Create Something that Makes the World Awesome

Grade 3 lesson plan

• Lesson theme: Coming Together to Solve an Issue
• Integrated subject: Social Studies
• Grade level: Third grade
• Time: 45 min
• Lesson plan slides
• Lesson authors: Kelsey Martinez and Jenny Baker of Miami University of Ohio.

Lesson Overview:

Students will learn about teamwork and coming together to solve a problem by working together to solve a task, much like the volunteers and the residents of Mississippi did during the Freedom Summer events. After the lesson, the students will understand the meaning of teamwork and how they can apply it to their everyday life.

Essential Questions:

• What does teamwork mean to you?
• Where do you see teamwork in your everyday life? Do you play on a sports team? Do you work with your siblings to do chores?
• How can you use teamwork to solve a problem?

Visual Culture Component:

Kid President–Pep Talk about Teamwork and Leadership

Through this video, students are able to see how someone their own age is trying to make the world a better place through teamwork. When students see someone they can relate to working toward the same goal, their actions and steps to get there are validated and the project becomes one with real-world application.

Discussion Questions about Kid President video:

• What is Kid President saying about teamwork?
• How does he describe teamwork, and how is that connected to the activity you just did?
• Do you think you used teamwork when you were building your sculpture?

Ohio Standards of Learning:

Social Studies

Theme: Past and Present, Near and Far
Strand: Government
Topic: Civic participation and Skills
Content Statement: Individuals make the community a better place by solving problems in a way that promotes the common good.

Art

• 6PE: Recognize and identify choices that give meaning to a personal work of art
• 6PR: Collaborate with others to create a work of art that addresses an interdisciplinary theme
• 5RE: Use feedback and self assessment to improve the quality of personal artworks

Lesson Objectives:

Students will:

• design a 10” structure with a partner using the materials provided. (6PR)
• reflect on their structures and use feedback to determine what changes they could make to meet the height requirement. (6PE; 5RE)
• identify connections between the teamwork from this project and the teamwork of the Freedom Summer volunteers and the Mississippi residents. (SS; 6PR)

Vocabulary / Academic Language:

(3-5 terms for each subject addressed with age appropriate definitions)

• Community – A group of people who live in the same place or have something in common
• Teamwork – A group of people working together toward a common goal
• Discrimination – The unfair treatment of a person or group of people because of a characteristic (discrimination based on race is called racism)
• Sculpture – The art of making a three dimensional form
• Additive process – The art of adding together different materials to create a something new
• Balance – an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady

Historical/Cultural/Artist Information and Descriptions:

Historical image from Freedom Summer: Photo of children, residents, and Civil Rights workers standing in a circle holding hands

• This picture was taken in Mississippi during the Civil Rights Movement in 1964.
• Children, residents, and Civil Right workers are all standing in a circle holding hands. This photo represents equality, and how these groups of people came together to solve a problem.
• It is unknown what the group is discussing in this photo however, this photo enlightens the children, residents, and Civil Right workers unity and support of one another. Discussion Questions:
• How is teamwork represented in this image?
• What might they be doing in this image?
• Have you been in a situation that this image reminds you of?

Contemporary Artist, Mel Chin:

• 

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• Started by artist Mel Chin, Fundred is a project that will help raise money to find a solution to childhood lead poisoning, where students make drawings with potential to exchange for money from Congress.
• Lead poisoning can affect brain development and cause learning disabilities, lowered IQ, behavior and attention problems, hearing damage, nervous system and kidney damage. Since 2008, around 450,000 children have been affected by lead poisoning.
• Teachers can download the Fundred template, and teach the background and goals of Fundred to their class, then send in their dollar bills to Congress in hopes that Congress will return real money to the foundation.
• This organization is a solid representation of how people can come together to solve a problem.

Lesson Procedures:

Background Information: Before the task is given to students there should be lessons that teach students about the Freedom Summer and the Civil Rights Movement. Students will learn about the Freedom Summer events that occurred in Oxford, Ohio and how college students and other volunteers were preparing to go to Mississippi. The students should learn that the college students and volunteers who participated in the Freedom Summer events were learning about equality, how to register citizens to vote, and how they will be working in Freedom Schools and churches. (Day 1 prior to lesson)

Note: Before the lesson you may want to explain to students that sculpture and structure both refer to the projects they are doing, but their end project will be a sculpture. However, as they are working they are building a structure and when they are finished they will have a sculpture.

1. After giving students the background information that they need, the teacher will then give students the task they will be working on individually. The teacher will give each table a set of materials (listed under materials), and each student will be told to pick one material. The students will then be told that they have to build a structure with the following stipulations:
   • The structure has to be at least 10” tall
   • The structure has to balance, and stand on its own.
   • The students can only can use one material.
   • The students will finish the task in 5 minutes.
   • Once the students understand the directions, they may begin building their structure. (5-7 minutes)

2. After 5 minutes, some students should realize that they cannot build a structure ten inches tall on their own. This will then lead into discussions such as:
   • Why is it hard to build a structure ten inches tall?
   • What do you think we could do to help you build a structure?
   • The students may realize that if they used each other’s materials as well as the materials at their table and work together they would be able to build a structure that is tall enough and balances. (3-5 minutes)
3. After the discussion, give the students continuing directions that ask them to work with their tables or in groups with the same stipulations as listed above. Remind the students that their structure must be ten inches tall, but the group with the tallest structure wins a prize. Then allow the students 7-10 minutes to work in their groups to construct their structure. (7-10 minutes)
4. After each table has finished building their structure, each table will measure their structure and as a class they will determine who has the tallest sculpture and that group will win the prize. (The prize can be anything small. Ex: stickers, candy, etc.) (3-5 minutes)
5. After the sculptures have been collected, as a class there should be a discussion about how teamwork helped the students build their structures, and how that teamwork connects to the events of the Freedom Summer activities that took place in Oxford, Ohio. Questions such as the following may help with prompting these conversations:
   • What helped you and your group to build your structure? What did you guys do to build the structures at each of your tables?
   • What was your problem that you faced and what did you do to solve it?
   • How do you think you used teamwork to solve your problem of having to build a structure 10 inches tall?
   • (3-5 minutes)

6. Next, pull up the video that is attached in this document. Let the students watch the video and then discuss what Kid President is saying teamwork is. Through this video, students are able to see how someone their own age is trying to make the world a better place through teamwork. When students see someone they can relate to working toward the same goal, their actions and steps to get there are validated and the project becomes one with real-world application.

• You can encourage these discussions with questions like:
• What is Kid President saying about teamwork?
• How does he describe teamwork, and how is that connected to the activity you just did?
• Do you think you used teamwork when you were building your sculpture?
• (5-7 minutes)

7. Then present that class with the image from the Freedom Summer events that took place in Oxford, Ohio. Discuss with the class what they believe is happening in this image, and how the people involved in the Freedom Summer used teamwork to solve a problem. These discussions can be facilitated with questions such as:
   • How is teamwork represented in this image?
   • What might they be doing in this image?
   • Have you been in a situation that this image reminds you of?
   • How did the volunteers in Freedom Summer use teamwork to solve a problem?
   • (5-7 minutes)
8. Show pictures of the contemporary artist, Mel Chin. Show students the artwork associated with Fundred and Operation Paydirt. After this foundation and photos are explained, ask the students the following questions to prompt connections to teamwork:
   • How is teamwork reflected through the Fundred project?
   • How are students around the world working together to solve a problem?
   • (5-7 minutes)
   • Note: It would be beneficial to students to address how people have used teamwork a long time ago, and how they are still using it today to solve all different types of problems.
9. Wrap up the lesson by having students fill out an exit slip, and ask the students to write down what teamwork means to them. Each student should be given a post-it note or some other small piece of paper that they can write their answer on. They can hand these slips in as they leave the classroom or when the class moves on to another lesson or subject. (5 minutes)

Evaluation:

• Informal Evaluation
  • Students will be given an exit slip (a post-it note) where they have to write down what teamwork is.
• Formal Evaluation
  • With a partner, students designed a structure with their materials that is at least 10” tall (6PR).
  • Students reflected on their structures and used feedback to determine what changes they could make to meet the height requirement (6PE; 5RE).
  • Students identified connections between the teamwork from this project and the teamwork of the Freedom Summer volunteers and the Mississippi residents (SS; 6PR).

Materials and Preparation:

• Teacher Materials
  • Computer and projector
  • Kid President: Pep Talk About Teamwork and Leadership video
  • Powerpoint to guide instruction
• Student materials
  • Straws (bundles of 10 for each table/group, enough for half of the class)
  • Playdough (1 per table/group, enough for half of the class)
  • Rubber bands (5 per table/group)
  • Pipe cleaners (8 per table/group)
  • Scissors (2 per table/group)
  • Rulers (1 per table/group)
  • Popsicle sticks (10 per table/group)
  • Post-it notes or note cards

Preparation: Have all of the materials prepared ahead of the lesson. The materials for building sculptures can be placed in boxes or containers to make the passing out and clean up process easier.

Resources:

• Fine Art Standards from the Ohio Department of Education: The full state visual art standards connected to our lesson plan.
• Ohio’s Learning Standards for Social Studies: The full set of social studies standards connected to our lesson plan.
• Photograph of children, residents, and Civil Rights workers standing in a circle holding hands: Miami University digital archives photo we used from the archives as our Freedom Summer photo.

Photos from Lesson:

What was Freedom Summer?

Civil Rights
Voting registration for African Americans in the South

Notes:

• In 1964 Western was Western College and was not affiliated with Miami University.
• Young, president of Western in 1964
• Training session for mostly college students (wasn’t supposed to be at Western; came here by accident)
  • Voter registration, teaching about health and equality, work in Freedom schools (in churches)
  • State of Mississippi (segregation/racism)
  • Recruited students from Western College
  • Kentucky would not allow for the training to be held in Kentucky due to what the training was for. The President of Western College, Eric Young, was contacted and he then contacted the Board of Trustees and around a thousand trainees came to Western College for 3 weeks for the training to go to Mississippi.
• Western was also open to diversity and welcomed African American students in the 1870’s.
• Students were not taking it seriously, did not realize the severity of the issues. Three days in and three men had disappeared and were never heard from again. They ended up being murdered and it was then that the attitudes changed. The Sheriff of the county was waiting for them and kidnapped them, beat them, and shot them and threw them in a ditch to bury them all for the cause they were standing up for.
  • It took 10 days for Johnson to send the FBI to figure out what happened with the situation
  • During the search for the three men they found a large amount of missing African American men who were missing and murdered.