Create for the Community: A Grade 2 PBL Project in Designing New Tools for Community Helpers

GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT: Grade 2, Math, Science, Social Studies

LEARNING GOAL AND SKILL: 

• Identify 2D and 3D shapes
• Create/build new object using 2D and 3D shapes
• Identify community helpers and their tools
• Identify sources and uses of electricity.
• Explain how electricity helps people do their jobs.
• Identify the roles of community helpers.
• Recognize the needs of the community.
• Create solutions that help community helpers perform their work more effectively.

DRIVING QUESTION: What new inventions can I make to help the community helpers work efficiently?

APPLE TOOL OR FEATURE USED: Keynote and Reality Composer

Day-by-Day Session

DAY 1: Community Walk

• Students will use iPads to explore community scenarios through the Reality Composer app. Afterward, they will complete a “See, Think, Wonder” activity to identify and analyze issues within the community.

DAY 2: Community Helpers and Tools

• Students will identify the tools used by community helpers and realize that these tools are not sufficient, as they continue to encounter challenges and problems in their work.

DAY 3: Electricity

• Students will identify how electricity impacts the effectiveness and efficiency of community helpers in performing their jobs.

DAY 4: Shapes around us

• Students will identify shapes found in their surroundings and realize that these objects are made up of different and combined 2D shapes.

DAY 5: Making of 2D Blueprint

• Students will create a 2D blueprint in Keynote of an invented tool designed to help a specific community helper. Then, they will also identify if is powered by electricity or battery.

Sample blueprint of a tool created using 2D shapes in Keynote.

DAY 5: 3D model

• Students can transform their 2D blueprint into a 3D model in two ways.

Using the Reality Composer app.

Using Recyclable materials

Students transform their 2D blueprint into a 3D model using recyclable materials.

DAY 6: Making it into Public

• Students will present their inventions to a selected community helpers.

Note: Discussions and mini-lessons may be modified, added, or extended between activities as needed to deepen understanding, reinforce key concepts, and ensure mastery of the lesson objectives. Additional guided practice, questioning, and collaborative discussions are encouraged throughout the learning process