Is Nessie Real? An Interdisciplinary Unit of Study

What could be more interesting and authentic than investigating a real-life mystery? This is the experience that I would like to give the 20 third grade students that I teach. I teach in a rural school in a large county, and would like to expand my class' annual study of the mystery surrounding the Loch Ness Monster with some additional resources. Last year, I had great difficulty procuring the materials needed to allow my students to thoroughly research this mystery. Our local library and school library are severely limited when it comes to resources for this particular topic, which is why I am submitting this proposal. I am asking for 6 copies each of four different books to use with Guided Reading groups. The remainder of the books will be used as teacher read-alouds, for students to read during Self-Selected Reading, to take home at night to read, and as reference materials. The videos and music I am requesting will address the literacy areas of speaking, listening, and viewing. In this unit, students read, view, and discuss a wide variety of material about the Loch Ness Monster (affectionately known as "Nessie"). However, getting enough materials for students to use was a major challenge for me in the past. Once they have these materials, they will have more information to use as they make judgments about Nessie's existence, critique photos of the “monster”, discuss their views in a Paideia setting, create a PowerPoint presentation, and present their views to other third grade classes, parents, friends, and school administrators. At the end of the presentation, our guests vote to indicate whether they believe Nessie exists or not based on our presentation. In the past, it's been amazing to see how many adults' opinions are swayed by students' reasoning! This is a fantastic, interdisciplinary unit of study that involves many higher order thinking skills including analysis and evaluation. In reading, this study integrates all areas of literacy, including reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing. The authentic purpose of discerning the reality of the Loch Ness Monster gives children a real, interesting, and highly motivating reason to learn about the Monster. In science, we study animal characteristics, attempting to classify Nessie. In social studies, we discover the impact Nessie has on the community surrounding Loch Ness. The creation of the PowerPoint that is used in our final presentation is often the first encounter that many students have with this program, introducing them a fun, practical, and valuable learning tool and covering a portion of our Technology Education curriculum. Most importantly, this unit ignites curiosity and a desire to learn that spreads to all areas of the curriculum. I sincerely appreciate your willingness to help make this unit of study more effective.