEEK MATH (ITU FOCUS)
3
SCIENCE
Day 1
fill out data in graphic
organizer from
measurements
Students learn
more about
agriculture and how
to take care of
growing plants:
what do farm
workers do?
Day 2
research costs of wood,
plants
Starting to create
their poster part
which is like going
shopping in the
catalogue they
created. Provide
rubric for poster
details.
Day 3
calculate data for blueprint
Work on posters.
and for realistic garden. find Have students print
the similarity ratio
or cut pictures of
their plants. Maybe
starting point and
envisioned
endpoint?
project due!
Students conduct peer
review to give groups
feedback.
HW: Students revise the
content for their poster
presentations.
ENGLISH
Teacher goes over good
presenting practices.
Students must complete a
self assessed rubric as a
group based on their poster
presentations.
Students get last half of the
period to work on last minute
details of their poster
presentation.
TOTD: Self assessed rubric.
Day 4
create actual blueprint and
put on poster
Poster presentation
practice.
Group Poster Presentations
TOTD: Students
anonymously vote on their
favorite garden design that
they will build later in the
semester.
Day 5
In a reflection students
answer the question, How
can we apply the math
concepts we have learned
in this unit to real world
situations? Where do you
see similar figures, ratios,
and scale factors used in
the real world?
Have students
consider what they
learned from other
groups, and might
want to change in
their own garden.
Short reflection why
they think their
garden will be the
yummiest.
In class, students will write a
short reflection piece of what
they have learned through
their interdisciplinary project
and the collaborative
process. In this reflection
they must talk about what
they contributed along with
how they believe their group
members did. This includes
a rationale for the grade that
they think they should
receive. They must also
identify what they would do
differently next time to
improve their final product.
