Grade 4: James Govang
Mr. Govang’s unit, “Become a Plant and Animal Detective”, was co-written along with two other teachers, Karen Miranda and Shanette Walley.
 “When we wrote this unit, from the beginning we wrote it in such a manner that every kid in this school, or teacher, could pick out some part of this that they could do… . We’re not experts in biology; not trained in the natural sciences…This was a global, school-wide thing… .”
The scope of this ambitious unit involved nothing less than the entire planet and animal kingdom, and the students learned a great deal.
“I don’t look at the unit as something finite, e.g. start it now, and be finished two weeks from now. I’ll be using this unit next year, and the year after that. I’ll add things to it and I’ll take things from it. This is an ongoing thing… . The unit was a great thing to have as a package. Now other people have it, and they can say, ‘I don’t know what to do about plants or animals.’ And here’s the unit, they can pick it up and use it. Especially for special ed: things happen, and for me to sit down and plan to do something in three weeks—that’s not going to happen, especially with different grade levels… . To me, this is a program that’s beginning now, and that’s not going to end, regardless of whether you guys come back or not… . I think the measure of whether anything is good or not is how the kids react to it in the room. They reacted positively to it… . Like I said, they’re kids that have never seen a duck before, or have one identified, or felt a bird feather. This is a major accomplishment. Stuff has come out of the museum and into the schools for people to handle and touch, not to read about in a book or have someone tell you about it or write it down on the blackboard. So that’s the major accomplishment. They got to handle specimens.”
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