Enrichment Lessons Are Not Busy Work

As I have been reading different articles from all over, a lot of schools are doing enrichment activities. But these activities seem like they can be and sometimes are busywork. We can't teach new content, lessons can only be 20 minutes long, assignments can't be graded, and they have to be relatable to what the students have already learned. This can be hard to still make learning fun under those guidelines. I created some really cool lessons for the first week of Conneaut Area's enrichment lessons. The only thing is, I hope the students actually participate since they are not graded. 

Ag 1: We are in the middle of our wildlife unit and the students just learned about ecological principles in ecosystems. To show some of the different ecosystems and environments that the students have never seen before, we are going to explore Googles, The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks. These are virtual interactive tours of 5 different National Parks with all kinds of cool things to learn. I created a worksheet for kids to follow but also gave them the freedom to explore on their own. Once they complete the short worksheet, they have to go back to Canvas and engage in a discussion board and talk about which National Park was their favorite and why! 

Ag 2 and Ag 3/4: Both classes are in the beginning parts of their forestry units and will be doing the same thing this week. They will have to go outside and go on a tree walk! Each day, they have to find two trees, collect some data on the tree, including pictures and then, research it. They will hopefully be able to figure out the species of the tree from the information they collected. Once they complete that, they have to go to Canvas and share their pictures into a discussion board and name the species. Once students begin sharing pictures, we will collaborate on the pictures and figured out who identified their species write and who didn't. Here is my example of the three pictures that I took want them to take to be uploaded to the discussion board. 

Ag Science: We are in the middle of Chapter 19: A Safe Food Supply. A few weeks ago, we spent a few days talking about food availability and food security and we referenced the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Since food availability is such a problem right now, let's explore that. The students have a worksheet where they have some questions to answer about the changes they have noticed not only locally but on a global scale through the news and social media. Once we talk about that, they have to find an article and then share it with a discussion board. Students are required to comment on at least one other person's posts! 

Ag Mech: This is a challenging one and if anyone has any recommendations, please let me know! We are in the middle of our Small Gas Engines Unit and the students just finished taking apart their engines. The only online activity that I could come up with was having them watch two videos online, one about four-stroke engine theory and the other about how carburetors work. Hopefully, these videos can jog their memory for when we put their engines back together. Hoping that we have the chance to do so! Other Ag Teachers, how are you teaching Ag Mech related classes online? 

 This is all to prove a point that, enrichment lessons are not meant to be boring or busywork. You can still have fun activities with your students. Hopefully, there is positive participation and interaction with my students.