Solutions to Redesign

Two rubrics are provided for guidance on what to look for in students’ work: Rubric Option 1: Redesign the Land and Rubric Option 2: Redesign the Land. The rubrics can be applied to students’ work on the How can we redesign the way land is used in Indonesia to support orangutans and people at the same time? handout and group presentations. Note that most of this work was completed as a group, except for Part H, which is an opportunity for individual assessment.

It is OK if students do not come to complete agreement on the design solutions. This is a complicated problem and there are many ways to solve it, and the preferred design solutions are often rooted in values we hold outside of science. As students share their claims, push them to support the claims with evidence from the simulations or other investigations. For example, if a student claims that people are money-driven, push them to support that claim with evidence. If students cannot identify evidence to support their claims, ask them to brainstorm what kinds of evidence they’d want to collect to support or refute the claim.

On students design packets, look for students to raise ideas about the specified criteria and constraints, as well as other ideas (particularly from Lessons 14-16), in their explanations for Part H. Provide written feedback to students on their explanation to encourage them to make sure their explanations include scientific reasoning to explain how or why the design solution works.