The Magic School Bus Live: the Climate Challenge
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TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE 2011-2012 January 25 - February 15, 2012 Newmark Theatre, 1111 SW Broadway Inside this guide ABOUT: The Show, Author, Illustrator and Composer . 2 Oregon Educational Standards, The Big Ideas and Vocabulary . 3 Discussion and Writing Prompts . 5 Behind the Scenes and On Stage . 5 Activities 1 . Climate Up Close — Answer research questions about different climates and apply this information to write postcards home from different regions of the world . 8 2 . Portland Then and Portland Now — Use aerial photographs of the region to introduce human impact on the environment and physical and man-made landmarks . Students compare Portland today with what Portland might have been like 100 years ago . 10 3 . Trace Your Carbon Footprint — Students examine ways in which they use energy at school and home, and create carbon footprint posters detailing how they can do their part to help the environment by using less energy . 11 4 . Paper or Plastic? — What happens to different materials as they break down and decompose over time? How might this impact the environment? Conduct a hands-on experiment in which students subject paper and plastic bags to different environmental forces Teacher Info & Important Dates over a long period of time . 12 Friday, December 9th: Full balance due, last day 5 . Going Green Journals — Students keep records of their energy to reduce seats use and the things they’re throwing away to begin a conversation Saturday, January 21st, 7pm: Teacher Preview about waste reduction, using energy more carefully, and going green . Journal templates are included . 14 Length: 60 minutes Reading List and Online Resources . 18 Location: Newmark Theatre Policies and Procedures . 20 Directed by Matt Cosper. Based on the book The Magic Theater Location . 22 School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan. Book by Doug Cooney. Music and Lyrics by Scott Elmegreen. In association with Bay Area Children’s Theatre and Maximum Entertainment. Teacher resource guide by Allison Davis. 1 ABOUT The Show The Composer s . Frizzle, Wanda, Ralphie, Carlos, and the other students at Scott Elmegreen is a playwright, composer, lyricist, sound designer M Walkerville Elementary are putting on a play about climate and novelist whose work has premiered on Broadway and television, change, and we know what that means—a field trip! as well as off-Broadway, regionally, and internationally . His other plays include Awesome Allie, First Kid Astronaut, Thucydides, But of course, this is no ordinary field trip . The Frizz and her class College the Musical, Vote for Me: A Musical Debate, and Straight . travel the world in their very special school bus, from the arctic to the Scott has also scored numerous plays including Colin Quinn Long equator, learning about global warming and what’s happening to the Story Short, What I Took in My Hand, Daguerreotype, We Can’t Earth . In classic School Bus style, they start with the big picture, then Reach You, Hartford, and Joyce Carol Oates’ Tone Cluters . Scott take a closer look at the reasons the world is getting warmer . It’s not is also a published author of young adult fiction and a graduate all bad news…Ms . Frizzle and the kids explore countless easy ways of Princeton University . to combat climate change and reduce one’s carbon footprint while keeping the focus on student-centered change and experiential learning! Are you up for the climate challenge? The Author and Illustrator, Joanna Cole and Bruce Degan Joanna Cole loved science as a child . “I always enjoyed explaining things and writing reports for school . I had a teacher who was a little like Ms . Frizzle . She loved her subject . Every week she had a child do an experiment in front of the room and I wanted to be that child every week,” she recalls . It’s no surprise that Cole’s favorite book as a child was Bugs, Insects, and Such . Ms . Cole has worked as an elementary school teacher, a librarian, and a children’s book editor . She has written more than 90 nonfiction and fiction books for children, and she is the winner of the 1991 Washington Post /Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction award for the body of her work, which also includes the ALA Notable Children’s Book How You Were Born, Bony-legs; Cars and How They Go; and with Stephanie Calmenson, The Gator Girls series . Despite the hard work, Ms . Cole insists that writing “is the greatest fun in the world ”. Bruce Degen has loved art ever since he was a child growing up in Brooklyn, New York . “In sixth grade I had a wonderful teacher who would let me stand in the back of the room and paint all the time,” Degen remembers . “Once I didn’t even have to take a spelling test ”. When he wasn’t drawing and painting, Mr . Degen loved to read books about bears, fantasy and science fiction . In addition to illustrating the Magic School Bus books, Mr . Degen has written and illustrated several books, including them Jamberry and Sailaway Home, and he has illustrated Nancy White Carlstrom’s Jesse Bear books and Jane Yolen’s Commander Toad series . “The nice thing about books is that they go out into the world . When a kid, parent, or teacher tells you how much he or she likes your book, you realize that you’ve given something that has become part of someone else’s life,” Degen says . Adapted from www.scholastic.com. 2 Oregon Educational Standards English: Reading: Listen to and Read Informational and Narrative Social Sciences: Geography: Compare and analyze physical (e g. ., Text: Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational landforms, vegetation, wildlife, climate, and natural hazards) and and narrative text across the subject areas at school and on own, human (e g. ., population, land use, language, and religion) characteris- applying comprehension strategies as needed . tics of places and regions . EL .02 .RE 10,. EL .03 .RE .07, EL .04 .RE .03 Listen to, read, and under- SS .03 GE. .04 Identify physical characteristics of places and compare them . stand a wide variety of grade-level informational and narrative (story) text . Social Sciences: Geography: Compare and analyze physical and human characteristics of places and regions . English: Reading: Informational Text: Demonstrate General SS .03 GE. .04 Identify physical characteristics Understanding: Demonstrate general understanding of grade-level of places and compare them . informational text across the subject areas . Social Sciences: Geography: Understand how people and the EL .02 .RE .27 Read informational texts for answers to specific questions environment are interrelated . or for specific purposes . SS .05 GE. .07 Understand how physical environments are affected by EL .02 .RE .28 Recall facts and details in the text to clarify and human activities . organize ideas . SS .05 GE. .07 .01 Understand how and why people alter the physical EL .03 .RE .25 Demonstrate comprehension by identifying answers environment . to questions about the text . SS .05 GE. .07 .02 Describe how human activity can impact the environment . EL .04 .RE .21 Identify key facts and information after reading two passages or articles on the same topic . Social Sciences: History: Historical Skills: Understand, recognize, and interpret change and continuity over time . SS .05 .HS .03 Understand how history can be organized using themes, Science: 1 1. Structure and Function: Living and non-living things have geography, or chronology . characteristics and properties . 1 1P. 1. Compare and contrast physical properties and composition of Social Sciences: Geography: Understand how people and the objects . environment are interrelated . SS .05 GE. .07 Understand how physical environments are affected by Science: 1 .3, 2 .3, 3 .3, 4 .3 Scientific Inquiry human activities . 1 .3S 1. Identify and use tools to make careful observations and answer SS .05 GE. .07 .01 Understand how and why people alter the physical questions about the natural world . environment . 1 .3S .2 Record observations with pictures, numbers, or written SS .05 GE. .07 .02 Describe how human activity can impact the statements . environment . 2 .3S 1. Observe, measure, and record properties of objects and substances using simple tools to gather data and extend Social Sciences: Social Science Analysis: Identify and analyze an the senses . issue . 2 .3S .3 Make, describe, and compare observations, and organize SS .03 .SA .04 Identify how people or other living things might be recorded data . affected by an event, issue, or problem . 3 .3S 1. Plan a simple investigation based on a testable question, match SS .05 .SA .04 Identify characteristics of an event, issue, or problem, measuring tools to their uses, and collect and record data from suggesting possible causes and results . a scientific investigation . 3 .3S .2 Use the data collected from a scientific investigation to explain Social Sciences: Social Science Analysis: Select a course of action the results and draw conclusions . to resolve an issue . 4 .3S 1. Based on observations identify testable questions, design SS .03 .SA .05 Identify possible options or responses; then make a choice a scientific investigation, and collect and record data consistent or express an opinion . with a planned scientific investigation . SS .05 .SA .05 Identify a response or solution and support why it makes 4 .3S .2 Summarize the results from a scientific investigation and use sense, using support from research . the results to respond to the question being tested . Social Sciences: Geography: Understand how people and the environment are interrelated . Social Sciences: Geography: Use maps and other geographic tools and technologies to acquire, process, and report information SS .05 GE. .07 Understand how physical environments are affected by from a spatial perspective . human activities . SS .03 GE. .02 Understand the purpose of maps, globes, and other SS .05 GE.