Evaluation Questions

Evaluation - Complete once you have finished the inquiry.

Answer all of these questions as fully as possible

The value and reliability of your sources – how good was the evidence and how do you know?

Identify Successes in your research – what went well ie finding evidences, time allocation?

Identify difficulties you had during your research ie time allocation, distractions, finding suitable sources etc.

ONE important way in which the research/questions/method was refined or revised during your research – identify one aspect that required change or fine tuning and explain why.

Which Focussing question was the most difficult to cover, and why?

What directions would you recommend in future research in this topic, especially for future junior students?

Inquiry period Tuesday 24th July

INVENTION / INNOVATION

I have put the invention booklets at the front of the room.  You need to ensure you have read booklet section one and started Section two:  Students need to finish the Venn diagram on inventions / innovation.  They need to provide a definition and examples of ecological sustainability.

Students can then start brainstorming around the following ideas to start thinking about inventions and innovations they might use or create later in the project.
- How can we reduce waste/pollution using technology?
- What app do you wish you could have that doesn't exist yet?
- What invention what make life easier?
- If you could change a law what would it be?
- How can we look after our trees?
- What is the most important resource and how can we look after it?
- What would you like to see changed?
- What would be a cool app to use?
-What ideas do you have for inventions?

INNOVATIVE THINKING - Complete this task in 1 period.

INNOVATIVE THINKING:

Where do you start?

 Think about ways in which you can make a difference.

Start by identifying problems you are faced with every day.

Use existing methods to understand, test and provide solutions.

PART ONE

START WITH A SIMPLE PROBLEM

PART TWO

DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE PROBLEM

Inventions and Innovations: Key concept Sustainability.

Sustainability

Sustainability is the ‘capacity to endure’ – in other words, something is sustainable if it can carry on for a
long period of time. For humans, sustainability is the potential to maintain our way of life over the long term.
This has environmental, economic and social consequences – to live sustainably we have to conserve the
ecosystem, plan responsibly and manage the Earth’s resources so we don’t run out of them.

However, living sustainably is easier said than done. Ever since people began to clear forests and plant crops,
they have exposed vulnerable soils, changed patterns of weather and created deserts.

See below Easter Island before and after deforestation.

Whilst human numbers were small and our technology limited to hand tools, the damage we caused to the environment did little to upset the overall balance of nature. Unfortunately, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the size of the human population rose dramatically. At the same time, technological advances raised people’s standard of living, meaning that each person was using more of the Earth’s resources than ever before. With ever more people using ever more resources, pollution and other forms of damage to the environment became increasingly widespread.





One of the most dramatic ways in which we are altering the world around us is by increasing the greenhouse effect. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps some of the Sun’s heat energy, warming the planet. Without any carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the temperature of the Earth’s surface would be -40˚C.

Burning fossil fuels releases more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing it to trap more heat and
warm up further. Over the twentieth century, the average temperature of the Earth’s surface rose by 0.7˚C.
As the Earth’s temperature increases further, we can expect the polar ice caps and mountain glaciers to melt.
This will cause sea levels to rise, causing flooding of low-lying areas, destroying people’s homes, farm land, and
the habitats of many plants and animals.

Achieving sustainability is not just about being nice to trees: it is about enabling the Earth to continue
supporting human life as we know it.

TASK:

1. Identify all new words from this piece of writing and place into the Vocab section of the Literacy wall.
2. List at least 10 negative impacts people have on the environment in New Zealand.
3. Create a collage of images showing the negative impact humans have caused on the natural environment.

Invention and Innovation

LINK TO PRESENTATION HERE